Chapter 27 #2
Watery blue eyes stare through the gash to the core of my heart. “Come in.” Sitting straight, shoulders back, she drags her pinky fingers beneath each eye. So far, mascara damage is minimal.
Let’s hope it stays that way.
The room is feminine but grown up. I half expected the dated bedroom of a high school girl, but this room speaks of maturity. It’s neatly, though sparsely, decorated—Claire’s doing, I suppose. Everly’s holiday stay is only temporary.
She snatches a tissue from the box resting in her lap. “I-I’m sorry for running out.”
I’m still holding onto the knob. “You’re not the one who needs to apologize.”
She shrugs. “Bad manners with a guest.”
I tuck my hands in my pockets, because all I want is to reach out and hold her—but I’m pretty sure I’ve got some penance to do first.
“I’m not just any guest though, Ev. At least I hope I’m not.” Accidentally, a question winds up tacked onto the end of the sentence.
Her eyes linger over my face. She slowly shakes her head.
Whew. More than anything, I want to be someone special to Everly Wilkes.
“May I?” I gesture to the quilted white spread.
When she nods, I sit, close but not quite touching.
Gnawing my lip, I clasp my hands between my knees and try to organize my thoughts.
“Um, first…let me get this straight. You’re disappointed I’m not a penniless ditch digger? ”
“Knox!” She scratches out a laugh.
I nudge her side. “Sorry. That was to lighten the mood. I do get that isn’t the real issue here.”
Her deep sigh flutters hair around her face. “I hate secrets so much. They give me a rash, a headache, and a queasy stomach.”
I roll my hand. “And the problem is?”
“Knox Herd!” She rams her elbow into my side, hard, and the jab itself delivers hope.
My chuckle ends on a sigh. “Secrets in a relationship suck. I get it.” I search her tearstained face. “Am I to assume you’ve had a run-in or two in that department?”
She pairs a snort with a wince. Nods.
I press my hands between my knees. “Care to share?”
“Um, excuse me, buddy, but you get to go first.”
“Fair enough.”
This is my moment, yet I find my brain fumbling for the right words. I guess maybe it’s my pride only now coming to terms with how pathetic I am.
“Say something, please. I feel like such a moron.”
“You feel like a moron? How do you figure?”
Her blue-diamond eyes flare. “For heaven’s sake, Knox, I was worried you didn’t own a suit.” Her cheeks brighten to fully Christmas red.
“And you have no idea how incredibly endearing your concern was.”
This time I manage to dodge the elbow, not because it would hurt but because she’s fun to tease.
I put a few more inches between us so I can see the whole of her face. “Okay, being serious now. Here’s why I didn’t tell you: I’m the moron, not you.”
She squints. “I’m listening.”
“At first, I simply didn’t think of it. I’m not a guy who’s out to impress.
I don’t lead with my wallet or my accomplishments or…
whatever you want to call my status as business owner.
Besides, I’m just as much a guy who drives a backhoe as one who snores through board meetings.
More actually. So, not mentioning I’m one of the sons in Lawrence Herd and Sons Construction is as natural as mentioning it in the first place. ”
“Okay…”
I squint into her gaze. Am I regaining ground? “Okay. So. That’s why the subject didn’t come up initially.”
“But then?”
I stroke my chin. “Well, it wasn’t until Oakley cornered me that I realized the potential significance of the oversight.”
Her hair slides across her shoulder. “Yet you still didn’t tell me then.”
“What was I supposed to say? Hey, Everly, you know I’m kind of a big deal?”
“Would have gotten the job done.”
I spread my hands. “Except I’m not a big deal. Keep up, Ev.”
A smile peeks out. “Continue, please.”
As always, her smiling mouth drives intelligent thought from my brain, so I shift my study to a curve of stitching in the comforter. “The truth is, when I opened my mouth to finally tell you…well…that’s when I realized I had a problem.”
“What problem is that?”
I’ve thought about things a lot over the last week.
Wrapping words around my issue is tough, especially when feeling the need to grasp for a counterbalance to the character weakness my silence with Everly exposed.
Turns out I’m a guy with a fearful, fragile ego buried beneath a mound of surface humility.
The revelation has been lowering and painful.
