Page 8 of Against All Odds (Ember Falls #3)

Everett was an amazing guy, and I’ve always hated myself for what I did to him.

I lean forward, resting my hand on his. “I need to say this to you, and I want you to know that I’m sorry, Everett.

I mean that. I was young and stupid and unable to communicate.

I didn’t know how to tell you that I was terrified that I would follow you and then you’d get your shot at the major leagues, leaving me behind.

So I just didn’t say anything at all. I thought about reaching out a bunch of times, but then I was afraid I wouldn’t say the right things, or that you didn’t even want to hear from me. ”

He rests his other hand on mine. “You were seventeen, Vi. I was asking you to follow me to college, and it wasn’t fair.”

“That doesn’t excuse how I handled it.”

“Or the way I did.”

That rocks me back. I stare at him, waiting, but he doesn’t say anything. “How did you handle it poorly?”

He scoffs. “Well, you told me that you didn’t want to go to Florida a few times. Then you finally said that you’d go, but you really wanted to go to school elsewhere, and I didn’t care.”

No, he didn’t.

I remember when we’d talk and I would beg him to consider another option that had the school I wanted. He’d shut me down, saying this was his best chance for the major leagues.

“Again, we were young. So young, Everett. We didn’t know anything, and we were so stupid to think it would just magically work out because we loved each other.

Still, I should’ve talked to you. I wanted to, but I was scared.

Then there was the fact that my parents kept saying you were going to be some big star and I was going to lose who I was.

I was stupid. I was also one hundred percent sure if I did tell you, and I explained what I wanted and why I wanted to go to California instead, you’d convince me to go to Florida.

You could convince me to do just about anything. ”

Everett smiles. “I don’t know about anything .”

I laugh. “Well, I seem to remember a few things we did that I recall required a lot of coaxing from you.”

“If we’re talking about our first time, I’d like to have the record show that you were the one who told me you were ready and wanted it to be me,” Everett says with one brow raised.

That is true. “I meant when you had me skinny-dip in the falls.”

“Oh, yeah, that was all me.”

I grin. “Okay, you had your question that led to a rather long road. Here’s mine. Did you ever get married or were engaged? Are you with someone now?”

That probably should’ve been my first question, but Hazel had alluded to the idea that he wasn’t dating anyone.

Everett drains his wine and places the glass down.

“Nope. I honestly just haven’t thought about it.

When things with us ended, I wasn’t in a good place to date.

I won’t lie, I had no shortage of women interested and I didn’t say no often.

I was angry and stupid, but no dating, really.

Walking away from baseball sort of made me a little bit more of a dickhead, and Hazel acted as a cockblock—to help the women around me.

Then I got my head out of my ass and focused on school, which brought me back home and to being a veterinarian. ”

“I love that you’re all still friends and she helped you.”

“Me too.” He refills his glass and tops mine. “Okay, my question ... has your husband suffered a head injury?”

I put the glass down after starting to take a drink, as I’m extremely confused. “A head injury?”

I’ve heard a lot of things through the tabloids, but that’s a new one.

“Or maybe he’s suffering from a medical condition they haven’t fully come to understand yet?”

I must be in the middle of a really weird and detailed dream, because nothing he’s saying makes any sense. “How many glasses of wine have you had?”

He chuckles. “Just one. I have a point.”

“I can’t wait to hear it.”

“If that man doesn’t have something wrong with him, there is no logical reason why any man on earth would let you go.”

“Well, there clearly is.”

He shakes his head. “No. Don’t argue. You’re beautiful, smart, resourceful, and I lost you fifteen years ago and I’m still not able to date anyone else. So, I don’t buy it or at least he’ll regret it.”

I sit back in my seat, ducking my head as my cheeks warm. “Everett ...”

“All I’m saying is that I don’t get it. It’s been a long time, and there’s a lot I don’t know about you, but I know you’re not a girl that someone could just walk away from.”

Oh, how I wish that was true.

I lift my eyes to meet his. “Apparently I am.”

Everett shakes his head. “I don’t think so.”

“Like you said, you don’t know me anymore.”

“Then tell me why he’d walk away.”

What do I even say? I’m not really sure why he left.

I’m not sure what was so terrible about me that he felt the need to step out and fuck his coworker.

None of it has made sense and, really, I don’t know that I care.

