Page 68 of Havoc's Fox
“Can’t be. I can’t accept that.”
“You might not have a choice. And if you don’t, lots of perfectly wonderful, beautiful young ladies out there.”
“Nobody’s better than Analise. She’s part of me, always has been. I don’t want anything without her. I’m not me without her,” Havoc said, the pain in his voice palpable.
“Wish you’d have figured that out before you blasted her heart all to shit.”
Havoc just shook his head. He had nothing to say. He fucked up and he knew it.
“How’d you leave it?” Maverik asked.
“I told her that if she tried to leave me I’d track her down and make it so neither her fancy ass boyfriend or her fancy job would want her back. Told her that she was mine, plain and simple and she wasn’t fucking going anywhere and to learn to fucking deal with it.”
“Well, that was absolutely the best thing you could have said,” Maverik snarked.
“I didn’t say it was the right thing to say. I just reacted.”
“Y’all just keep fucking things up, don’t you? It’s like you’re having a contest.”
“You’re one to talk,” Havoc said. “Mom says that she was engaged to somebody else and despised you before you finally got your head out of your ass.”
“Yeah, well, it must run in the blood. Thing is, I got my head out of my ass.”
“So did I! But she still has zero faith in me.”
“Have you given her anything to hold onto?” Maverik asked.
“Like what? I’ve given her me! What else could I give?”
“How about an understanding of how important her job is to her. How about a promise that you’ll go with her wherever it takes her. All she’s had all these years is her career. You just told her she can’t go back to it.”
Havoc heaved a sigh and sat down on one of the camping chairs in Maverik’s back yard. “Can I use your phone?”
“Use your phone.”
“She won’t answer mine.”
“You didn’t even try.”
“I don’t need to; I already know she won’t answer.”
Maverik handed his son his phone.
Havoc dialed Analise’s number and waited a few rings until she answered. “I’m sorry! Please don’t hang up. I just want to apologize. I shouldn’t have threatened your job. I know how much you love it and I’d never do anything to take that from you. In fact, I’d follow you around the freaking globe so you could do your thing wherever you needed to. Happily, even. I was all kinds of wrong to say that I’d mess it up for you. I wouldn’t do that. I’m sorry. But I meant what I said about your boyfriend.”
He listened for a few seconds, then Maverik watched as he nodded, as though Analise could see him.
“I’m glad to hear that, at least. And thanks for saying so. I just really called to tell you I was wrong for saying what I did and that I’ll support you in any career, anywhere, anything you want. I’m right beside you. And so is Harley. I hear international schooling is a good thing for kids, you know?”
Havoc listened for a few seconds more. “That’s fine. Time doesn’t change things, though, Analise. It won’t change who we were, what we are, or how we got here. We’ve grown into different people that have to find a way to work around the past if we can’t leave it behind. Our bond is firmly in place. We solidified it. And don’t go telling me people sever them all the time. I’m not severing this bond. I’ve waited for it all my life.”
Havoc rolled his eyes. “Fine, I’ve waited for it since I was seventeen. I’ve still known always that I’d die for you.”
Havoc paused for a second while he listened again. Then, “You sure that’s what you want?”
He nodded again. “Fine. I’ll be around.”
He ended the phone call and handed his phone back to his dad.