Chapter 44 Everett
EVERETT
“There is a woman in my apartment,” I whisper-hiss into my headset as I hide around a corner while gunshots go off around me.
“Don’t worry. She won’t give you cooties,” Linc laughs in my ear. “Oh, fuck, yes. Die, you motherfuckers. Die.”
“How do you know? You’ve never met her,” I mutter.
“Maybe not, but Parker has, and she loves her.”
I groan as I sink back into my couch. My eyes are locked on the screen before me, but I don’t really see it, and I certainly don’t make a move to help Linc out.
I knew the second I walked out of her room that I needed a distraction, and with Parker out with Freya, Linc was all too happy to torment, I mean, entertain me.
“Did you know she’s already referring to Bea as her sister?”
“Yes, I’m aware.” Parker was quick to inform me of all the details of their little nail date before going on to tell me just how much she liked Bea, how she thought she was perfect for me, before finishing up with a warning that if I hurt her, she’d let herself into my apartment in the middle of the night and cut my dick off.
I promised my sister that that wouldn’t be necessary. But really, this is me we’re talking about. Everett Donnelly manages to fuck everything up somehow, and usually without even trying.
“So, what’s the plan?” he asks.
“I don’t have a plan,” I grunt. “Her place…” I start before closing my eyes and thinking back to earlier this morning.
“Fuck. It’s…awful. I know she’s had some financial issues recently, and she had to move out of a decent place, but…
she’s not living there. She needs somewhere she can relax. Get some decent sleep.”
“Careful, man. You sound like you care.”
“Of course I care. She’s growing my kid.” As I say the words, I can’t help but wonder if there is a whole lot more reason as to why I care so much. And it’s not just because of the little person growing in her belly.
Linc hums as the sound of bodies hitting the ground fills my ears. “Are you going to be useful at some point?”
“I’m in the middle of something,” I point out.
“Hardly.”
“Mock me all you want, but I know for a fact the night you brought my sister back to your place, you freaked out.”
“Pfft, hardly.”
“Bullshit. You might not have said a word at the time, but you’ve told me how fucking weird it was.”
He’s silent for a moment. “Yeah, it was. And then she let me into her bedroom, and everything got a hell of a lot more…pleasurable.”
“You’re a jerk.”
“Takes one to know one,” he counters before his words turn more serious. “It’s okay to want her, you know.”
“I don’t—that’s not—fuck.”
Linc chuckles, but the truth of it is, Bea is currently naked in my bathtub, only a few feet away. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about storming in a million times since I first heard the water running. Fucking hell, I bet she looks insane right now, surrounded by bubbles.
“Oh, Killer wants to join. You good, man?”
“Yeah,” I agree. Linc deserves to have someone help him.
“Yo, what’s up, motherfuckers?” my defense partner bellows through my headset.
“Rett’s got woman problems.”
“The fuck, man?” I bark.
“Rett. Woman problems. Am I on the right server? Everett Donnelly doesn’t keep a woman around long enough to have problems. Exactly how it should be, aren’t I right, bro?”
“It’s complicated,” I mutter.
I need to start telling people. I can’t just suddenly pop up with a pregnant fiancée out of nowhere. It looks suspicious as hell. If we're going to do this, then we need to make it look real.
I also really need to tell my parents.
“Definitely not my department. You should talk to Casey, Parker, and Freya. They’ll know what to do.”
“Yeah,” I mumble.
“So, what’s the deal then? You got someone pregnant or something?”
My heart jumps into my throat, stopping any words from escaping.
Linc goes suspiciously quiet as well.
“Uh…Rett?” Killer asks, sounding a little terrified on my behalf.
I clear my throat, trying to come up with something to say.
“You remember the last game of the regular season? There were some girls at the game that we found on the dance floor of Club 52 later that night?”
“Uh…did one have a crown on?”
“Yeah. I hooked up with her friend. Bea.”
“Oh shit, yeah. I remember her. We’ve seen them since as well. After one of our playoff games, I found them talking to security at the VIP entrance. I invited them up.”
I shake my head, hoping it’ll knock a memory into place. But there isn’t one.
I don’t remember seeing Bea again until I walked into Hailee’s office all those weeks later.
"I-I don’t remember.”
“It was definitely them. I don’t think they stayed long, though.”
“Shit,” I hiss as realization hits.
They came out that night to find me. To tell me I was going to be a dad.
Bea told me she’d tried other ways, including her unread messages on social media. She confessed to coming to games, but she never said she followed us out after.
“So, is she pregnant or what?”
I rub my jaw, my controller long forgotten on my lap.
