Page 8 of Returning to Everton

“What’s up? Who called you so early?” Nate asks, bringing his cup to his mouth for another sip.

“As it happens, it was someone interested in rentin’ the house. Seems her husband died recently, and she’s decided to move back home. She was plannin’ on visiting her friend Quinn in a couple of weeks and just decided to turn it into a move instead of a visit.” I wait and let them fill in the blanks. It doesn’t take long.

“WHAT?!” They all exclaim at the same time. Nate spits out his coffee while Hudson drops his spatula.

“You can’t be talking about Rowe!” Kayden shouts.

“Did you know her husband died?” Ayden asks Hudson.

“Yeah, I heard something about that from Quinn,” Hudson responds as he bends down to retrieve his spatula. “About six months ago, I think. Quinn said she was trying to talk her into moving back. Guess it finally worked,” he remarks.

“Yeah, well, she’s super excited about the house. I think she almost wants to rent it sight unseen after I told her about the kitchen. But she’s goin’ to call me when she gets here and come look at it,'' I tell them.

Nate, no longer interested in his coffee, joins the conversation, “Yeah, she’s going to love your house, man. It pretty much has everything she always talked about wanting in a house. The wrap-around porch. The solarium,” he smiles. “She’s going to flip her lid when she sees that kitchen, though. Y’all remember how much she liked to bake.”

Hudson eyes him. “Of course I do. Why do you think I opened a bakery? I mean, yeah, I love to bake, but she was the one that got me into it. I always hoped she’d come home, and we’d run the place together.”

I clear my throat. “Yeah, well, you might get your wish. When I told her about the kitchen, she got so excited and told me she loves to bake, so I told her the local bakery is hirin’. She was just about beside herself when she heard that. After that, her daughter woke up and was very loudly askin’ for breakfast.” I laugh as I remember listening to that cute little girl hollerin’ for her mum. “As we were sayin’ our goodbyes, we figured out we never introduced ourselves. It still wasn’t until after I hung up and was sittin’ there replayin’ our conversation that I put two and two together and realized she was your Rowe.”

“Well, damn. She’s finally coming home.” Kayden sounds kind of lost.

“Isn’t that what y’all wanted, though? Why do you sound so dejected, Kay?” I ask.

“It’s just been so long since we’ve seen her, we don’t know what’s gonna happen,” Ayden answers for him. “I mean, yeah, we want her home. We miss her like crazy. I know I’ve never gotten over her. I don’t know about the rest of y’all.”

“Of course we want her home,” Nate retorts. “And you know damn well I’ve never gotten over that girl. Even though we were never really together, she has all of our hearts. When she left for college, we thought for sure she’d be back, then we could all tell her how we really felt. We’d settle down and start a little family. Hud and her would open the bakery, and life would be perfect. Then she didn’t come back home.”

It just amazes me sometimes, that these guys have been planning a life with this woman and she didn’t even know. They’ve always talked like it was an inevitability that they would end up with Rowen. Hell a few years ago, they even started including me and Logan in on their plans.

“I think we’ve all spent the past ten years just waiting for her. Trying to get our lives together, so when she finally came home, we would be able to show her we were serious and could take care of her,” Hudson says as he leans back against the counter.

“Well, she’ll be here in two weeks. So, whatever your plan is to get her on board with this relationship y’all have always secretly envisioned, now’s the time to get ready. I still can’t understand why none of you kept in touch with her after she left. Y’all clearly love her. Why did you just let her go?” I ask them.

Hudson answers first. “She came home once after she graduated and brought her fiancé with her. It about crushed us. We knew it was a possibility that she’d meet someone while she was gone, but we were stupidly hoping the deep connection we had would be enough for her to not get too serious. She was so happy to see us all she about squeezed the life out of me when she hugged me. I saw the look on his face as she gave everyone matching hugs. He was not happy. Turns out he felt threatened by us. Can’t think of why he’d feel like that,” Hudson chuckles darkly.

“By the time they left, he had convinced her to drop us. He was a norm and didn’t like that we could do magic with her I suppose. According to Quinn, who was the only one he couldn’t convince her to stop talking to, her magic was one of the things that first attracted him to her. Aside from her good looks, of course. Rowe was always a stunner. Anyway, apparently after a while, he decided he didn’t care for her magic anymore. He started resenting her for having magic when he didn’t, I guess. Quinn tried to get her to leave him a few times. But she had already married him before he turned into an asshole, and she was bound and determined to work it out.”

“Then she got pregnant, and she had an even bigger reason to try to work it out,” Nate takes over the story, running his hand through his overgrown mohawk. “Makes me wonder though if he didn’t like her having magic, does she still use it like she used to? Rowen loved all things magic growing up and she wasreallygood at it, too. Y’all remember when she turned Britney into a cat? Oh my god, that was so funny! Served her right, always picking on Quinn like she did. Never did learn her lesson. Rowe constantly had to cast spells on her.”

“Wait, she turned a girl into a cat? How old was she?” I ask.

Ayden chuckles. “Well, yes and no,” he says. “She was still a little girl, just with cat features. You know that movie,Harry Potter? The girl Hermione, got turned into a cat when a spell went wrong. It was kinda like that. No one knew how to undo the spell, so they had to wait until Rowe’s mom got there to convince her to change Britney back. Britney had to walk around school like that for most of the day,” he scratches his head in thought. “Rowe was what five?”

“Yeah, she was always advanced for her age,” Kayden replies with a smile. “That girl could use magic like people wouldn’t believe. She was only limited by her imagination. It doesn’t really work like that for everyone.”

“Okay, so her husband was a dick, y’all couldn’t have anythin’ to do with her, she only had one friend she could talk to, but she still stayed?” Rowen sounds like a strong woman from everything I’ve heard about her. I just can’t wrap my head around the fact she would stay with a man that treated her like that.

“Yeah, I don’t know why man, I really don’t. The Rowen we knew would have never let someone treat her badly. She was always strong-willed and independent. She didn’t even like it when Hudson would try to take charge and tell us what we were going to do that day. We’re going to have to talk to her and find out what the hell happened,” Nate insists.

“Well, you know, coming back home is going to be a big change for her. Let’s start thinking about what we can do to make her life easier once she gets here. I think just being there for her like we’ve always been will make a huge difference,” Hudson says. “I’m sure finally getting her dream job as a magic baker will bring her back to us.”

“Yeah, she mentioned that she misses havin’ people who love her around to help her when she needs it. So just bein’ you and bein’ around to help her out if she needs it will be a welcome change for her,” I assure them.

“What about you, Declan? I know you’ve never met her before, but we’ve talked about her enough. I’m sure you can get an idea about whether you would be interested in her or not,” Ayden looks at me with hope in his eyes. We’ve talked about this before, but I always told them we’d have to wait for me to actually meet her and see how we get along. “You’re part of our family now. You and Logan both. I don’t know if this will work if we’re not all in,” Ayden reminds me.

“You know... I was thinkin’ after I got off the phone with her, how this is the first time I’ve found myself interested in even gettin’ to know a woman since Jane died. Just the short conversation we had... it revitalized me, guys. Like I could tell we’d get along. She’s got this great sense of humor. She made me laugh several times in the span of like ten minutes.”

“Yeah, that sounds like Rowe,” Ayden says.

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