Chapter 1 #2
She moaned at her first bite, and I ignored how the sound made my cock swell in my jeans. I’d had years of practice ignoring my body’s reactions to her, so it was easy to shove it down where it belonged. Namely, nowhere near Everly.
“We’ve been doing this for two years,” I said. “You can probably stop acting surprised by now.”
“But I am surprised,” she said around a mouthful, and even that was sexy—how she pursed her lips, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth, eyes alight with pleasure.
Pleasure derived directly from something I made for her.
“I wonder if you’ll bring any. I hope you’ll bring some.
But I never expect them. Ergo, pleasantly surprised. ”
“Your favorite pastime.”
“Well, we can’t all survive off surliness and pessimism.”
“I prefer to call it realism, sunshine.”
“And I prefer to call it your grumbly attitude.” She rested back against the portable lounger I’d bought a while ago when these events had become a regular occurrence with us, her legs outstretched and crossed at the ankles, her flip-flops flopping as she wiggled her toes.
She’d changed her toenail polish again—lime green instead of the pale purple it’d been on Tuesday.
“What’s playing tonight? I haven’t even had time to check. ”
I exhaled a sharp breath and shot her a scowl because I knew exactly what that meant. “You didn’t have time to eat today, either, did you?”
She cringed but tried to hide it, suddenly becoming very interested in her bar.
This fucking girl. She was driven unlike anyone I’d ever met and had a tendency to allow the rest of the world to fall away when she was working.
That was great for the animals she cared for every day as the sole veterinarian in Starlight Cove, but it was bad for everything else that tended to be neglected. Like herself.
She lifted a shoulder but wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I had some food.”
“Some food, my ass,” I grumbled, tugging my backward baseball hat off and running a frustrated hand through my hair before putting it right back on. “A fucking granola bar doesn’t count.”
“Uh-oh,” she said. “Grumbly face and a hand through your hair—a sure sign you’re totally fed up. Is this the night you finally kick me to the curb?”
“Would it matter if I did?”
She laughed and bumped her shoulder into mine. “Not even a little. I’d see you bright and early tomorrow morning.”
She meant that, too. She’d been steadfast in that since moving here. Had proven her friendship and loyalty over and over again, which was hard won from me. After my history with— Well, after my history, I didn’t like to get used to people sticking around. Didn’t even let them close enough to try.
And then Everly had shoved her way in anyway.
“You can’t keep doing this,” I said. “What would you do if Saul told you he hasn’t been feeding his dog all day?”
She gasped, gaze flying to mine. “That’s awful. I’d tell him—”
“To feed his fucking dog.”
Her lips twitched, so she pursed them to the side, no doubt to stop a full-blown smile from erupting. “Are you saying I’m the fucking dog in this situation?”
“You know what I mean,” I grumbled.
Luckily, this wasn’t my first rodeo when it came to Everly, and I’d planned for this. I reached for the second bag I’d brought as backup and dug around until I found what I wanted. Without glancing in her direction, I handed her this week’s salad special.
She gasped and snatched it from me. “A spinach and strawberry salad just for me? You know, everyone in town talks about what a grouch you are, but this proves you’ve got a heart. Or is it just me you love?”
Something sharp tugged in my chest, and I beat it down, same as I’d been doing for the past two years. “I just don’t want you to starve. I’d hardly call that love.”
She bumped her knee into mine and grinned as she tucked into her meal—probably her first real one of the day.
I was going to have to start making her breakfast when she stopped by the diner every morning for coffee.
Straight caffeine wasn’t going to cut it anymore—not when she was pulling twelve-hour days without taking a break.
She’d been loving those heirloom tomatoes I’d been picking up at the farmers market.
Maybe I could turn my latest omelet into a wrap, so it’d be easy and portable for her.
No excuses since she could eat on the go. Then she’d—
“Is Ford here?” she asked, and she might as well have dumped a bucket of ice water over me.
I slid my gaze to her. My brother had no doubt already found a dark corner and a willing woman to occupy his time. But also, why the fuck did she want to know if he was here? “He was around a while ago. Why?”
She shrugged and speared another strawberry—she always ate them first—before popping it into her mouth. “I wanted to hire him to take care of a few things around my house.”
I had a good poker face. Growing up in the family I did, getting into the shit we had, it’d been a necessity. But I was sure every ounce of irritation I felt over that inconsequential comment was currently written across my face.
Why the hell would she need to ask my brother for anything when I was sitting right next to her and perfectly fucking capable of doing it myself?
My twin might’ve been the resort handyman and all-around town fixer-upper, but I had a toolbox.
I could do things. And if I couldn’t, that was what YouTube was for.
If anyone was playing handyman for Everly, it sure as shit was going to be me.
“What kinds of things?” I asked.
“Oh, nothing big. Just my garbage disposal is making a really weird noise, and the dishwasher won’t latch, which means I can’t run it. I’m sure it’s a simple fix, but you know I’m never going to get around to it.”
“Considering you can barely get around to eating, no, probably not,” I said dryly.
She laughed and leaned against me, nudging my shoulder until I finally lifted my arm to allow her to burrow into my side. She shimmied in with a sigh. “Much better.”
This casual affection from her had taken some getting used to—my brothers weren’t exactly touchy-feely, and my sister would just as soon wrap her hands around our throats as she would her arms around us for a hug—but after years of friendship, I’d grown to expect it from Everly.
Grown to crave it, too.
“I mean, I’m grateful Aunt Shirley gave me this place when she died,” Everly said, “but it’s not exactly in tip-top shape, you know?
I don’t need anything fancy, but I draw the line at doing my own dishes.
” She balanced her salad on her lap before pulling out her phone and navigating to her messages.
I glanced down at the screen and saw a text thread at the top from someone named Sebastian. The preview read, See you tomorrow.
Every muscle in my body tightened. Who the fuck was Sebastian, why the fuck did he have her number, and what the fuck was he doing with her tomorrow?
“What’re you doing?” I asked, but I couldn’t keep the bark out of my tone.
She raised a brow but didn’t look in my direction. “I know, no cell phones during the movies. Sorry, sorry. But I’ll forget if I don’t send Ford a text right now. I just want to see if he has time this week to—”
I reached over, snatched the phone from her hands, and slid it into my pocket.
“Hey!” She huffed, elbowing me in the side, so I grabbed that, too, and pulled her even closer, caging her against me. “I was almost done.”
“Don’t bother. Addison’s been keeping him pretty busy at the resort.” Not exactly a lie, considering our baby sister was a dictator when it came to bossing her brothers around. “But I’ll swing by your place and see what I can do.”
Correction—I’d take care of it, whatever it was, and she wouldn’t have to worry about it at all.
She rested her hand on my chest as she shot me her thousand-watt smile, and something tugged low in my gut.
A tug I batted away easily since I’d been doing so for two years.
Everly wasn’t interested in a relationship, and she’d said as much when she’d broken up with that tool she’d been dating when she’d first moved here.
Besides that, I couldn’t go there with her.
I didn’t make friends easily—or at all—and other than my family, Everly was it for me.
I refused to screw that up. Not when I had a one hundred percent fail rate for every past relationship I’d ever had, dating all the way back to Jackie Henderson in the sixth grade.
Everly was too important to me to take a chance on something that would, without a doubt, crash and burn.