Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
BECK
On Monday, my family—minus that lucky shit, Levi—gathered in the diner for a meeting.
I told Addison and Aiden that the only way I was showing up was if it was here, so they finally relented.
I wasn’t an early riser under normal circumstances, but especially not now.
Not when I spent hours worshipping Everly’s body each night and then again before she could slip out for her run in the mornings.
She’d been living with me, for all intents and purposes, for nearly a week, and things were going far better than I expected.
Though that didn’t take much since most of my thoughts circled around fire and brimstone.
It was in my nature to wait for the other shoe to drop, but I was finally putting that out of my mind when it came to her.
To us. Besides, considering how we got together, I figured all the shoes had already dropped.
“Okay, so just a quick update,” Addison said. “Bookings are still steadily coming in, and we’re full into August now. We also have our first wedding scheduled, and I’m thinking about contacting Harper and pitching an article to her. Maybe Dream Weddings on the Coast or something like that.”
“You clear that with Levi?” I asked.
Addison rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to clear it with Levi.
If he wants a say in this kind of thing, he needs to get his ass to these meetings.
Otherwise, he’s just going to have to pull up his big-boy pants and deal with whatever history he and Harper have together like a grown-ass man.
Good?” Addison waited half a second before continuing.
“Good. Aiden and I have been handling the increased volume, but we may want to look into hiring some staff—at least for cleaning. Probably only part time to start.”
My brows lifted. “Like…someone outside the family?”
“Yes.”
“Who we’ll pay?” Ford clarified.
“Yes,” Addison answered, her loss of patience obvious in her tone.
“With…actual money?” I asked.
“Oh my God, yes,” she snapped.
“Uh…” Ford glanced around at all of us. “Are we going to start getting paid with actual money?”
“You do get paid with actual money,” she said.
“Oh, sorry, when I asked that, I thought it was clear I meant enough money so we could do more than buy a pack of gum once every two weeks.”
“Your weekly stipend is on top of room and board and enough food to feed an elephant,” Aiden said, his tone all business. “And don’t think I haven’t noticed the extra amount on this week’s food order, Beck. Just because Everly’s staying with you doesn’t mean we’re footing the bill for her, too.”
“He has a point,” Addison said. “It wasn’t a big deal when it was just coffee, but now we’re paying for her meals, too? If we don’t want the resort to slide back into the red, we really need to watch these kinds of things.”
Ford glanced my way, and I knew we were thinking the same thing—sure, they didn’t notice that I’d been dropping off a shit-ton of food each week for the past ten years to Cottage Thirteen, but this they noticed.
Before I could tell them to fuck off, Aiden dove into the numbers—more for Addison’s benefit than anyone else’s—effectively making my eyes glaze over until the bells on the door jingled.
Everly slipped inside, a grin on her face as Aiden continued boring everyone to death. “Hey,” she said, a little breathless from her run.
Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, her cheeks flushed, and I wanted nothing more than to remove the tiny scraps of fabric she called running clothes, bend her over the counter, and feast on her for breakfast.
Instead, I handed her the coffee I’d already prepared and studied her face, looking for any tells that she was nervous or apprehensive about her first day of house calls.
When I didn’t find any outward signs of unease, I asked, “You good?”
The grin she shot me could’ve powered a rocket for all it did to my heart. She needed to figure out how to bottle that shit and sell it. “I’m good. First appointment is in an hour, though, so I better run. I’ll swing by around noon to let Chuckanut out.”
“I’ve got her. Don’t worry about it.”
“You sure?”
“Yep. Your lunch is in the fridge.”
“You made me lunch? What is it? No, wait. Don’t tell me. I want it to be a surprise.” Her eyes brightened, a smile lighting up her face. “I’ll call you later and let you know how it’s going.”
“Good.” Without thinking, I leaned in and kissed her, our lips barely touching before we both froze.
She pulled back, staring at me with wide eyes that very clearly said, Did you seriously just do that?
And, yep, I seriously did just do that. In front of my entire fucking family. A pin dropping could have been heard, considering the silence that descended on the diner. She breathed out a laugh and shook her head, then turned, leaving me to deal with the fallout all by myself.
“I’ll see you tonight. Bye, everyone.” With a wave, she pushed through the front door and strode outside, past the wall of windows and toward the stairs that led to my apartment.
And even when the bells on the door stopped jingling, silence still reigned.
Avoiding the elephant in the room, I pulled out my wallet, plucked two dollars from inside, and held them up. “Here. Happy?” Then I stuffed them in the register to more than cover Everly’s coffee.
Unfortunately, that didn’t get so much as a peep.
No one said anything for a solid minute, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one to break the silence.
Not when the nosy bastards would want to know everything about my relationship with Everly, and the truth was, I…
didn’t know. I didn’t know what this was between us.
She’d slipped and called me her boyfriend at the farmers market, but that was as far as it’d gone.
Was that what I was? I could admit now I wanted to be a whole lot more than that, but the label didn’t matter to me as long as she was mine.
Finally, Aiden cleared his throat. “Like I was saying, profits are up, and if bookings remain steady, then—”
Addison slapped her hand down on the table, loud enough to make Ford jerk upright from where he’d been resting his head on his folded arms.
“What the fuck, Addison?” he grumbled. “Don’t make me pay attention to this. You know I’m not a numbers guy.”
“How am I the only one freaking out about this?” she asked, her tone about five octaves higher than usual.
“About what?” he asked.
