When Love Knocks

Chapter 4 - Ezra's POV

. . . . Present Day

Ezra sat on the barstool at the counter eating his breakfast and drinking a coffee before heading to the job site they were supposed to be working on. He had been working construction since he turned down going to college, not feeling like it fit his life anymore after Nevaeh had left this town and him. He occasionally heard snippets of gossip around town about her, last he had heard she was living it up in the city with a rich boyfriend; but aside from those times he tried not to think about her because his heart still ached over her and what they had lost. He finished and laid some bills on the counter waving goodbye and walked out the door to his truck and jumped in. The crew he was working with was working on repaving the road by the grocery store and replacing the water pipes after having several issues this year so far. His best friend Brody worked with him and between the two they usually could get the rest of the crew to not d**k around and actually get the work done on schedule.

Parking his truck and getting out he walked up to Brody and slapped his back, “Ready to get this s**t knocked out?” he asked, which earned him a grunt, “Hungover?” he asked which earned him a groan this time. “Eat a banana and drink some water, can’t let these idiots take control or nothing will get done today.” he said with a smirk. “Alright guys, let's get to work, we need to get all this old s**t broken up and the rubble cleared away. Flynn and John I need you guys helping with traffic since we have it down to one lane. The rest of y’all know your jobs, get to it, I see any phones while not on break, I’ll toss them under the tires of the truck to get run over. Distractions cause injuries and I’m not about to send someone to the ER for another’s f**k up. Get to work.” he said, the crew breaking up to do their designated jobs.

Brody ambled over to him as he was watching the slow progress on the job, “Little birdy told me, a certain someone moved back to town.” he told Ezra. He gave Brody a side eye, “How would your ‘little birdy’ know that, you gossip just as bad as any old biddie in this town.” he said, but he couldn’t help the fact that his heart stuttered a bit at the prospect. “Look dude, I know you had a tough time when you guys broke up but..” Ezra cut him off slightly angered, “No, she broke up with me. Said she wanted to explore the world and all that bullshit.” Ezra said, his voice rising and his hands clenched by his side, “What did she need to explore by herself? Why couldn’t we explore it together? Huh?” he said, stepping away from Brody before he smashed his fist into his face. “Look Z, I’m not trying to start s**t. I just thought you should have a heads up in case you see her in town. I know my source is credible because Madi is over at Neva’s grandmother's place helping her unpack.” Brody said holding his hands up in a surrender motion, “I just don’t want to see you spiral like before, you were in a dark angry hole and nobody could pull you out of it, til you messed up so bad you got yourself tossed in lockup for a few days to cool down.” Ezra released his clenched fist, which signaled for Brody to continue, “All I’m saying is before you go on a rampage call me and we’ll talk. f**k I bet Zack would talk to you on the phone if you needed him. Might need to apologize a bit first but he’s your brother and I’m sure he would love to hear from you.” Ezra shook his head and tried to alleviate the severity this chat had turned into, “I think I need to tell Madi to bring some tampons for you, you're chatting like a b***h today.” he said laughing. Brody shoved his shoulder and joined in, “f**k you asshole.”

The two continued to work and finally called an hour lunch at 1:30. Everyone either took off to grab something or dug into coolers for drinks and food. So far the day was going well and he hadn’t had to smash any phones yet today, although he was itching for a fight not wanting to deal with the emotions that had gotten drug up earlier. He couldn’t help the thoughts running through his head and before he knew it he was asking Brody to message Madilyn for him, “So uh, does she have a man with her? Not that it matters but I’d like to know if I’m going to be running into a happy couple or not, because I’m not going to lie, I might just feel the need to punch the fucker in the mouth.” he said. Brody just shook his head as he pulled out his phone and messaged Madi, “You’re a glutton for punishment.” he said as he waited for a response, his face twisting into a grimace as he read the reply, then turned the phone for Ezra to see.