“Yeah,” I confess. “She is.”
Nothing but silence follows my confession.
“And they’ve done a DNA test. It’s Donnelly’s,” Linc supplies helpfully. “And I have it from a reliable source that she’s fucking awesome, and Rett would be a lucky motherfucker if she could bring down his sky-high walls and force him to see the light.”
“Hey now, just because you’ve handed your balls over to a woman, it doesn’t mean the rest of us need to do the same. I’m quite happy to retain ownership of mine and let them swing free.”
“Linc’s right. She is pretty awesome. I like hanging out with her; she’s fun, and she makes me smile.”
“Fuck me. I didn’t even know you could smile,” Killer laughs. “If she can achieve that, then she’s definitely a keeper.”
“Rett totally likes her,” Linc adds, making me wonder if we’re grown-ass men or preteens discussing our crushes.
“Aw, Rett and Bea, sitting in a tree—” Killer starts, strengthening my previous thought.
“We’re just taking it slow. Seeing how it works out. If you could keep this to yourself for now, that would be great. I gotta go,” I snap before pulling my headset off, throwing it across the couch, and letting myself fall back into the cushions.
My chest heaves as I try to come to terms with the fact that all of this is very real. I do have a woman in my life, a woman I arguably can’t stop thinking about who is now right here in my—
“Are you okay?”
I startle and jump to my feet, my heart racing even faster than it was a few minutes ago. But the second I find her standing there in an oversized T-shirt, her face clear of makeup and her hair all twisted up on the top of her head, everything seems to stop.
There’s a woman in my apartment.
“Y-yeah,” I stutter, barely able to believe what I’m seeing, even though I was the one who brought her here. It was the right thing to do, but still…this is fucking weird. “I was just playing Xbox with the guys and—”
“Really? From what I could see, you were hiding behind a crate,” she says, a teasing lilt to her voice.
I narrow my eyes, my heart rate picking up again. “How long have you been standing there?” I ask, my mind racing as I try to remember what I just said about her.
“Oh, not long,” she says before walking closer. “I was wondering, though, since you think I’m awesome and like hanging out with me so much, did you want to order some food in and we could eat together?”
My face burns. I swear to God, even my ears get hot as I hear my previous words repeated back to me.
Folding my arms over my chest, I narrow my eyes and glare at her.
“Wasn’t standing there long, huh?”
She shrugs, clearly not giving a single fuck about eavesdropping on my conversation with Linc and Killer.
“Just long enough, I’d say. Now, wipe that frown off your face, Everett. I thought you smiled when I was around.”
My chin drops, my eyes locked on her as she moves around my home.
As she closes the space between us, the floral scent clinging to her gets stronger, making my mouth water.
My fists clench with the need to reach out and feel how soft her skin is.
I honestly don’t know how I stop myself, especially as she slips between me and the couch, before she drops onto it and curls her bare legs beneath her.
My eyes lock on inches upon inches of bare, tanned skin until they hit the fabric that sits high on her thighs, stopping me from discovering any more.
While we might have been as intimate as two people can get the first night we met, there’s so much of her I didn’t get to discover.
Usually, I don’t care. I let women walk away, and I don’t think of them again. But that night was different.
She became a constant thought in my head.
Even if I tried to force myself to forget it, to forget her, I couldn’t.
It was like I knew subconsciously that she was more than any of those who came before.
That it was only the beginning of something, and that she was about to become one of the most important people in my life.
“Everett?”
At hearing my name, my eyes jump back up to her amused ones.
“You know, for a fuckboy, you’re sure acting like you’ve never seen a pair of legs before.”
My chin drops, but yet again, no words appear.
What is it about this woman stealing all my thoughts?
“I-I…um…I’ve never had a woman on my couch before,” I blurt before stalking toward my kitchen, hoping that a little space will enable my brain to start functioning properly.
I swear, I hear her chuckle behind me, but I don’t turn around to confirm it.
“Did you want a drink?” I ask once the air around me smells familiar again.
“Yes, please. I’d love a coff—” She cuts herself off. “Water will be fine, thank you.”
“I can make you a coffee,” I offer, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge for her and carrying it over.
“Oh, you have decaf?” she asks a beat before she reaches for the bottle and her fingers brush mine.
Her entire body jolts at the innocent contact, and I’d be lying if I said my fingers aren’t tingling and my blood isn’t on fire.
Bringing her here might be the right thing to do, but I have a feeling it might also be a very, very bad idea.
“Um…yeah. I picked up some decaf just in case,” I mutter quietly as I scurry away.
“Just in case of what?” she probes.
“Just in case…anyone might come here who needs it.”