“It was, but we got through it. Besides, it was a long time ago.”
“I’m sorry all the same.” She knelt down and picked up a couple of pebbles from the ground, then tossed one into the water as she admitted, “I was going to get married, or at least I think I was.”
“Oh?’
“Um-hmm. His name was Bobby.” I already knew all about Bobby McCormick. His information was included in the intel Menace had given me on Everleigh, but I didn’t tell her that. I simply stood there and listened as she said, “I’m not sure where he is now, but there was a time when we had big plans. We met during my sophomore year of college in one of our Econ classes.”
She tossed another pebble into the water as she said, “He was a real charmer. I fell for him fast and hard, but I never really felt like he was all that crazy about me.”
“Oh, why’s that?”
“It’s hard to explain. When we first started dating, things were great. Bobby seemed to be completely devoted to me, but once we graduated, we both became obsessed with our futures and getting our careers off the ground. Bobby traveled a lot, and I spent hours on end at the office, and over time we kind of forgot the reason why we started seeing each other. Or at least, I’m pretty sure Bobby did.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m pretty sure he was seeing someone else.” She leaned over the railing and scoffed as she looked down at the water. “I was going to confront him about it, but I was taken before I got the chance.”
My throat tightened as I asked, “Do you still love him?”
“I’ll always care about him, but our time has come and gone.”
“You sure about that?”
“Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure.” Everleigh turned to face me as she explained, “I mean, the man never even tried to look for me. I saw the papers. Watched the news. Never once did I see any reports that I was missing.”
“I’m sure Antonio had something to do with that.”
“Maybe, but it doesn’t really matter. Bobby’s married now and probably has a kid or two.” When I gave her a questioning look, she shrugged and said, “I might’ve googled him when Antonio wasn’t looking.”
“I see.”
“I tried searching for my father a couple of times, too. I just wanted to see if he was okay, but I stopped trying when DeLuca admitted what he’d done.”
“What about your mother?”
“Oh, I stopped searching for my mother ages ago. Right about the time she ran off to Mexico with the asshole next door.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah, I figured if she wanted to be with me, she would’ve just taken me with her or at the very least given me her address or phone number. She didn’t, so I went through the whole grieving process. First it was the whole denial thing. I told myself she really wasn’t gone, but when I realized that wasn’t the case, I got angry for a while. You know how it all goes from there.”
“I hate you had to deal with that.”
“You know what they say.” She smiled. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
“Yeah, they say that, but I’m not sure I buy it.”
“Me either.”
Everleigh and I continued to talk as we left the dock and walked around the property. When the sun started to set, we headed inside to make dinner. I was running low on supplies, so we made do with a BLT and some chips. As soon as we were done, I got up and started putting the dishes away. I hadn’t been at it long when Everleigh asked, “Have you always been such a neat freak?”
“A neat freak?”
“Your entire house is spotless.”
“And that makes me a neat freak?”
“Billy, I’ve seen hospital rooms that aren’t this clean.”