“About what? Are you serious?” She stared at each of us, mouth agape. “Oh, I don’t know. How about the fact that Everly just strolled in here to get her morning coffee, and Beck kissed her like it was no big deal?”
Ford shrugged. “I already knew.”
“You already knew?” she spat, each word an accusation.
“Same here,” Brady said.
Addison whipped her head in his direction. “What?”
He stepped behind the counter and refilled his coffee, completely unconcerned that our baby sister was losing her shit. In Addisonland, that was just another Monday. “Was I supposed to put out a bulletin or something?”
She pressed her fingers to her temples. “Okay, I get the secrecy from Ford because ‘twin bond’ or whatever,” she said with a roll of her eyes, “but you? Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”
He stared at her over the rim of his coffee cup, brows raised. “Guess it’ll forever remain a mystery.”
Addison huffed before turning to Aiden and pointing a finger at him. “What about you?”
He shrugged. “Didn’t know.”
“And you don’t care?”
“Not particularly. I mean, great. Good for them.” He lifted his chin in my direction, the equivalent of a five-minute cuddle in Aiden’s world, and I accepted it with a nod.
She opened and closed her mouth as she split her gaze between the four of us, exasperation written on every inch of her face.
“Is there a reason you’re freaking out about Beck and Everly becoming Beverly?” Ford asked.
“Don’t ever say that again.” I shook my head, crossing my arms over my chest, and leaned against the counter.
“What? I thought it was catchy. Better than Evereck. That’s just stupid.”
“Are we about done here?” Brady asked, but he didn’t wait for a reply before he put a lid on his to-go cup and headed for the door.
“Yep,” Aiden said, gathering up his things before following closely behind Brady.
“I’m out, too,” Ford said. “And before you ask, Sergeant, yes, I’m working on the list.” With a salute, he strolled out the front door, bells jingling in his wake.
And then it was just the two of us. At least until a couple walked in and sat in the back booth.
I greeted them, took their orders, made their breakfasts, and still, Addison hadn’t said a word.
She never kept quiet, as proven in great detail following the kiss.
Something was up, and I was too intrigued to let it go.
Finally, after I’d dropped the check off at the couple’s table, I braced my hands on the counter and stared her down. “Seriously. What gives?”
“Nothing!” she answered too quickly, her gaze focused on her tablet, her fingers flying like she was oh-so busy.
“Addison.”
“So Chuckanut is upstairs?”
“Yeah? I figured you’d lose your shit if I let her in here.”
“You can’t have a dog in a restaurant.”
I raised my brows as if to say, See?
“You think that’s a good idea?” she asked. “Getting her acclimated to your apartment when she’s probably not even staying there for long?”
My stomach clenched at the thought of Everly anywhere but there. Anywhere but my bed. It was way too early in this relationship to discuss living arrangements with her—we hadn’t even confirmed the boyfriend/girlfriend thing—but if I had it my way, her name would already be on the lease.
Even so, Addison wasn’t one to concern herself with the emotional stability of a dog.
“What’s this really about?” I asked.
“I’m worried about Chuck!”
“Addison. You’re not worried about Everly’s dog. And I’m really fucking confused as to why you’d suddenly have a problem with Everly and me together when you’ve been hinting at us hooking up for over a year. Now that we finally do, you’re suddenly freaking out about it? What gives?”
She finally lifted her gaze from her tablet and glanced my way. “Fine. I just…I’m worried, okay?”
“About?”
She braced her elbows on the counter and leaned closer, dropping her voice. “Look, I’m happy for you. This is the first time you’ve put yourself out there with, well, anyone but your own freaking twin.”
“And that’s not a good thing?”
“Not when the person you’re putting yourself out there for has one foot out the door.”
I froze, my entire body going cold at her words. “What does that mean?”
“It might be nothing, okay? You know what? It probably is. Just forget I even said anything and—”
“Addison.”
She blew out a heavy sigh as she slumped her shoulders. “You remember the day after the fire, when I took Everly shopping?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, she called her parents while I ran into the last store. I got back in the car while they were still talking.”
That wasn’t new. Everly’s parents were the kind of parents movies were made about—married for forty years, still happily involved in their children’s lives.
Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if her mom knit them matching holiday sweaters.
Everly usually talked to them on Sundays, but there hadn’t been a day that’d gone by since the fire when they hadn’t called to check in.
“They were really pushing for her to move home,” she said, her voice quiet.
“And?”
“And… Well, she didn’t outright tell them she wasn’t.”
The vise around my chest squeezed tighter. “Well, did she tell them she was?”
Addison shook her head. “Not exactly. She said she wasn’t moving home now. Not that she wasn’t moving home ever.”
I breathed out a heavy sigh, relief flooding me.
At least until I thought about some of the clipped conversations I’d heard between Everly and her parents.
She was stressed whenever she hung up, but I’d assumed it was because her parents were worried about her and she was picking up on it.
But maybe it was because they were pushing for her to move home, and she didn’t know how to tell me.
“Maybe it’s nothing,” Addison said. “I just don’t want you to get in too deep if she’s only going to leave in the end.”
Well, that was the problem, wasn’t it? I was already in too deep.
Had been for a long fucking time. I’d been in love with Everly longer than I wanted to admit, and that sure as hell wasn’t going to go away now.
Not when I knew what she tasted like, not when I’d held her in my arms as we slept. Not when I’d been inside her.
I just had no idea if she felt the same. No idea if what was left for her in Starlight Cove was enough to keep her here.