Sweetheart: Yes she has a man with her, on the shorter side and really cute too. They are practically inseparable

Ezra rubbed his hand over his face, “I’m not ready for this, maybe now is a good time to take a nice long vacation.” he said. “Dude you know as well as I do, you won’t leave this town, so you might as well quit being a pansyass and just keep going. You'll run into each other one of these days anyway, better to know all the facts up front.” Brody said, taking a bite out of a sandwich. Ezra smirked, “So when did you and Madi become a thing, didn’t even know you had a thing for her you two were always at heads with each other.” Brody actually looked sheepish and rubbed the back of his neck, “Few months actually, we were trying to keep it secret since you and Nevaeh weren’t talking; we didn’t want to dredge up bad feelings for either of you. Guess she had a hell of a time the last few years herself.” Ezra shook his head not quite feeling anything about how she was feeling, but a small part of him hurt knowing she hadn’t been doing well. He looked at his phone seeing that lunch break was almost up, “I’m going to go have a smoke then let’s get everyone back to work, I’d like to have the rest of this road torn up today.” he said getting up and walking off lighting a cigarette signaling the end of that conversation.

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Ezra was watching the dumptruck get filled with rubble, and seeing as it was going well took a glance around at the rest of the crew. Walking over to a group that was working on breaking up a new section further down, “How’s it going down here?” he asked, getting some grunts in acknowledgement and he nodded. He heard the beeping of the dump truck backing up and when he looked a kid stood behind it. Ezra’s heart leapt into his throat, “What the f**k! Kid move!” he yelled but over the noise of the construction site he couldn’t be sure the child had heard him, “s**t,” he grumbled and ran picking up the boy and getting him out of the way, “What the hell were you thinking?!” he yelled, his face clearly red with anger, “Don’t you know you could’ve been hurt!” he added, and when his eyes met those of the boys he was shocked by the brilliant green color, but the boy’s eyes were shimmering with tears ready to spill. “Dammit,” Ezra said, raking his fingers through his hair, “Don’t cry, it's okay.” but his try at comforting words did little for the small child and he began to cry big ugly sobs. Ezra rubbed his face and then crouched down to the level of the kid’s, “Hey, can you tell me where your mommy is?” he asked trying a different tactic to get the child to calm, but it did little to calm Ezra; who the hell wouldn’t be paying attention to where their child was especially around a work zone? A f*****g i***t obviously.

The sounds of a woman’s frantic yelling finally reached his ears, “Jackson! Where are you? This isn’t funny, baby. Please answer me.” He looked at the boy, then back towards where he thought the voice was coming from, “Jackson? That’s your name right?” he asked which earned him a small nod from the red cheeked boy, “I think your mommy is looking for you, how about I walk with you back to her, okay?” he said standing up and holding out his hand and when the boy tentatively slipped his into Ezra’s, he felt like he was giant in comparison. Together the two walked back towards the voice. He looked down at the child who was wiping his eyes with his other hand, and noticed the blond hair. He was a pretty cute kid, but a bit curious and unfortunately that curiosity just about got him hurt today. His focus broke from the boy as a woman yelled in relief and rushed in scooping the boy up peppering him in kisses, “String bean where did you go? You scared mommy so much. You can’t take off like that again.” she said not really having noticed Ezra yet who had taken a step back giving the two a moment, but for some reason he felt the need to speak up, “He thought he needed to get a close look at some of the trucks.” he said looking at the woman and when his eyes met hers, he had to blink a few times as his heart thundered in his chest. Nevaeh. That’s the only word that came to his brain as he looked into her emotion filled dark chocolate brown eyes. When it finally registered hers filled with shock and her softly, “Ezra.” as wrong as it was, that's all it took from his d**k to twitch in his pants.