Soft fingers cover mine. “Is this about Becca?”
I smile over, weakly. “To some degree. I gave her all of me, Everly. I was committed to a forever future with her. She was everything to me—and then I found out I wasn’t enough for her. That some of the things that made me me repulsed her.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah.” I rub my chin with my free hand. “I know what you’re probably thinking. That the junk with Becca should have made me all the quicker to make sure you knew I was somebody.” I hope she picks up on the sarcasm applied to the last word.
“It crossed my mind.”
“Well, interestingly enough, being the bigshot is a double-edged sword.”
The pad of her thumb, goodness, so soft, makes slow strokes across my knuckles.
“When I was in college, I got shot down multiple times by a girl I really liked. Then, weeks later, she asked me on a date. Long story short, a few wasted weeks later, the truth came out. She’d learned my family had some money.
” I smile wryly. “I thought she was great—but I think all she really wanted was a ride in the jet.”
Everly’s jaw drops. “You own a jet?”
Oops. “The company does. Bought used, by the way.”
“Don’t even, Knox. Just…don’t.” Covering her face and growling, Everly drops back onto the mattress.
“Hey.” I pinch a fold of wool slacks at her knee and wiggle it. “Whatcha doing down there?”
“This is so embarrassing.”
“I genuinely don’t follow.”
She scoots up onto her elbows, gawking. “First, the suit. Then, I told you you’d be able to pay off the ring now.”
I laugh—and it’s the wrong move.
She throws herself down again, so hard the mattress trembles. “I don’t imagine your mother makes her yard an inflatable wonderland?”
“Not since Rand and I were kids, no—but only because that’s not her style.”
“I rest my case.” Her hands fly up to shield her face. “Welcome to how the other half lives.”
Okey dokey. Far enough. I rest onto one elbow, bringing my face much closer, and gently unstick her palms from her cheeks.
She’s got no business covering her beauty that way.
“Get ahold of yourself, woman. I’m a regular guy who happens to have a dad who made it big in the exciting world of sewer construction while he was in junior high.
I put my pants on one leg at a time, same as anyone else.
” I nudge her thigh. “You saw for yourself in the motel. ’Member? ”
She gasps and pops half up, throwing a look toward the open door. “I saw nothing of the sort!”
In pretty much any situation, Everly stirs true joy in me, and I love that about her to the depths of my soul.
“I can assure you, my life is and always has been exceedingly normal. Do you know, I can remember hearing my mom lay into Dad one time because there wasn’t enough money in the account to pay the electric bill?
” I peel away her hands and scold her with a look.
“Have you ever had your electricity turned off, Everly Anne?”
She chews her pink lip. “That really happened?”
“It did. Of course, Mom had to eat her words about Dad throwing good money after bad into that business about six months later when he landed his first million-dollar contract.”
She searches my face like she’s probing for truth. Finally, she accepts it with a sigh.
“I promise you, you don’t have any reason to be embarrassed about anything.”
She comes the rest of the way up all of a sudden. “You’re right. None of this is my fault.” She burrows her finger into my sternum. “You see, this is the problem with secrets. They cause needless trouble, and who’s got time for that?”
Chuckling, I rub the indentation in my breastbone.
We both ease back down, hands joined, and stare at the ceiling fan. “Now…may I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“So, I get that you were caught off guard, and maybe frustrated, but I’m a little confused by all the tears.”
She fiddles with a button on her sweater.
“Last year, I went out with one of the partners at the law firm where I worked. He was based out of the firm’s Nashville office but traveled to Texas a lot.
When he was in town, he flirted and tried to get me to go out with him for almost a year.
He was mister smooth, and I’m generally very cautious.
Going out with a coworker didn’t seem like a wise thing. But he wore me down.”
My stomach feels like it’s inside a drawstring waistband being cinched by a prize fighter. Everly doesn’t need ugly stories in her life.
“The first date, he took me to a swanky restaurant. Wined and dined me. I had fun.”
She stops talking and the pregnant pause. Is. Killing. Me.
“He kissed me. We kissed. A few times.”
My fingers curl.
Her lids flutter closed. “Thank goodness I’m not the girl to go beyond that.”
The clench releases.
