Chapter 12
Right after his date with Evie Stacy drove straight to Kelly’s apartment from the restaurant to end things once and for all—he didn’t want to lie to Evie. He told her he wasn’t involved with anyone and he wanted that to be true.
Unfortunately, ending things with Kelly didn’t go very well. Apparently one of her friends was at Gladstones at the same time he and Evie were there. The friend spotted them right away, then promptly called Kelly to let her know that her boyfriend was out with another woman. After an hour of being shouted and cursed at, it was finally done. There would be no more sex, no more phone calls, no more anything. If he was being honest with himself, he hated that things ended the way they had between him and Kelly. But, she just couldn’t do anything for him anymore, and it was best to end things for good rather than drag them out any further.
After his ordeal with Kelly, Stacy was so drained that by the time he got home he immediately fell asleep on the sofa. The beeps from his cell phone were the only thing that woke him up from his nap forty minutes later. He had a voicemail.
He didn’t recognize the number, but as soon as he heard the voice on the other end of the line, he suddenly felt more exhausted than he did after his fight with Kelly. It was his brother Greg calling to say he was going to be in town next month for a week and that he hoped everything regarding their mother’s belongings was in order. In other words, Stacy needed to have the money their mother left for him.
He rubbed his head, feeling the onset of a headache. Dealing with his brother was the last thing that he needed right now. Greg hadn’t bothered to come to their mother’s funeral, but he was going to show up now for the money? He knew that it was his fault his brother stayed away and had joined the army three years ago, but his mother didn’t have anything to do with that. He used to be close to his brother, but after the incident with James Tyrell, all of that changed. In his opinion, his brother should have set all of their issues aside in order to be there for there mother, but he hadn’t.
Stacy dropped his phone onto the coffee table next to the sofa and fell back into the cushions. He’d already taken care of his mother’s financial situation, so he would have Greg’s check for him when he came. Hopefully that would be all he wanted. Refusing to waste any more time thinking about his brother, Stacy decided to conjure up more pleasant thoughts, like the time he and Evie spent together earlier.
She looked absolutely beautiful in her sweater and jeans, and she was so nervous that he tried everything he could think of to put her at ease. What he didn’t expect was for her to divulge what happened to her husband that quickly to him. He was completely taken off guard when she asked if he’d heard about the whole incident. It was out of sheer foolishness that he blurted out that apology. He practically admitted to what he did. Luckily, she simply thought he was being benevolent—and in fact, he was. He could not bring Evie’s husband back, nor could he undo what he did, but he could help her out in any way possible. He could start by showing her that he was not a bad guy. He didn’t exactly know what all that would entail, but he could figure it out as time went on. He was sure this was what he needed to do though, mostly because for once in his life, as odd as it sounded, being around this woman made him feel like his life had meaning for the first time in three years.