Love At Peace (Hometown Heartstrings #3)

Chapter 12

Roarke

“ D id you get on Heather’s laptop?”

Of all the questions I wanted answered, that was the one at the top of the list.

I had been looking for Nevaeh to know if Heather was accurate in accusing her. I had been worrying if my niece had fucked up my chances with the first woman I wanted to love since my divorce.

The news about this pregnancy, about her being with David... Both of those things warranted more conversation, but before either of us walked off, I had to ask that one burning question.

Nevaeh scoffed, shaking her head and turning to leave. She stomped up the stairs so loudly that I bet the other residents in the building would complain about the noise, but she paused to shout back at me. “Fuck off, uncle .”

Then she opened the door to the apartment that David had recently rented and slammed it shut.

I stared at the closed door panel, seething.

If her attitude could be an answer, she’d just told me that she had gone on Heather’s work laptop. Because if she hadn’t, she would’ve been sassy and said so, right?

“What a fucking mess,” I muttered as I walked off.

I didn’t know what to think anymore. What to do. What to say. It seemed that all I could do was make the wrong decisions about both of the women in my life. I couldn’t be the firm guidance that my niece needed. And I failed to be the supportive friend Heather likely wanted.

It seemed that all I did was say the wrong thing. So, while I waited for Gavin to come back and pick me up, I walked over to the bar and got a drink. Not to drown my worries in it, but to zone out and not think at all.

The spaciness didn’t help, but it gave me the freedom of not dwelling on it for at least twenty minutes. I texted Gavin where to find me, but before he arrived and before I finished my drink, someone walked in and piqued my curiosity.

Jerry strode in, talking a mile a minute on his phone, and I narrowed my eyes at him. He had to have some damn answers. If he could explain when David was actively living in that apartment, that could help pinpoint if the fucker was there to hurt Eric like that. If he wouldn’t tell me that, then I’d put pressure on him to tell me if he had been renting anything to Nevaeh.

“Hey.”

He looked up at me directly calling him out.

“Got a minute?”

He smirked. “Not really—”

“Get him a drink,” I told the bartender. “On me.”

Jerry grinned, ordered something top shelf as he sat.

“Did you rent out a place to my niece?”

He sipped his drink, not facing me. “I’m not sure I ever had the pleasure of meeting her.”

“Don’t fuck with me,” I warned him.

“Nevaeh has stayed in a couple of my places from time to time.”

“Which ones? When?”

He huffed. “I don’t have to tell you shit. That’s confidential information between me and her.” He shot me a side eye. “What, you wanna stalk her or some shit?”

“I’m her uncle, you asswipe. Why the hell would I stalk her?” I turned so he could be bothered by my direct stare. “And if she’s knocked up, I want to know if she’s going to be a homeless mom. A baby deserves better than that.” For too long, I convinced myself that Nevaeh wasn’t in control of the shitty state of her life. That it wasn’t her choice to have been born into the family she had, with my brother and sister-in-law. She hadn’t chosen her parents. But she did choose to do what she did after they were gone.

He rolled his eyes. “If you’re that worried about her, then let her crash at your place.” He snickered. “Oh, wait. Then again, you don’t got a place to call your own either. I heard you were house hunting.”

“Is Nevaeh currently renting one of your properties?” I asked, not taking the bait to get riled up by this weasel.

“If she is, that’s not your business.”

“Which one?” I asked. “Where is she staying? At the apartment next to the one David’s got?”

“David moved out. He only stayed temporarily.”

“For how long? When did he move out?” I asked.

“Listen to yourself,” he taunted. “You ain’t the fucking police. I don’t have to tell you shit.”

I was two seconds from grabbing him and strangling him. “Then get ready for Marty to ask, you piece of shit. Eric was found wounded at your apartment building.”

He shrugged. “News to me.”

News you don’t care about.

Gavin walked in, raising his brows at me and Jerry at the bar. “Everything all right here?”

“Yep. Now it is. Come manage your nosy friend,” Jerry said with a jerk of his chin at me as he spun on the stool, giving me his back.

I shook my head, getting up and leaving with Gavin before I did punch that weasel.

“Did he tell you anything?” he asked.

“No. No one does. No one tells me shit.”

He did though. On the ride back to the cabin I was staying at, he gave me a summary of Eric’s injuries, courtesy of an old friend who was a nurse at the hospital. I doubted that they were upholding confidentiality laws, but I was glad to hear Eric would have a full recovery.

“He can’t remember how he got there or anything about how he got hurt?” I asked when he parked at my place.

