Chapter Ten
Jude
I had no business being here.
The thought kept circling through my head as I sat on my bike in the back lot of the Dairy Bar, with a cigarette burning between my fingers and Ever’s car parked ten feet away from me.
The parking lot behind the Dairy Bar was mostly dark, lit only by the weak security light over the back door and the glow spilling through the kitchen windows. The night had settled in good now, bringing a chill that cut through the leftover heat of the day. It felt good against my skin.
I took a drag off the cigarette and let the smoke sit in my lungs a second before blowing it out slowly.
Ten-thirty.
She’d be out soon, and I still didn’t have a good answer for what the hell I was doing parked there like some creep waiting for her shift to end.
I needed to make sure she got home okay. The donut on her car was temporary and not meant for long drives or fast ones. Following her to work had made sense and now making sure she got home on it made sense too.
At least that was the excuse I was using.
Changing that tire for her this afternoon had done something to me.
Not the tire itself or the work. That part was easy. I’d changed plenty of tires in my life and it wasn’t anything special.
But her standing there while I did it? Her eyes watching me? Knowing I was the one there when she needed help and not the guy she was seeing? Yeah, that had done something.
I took another drag and stared across the hood of her car.
It had gotten under my skin in a way I still couldn’t sort out.
She’d been stranded and I had been the one there for her. Maybe it was fucked up that I liked that and it said something about me, but I didn’t want to inspect too closely.
But there was a satisfaction in it I couldn’t deny.
I pinched the cigarette between two fingers and tipped my head back.
The back door swung open and I straightened before I even realized I’d done it.
Lark stepped out first, the door slamming shut behind her. She stopped cold when she saw me sitting there, then tipped her head to the side like she was looking at something suspicious she couldn’t quite decide whether to kick or interrogate.
She chose interrogate.
Of course she did.
Lark strode toward me with her purse bouncing against her hip, and she stopped a few feet from the bike with her hand planted on her hip. “What the hell are you doing?”
I flicked ash off the cigarette and gave her an easy look. “Want to make sure Ever makes it home okay on the spare.”
Lark narrowed her eyes. “I planned on following her home.”
I smiled because that one had answers built in. “Well, now you don’t need to since I’m here.”
She studied me way too closely. Not flirting. Not curious. More like she was trying to decide whether I had murder in my heart and she needed to alert the authorities. “Be very careful with Ever, Jude,” she said. “I will cut your balls off if you hurt her.”
I barked out a laugh before I could stop it. “Jesus, Lark. I’m just going to make sure she gets home safe.”
She made a noise low in her throat that said she didn’t believe me for a second. “Yeah,” she said. “I’m sure that’s all you’re going to do.” Then she turned and headed for her car like the conversation was over.
I watched her go, more annoyed than I should’ve been.
Lark had always been decent with me. Smart mouth, sure, but good people. Now she was acting like I was one bad decision away from ruining Ever’s life.
She yanked her door open, then paused and looked back at me. Two fingers came up to point at her own eyes, then swung toward me. “I’m watching you, Jude.” She dropped into the driver’s seat and rolled the window down before starting the car. “Always watching!” she called.
Then she backed out and left, tires crunching over the gravel before her headlights disappeared around the side of the building.
I stared after her for a second, then took the last drag of my cigarette and ground it out under my boot.
The back door opened again, and this time, it was Ever.
She stepped out into the wash of yellow light over the doorway with her purse over one shoulder and her keys in her hand.
Jeans hugged her hips and legs, worn soft from real life instead of bought that way.
The pink tank top she had on clung to her curves, simple and tight, doing absolutely nothing to help me think straight.
Her dark hair was pulled back, a few loose pieces curled around her face from the heat of the kitchen and a long shift.
Even from where I sat, I could see the shine on her lips and the flush high in her cheeks from working.
She wasn’t trying. She just was beautiful.
Ever froze when she saw me.
I lifted both hands a little, palms out. “I’m just here to make sure you make it home okay. You really shouldn’t be driving much on that spare.”