Ezra shook the thoughts that were starting to race in his head away then found his voice and spoke, “Look just keep Jackson out of the construction site, it’s not a place for a kid, he could’ve been seriously hurt. That doesn’t seem like great parenting to me.” he said a bit harshly. He watched as Nevaeh covered the boy’s ears before speaking, “f**k you, I’m a great mother, he was supposed to be getting into his booster seat while I was loading up groceries. He was starting to get in when I went back to finish loading, and then he wasn’t there anymore. So you know what just f**k off and stay away from me.” she said. He watched as she turned around and stomped off, and his eyes drifted down to her swinging hips that had filled out perfectly since highschool. He might be pissed off, but he’d be an i***t to deny that Nevaeh had changed since high school and it made her even more of a perfect woman. He watched as she got the kid in the car before getting in herself and driving off. As he walked back to the work site he admitted one thing to himself, and that was he was screwed if he kept running into Neva. Hopefully he would be able to avoid her for the most part, but he didn’t want to, was the thing.

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The end of the workday was over and Ezra oversaw the others pack up and leave the site before he headed out himself and headed home to his simple bachelor pad. It was a small two bedroom home located in a neighborhood a few minutes from town and it suited his needs perfectly. He wouldn’t say he was a slob but he wasn’t a complete neat freak either, who really cared what his home looked like when he was usually the only one in the place to begin with. He walked in his door and tossed his keys on the table by the door and kicked his work boots off, walking towards the kitchen and grabbing a beer from the fridge and popping the top while taking a drink. Grabbing another one Ezra headed back to the living room and flopped onto the couch turning the TV on more for the noise than for actual entertainment. He had thought about getting a dog at one point but then realized it was probably best he didn’t since he wasn’t ever home to really care for an animal. When he wasn’t working construction he was tending the bar in town at the local watering hole.

Ezra leaned his head back on the couch and closed his eyes on arm tossed over them, “f**k,” he said thinking about his interaction earlier with Neva, that wasn’t what he had in mind when he saw her again; and if she had even an inkling of hate towards him before, it was probably blown up now. Where was the boy’s father anyway? Why wasn’t he helping keep an eye on the child while Nevaeh did what she needed to do. He couldn’t imagine Zebadiah letting her bring around someone who wasn’t worthy of her. Hell, he should know, it took him months to start being accepted by the man and honestly he didn’t blame him. If he ever had a daughter she’d be lucky to date until she was thirty. Men just don’t mature as quickly and he should know he is one and sometimes he still isn’t the most mature man on the planet. One thing he did know though was that he sure as s**t didn’t want to be sitting here by himself right now. Finishing off the first beer and opening the second he got up and walked towards his room where he proceeded to strip out of his dirty work clothes and start the shower cranking up the hot water and stepping underneath the scalding spray. The water ran down taking the day’s dirt and grime with it as he lathered up and washed the rest away with the soap, and ran shampoo through his hair, leaning his head back to rinse. He placed his hands on the wall of the shower letting the water pepper his shoulders and back with the warm water relaxing the muscles there. He stood there until the water started to run cold and he switched the handle, turning it off and stepped out, wrapping a towel around his waist as he walked towards the bedroom.

He pulled on a pair of dark washed worn jeans and a white shirt along with his boots. As he walked out towards the living room he pulled out his phone and called Scott, “Hey fucker, what are you doing? I’m heading out to get some food and drinks, wanna come keep my lonely ass company?” he asked as he grabbed his keys and wallet. “Sure, same spot as usual?” came his reply. “Yup, see ya soon.” he said and hung up heading out the door locking it behind him and headed towards his truck and into town.

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Ezra sat in the corner booth sipping his beer, raising his hand in a small wave when he spotted Scott come through the door. “Rough day?” Scott asked, raising his hand for a waitress and asked for a beer. Ezra nodded and responded after the waitress left, “You could say that.” he said and took another pull from his bottle, “Had a kid about to get ran over by one of the trucks on site today.” he added, as Scott received his own drink and took a drink, “s**t, do you know how he came to be there? Why the hell didn’t the guy driving stop?” he asked. Ezra shook his head, “Kid wasn’t more than 4 or 5 was fascinated by the machines, the guy driving couldn’t see him in any of the mirrors, kid was in a blind spot…” he paused while taking a drink, “but this s**t gets better. The kid’s mom turned out to be Nevaeh.” he finished. The news made Scott choke on his drink and he beat on his chest, “f**k, that’s a blast from the past. Is she still hot?” he asked, his eyebrow arching in question. “Dude, f**k you.” Ezra responded but then added, “Yea, she’s still hot. Better I think then in highschool.” he took another pull and raised his hand signaling for a couple more beers.

