Not Without You [Chris Evans]

38

Chris' POV

I'd packed and left the house before Shayna even woke up, catching a cab to the airport. I used my flight to try and repair the damage we'd done last night. Shayna had posted pictures of us together all over social media hinting that we were back together again; we'd been off and on again for a while, so while it was frustrating that was nothing new.

What was new was the implied rift between me and Sadie - which made me see red. By the time I landed, I was sober again and I'd managed to mostly fix things so they weren't so bad, even getting a short nap in. I just needed to take a couple pictures today and post them to debunk the rumors.

I picked up food and pulled up to Sadie's house around 2 to be greeted by both boys.

"Hey guys," I said, picking up Isaac and giving him a big hug. "I think you've grown from the last time I saw you and that was only like a month ago."

"Didjabringmesomething?" he asked, his face buried in my neck.

"You know it! I'll give it to you when I unpack. Hey Liam - big game tonight, huh?" I set down Isaac and pulled Liam into a tight hug, feeling him relax into me.

"Yeah. Glad you could make it. Mom said you were supposed to go see your mom."

"I was, but I can do that next weekend. Ma wants you guys to all come to Boston soon since she's never met you yet."

"Cool – when?" he asked, letting go of me.

"I was hoping for Thanksgiving but we'll see what your mom says about it."

I looked over to see Sadie waiting at the door for me so I clapped Liam on the back and grabbed my bag to head inside.

"Hey doll," I said, giving her a big hug, picking her up off the ground and kissing her cheek. "I'm so sorry for -"

She cut me off quickly, meeting my eyes. "Later, Chris. Okay? And you can put me down now." After two weeks of filming with both me and Seb constantly manhandling Sadie and carrying her around the set, she mostly trusted us not to drop her.

"Sorry doll," I said, giving her my best grin as I let go of her. "I got a little carried away."

"I couldn't tell," she said, patting my cheek firmly. "Did you eat?"

I grinned at the familiar question. "Yeah, I swung through a drive thru on my way out of town, mom."

"Good. Want to take the boat out with the boys for a while? We've got some time before we have to head into town."

"Love to. Everything ready?"

"Yup," Liam said. "We need to get it out of the water today for the winter, too."

"Okay. You want me to take the truck and trailer over to the public dock for when we're done?"

"No, Megan said she'd meet us with it when we call, so I parked it so she'd be able to drive right out and told her how to get to the public dock."

"She needed to get a few things done for me yet," Sadie explained. "We didn't get everything done yesterday we wanted to."

I nodded, accepting that explanation even if I knew it was a ruse. Megan didn't want to see me yet and I completely understood why; if the shoe was on the other foot, I wouldn't want to talk to me either after what I'd sent her.

"All right. Give me a couple minutes and I'll be ready to go. Are we fishing too?" I asked Liam.

He shrugged. "We can if you want to."