Her eyes moved from me to the bike to her car and back again. “Uh, Lark was supposed to follow me home,” she said.
I nodded once. “I told her I got you.”
That did something to her.
Her cheeks went warm all over again, deeper this time, and I clocked it instantly.
I also liked it too much. “Also wanted to tell you to bring the car by the clubhouse tomorrow,” I said. “I’ll get a new tire put on.”
She looked at her car, then back at me. “You don’t need to do that.”
No, I didn’t, but I wanted to. More than I should’ve.
“I got you, babe,” I said. “You don’t need to worry about it.”
Her fingers tightened around her keys, then she started toward the driver’s side door, quick and almost clipped, like she was trying to outrun the whole conversation.
“Don’t you need to lock up?” I asked.
She stopped dead. “Good Lord,” she muttered.
I watched her turn around and head right back to the door. She dug through her purse, muttering something under her breath that I couldn’t make out, then found her keys and locked the door properly.
She came back down the steps and put her hand on the car door handle but didn’t open it right away. Instead, she looked at me. “You don’t really need to do this,” she said. “I’m sure you have at least ten other things you’d rather be doing tonight.”
I shook my head before she’d even finished the sentence. “I’m right where I want to be.”
She blinked once, slowly, and just nodded like she didn’t trust herself to say anything back, then she got in the car.
I watched her toss her purse onto the passenger seat, start the engine, and sit for a second with both hands on the wheel before backing out carefully. Her brake lights flashed red across the lot, then she turned toward the road and pulled out.
I kicked the bike to life and followed.
The air was colder now than it had been earlier, and no traffic worth mentioning. Just a dark ribbon of road cutting through town and then out past it where things spread out and the houses got fewer and farther between.
I kept a steady distance behind her, close enough that she’d know I was there if she looked, far enough not to crowd.
The ride out to her parents’ place was better than it had any right to be.
I knew these roads. Knew how Weston changed once you got past the last streetlights and convenience stores and into the quieter stretches where there was more land than neighbors.
Trees closed in deeper out there, fields opened up, and houses sat farther back, separated by long driveways and enough space to keep other people’s noise away.
It fit Ever better than the town did.
I hadn’t really thought that before, but riding behind her now, watching her taillights lead me farther into the dark, it hit me.
She turned down a long driveway bordered by trees, and I followed, the gravel crunching under her tires and then under mine. The wide shape of the house finally came into view when her headlights washed over the front.
Big.
Quiet.
Too damn isolated for my liking.
She parked and shut the car off fast, like maybe if she moved quickly enough she could end this before it became a thing.
I cut my engine just as she climbed out.
“Uh, thank you for making sure I got home,” she said quickly.
I looked at the house, then back at her. “You the only one here?”
Her eyes followed mine toward the house before she looked back at me. “Uh, yeah. My parents are in the U.P. They pretty much live up there now.”
I nodded, then got off the bike and started toward her before I’d really thought it through.
I hadn’t planned on doing anything but making sure she got there and heading out, but knowing she was alone changed the shape of everything.
This wasn’t a house tucked between neighbors with porch lights on both sides. This place sat by itself, out in the dark, too quiet and too far from anybody else. I didn’t like it.
She stepped back. “Uh, what are you doing?”
“Making sure the house is clear.”
Her brows pulled together. “Clear? What does that mean?”
I closed the distance before she could work herself up into a bigger argument and put a hand gently around her arm, turning her toward the house.
Her breath caught, and I heard it. Felt it, too, because the slight pull she gave told me she was about to resist on principle, if nothing else.
I didn’t let go and wasn’t going to until I made sure she was safe inside.
“Come on,” I said.
“Jude—”
“Door.”
She huffed out a breath that sounded equal parts frustration and disbelief, but she let me steer her up the sidewalk.
The porch light snapped on when we got close enough. She fumbled with her keys, unlocked the door, and pushed it open.
“No one is here,” she said.
I stepped inside anyway.
Not because I thought she was lying or because I expected to find some psycho hiding behind a couch but because I needed to know.