“On Monday morning, one of the legal secretaries who’d been with the firm for decades came in and shut my office door—and dropped the bomb. Married with three kids in Tennessee.”
“Oh, Everly.”
“I went into the bathroom and threw up. I just…I couldn’t…”
I hold her hand as tight as I can without fear of hurting her.
“I hope his wife finds out what a louse he is, for her own sake, but I pray with all my heart she never knows my name.”
I roll onto my side and brush my fingers along a tear trail flowing from the corner of Everly’s eye to the bedspread. “I am so sorry, sweetheart.”
Her glistening eyes become huge. Yeah, I said what I said.
I rub my thumb along the curve of her lips and make sure I have her full attention. “One broken engagement. Zero wives. Zero kids.”
Her mouth sweetens into a soft curve.
“Plus one healthy bank account. Oh, and one-third ownership in a private jet.” I narrow my gaze into a deep squint. “So, what do you say. Could you date a guy like that?”
Everly glides magic fingertips along my cheek. “You drive a hard bargain, mister.”
I wrinkle my nose. “I suppose I should also throw one annoying older brother and a questionable future sister-in-law onto the balance sheet.”
She giggles. “Hey, I’ve got two annoying little sisters. You’ve already seen what a chore one of them is.”
“I’ll find a way to cope.”
Her fingertips press. “I apologize for Oakley. I’m so sorry she gave you a hard time.”
“She was only looking out for you.”
Everly’s eyes, winter blue, roll high.
I steal a peek at the door. “But, for the record, she isn’t looking now…”
Everly’s teeth dig into her soft lip, pillowing it up on the ends. Good golly, I have to kiss her.
She doesn’t make me ask. She wraps her long, lovely fingers around the back of my head and pulls my mouth to soft, soft lips.
I’m not lying to myself, the open door is critical in keeping me honest.
Before the exploration moves beyond her sweet mouth or the curve of her neck, a throat clears.
“You are so lucky Dad sent me instead of coming himself.”
Everly and I are on our feet in a millisecond. Likeminded guilty consciences, I guess.
Oakley, with her long blonde hair back in a braid, is pretty but nothing in comparison to my blushing kissing partner combusting beside me.
She leans on the doorframe. “You know, if you’d just answered your phone, Knox, this whole thing could have been avoided.”
“My phone?” I feel my brows dip in the middle.
“You’ve had an unusually high number of unknown calls on your phone lately, haven’t you?”
“Why, yes, yes I have.”
She shrugs. “I got your number off paperwork at the bank. I tried half a dozen times to give you a heads up.”
“A heads up?”
“About the lawyer sleazebag.” She snorts, sending a sister-smirk to Everly. “Synonyms, am I right?”
Everly, arms crossed, gets in her sister’s face. “Are you telling me you’ve been harassing poor Knox all this time?”
“Poor Knox? Good one, sis.” She laughs at her own joke, and I’m at a point where I could either strangle her…or laugh along.
Eh, why choose negativity? She was watching out for her sister, a goal I am one hundred percent behind and a mission I am taking over as soon as Everly will let me.
“Anyway, I didn’t get the chance to harass him. He never would answer the silly phone.”
“You didn’t leave a message,” I point out.
“Some matters require a delicate touch. But don’t say I didn’t warn you before I left. I did my best.” She shows her palms. “My hands are clean.”
Hardly. But in the greater scheme of things…yeah. She gets a pass this time.
A copious amount of eyerolling takes place between the sisters. Finally, Everly places her hands on Oakley’s shoulders and turns her for the door. “You’re free to go now.”
“Oh no, I’m not. Dad wouldn’t like that, especially after I tell him what I walked in on.”
“Oh, stuff it, Oakley. I’m a grown woman.”
Remind me I owe Oak a thank you for making Everly’s cheeks flare from blush to hot pink. Beautiful.
“Don’t Oakley me. Besides, I was sent on a mission other than to play chaperone. Mom says she didn’t work on dinner all day just for everyone to eat it stone cold.”
Sounds like something Honey would say in the Herd household.
Under Oakley’s satisfied smirk, I deliver a quick kiss to Everly’s cheek, then hold out my hand. She takes it and holds on tight, down the hall and down the stairs, all the way to the table.
I’m not letting this one get away, ever.