Scott looked at him, “So she back in town or just visiting?” he asked. Ezra closed his eyes and leaned his head back, “She’s back. Brody said she was getting moved into her grandmother’s old place. I was going to go tell her I was sorry to hear about the old bird, but then things just came out all wrong when I saw her today and…” he paused, “let’s just say she’d probably shoot me on sight, she walked away pissed.” He took another drink. “Then I guess you better go over baring gifts of food and drinks.” Scott teased and laughed while taking another drink of his beer. Ezra merely groaned, “I’m just saying, a woman can’t stay too mad if there’s food involved.” he added. Ezra looked at his friend, “Oh yea? Personal experience there?” he asked, which only made Scott smirk. “Only a few times, and we both usually end the night both being satisfied.” he replied waggling his eyebrows. “She’s got a kid, don’t think it’d get that far even if she did let me inside the door.” Ezra snagged the attention of a waitress and placed an order for some food and to keep the beers coming.

“So did you call Brody too? Or am I just the lucky bastard that gets to hang out with your sorry ass tonight.” Scott asked. Ezra flipped him the bird, drinking, “Brody is probably with Madilyn, found that s**t out today too.” he said, shaking his head. Scott let out a loud laugh which caused a few heads to turn in their direction, “s**t, he’s going to get his balls handed to him on a platter with her. She was always headstrong in highschool I can only imagine what she’s like now.” Ezra had to laugh at that too, “Yea, she was a bit of a spitfire back then, always wondered how her and Neva ended up being such good friends they were complete opposites. “Well then, here’s to f*****g s**t up.” Scott said jokingly in a toast. Ezra clinked his bottle with Scott’s and the both drank.

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By the time the bar closed down, the bartender came over and took both his and Scott’s keys, and watched as they arranged rides home. Ezra called Brody who sounded like he was being woken up but didn’t complain when he asked him to come get him and Scott. As they stood outside both taking drags from the cigarettes they were smoking on, “So what are you going to do about her?” Scott asked, his head leaned back on the side of the bar. Ezra rubbed his face, “Hell if I know, is it bad if I say I’d love to have her back under me like we used to be?” he asked. Scott shook his head, “I think it’s just your way of figuring out if you two could get back together.” Scott replied, “That’s the thing though, Madi said she has a man, so that wouldn’t even be an option.” Ezra said, which only caused Scott to laugh, “And when the hell has anything when it comes to that woman, make you stay away. When she was sick for a week, you were with her everyday even skipping school to stay with her to watch over her. Even when her daddy said if you didn’t leave he’d haul out the shotgun and shoot your dumbass.” he said with a snicker, “Or the time her dad found out you had slept with his little girl and grounded her? You snuck in her room every night, even after he threatened to cut your balls off and bury them.” Ezra winced at that memory. He was arriving to take Nevaeh out on a date that night when Zebadiah swung the door open pointing a gun in his face. Zeb was pissed and he had rarely seen the man truly angry, “You best get your ass off my front porch.” the man had said while Ezra heard Nevaeh yelling in the background for him to put the gun down. It had been apparent then that she had been crying because her voice was rough and hoarse. He had found out later that she was talking to her mom about getting on the pill when her daddy walked in overhearing the conversation. Zebadiah had later apologized once his anger subsided but it was enough of a scare that Ezra never wished to see the end of a gun in his face again.

Headlights pulled in blinding him, “Let’s go you drunkards.” Brody’s voice came through the night. On the ride back to his house he thought about what Scott had said. If anything had become clearer tonight, it was the fact that he at least deserved to get some answers about that summer after graduation. If she had truly moved on he’d respect her and try to remain civil whenever he saw her but he couldn’t promise that he wouldn’t be trying to win her back at the same time. Significant other or not; Nevaeh had been his and would always be his. He just needed her to see it too.