Hold on to Hope

“Actually, could you give him my number? I really want to get back out on the streets and see if I can find her this morning.”

I flipped into my phone. “Sure . . . what is it?”

I inputted the number as he rattled it off.

“All right, I’ll give it to him.”

“Thanks, Frankie Leigh. I appreciate your help. And if you see anything, please let me know.”

“Absolutely.”

He started to walk back down the drive, then he hesitated, slowly turned back around. “Is . . . Everett okay?”

Affection burned so bright inside me that I thought I might physically glow. “He’s wonderful.”

Softness filled his expression. “You and Evan are close.”

He didn’t phrase it like a question. It was just a quiet satisfaction. “He’s the love of my life,” I said simply. “And I promise you, we’ll take care of Everett. Provide everything that he needs.”

He gave a gentle smile. “That’s great, Frankie Leigh. That’s great.”

Then he turned and disappeared from where he’d come.

Quickly, I dialed Seth so I could give him the number. It was early so I wasn’t all that surprised that it went straight to voicemail. Rather than leaving one, I tapped out a message as I rushed inside, hoping that we were getting closer to being able to put this behind us.

Twenty-Seven

Evan

“You have money for this?”

Uncle Rex was in the middle of the kitchen spinning a circle in his work boots.

He was wearing his typical. Tattered jeans and an old flannel, the guy printed in grit and tenacity.

“Yeah.”

He eyed me with more of the speculation Frankie had been talking about.

Thing was, he knew me as well as everyone else, and I was nervous as fuck.

“Going to pay cash for it, actually,” I amended, making it clear.

He nodded slow, calculating, eyes making another circuit around the brand-new custom kitchen, the brand-new floors, the brand-new windows—the brand-new everything.

Yeah, house was brand new.

Had never been lived in.

No expense had been spared. Place gorgeous.

Best thing about it?

It was a street away from mine and Frankie Leigh’s parents.

Skeptical, he turned his attention back to me. “Why do I get the feeling you don’t have me here to get a remodeling quote?”

So maybe I’d lured him here under false pretenses.

Sue me.

I needed to see him. Face-to-face. Without anyone else around.

Felt like the right thing to do. Because I was finished being a pussy. Finished being a coward. Finished not standing up and fighting for what was most important in my life.

Still, I exhaled a strained breath, nervously rubbed my palms together. “Might need an awesome playground out back.”

He huffed out what I was pretty sure was a disbelieving laugh. “Little below my pay grade, don’t you think?”

Okay, so Rex’s company, RG Construction, was the largest, most successful builder in the area. He’d grown it from the ground up, a few remodels here and there, to building the high-rise apartments that had gone in downtown, not to mention the entire community he and Uncle Broderick had collaborated on down by the river that now was one of the most popular resort destinations in Alabama.

He wasn’t exactly begging for work.

I’d texted him and told him I was calling in that favor that he really didn’t owe me.

I was only half shocked that he’d shown.

I wrapped my hands around the counter to keep myself from twitching, nerves a riot as I hedged the real reason I had him there. “Seems to me it’s something you’d do for family.”

He ran his hand over the scruff on his jaw, eyes closing for a second before he leaned back against the opposite counter. “Cut to it, Evan. This about Frankie Leigh?”

My chest squeezed at the thought, and I looked around the house before I let my gaze slide back to him. Straight truth bleeding free. “Know I don’t deserve it, after what I did, but I hope I get lucky enough that she will want to live here with me.”

His nod was slight, though I could read that his words were a challenge. “And what does this have to do with me?”

I chuckled what I knew was a rough sound, and I scratched uncomfortably behind my ear, head dropping for a beat before I forced myself to look at him. “Come on, Uncle Rex. I know you have something to say about this. Know you’re pissed. Thing is, I’m not sure if it’s because I left or came back or have a kid or if it was because I was with Frankie in the first place.”

He wanted me to cut to it, then so be it.

He blew a sigh into his palms and rubbed his face before he dropped his hands. “A little bit of all of them, Evan.”

Acceptance had me nodding, but it wasn’t close to being in surrender. “I get that.”

He chewed at the edge of his lip. “Thing is, when you have a daughter you were solely responsible for until she was five-years-old? When you love her so damn much you can’t see straight? When she is your entire world and the only thing you want is for her to have the very best? I think it’s not hard to imagine that I would have a problem accepting there was someone that could ever be good enough to fit the bill.”