Page 111 of All I Need

“WALKER, HONEY. YOU NEED TO get back here. Now,” Polly says urgently through the phone.

I was just about to order a pizza for tonight, not wanting to waste any time I have with Ellie on standing around the stove. “What’s wrong? Is it Ellie?”

“I can’t explain over the phone but you need to come here.”

Nothing about this is easing my mind as I rush out to my pickup. My heart is racing as I speed down the roads, not having a clue what I’m going to find when I get to Polly’s. My irrational fear is that Ellie’s had time to think and isn’t sure if she can actually trust me and is packing her shit to leave.

It can’t happen.

I won’t let it.

She’s my everything, my future.

I slam the pickup into park along the road in front of Polly’s house, another vehicle parked in the driveway next to Ellie’s car.

It’s not Gary’s, so at least I know he didn’t come find her and freak her out.

I look closer and see the North Carolina license plates.

Mick.

Still nothing to be concerned with.

But then…

I open the door to hear Polly’s whimpering cries and Ellie shouting.

“You ass,” she hisses. “I can’t believe you lied to them all these years!”

“I didn’t lie, Elle. I used my nickname. The one that everyone but you has called me for years.”

“No. You never once went by Mick when we were together. Your family called you Michael, too.”

“Are we really standing here arguing over my name?”

Silence takes over as I come into the living room. Three sets of eyes turn to me but there’s only one set I’m worried about. Her bright blue eyes are shining with tears, redness blotches her cheeks from crying.

“What’s going on?”

“Walker,” Miss Polly starts, “This is Michael.”

“Michael. You’re…” I swallow, “You’re Ellie’s ex?”

Mick looks at me with eyes full of sadness and I don’t know what I want to do first. Punch him in the gut, wrap Ellie in my arms, pull my hair out.

How can this be possible?

“Un-fucking-believable, right?” Ellie snaps, using a word I rarely hear escape her lips.

I nod woodenly.

It is.

She’s absolutely right about that.

“I had no idea,” I tell her, feeling like she needs to know from me that I wasn’t lying to her or withholding the truth about Grayson’s dad’s identity. “How did I not know your name was Michael?”

“No one ever calls me Michael,” Mick says, sorrow in his tone.

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