The house smelled like clean wood and something faintly sweet underneath it. I didn’t take time to judge anything in it. Didn’t care about the furniture or décor or how big the place was, except to note that it was way too much house for one woman to be in alone.
I moved through it fast.
Living room clear.
Kitchen clear.
Hallway.
Checked the first bedroom, then the second, then the third. Bathrooms empty. Closets where it made sense to look. The back door locked. Windows secured as far as I could tell without getting stupid about it.
I wasn’t there to inspect the place; I was there to make sure nobody was in it.
When I circled back to the front, Ever was still standing near the door exactly where I’d left her, like she hadn’t decided yet whether to be offended or confused.
Probably both.
“What just happened?” she asked.
“The house is clear.” I stopped in front of her and jerked my chin toward the door. “Make sure to lock the door behind me. This place have a security system?”
She blinked a couple times like her brain needed to catch up with the conversation. “Um, yes?”
“Good. Set it.”
She stared at me.
“What time do you work tomorrow?” I asked.
That got another blink. “Did I just step into the Twilight Zone?”
A laugh slipped out before I could stop it. “What time do you work tomorrow?”
She dragged in a breath. “Uh, two to ten. Well, ten-thirty.”
I nodded. “Come by the clubhouse around ten. Does that work for you?”
Her mouth opened, then shut. Opened again. “Yeah,” she said finally. “That works.”
“Good.”
I should’ve left right then.
She was standing there in that pink top and those tight jeans, her hair messy from work and the night, and me walking her through the front door like I had any right to. All I could think about was how right it felt to be there.
That was new. Real new.
“I’ll see you then,” I said.
She nodded again, slower this time.
I didn’t like leaving her there alone.
Didn’t like that the house was so big and the property so dark and her parents gone for who knew how long. But there wasn’t a real reason to think she’d be in danger there tonight. The doors were locked. The alarm worked. The place was clear.
Still.
My gaze caught on her before I could help it.
She was still holding her keys, knuckles pale around them, like she didn’t fully know what to do with her hands now that I’d apparently bulldozed through her whole night.
Her lips were slightly parted, her eyes wide in a way I’d never seen before—not because she was scared exactly, but because I’d thrown her off balance and she hadn’t found her footing yet.
I liked her that way more than I should have.
She looked affected by me.
The urge to step in closer and kiss her hit so hard it damn near made me dizzy.
What the fuck had changed?
That question had been dogging me for days now, and standing there with Ever in front of me and her house warm and quiet behind her, it came back meaner than before.
Because I had never looked at her like this.
Not once.
Not in all the years I’d known her.
And now?
Now I was one bad decision away from dragging her against the wall by the front door and tasting her just to see if it wrecked me the way I thought it would.
I took a step back instead. “Night, baby,” I said, because apparently I was incapable of helping myself. “And make sure to lock the door behind me.”
She nodded.
I headed for the door, then stopped and looked back one last time. She hadn’t moved. “Lock it.”
Another nod.
I stepped out and pulled the door shut behind me, standing on the porch long enough to hear the deadbolt slide home and the lock click into place.
Only then did I let out the breath I’d been holding.
“Goodnight, Ever,” I called through the door.
A beat passed. Then I heard her, soft through the wood. “Goodnight, Jude.”
I stood there a second longer than I should have, staring at the door like it might explain any of what had just happened.
It didn’t.
Nothing about tonight made sense.
Not me waiting for her in the parking lot. Not me following her home. Not me walking into her house and checking every damn room like I had any claim to her safety. Not the way I’d wanted to kiss her so badly my whole body had gone tight with it.
I went down the porch steps, crossed back to my bike, and looked up at the house one more time.
Dark outside. Quiet all around it. Big enough to swallow a person whole if they let it.
And inside, Ever.
The woman I had somehow stopped seeing as just Ever.
The woman who had apparently reached right into the center of my life and flipped the whole damn thing upside down without either of us understanding how.
I didn’t know what the hell had just happened, but I only knew one thing for sure.
My whole world had shifted and Ever had everything to do with it.