Page 46 of Against All Odds (Ember Falls #3)

thirty-five

Violet

M y phone buzzes, and I see it’s from Dylan.

I get up, moving quickly upstairs to find Everett. He was shoveling all morning as we got another dumping of snow—something I did not miss—and hopped in the shower right after.

“Ev?” I say, stepping into the bathroom.

“Are you coming to join me?” he asks from behind the curtain with a chuckle.

I wish that were the case. “Not this time. I got a text from Dylan.”

He pulls the curtain back. “What did he say?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t opened it.”

I’ve been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for him to make his statement. I don’t know what the hell the holdup is. Catherine and Ana suspect he’s making sure his story is bulletproof, or he’s just a chickenshit.

I’m going with option two.

“Open it. No matter what, you’re going to be fine.”

My stomach is tight, and it has nothing to do with the baby this time. Anytime Dylan’s name is anywhere near me, it’s never good.

Dylan

Vi, I’ll be releasing the statement tomorrow. Here is a copy of it. I was also informed the divorce will be finalized within the week. I hope you and the baby are well. ~D

“It’s the statement,” I tell Everett.

He shuts the water off and exits, wrapping the towel around his hips as the water runs in rivulets down his hard chest. Yeah, I really do wish I was joining him now.

We walk into the bedroom, and I sit on the bed, him beside me.

“Do you want to read it?”

“Not really,” I confess.

“You don’t have to.”

Yeah, that’s not going to work either. Whether I read it now or when it’s sent to me a hundred times, I’m going to end up seeing it and having to deal with whatever it says. My only hope is that it doesn’t cause more attention to fall on me and the baby.

I’ve had enough press bullshit to last me a lifetime.

Everett places his hand on my back, and I look up into his warm brown eyes filled with encouragement and unrelenting love. I can do this. I can read and know that no matter what it says, I have the love and support of a man who loves me.

“I don’t have to, but I’m going to because it changes nothing for us,” I tell him.

“Absolutely nothing.”

I nod and then read aloud.

After much thought and consideration, I have come to the difficult conclusion that it is within the best interest of my child and ex-wife to relinquish any paternal rights.

I am not ready to be a father, and I fear my continual absence and inability to provide a stable environment will inflict more harm than my presence will help.

Because of that, I have chosen to take some time to enter a therapeutic rehabilitation center to become a better man, as my recent actions have proven my selfishness and immaturity.

My goal is to come out of this period of self-reflection changed for the better.

I want to profoundly apologize to my ex-wife for the pain my actions have caused her, and I hope that by doing the right thing, she can find peace.

I ask that she and I be given privacy during this time.

I have no idea how many times I read it, probably ten, before looking up at Everett.

“How do you feel?”

I shrug. “I’m not sure.”

“He apologized.”

“He’s playing to the sympathy of people, but ... yes, I guess he did.”

And maybe that’s the best I’m ever going to get. A press release apology that could or could not be false.

But I find myself not caring. I can put him and this entire thing in my past. I’ll have the baby, Everett, and the ability to build a life with someone who loves and wants us both.

“If any of what he said is real, then ... he did the right thing.”

“He did the right thing when he signed the papers. Regardless of the reasons, he did what was right for her and for me.”

“He’s allowing you to heal.”

That’s where Everett is wrong. He didn’t allow me anything. Dylan’s actions didn’t give me confidence or the strength to face any situation.

I reach out, resting my hand on his cheek. “I think I was already healing.”

He smiles. “You were?”

“I still am, and do you know why?”

“I’m going to guess it’s because of a very sexy, very smart, very capable, and very good-in-bed man that happens to love you beyond measure.” He shrugs. “But that’s just my guess.”

I laugh, and my heart is so full it could burst. “I think ... your guess is pretty accurate. I mean, I’m not sure, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s part of it.”

Everett turns, rolling me to my back, holding his weight above me, and that towel that was tucked around him is loose.

“I’ve got a piece of wood that’s growing,” he teases.

I reach my hand down, finding his cock and wrapping my fingers around it. I stroke up and down. “Hmm, now let’s see how hard we can get it.”

Then he shows me. Oh, how he shows me.

“Why am I blindfolded?” I ask as I move down the hallway.

“Because I don’t want you to see.”

“I figured that much. Does this have anything to do with the fact that you sent me shopping with Hazel for six hours yesterday?”

I love shopping, don’t get me wrong, but after a while, I just wanted to lie down. This week we officially moved all my belongings in. Well, when I say we , I mean Everett, Killian, Lachlan, and Miles.

I was instructed to sit and relax.

Which I didn’t really do because I couldn’t handle it.

“You really aren’t great at surprises.” He chuckles.

After the last six months of my life, it’s no wonder why. Each surprise was more like getting hit on the head with a baseball bat.

“Give me a hint,” I say as he shuffles me down the hallway.

Everett sighs. “Just ... go with it.”

“That’s not really my thing.”

“I’m aware.”

I don’t love the hint of exasperation there, but I keep that part to myself.

“I swear, Everett, if you took your dumbass friends’ advice and put an Ultimate Frisbee simulator in that bedroom upstairs, I might kill you.”

Yes, that was the debate during the move, which room he could dedicate to some simulator that Killian is working with a company to create. Since we have extra bedrooms, they thought we should knock down a few walls to really give it a chance.

I threatened homicide.

The conversation stopped.

Until Miles suggested that we use my grandmother’s house, since it’s vacant until we decide what to do with it. Since, you know, the sport is ever growing, we could turn the entire house into a game park.

That was when Everett made up some bullshit about his mother and asked me to check on her.

“I mean, it isn’t fully that.”

I groan. “Everett.”

