Chapter 1
CHAPTER
ONE
EVEREST
“Who’s the bestest uncle in the whole wide world?!” I crouch down, arms outstretched as Ivy barrels into me.
“You are!” she screams directly into my ear.
“Don’t let Uncle Owen hear you say that,” Eden says, a few steps behind her six-year-old daughter.
I scoff at my sister. Me versus Owen? Pssh. There’s no competition. I’m a way better uncle than he is. I bring gifts for my niece every time I come over. I play make-believe with her and carry her around on my back as I run through the house. I even let her paint my face with her mom’s makeup.
Would Owen do any of that? I’d fucking pay to see it.
“What did you bring me? What did you bring me?” Ivy jumps up and down, holding out grabby hands in front of her.
“Ivy,” Eden scolds. “Uncle Everest doesn’t have to bring you anything.”
“Oh, but I did!” I unzip my duffel and pull out a coloring book I picked up on the way to Eden and Jeremy’s house. Fine, it might not be super impressive, but Ivy goes through her coloring books lightning-fast, so she can always use new ones. This one has pictures of baby animals in them.
Her eyes light up like I brought her a real-life unicorn. She grabs it and hugs it to her chest. “I love it! I love it! I love it!”
That’s the great thing about kids, so easy to please. Not like some adults I know. Mentally, I give an imaginary Owen the middle finger.
“Ivy, what do you say?” Eden prompts.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Ivy throws her arms around my neck again in a hug and I squeeze her back before letting her go.
“Can I go color, Mommy?” Ivy turns big pleading eyes onto Eden.
“Yes, fine, go color,” Eden sighs in resignation. “You’re going to have to pry her away from that thing when it’s time to eat.” She points at me in warning.
I stand and pull Eden into a quick hug, giving her a kiss on the cheek while I’m at it. “No problem. Ivy’s an angel. It’ll be a piece of cake.”
Eden holds me at arm’s length and examines me like she’s checking for changes since the last time she saw me.
Which was last week. But that’s how she is—my big sister, always looking out for me, always on my side.
She was the only reason I didn’t get into more trouble when I was a kid, always covering for me with our parents, with the teachers.
She even perfected Mom’s signature so she could sign notices from school for me.
Now that we’re both grown up, she’s still looking out for me.
She sends me home with frozen meals and reminds me to call Mom and Dad every couple weeks.
Even during my nomadic days when I couch surfed from one beach town to the next, she called me every other day to make sure I was okay, that I had enough money and a place to stay.
She even paid for motel stays when I told her I was sleeping in my car.
It’s no exaggeration to say that I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Eden always watching my back. I don’t know what I would do without her.
Eden slaps me lightly on the arm and leads the way into the kitchen where Jeremy is mixing up drinks for brunch.
“Hey, Jer.” I give him a bro hug before hopping onto a stool in front of the kitchen island.
“Hey, what did you bring Ivy this time?” Jeremy asks suspiciously.
I throw my hands up in innocence. “Just a coloring book. It’s no big deal. It’s not like I bought her a castle or anything.”
Jeremy shakes his head. “No, that’s more Owen’s style.”
I huff quietly. Why do they have to bring up Owen all the fucking time? “He bought Ivy a castle?” I can’t keep the sneer out of my voice. That’s just like Owen, though, always trying to one-up me to prove he’s better than me.
“No, he didn’t buy her a castle. He took her to an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum last month, and they had a fake castle for kids to play in,” Eden explained.
I roll my eyes. Museums. Boring. I’m definitely the cooler uncle.
Jeremy sets a mimosa in front of me and I take a healthy swig of it just as the doorbell rings.
Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I ask, “Are we expecting anyone else?”
Jeremy and Eden exchange a look—one I’ve seen before, unfortunately. A little embarrassed. A lot scheming. I don’t like it, because I know what it means.
“No, you didn’t.” Dread fills me, immediately ruining my perfectly happy mood.
Jeremy goes to answer it while Eden steps in closer to give me a look, warning me to behave. Ivy’s footsteps stomp down the stairs as she races to the front door.
“Why?” I whine. “You know we hate each other. He’s going to ruin my whole day.”
Eden lowers her voice. “No, he’s not. And you aren’t going to ruin his either. You’re both adults. You can be civil to one another for a couple hours.”
“But why? Why bother when everyone would be so much happier if we weren’t in the same room at the same time?”
Eden pins me with a stern look. “Ev, you’re family now. You’re both important to me and Jeremy. You’re especially important to Ivy. We’re not saying you have to be BFFs. But at the very least, you do need to learn how to get along.”
I huff in annoyance as voices filter in to the kitchen. A moment later, Owen strolls in, holding Ivy’s hand while she skips along, telling him about dinosaurs. Guess she’s forgotten about my coloring book already. Traitor.
“They’re sooo biiiggg!” She swings her free arm through the air.
“They are. Would you like to see them in person?” Owen asks.
Ivy gasps. “Can we? Real live dinosaurs?”
Owen laughs, the sound low and throaty, and heat settles low in my stomach.
I push the feeling away, irritated at how my body responds to Owen.
No matter how annoyed I am, no matter how much I can’t stand him, it’s like my body hasn’t gotten the message that, hey, we can’t stand each other.
Nope, without fail, something inside me perks up in anticipation of a reenactment of Vegas.
Not gonna happen.
“No, not live dinosaurs. But scientists have found their bones and recreated what they look like,” Owen explains like he’s giving a fucking college lecture or something.
“Sooo cool!” Ivy claps her hands in excitement.
