Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
BECK
I couldn’t believe we’d pulled it off. In less than two weeks, we’d put together a fully functioning festival, complete with vendors, entertainment, and even an auction to raise funds.
And all of it was going to Everly. As soon as I’d enlisted Addison’s help, it’d been a whirlwind.
She’d whipped the town into a frenzy, and everyone had been all too ready and willing to do whatever was needed to help Everly, exactly how I knew they would. I just wished she could see it.
If these past ten days had taught me anything, it was that I couldn’t handle being away from her, and yet I was still getting my fix every night. There was no way I was going to let her move to Washington. At least, not without me.
Yes, this festival was to show her all of Starlight Cove adored her, and yes, I’d had plans drawn up for a house-slash-business—that just so happened to fit perfectly on an unused section of the resort property—but in the end, it was her choice.
If she decided to take the money and move back to Washington, I wasn’t going to stop her.
But I would be going with her.
There was no me without Everly.
She’d brought out the best in me, found a crack in the wall I’d surrounded myself with and slipped inside. Then sat right down beside me like she’d always been there.
I was tired of living in fear. Tired of perpetually anticipating the worst-case scenario—and not just preparing for it, but counting on it.
Everly was the best this world had to offer, and somehow, some way, she’d become mine. And tonight, I was going to lay that all out for her.
“I really can’t believe I’ve never heard of this festival before.” Everly leaned close, her hand encased in mine as she glanced around at the Cupcake Festival we’d put together in a matter of days. “I feel like I’ve been living under a rock.”
I cleared my throat, forcing back the cringe because I hated that this was probably making her feel even more left out, but it was only for a few more hours. And after nearly two weeks of watching my every move and protecting this secret, I wasn’t about to blow it now.
The same couldn’t be said for the rest of the Starlight Cove residents enjoying the festivities.
The only way we’d been able to get the town to agree to secrecy was to promise them a year of free coffee and a free meal—on a date of their choosing…
Mabel was adamant about that—at the diner.
Besides an offhanded remark from Everly asking if it was just her or if everyone in town was suddenly acting sketchy, I didn’t think she’d noticed.
Now, though, it’d be impossible for her not to. Every single person who walked by glanced between us, then down to our joined hands, then not so subtly shot me a wink, all while grinning like idiots. Every. Single. Person.
By the time we’d made our way through most of the festival, gorging ourselves on cupcakes, and headed toward the lawn where a band was set up in front of the gazebo, I was sure every resident in Starlight Cove had blown our cover.
“Why is everyone winking at you like they know you’re about to get laid?” Everly turned to me, her brows raised. “Are we acting out Chapter Twelve, and you decided to tell everyone else but me?”
Sweet fucking Christ, this woman was going to kill me.
There was nothing I wanted more than to take her to some dark alcove and fuck her outside, my hand capturing all those sweet moans that were just for me.
But that would probably be a bad idea since I was the one who’d put on this whole thing. Though, who was going to know?
With a groan, I tugged her behind a huge tree and pressed her up against it, caging her in. I lowered my face, brushing my lips against hers before sucking her bottom one into my mouth. “You are too fucking tempting, you know that?”
“Yeah?” She tucked her fingers into the waistband of my jeans, so close to my already-straining cock. “You going to do something about that?”
I glanced out at the festivities going on around us, then down at Everly’s dress—easy access—then up to her eyes, finding the same hunger reflected in them as I was sure shone in mine. “Hell yes, I am. But we gotta be—”
“There you are,” Addison called from far too fucking close for my liking, considering the monster hard-on I was rocking.
“Fuck.” I dropped my forehead to Everly’s shoulder as I tried to will my cock down.
She breathed out a laugh, running her hands through my hair. “Are things a little…hard for you right now?”
“Very funny.”
“I thought so.”
“What are you doing?” Addison asked, stopping right next to us. “It’s your turn.”
Thankfully, my cock was mostly behaved, so I stepped back, grabbing Everly’s hand as we faced my sister. “My turn for what?”
“The auction, obviously.” The bachelor auction she’d sworn would be the biggest fundraiser of them all because, and I quote, “There are a lot of horny old women in this town, and I’m not above exploiting that.”