“Just a few more steps. And stop.” He grabs my shoulders, maneuvering me this way and that. “Okay, come forward.”

I take two steps and inhale. The smell is faint, but instantly recognizable. “Paint?”

“Yes, there is paint.” He chuckles. “All right, I’m going to take the blindfold off, but only if you promise not to kill me.”

Ugh. He did make that damn room.

I feel him behind me, his hand moving up to the tie around my head.

Slowly it loosens, and then I gasp. “Oh my God. What? When?” I look around at the room, cream colored with soft hints of pink and purple.

There is a crib in the center with a sheer curtain cocooning it.

It literally looks like the dream nursery I showed Hazel. “How? How did you do this?”

There is a changing table against the far back wall and the plush, incredibly expensive rocker that I had to be removed from just yesterday.

This makes no sense.

“Do you like it?”

Tears fill my eyes and I blink them away, not wanting to miss a single detail. “Everett ... you ... this is incredible.”

He smiles and pulls me deeper into the room. “Hazel said you weren’t sure on the bedding, so I don’t have that. You can decide when you’re ready.”

“This is exactly like I pictured, but how? I just told her yesterday.”

Everett wraps his arms around me from behind, his head resting on my shoulder.

“I was at the store and the guys were here. I had painted this room when you were in California. I got the crib and the dresser. I just didn’t know what you’d want for a theme or whatever.

When you showed Hazel that photo, I was able to buy it all and get to work. ”

I shake my head, amazement running through me. “You ... I don’t even know what to say.”

He kisses my neck. “Do you like it?”

“I love it,” I say immediately. “This stuff is so expensive.”

Everett chuckles. “Violet, I’m a doctor who does well and saved a shit ton of money because I live in a house that’s paid for.

But all the money I have or don’t have doesn’t matter when it comes to us.

I wanted you to have the nursery you wanted.

Besides, little Brunhilda will need a pretty place to come and hide. ”

I snort a laugh. “We are not naming her that.”

“I’m really partial to it.”

“Well, you can visit your cat whenever you need to say it.”

He turns me, taking my hands in his. “All right, what name do you have in mind?”

This is something I’ve been thinking a lot about.

My name has deep meaning to my parents. My mother’s favorite color and flower are violets, but it’s a derivative of nature and the earth, which they loved.

As much as my parents aren’t the models I want to mirror for parenting, I do like that a name has something deeper.

“I’ve been trying to find something that represents us.”

“And you think Brunhilda is a bad choice?”

I roll my eyes. “Be serious.”

He laughs. “All right, I’ll put it on the back burner. Tell me, what do you think represents us?”

My hand rests over his beating heart. “Hope, love, second chances, a phoenix who is reborn.”

Everett leans closer and kisses me softly. “Do you want to name her Hope?”

I shake my head. “No, I want the meaning of her name to be more specific.”

“Why am I now worried?” he jokes.

“Well, there was no way I could pick the name I loved thanks to your last name.”

“My last name?”

He looks confused, as though the baby wouldn’t ... oh, he didn’t think the baby would take his last name.

It looks like I’m not the only one getting a surprise, it seems. “Of course, it’s our baby.”

“But we’re not married.”

I smile, moving my hands up his chest to loop around his neck. “We’re not, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that I want to spend my life with you. A ring or a marriage license isn’t what makes a marriage.”

He laughs again. “Actually, I think it does.”

“As someone who has been married, I can promise, it doesn’t. Love is what does. Commitment, trust, and compromise are the marriage part. The rest of it is just stuff.”

I had the stuff before and it did nothing to keep my marriage together. I’d much rather what we have than a ring and a man who doesn’t honor it.

Everett pulls me tight against him—well, as tight as we can get with my ever-growing belly.

“And what name do you want our daughter to have?”

“I loved the name Imogen—it means second chance—but Imogen Finnegan was ... cruel.”

He shakes his head. “Yeah, could you imagine her in school?”

“God forbid she has even the slightest ginger hair to her—it would be a disaster. Trust me, kids are the worst. I see it daily.”

Even in high school there are some nicknames that these kids can’t recover from. I’d like to make sure I don’t give them any ammunition.

“No Imogen, then.”

“I loved the name Brynn, too, but again, if they shorten her last name to Finn—nope.”

“Please tell me we have a possibility here,” Everett implores.

I smile and nod. “I have one, and if you like it, I really would like to put it on the short list.”

“Okay.”

“Courtney.”

Everett tilts his head to the right a little, almost as though he’s testing it out. “Courtney Finnegan.”

“It’s cute, right? I think it’s so pretty. We can call her Court or Courtney if we don’t shorten it,” I explain quickly, hoping he doesn’t hate it.

“I love it.”

“You do?”

“I do. You know, I love you and Courtney with everything I am.” He releases me and takes two steps back.

“I have known a lot of things. For example, I knew, deep in my heart, that you were coming back after you left for California. I knew that I loved you from the first time I saw you.” Everett sinks to his knee in front of me, removing something from his pocket.

“Oh God,” I whisper as he reveals a beautiful diamond ring.

“I knew as I stood at my father’s grave that I had everything I could ever need.

I know this feels fast, but at the same time, it’s taken forever.

We’ve wasted fifteen years not being together, and I don’t want to waste another minute.

I love you. I want to marry you, have children with you, wake up beside you, and fall asleep with you in my arms. I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember, and I will love you until the day I die. Will you marry me?”

I sink to my knees with him, my hands holding his face.

I didn’t expect this. I didn’t need to be engaged, but I need him.

Everett is the other half of my heart and soul.

He’s the reason that I know love exists, and there is no one else in the world I want to spend my life with.

I nod, tears streaming down my face, and I say the single word he’s waiting for.

“Yes.”