A smile spreads across Owen’s clean-shaven face. Jawline ridiculously strong, lips naturally pouty. He steps into a ray of sunshine that glints off his perfectly combed dark hair. His amber eyes twinkle like he’s got a secret he’s not willing to share.
The heat in my stomach grows.
Then he looks up and spots me. His eyes narrow, the twinkle disappearing as they harden. “Everest.” His voice drips with arrogance and hostility.
“Owen,” I say back, just as mockingly.
“I didn’t know you were going to be here,” he says, gaze flitting accusingly to Jeremy.
“I didn’t know you were going to be here either.”
“Surprise!” Ivy shouts, throwing her arms in the air as if she had fistfuls of confetti.
I lift an eyebrow at Eden. Are we seriously going to do this? Sit across the table from each other and pretend we don’t hate each other’s guts? Why in god’s name did she think this was a good idea?
Eden gives me a helpless shrug.
Rude.
It’s awkward as we settle around the large kitchen table.
The only person who seems oblivious to the tension in the room is Ivy, who’s still chattering away about dinosaurs.
Owen’s listening intently, spouting fact after fact like he’s some sort of dinosaur expert.
Who knows that much about ancient dead things anyway?
“Do you think there’s a dinosaur unicorn?
” Ivy asks, hopefulness written all across her face.
Unicorns are her favorite animal of all time—yes, I know they’re not real animals, lay off me—and her entire bedroom is decorated like a unicorn took a shit in it.
Pink everywhere, with rainbows and sparkles and every kind of unicorn you could possibly imagine.
Owen pretends to think. “Hmm, I don’t know. Scientists haven’t found any creatures that resemble a unicorn, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t exist. Perhaps they just haven’t found it yet.”
Ivy bounces in her seat. “Did you hear, Uncle Ev? There might be unicorn dinosaurs!”
Owen shoots me a smirk, almost daring me to contradict him. I let myself glare at him for a second before turning to Ivy.
“Really? That’s awesome! How big do you think they’d be?”
Ivy laughs. “They’re horse-sized, silly!”
Owen drapes his arm across the back of Ivy’s chair, smug satisfaction radiating off him like an obnoxious cologne.
“Right. Of course. Horse-sized. My bad. But do they have wings?” I ask.
Ivy scrunches up her face as she thinks. “I think they should have wings. It’d be cooler if they could fly. And safer too, right? In case the larger dinosaurs want to eat them? They can just fly away.”
I wince at the idea of extinct dinosaurs eating imaginary unicorns. That’s just a little too circle of life for me.
“That’s right,” Owen says. “They could have evolved to have wings for survival.”
Fuck this. I’m bored with the dinosaur talk. I shoot Eden a pleading look to please save us from Owen’s nerdery.
“Jeremy and I are going to the opera in a couple weeks,” Eden jumps in.
Great. Opera. So much more exciting. I stab at the hash browns and shove them into my mouth. Then wash them down with the rest of my mimosa.
“At the Met?” Owen asks, perking up. Which, of course he would. Snob.
Jeremy nods. “My company got tickets to Carmen.”
“I heard that got great reviews,” Owen adds. “Let me know if it’s good. I’ll have to go see it.”
“Do you guys need a babysitter for Ivy?” I ask. I’ve done it before when Eden and Jeremy go on their monthly date nights. I know Owen has too.
But given today, I wouldn’t be surprised if Eden and Jeremy asked both of us to babysit. At the same time. Without telling us ahead of time. They’d get some perverse pleasure out of our misery, I’m sure.
“No, we’ve already got a babysitter scheduled,” Eden says. “You guys are off the hook.” She gives us both a pointed look that makes me squirm in my seat a little. Then she catches Jeremy’s gaze and they smile at each other.
The look in her eyes starts out mischievous, like the two of them are sharing some unspoken joke. Then it softens to something warm and tender. Jeremy’s wearing a matching expression.
They really are great together. A perfect match.
I’ve never seen them arguing or fighting.
Not over big messy things, or even small silly things.
Not when the basement of their brownstone flooded the year before or when Ivy got a bad flu last winter.
They just dealt with it all as if it were nothing.
They make marriage and raising a kid look so damn easy. Like anyone could do it.
A little ache lodges itself in the middle of my chest. It’s not that I want their life—I definitely don’t. Marriage and kids? No, thank you. But there’s something magical about the way they are together that fascinates me.
Eden never complains about Jeremy staying out too late or working too hard or not pulling his weight at home. She never complains about being tired or frustrated or angry. Whenever I ask, she gets this dreamy look on her face like she’s living in a fairy tale and she’s found her happily ever after.
That must be nice. Being that happy. I wonder how that feels.
A weight, heavy and hot, bores into me, and I glance up to find Owen glowering at me. His brows are furrowed and his lips are pressed into a firm, straight line. Jesus Christ. What is it now? Am I breathing too loud for him? Am I not sitting up straight enough?
I slouch down in my chair, take a deep—and noisy—breath, and glower right back.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe Owen and Jeremy are related.
Like, I get along great with Jeremy and with their parents.
I have from the first time I met them. But except for that one night in Vegas, Owen’s always had it out for me.
In fact, I think he hates me more now than he did back then.
I just don’t know what I did to get put on his shit list.
Most of the time, I don’t care. He can think whatever the hell he wants. I’ve got plenty of friends. I don’t need him. But sometimes, there’s a part of me that really, really wants to know. Sometimes, I want to peel back all those layers and see if there’s actually a human being hiding inside.