8. Everly
CHAPTER 8
EVERLY
U rban called me every single day that he was gone, which I both loved and looked forward to as well as feared.
I was starting to expect the call and that was the first sign of danger as far as feelings went. Since I didn’t do relationships, I shouldn’t have done feelings, either. And this was starting to feel like feelings, yet I didn’t want to run from it just yet. There’d be a point at which I did, but it wasn’t now.
“So?” Jade asked as we were setting up her art room at camp. It was Friday and she taught a couple of classes here on Friday.
“So, what?”
She stopped and gave me the look. The one that said she thought I was being purposely thick. That I was intentionally not understanding what she was talking about, but that wasn’t the case.
I just didn’t know because she hadn’t explained herself yet.
“You know what I’m talking about.” Jade had her blonde hair wrapped up in a neat bun and while she was dressed for camp, it all looked elegant on her. She was taller than me, tall enough to be a model, and since she’d come from money, though she didn’t act like it, she sure looked like it, even when she was dressed down.
“Jade.” I put the last can of brushes on the long table. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about because you haven’t told me.”
She sighed and leaned against the desk in the corner that she almost never used. “It’s been four days and you haven’t told me about your night with Urban. That usually means… Wait. I don’t know what that usually means because we share everything. Good or bad.”
Jade was right. I hadn’t told her about that night yet. “You went to see your parents. I didn’t talk to you on Tuesday or Wednesday because believe it or not, we don’t actually talk every single day. And yesterday, we were busy planning today.”
“OK. But now we have some time. The kids aren’t here yet. You could tell me now. Was it awful? Was Madden not a fluke? Are all baseball players bad at sex?”
I snickered. She really wanted the information. “I can confirm that not all baseball players are bad at sex. Madden might not even be bad. Maybe we just didn’t have the chemistry.”
“Yeah, true. But what about Urban? Also, how the hell did he get that name? Do you know?” Talking to Jade was sometimes like being interrogated by the local police. All she was missing was the intense light right in my face, blinding me so that I’d spill my guts.
“Well, do you want to know about what happened between us or about his name? Because we don’t have time for both.”
“The sex, of course. You can tell me about his name another time.”
“It was good. Fantastic, actually, and then I told him it was fun and we parted ways.”
Her face dropped. “Is that really all you’re going to tell me?”
“Do you want positions? Length? Girth? I’d draw you a picture if I had any talent,” I said dryly. She snickered as I snapped my fingers. “Wait. You could draw it. I’ll describe everything and you draw it like you’re doing a police sketch.”
Now she was full belly-laughing. “I don’t suppose that’s necessary, but you know it’s been a while for me. I need to live vicariously through you.”
“You know there’s a solution to that.”
But she was already shaking her head. “I can’t do one-night stands. I want to, but I’m just not comfortable doing it. I can’t trust people like that.”
I narrowed my eyes on her then went to grab the drawing paper. Today, the kids would be drawing, then painting. “You know I don’t trust people in general, given my history. Though I did take Urban to my apartment.”
Her eyes widened. “ You took him to your apartment? You never take anyone to your apartment.”
“I know.” But I didn’t want to talk about what the reason for that might have been. To say there was a connection with Urban would’ve been an understatement, but how could I have trusted him then when I didn’t even know him?
“Anyway…” I said as I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “It’s almost time for the kids to arrive, so I’m going to head over to the equipment shed to get everything out. Robin’s probably already wo ndering where I am since she doesn’t have a key.”
“OK,” she said. I thought that’d be the end of it, then she called out, “You can paint me a picture later.”
I shook my head but laughed. With my back to her, she wouldn’t be able to see me smiling, but Jade and I were two peas in a pod.
Robin was leaning against the equipment shed scrolling through her phone. So far, she was the first teen counselor I’d had who hadn’t complained once and genuinely seemed to like working with the kids.
“Hey, Robin. Sorry I took so long.” I already had the keys in my hand and unlocked the padlock on the door. “I don’t know why they won’t let you have a key.”
“I’m sixteen.” She pushed off the side and came around to me. “I’m obviously going to steal everything inside, even though I don’t play baseball or any sports, for that matter.”
I snorted. She probably wasn’t far off of the reason, though it didn’t make sense to me. To work here, she’d had to do a background check, which meant she hadn’t gotten into any trouble with the law or with her school since for the teens, the camp checked school records as well .
“I already got the cooler,” she told me. It was a big, blue square that at least had wheels on it. I couldn’t imagine the two of us lugging that thing down to the field along with all of the equipment. “Who’s that?” she asked, making me turn to see a large man headed our way.
For a split second, I hoped it was Urban, but I pushed those thoughts away, telling myself that I didn’t care if it’s him or not.
Then the man got close enough for us to really see him and my heart sank.
Fucking Bryson Madden.
“He’s one of the players.”
