Page 75 of Secrets That Bind Us

Dean

Age: Twenty-Three

“Dean, honey?”

Mama Marie’s voice pulls me out of my thoughts as I stare down at my screen.

The screen I've been blinking at for the past– whoever knows how long. Specifically, the new six second video Zoey just posted to her social media I’ve been replaying.

It’s the only way I get glimpses of Verity– unless it’s at a book signing I’m too chicken-shit to enter, or she’s doing an interview on a podcast on YouTube.

In the video I’m staring at is a child about five years old.

With my blue eyes.

I look up from my phone to the woman who’s helped me fill out college paperwork, let me stay in her home while I went to school and then the academy, and let me love her daughter.

The woman who I helped hide a body with.

I rise to my feet from the rocker on the back porch.

It’s late Sunday afternoon, and I’ve been having Sunday night dinners with Marie since I’ve been able to drive again– so about the last four years of my life.

I have never missed a Sunday dinner with Marie unless it was under extreme circumstances– like when I went to New York to find Verity.

I stare at the woman who has to use a cane now to walk.

Who’s aged before my very eyes. The woman who has treated me more like a son than my own parents.

My voice shakes when I ask, “Marie, is Verity’s child mine?”

She blinks rapidly, rolling her lips inward then rolling them out in a frown, and guilt etches across every square inch of her wrinkling face. Then, ever so slowly… she nods. “The second that child opened her eyes, I knew she was yours.”

She . I hold in the sob that wants to escape me. “What’s her name?”

“Savannah.”

My brain glitches. It feels like my entire world crashes around me and my chest rips wide fucking open. “And you didn’t think to tell me? I missed everything!”

“Dean.” Marie shakes her head at me. “She doesn’t belong in this town, and you know it.”

“I missed everything .” I repeat on an inhale.

Tears prick my eyeballs, and I let them fall.

Why wouldn’t I? Marie and Verity have been the only people who have ever seen my vulnerability and never judged me for it.

I scrub my hand down my face. “I told her over and over and over again that it didn’t matter where we were.

I would follow her to all four corners of the earth and back, over and over again.

As long as I was by her side. She could be whatever she wanted.

Do whatever she wanted– and I would support it all. ”

I used to think Verity Huntington was made for me, but the truth is, I was made for her .

She said if she stayed here, she would follow me around like a puppy and let me ruin her– but that’s not the truth.

The truth is reversed. She is my master.

Owner of the key to my heart, my soul, lips, teeth, tongue, and my mind.

I’ve been a puppet on her strings since that first kiss, and I don’t care.

“I have to go. I have to go up there. I have to get them both. I want to know my kid.”

“Dean-”

I call Zoey, ignoring Marie, but she doesn’t answer. So I call again. And again.

Angry, I call Evan. “Yeah?”

“Hey man, where are you?”

“I’m at home.”

“Where’s Zoey?”

“She’s in London with Verity. They’re on a book tour.”

“Can I ask you something, man?”

Evan clears his throat, but I can tell he knows what I’m about to ask him. For fuck’s sake– he liked the goddamn video. “Of course.”

“Why didn’t y’all tell me Verity had my kid? All this time I thought it was Micah’s.”

Evan stays silent. “Well, you know Verity and Zoey didn’t speak for, like, six months after she left for New York.”

“And?”

“And then it took Zoey about a year to visit...”

“Hurry up.” I snap.

“I didn’t know either, man. Okay? I thought it was Micah’s when Zoey told me she had a baby.

It wasn’t until I saw her with my own eyes that I knew she was yours.

Zoey begged me not to tell you– said Verity would do it on her own time.

But she started going on longer book tours, extending them.

Her publisher and agent wanted her to establish herself right in the industry, and it got so fucking hectic, man.

For all of us. That year that Zoey was with her in London was the year Verity traveled almost every continent.

She was only in the US for four months.”

I watched every podcast episode and YouTube video that even mentioned her name. “Are she and Micah together?”

A few heartbeats pass, then he sighs heavily– like he’s aware of the havoc that’s wreaking in my brain. “Shit, man… yeah. Okay? They just officially started dating about a year ago.”

A. Y e a r. A g o.

I look at Marie and shake my head. “A year ago?” She looks away from me and steps back into the house when Reverend Bishop shows up behind her, tugging her to him.

I look away. They’ve gotten very cozy together the last few years, and I’m happy for her.