“What about it?”
She shot me a look that was both imploring and scary as hell. “You’re up.”
I sure as hell was not up because I was not a bachelor. We might not have said the words, but I was Everly’s, plain and simple. “No, I don’t think I am.”
“Yes, you are,” she said through gritted teeth, a forced smile on her face. “Remember that thing we’re raising money for?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you want all the money we can get, right?”
I clenched my jaw so tightly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Everly could hear my teeth grinding. “Yes.”
“Great!” she said with false brightness. “Then get up there and give these people whatever it is they find so enticing about you. Personally, I don’t see it.”
“Well, I should hope not. You’re my sister.”
“You’ve got five minutes, or I’m making you go out there shirtless.” And with that, the little witch walked toward the gazebo where a line of guys stood waiting their turn.
“So…” Everly said. “You’re auctioning yourself off?”
“I wasn’t aware I was.” I scrubbed a hand down my face and exhaled a heavy sigh. I could think of twelve thousand things I’d rather do than auction myself off for the “horny old women” of Starlight Cove, despite the cause we were raising money for. “I’ve gotta go talk to her.”
“Oh. Sure, okay,” she said, surprise and…hurt? evident in her voice. Fuck. I was going to kill Addison for this. “I’ll just…hang out and watch the crowd go wild until you’re…done.”
“I’m just going to go tell her to find someone else, okay?
” I cupped Everly’s face, brushing my thumb across her lower lip.
I couldn’t tell her yet what this festival was for or why Addison was pushing for every dollar we could get.
So instead, I leaned in and kissed her, brushing my tongue against hers and pouring everything I felt into it.
Saying without words how much she meant to me.
How much I loved her. How every bit of this was for her.
Everly
Well, tonight certainly hadn’t gone how I thought it would.
Finally, Beck and I had been able to connect, when it’d been nothing but hit or miss for almost two weeks. I missed him fiercely, and that in and of itself was what had made my decision so easy.
Besides the fact that I’d grown to love this life I’d carved out for myself here, I couldn’t move back home to Washington because Beck wasn’t there, and I’d be miserable without him.
I’d even told my parents as much earlier today.
I’d called them and finally laid it all on the line, telling them that I loved them and I missed them but that my life was here now.
It’d been unnerving, but as soon as the words had come out of my mouth, I could hear the truth in them.
It was as if a giant weight had been lifted off my chest, and I could finally breathe again.
Why the hell hadn’t I been standing up for myself all the time?
As I was telling them all the reasons I wanted to stay, I’d realized I loved this life I’d built here in Starlight Cove because it was mine.
And maybe the reason I hadn’t felt like I belonged here like I did in my hometown had more to do with the fact that I wasn’t bending over backward to please everyone else and instead was focusing more on my own happiness.
And I was totally and completely okay with that. It was time for a little selfishness.
So after my stellar afternoon when I’d finally made the decision to stick around and figure out how I was going to make the amount of insurance money I was getting work, now I was facing my boyfriend auctioning himself off for a date with someone else.
Okay, so we’d never had the boyfriend/girlfriend discussion, but I’d assumed since we were sleeping in the same bed and he spent most nights inside me, that meant we were sort of a thing.
And if we were sort of a thing, I really wasn’t all that excited about the possibility of him going out on a date—or whatever it was they were auctioning off—with another person.
Especially the hungry-looking vultures surrounding me.
Actually, even if we weren’t a thing, I really wasn’t all that excited about it.
While I watched Beck and Addison facing off in a yelling match—I was too far away to hear what they were saying, but their body language spoke volumes—I made my way toward the gazebo.
And then, because I was a masochist, apparently, there I stood as they auctioned off bachelor after bachelor, my stomach knotting tighter with each one that passed.
Since I was close enough to the melee, Addison joined me after a while, and we watched as people threw more money at the bachelors than I’d expected—anywhere between a couple hundred up to almost a thousand for Levi.
The bad boy of the McKenzie brood stood in the gazebo, arms crossed and face a mask of disinterest as the bids kept flying.
“You must have some sort of magic over your brothers,” I said to Addison. “First Beck, and now Levi? How’d you get them to agree?”