I’ll catch you, Kick.
Those fucking words warmed my heart.
“See you, baby.”
She blessed me with one last smile and then headed towards Shelly’s grave.
Fuck, that shit with Jeremy would haunt me for the rest of my life.
***
Kick
30 years old – 5 years ago
“What the fuck are you doing, asshole?” Jeremy’s thunderous voice echoed around the room. He’d just barged into my house and we stood glaring at each other in my living room. I knew why he was here.
Evie.
She and I had just gotten back together, so of course he was in my face.
He loved her as much as I did.
I glared at him. “I’m fucking the woman I love, and, one day, I’m gonna make her my wife. I walked away from her once and I’m not gonna let anything or anyone come between us again. I’m not gonna let you come between us again.”
His fist connected with my jaw a moment later, and I stumbled back, caught by surprise. Jeremy and I had never had a physical fight before. I held my jaw as he roared, “How the fuck can you talk about Evie like that?”
“Like what?”
“I asked you what you’re doing, and you say you’re fucking her? What kind of a pig are you, anyway, Kick? Most men would say they’re dating her, not fucking her.”
I spat out some blood and reminded him I wasn’t like most men. “I’m an asshole, remember? That’s how assholes obviously speak.”
“You were never an asshole before, Kick. Storm has made you that way and I fail to grasp what Evie sees in you.”
“Well, it’s a good thing you’re not Evie, then. Don’t try and come between us, Jeremy. I swear to fuckin’ God, if you do . . . if you fuck
this up for us, it won’t be pretty between you and me.”
He fumed. His body tensed as if he was about to punch me again and the vein in his neck pulsed. “Things haven’t been pretty between us for a while now and this is the end of it for me, unless you walk away from her.”
What the fuck?
“You’re fuckin’ kidding me! You’d throw our friendship away over this?”
“No, Kick, you pretty much threw our friendship away when you joined Storm. When you sold your soul to the devil and said to hell with everything and everyone. If you drag Evie into that world, I will spend the rest of my days fighting to get her out of it.”
I moved closer to him. Into his face. “I suggest you get the hell out of my house and never come back. I never want to see your face again,” I snarled, my eyes boring into his, screaming at him how much I meant every fucking word I’d said.
I was done with him.
He stood rooted to the spot for a moment, his eyes searching mine. I saw it. I saw the moment where he decided he was done, too. Something flashed in his eyes and he took a step away from me. “Done,” he snapped. And then he added, “If you love her like you say you do, you won’t drag her down with you. You won’t give her a life of shit and grime. Think about that.”
And then he was gone.
And I’d been thinking about that for five fucking years.
I’d let those thoughts convince me to walk away three years ago, but the pull to her was too strong to resist any longer.