He did what he did and clearly has no remorse.

And he’s an idiot for wanting me to go back to California to help him put out the fire he started.

Still, there’s clearly something that’s wrong with me or at least undesirable.

“You want me to tell you my faults?” I ask.

“Lay ’em all out.”

If this isn’t the most awkward dinner I’ve ever had, then I don’t know what is.

“Well, I snore, according to him. I have ambition, and I wasn’t content to just stay home and do whatever he wanted.

I wasn’t teaching, but I was doing some tutoring online under my maiden name, and he hated that.

I hated having staff . I can’t walk in heels, no matter how many stylists have tried to get me in them for the red carpet.

I hated his agent, and while his publicist was nice and all, she was obviously on his side, regardless of how it hurt me.

Although he fired her, so maybe she wasn’t on his side. ”

“So far I’m hearing a lot of nothing. I want faults .”

I cross my arms over my chest and sit back. “They are faults.”

“They sure as hell aren’t valid reasons a man cheats on his hot wife.”

I grin. “You think I’m hot?”

“Absolutely.”

I swear I might cry. How absolutely stupid will I look when I break down in tears? Here I am, though, getting misty-eyed. “You mean that?”

“Tell me you really don’t know that you’re still stunning.”

“I don’t know that I’ve ever been called stunning ,” I admit.

Everett stares at me. “You ... you what?”

This was part of why I wanted to leave Dylan years ago. “I always felt small when I was with him. It was Dylan’s life, his career, his wants and needs, and I just existed.”

He wasn’t mean or degrading, he just didn’t care.

“Please tell me you’re joking. You are not small. Jesus, he’s more of an asshole than I thought before.”

I shrug. “I honestly can’t remember the last time anyone other than my best friend told me I was pretty or complimented me.”

Everett sits up and clears his throat. “Violet, hear me when I say this, you are absolutely breathtaking. You were the day I saw you when you were fourteen and you still are today. Your husband is a fucking moron for not spending every waking moment telling you how goddamn lucky he was to be with you. He should’ve counted every star in the sky and thanked each one for having the chance to hold you, love you, touch you.

And I can say with all the confidence that he will never forgive himself for letting you go. Never.”

It has to be the wine talking. I have to remind myself of that.

He doesn’t know the me of today, regardless of what I tell him.

“I appreciate you saying it, truly, but whether Dylan thought I was beautiful or a horse’s ass, it doesn’t matter. He cheated and I got to learn about it with millions of other people.”

Everett leans forward. “I can’t imagine that was easy.”

I snort. “Yeah, it was definitely not. I thought it was a lie. You live in this sort of alternate reality in Hollywood. Everything is sensationalized and twisted into these clickable moments. Like, if they can get the right hook, then you’re locked in.

It doesn’t matter if any of it’s true. It just matters that people will stop and read it or watch it.

I’m aware of that fact, so when it started to break, I thought, Here we go again .

When I kept seeing the photos and finally believed it was true”—I laugh once—“I realized that my life was about to be completely changed.”

“So you came here?”

I nod. “I went and stayed with my best friend, Analeigh, for a few days. But I couldn’t do that forever, and I couldn’t be in LA.

I was ... drowning in the photos and the news reports.

I told her I had to leave and Ember Falls was the first place I wanted to be.

I came, I saw a job opening at Ember Falls High School, and it happened quickly.

I filed for divorce when I went back to pack the rest of my stuff, and I’ve been here since. ”

It was the only place I could run to. Here I’m not Dylan Leone’s soon-to-be ex-wife who was cheated on.

I’m Violet, or I’m Mrs. Stewart at school. Even though half the kids know exactly who I am.

“I knew you missed me,” Everett says with a grin.

I laugh, so grateful for the break in seriousness. “Yes, you were the number-one reason. I thought, Let me go back to where the boy I loved was, even though he’s probably married by now, and I can torture myself in an entirely new way .”

“I think it’s you who wanted to inflict the torture. My ass is falling asleep in this hard chair. How about we go in the living room?”

I let out a quick laugh. My grandmother’s furniture is sturdy, but not the most comfortable. When I got here, the cushions on the chairs had to make their way to the trash. Regardless of the woman who came to clean once a month, they were not worth keeping.

“Okay. Let’s go.”