“No. I guess it’ll come back to him. But as of right now, it’s a big, old question mark.”

Shaking my head, I got out of his truck but didn’t close the door. “What a clusterfuck, man.”

“You can say that again. I’m glad that he’s all right. And not hurt any worse than he is. Marty’ll go after David if he’s at fault for this. He’ll pay for what he’s done.”

I could agree with that, but only to an extent. Marty could go after David for what happened to Eric, but what about all the terrible things he had to have done to Heather to make her so skittish and scared? What about justice for her?

“You want company looking at some of those houses tomorrow?” he asked, almost eager to change the subject.

I rubbed my face then shrugged. “If you’re not busy.”

“I’ll be there.”

“Thanks, man. For everything.”

He left, but the next morning, he was back, just like he said he would be. I didn’t need him to come with me as I looked at some houses in Burton and just outside of it. House hunting didn’t have to be a group effort, but I mentioned it to him earlier in the week, thinking that if he came with me, it would preoccupy me and distract me from thinking about how I planned to have Heather with me for this.

That night that she’d let me stay in her cabin, after mine flooded, we’d joked about what we would want to look at in the houses I’d picked out to consider. It felt so natural, so right to discuss me taking the next big step of staying in Burton forever. She was the listening ear and sounding board I wanted when I previewed pictures of the places.

But as she proved last night, she wanted nothing to do with me.

The first three houses were dumps, so that dragged my mood down. Then talking with Gavin about Nevaeh, David, and Eric worsened it ever more.

Marty, as far as we could tell, was on the case. He was busy and following whatever leads he could. I bet he’d talked to Nevaeh again. And Jerry. David, too, if he knew where he was.

“I wonder if he’s going to talk to Heather,” I said at the next house that wasn’t as rundown and needy of a total flip as the previous ones.

“I’m sure he will,” Gavin said. “I hope it’s not too hard on her to talk about her past with David.”

It will be. I knew that without a doubt. Heather wasn’t dramatic or acting defensive for the hell of it. Something had to have traumatized her to the point she stayed this quiet.

“She’s never told you anything?” he asked carefully.

“No. And not for the lack of my trying. I’ve asked her. I was patient. I planned to wait and wait to get her trust where she’d open up to me, and she never did. Never will.”

“Eh, come on. Never say never.”

I shot him a wry look. “She called it. Not me. We are done. We never even started, but we’re done regardless.”

“How?” He ran his hand through his hair. “I saw how you looked at her. How she tried not to smile at you. I mean... I just don’t get it.”

I shrugged. I made her cry.

“Tell me. I’ve got experience with this, man. I’m married. Every couple fights but it’s not always the end of the world.”

“What are you doing? Trying to get a head start on being a relationship therapist because all your daughters are gonna need it.”

He chuckled.

But I bit. I sighed and knew I’d feel better to talk to him. After I told him about the big fight with Heather, filling in more details that I hadn’t told him before, I waited for his verdict.

“Well, it’s simple.”

I grunted a laugh as we got into his truck to go to another house. Heather had seemed really critical of this one, and again, I wished she was doing this with me.

“You need to apologize, for one thing. For what you said.”

I looked out the window.

“You don’t call a woman na?ve or weak. Especially not a woman who’s probably escaped a domestic violence situation. That takes guts. She was brave to leave David, and she’s probably right to be reacting to his presence in Burton like this.”

Nodding, I lowered my head. “I...I know.”

“So that’s the first step. You tell her that you’re sorry.”

“If she’d even hear me out.”

He shrugged. “Eventually, she might. And after that, you grovel. You show her that you mean it. That you really are sorry. That you want to make things right.”

“Grovel?” I rolled my eyes, hating that damn word. When shit hit the fan with Veronica, when we were in the back-and-forth pattern of fighting, making up, and back again, she liked to claim that I had to grovel. That every time I accused her of something—which she lied about and was actually doing, like cheating—she told me that I had to grovel if I wanted her forgiveness. The concept of groveling would forever be linked to the manipulation I suffered from my ex.

Heather wasn’t like Veronica in that regard, but it was tricky to separate what I went through with the last woman I’d called my lover, my partner, from the woman I wanted in my life now.

“Telling her sorry is only the first part, man. You have to show her that you’re willing to seek her forgiveness.” He huffed a sad laugh. “Especially when she was right all along about Nevaeh and David hooking up.”

“Yeah. I know. I get it.” I furrowed my brow as I watched the gray skies blur by outside. “But I’m not sure if apologizing or groveling would be enough.”

Once Heather put her walls up, there was no direct or simple way to break them back down.