“No, man. That can’t happen. I want my kid. I want Verity.”

Evan stays silent. “I agree.” And then, “Micah’s been giving me these weird vibes, man.

Every time I go up there with Zo it’s like…

I dunno. I can’t explain it. But a part of me thinks they shouldn’t be together.

At first I was happy for them. It sucks to say that, but you know, you want to be happy for your friends.

But since they officially started dating…

it’s been weird. I don’t like it.” He inhales again and lets it out slowly– like his mind is also whirring about.

“Look, Zoey will be back here in the next few days. I think you should pick her up from the airport with me. There’s things we should talk about. ”

Zoey is surprised, to say the least, to see me in the Jeep when we pick her up. I help put up her luggage, and then Evan nonchalantly throws the keys at me, and I climb into the driver’s side beside her. “Dean… what are you doing?”

I look in the rearview mirror, and Evan nods at me. Never thought he’d be my partner-in-crime, but you know what? They’ve been friends with her longer and know her life way better than I do right now, and so I’m taking every ally I got. “You posted something last week. You remember what that was?”

She puts her seatbelt on, faces forward, crosses her arms and legs, then sucks in her cheeks. Always fucking full of sass, this one. I start the engine. “No?” She replies casually. See? Full of fuckin’ sass.

“That’s funny, ‘cause I do. And you’re gonna help me get her back. That’s my kid. The last thing she needs to do is be raised by fucking Micah of all people. That motherfucker hated me. You think he’s gonna be good to my kid?”

“He loves her!”

I scoff. “Does he? Or is he only nice when people and cameras are around? You don’t know how he is to her behind closed doors, do you?”

She keeps her mouth shut and then– “So what are you thinking?”

“She flew down for the engagement party, didn’t she?” I ask, getting out of the airport and onto I-35-- the worst highway ever in Texas, always under goddamn construction– and keep my eyes on the road, looking out for oncoming traffic.

“You mean the one you were too chicken-shit to attend?”

I growl. “ Yes .”

“What am I supposed to do, Dean? Huh? You know she won’t come down here. She’s on tour as we speak, so it’s not like you can just show up. Her entire life is planned out for her.”

“Where is she headed next?”

“Paris.”

I make an executive decision without thinking. Looks like old habits die hard when it comes to Verity. “Then I’ll go to Paris.”

So I go to Paris.

But I have an issue trying to get to the convention she’s attending from the airport– due to a language barrier.

Of all the languages Adelaide could’ve taught me, it had to be Spanish.

Not French. By the time I get there, not only is it over, but the sun has also gone down, and she’s already headed to a different location.

And I don’t have the money to follow her.

I head back to Adelaide, depressed as fuck.

But I keep going, keep working on the man I am. Because when I get her, I’m gonna be everything she’s ever wanted or needed me to be. I can do that for her. I’m not giving up.

SIX WEEKS LATER

Zo: I think I have a plan.

Me: What?

Zo: I’m down the street.

I go ahead and go to my front door, buttoning up my uniform.

I open it when I see the teal Jeep pull into my driveway.

Evan gets out of the driver's seat, then runs around the car to help Zo out. They’re inside my house by the time I'm done putting my belt on.

They come in, and Bear comes to greet them.

“Spill,” I tell her, shoving my feet into my shoes.

Zoey ignores my bluntness, but I don’t really have time to waste. “The last time she came down here and was actually within fifteen miles of Adelaide was for our engagement party.”

“Uh-huh.”

She sighs and looks over at Evan. “We’re going to fake call off the engagement for a few months–”

I snap my head up to look at her. “A few months?!”

“Give me a sec. It’s gonna take a minute, okay? We’ll get ‘back together’”-she makes air quotes with her fingers– “And have another engagement party, and she’ll come down and you’ll live happily ever after.”

I stare at her blankly. “That easy, huh?”

“ Peasy .” She says, swiping her hands in a motion like she’s saying end of discussion.

I blink over at Evan. “And you're okay with this?”

He sighs. “No. But if it means getting my fiancé’s best friend back so she quits leaving me every time the opportunity arises, then so be it. It could be a great plan. Or it could be a shitty plan.”

“I’ll get on it right away.” Zoey chirps. “I can fake-cry like you wouldn’t believe.”

Evans groans and rubs a hand on his stomach. “Verity is going to hate me when she finds out.”

Zoey grins and rubs his back. “It’s gonna be fiiiinnneeee, babe. You’ll see.”