“Right.” She kept watching him. “But he’s not one of the volunteers this year.”
“No. He isn’t.” I shut the door to the shed but didn’t fasten the lock before turning toward Bryson. “You can go grab a drink real quick if you want to.” Robin took a beat then nodded. It must’ve been obvious that I wanted her gone for this conversation.
“Hey, Everly,” he said with a toothy grin that I’d once thought was attractive. Now… not at all. It was funny how personality could completely change a person’s attractiveness.
“What are you doing here? ”
“I came to volunteer.”
I began shaking my head before he finished tell me his reason. “You’re not volunteering here this year. So no. You can’t be here.”
“You can always use an extra set of hands, right? If you remember correctly, I’m very good with my hands.”
“You’re mediocre with them at best.” But I bit my lips together, wishing I could take all those words back. It wasn’t smart to antagonize a guy like this. “Look, I need you to leave. This is my job and you’ve taken this too far.”
He furrowed his brows. “You know this playing hard to get isn’t cute.”
“Great.” I threw my hands in the air and let them fall until they slapped the sides of my legs. “I don’t want to be cute to you and as I’ve told you several times, I’m not playing hard to get. I need you to leave me alone.”
His jaw tightened. “Something you don’t know about me,” he began, “is that I don’t like losing. If I want something, I’m going to get it in the end.”
My heart raced and my muscles hardened, fight or flight kicking in because that sure sounded like a threat to me. It absolutely was another version of “ If I can’t have you, no one can” and that never ended well.
“Leave, Bryson. And stay away from me. I will get the camp involved if I see you back here again.”
Then I made a bold move and walked away.
Now I was on edge. Was I going to have to look over my shoulder for this guy forever? Surely, he’d lose interest at some point.
Luckily, I didn’t have too long to think about it because Urban, his brothers, and Jenner showed up and we headed out to the field and thankfully, by then, Bryson was nowhere to be seen.
Urban slid in next to me. “Hey.” He nudged my arm with his.
I didn’t look over at him and forced out a “Hi.”
From the corner of my eye, I could see that his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Yeah, I’d have been confused too.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, as if he suddenly knew me well enough to tell when something was wrong.
“Nothing.” But my feet stopped moving.
Next to the field, there was the framing of a building with several men still working away on it. That hadn’t been there yesterday when we brought them down to practice. When the baseball volunteers weren’t here, the kids kind of took it upon themselves to play around. I’d learned enough doing this—still almost nothing—to help them keep score if they decided to scrimmage. And it was a great group of kids so we didn’t have any problems.
“What’s this?” I looked up at Urban for the first time.
Still confused, he said, “You told me you wanted an equipment shed closer to the field.”
“Yeah. I did.” I looked back at the men working. It was laid out behind one of the benches the kids sat on when they weren’t playing. Not too close to the field, but not so far that we’d have to drag the heavy equipment anywhere. “So you… what? Just snapped your fingers and made it happen?”
“Uh…” one of the guys behind us said under his breath, which for some reason, pissed me off.
Though my tone probably should’ve been better. This was something nice Urban was doing for the kids. Yes. For the kids since I refused to believe that he’d done it because I’d been the one who’d said we needed it.
“Yeah.” He folded his arms over his chest. Forget about the fact that he had the heavy-as-fuck equipment bag over his shoulder. He acted like it weighed nothing. “I kind of did. I didn’t snap my fingers, though. I just told my mom that the camp needed it.”
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose then did my best to at least look thankful. “Thank you. That was nice of you.”
Then we started walking again. The kids got all of their energy going, grabbed their gloves, and waited for Brooks to split them up into groups again.
However this time, it was only three groups, which didn’t make sense to me since there were four baseball players. Urban was talking to his brother and they were gesturing with their arms, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.
“Are you all right?” Robin asked, but when I looked at her, she looked like she was approaching a rabid animal and had to be careful.
I took a deep breath and put Bryson Madden out of my head. “Yes. I’m sorry. I’m good. I promise I won’t snap at anyone again.”
“Was it that baseball player?” she asked. “The one who was here first? He’s not a volunteer. Did something happen?”
“Which baseball player?” Urban asked from behind me.
I slowly closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Robin glanced at Urban, then at me, and said, “I’ll take the cooler over there.”
Brooks, Silas, and Jenner had the kids in their groups and paired them so that the kids were already tossing a ball back and forth to warm up.
“Which baseball player, Everly?” he asked again, but this time with a lot less patience.
There was no use trying to avoid telling him. He was going to find out because I might not have known Urban so well yet, but I did know enough to be sure that he’d storm out of here and confront Bryson if I didn’t tell him anyway. This way, maybe I could lessen any blow up that would’ve happened otherwise.
“Bryson was here before you guys showed up this morning,” I told him, then I went on to relay everything that had happened between the two of us. Not because I had to. Once again, Urban wasn’t my boyfriend and didn’t have the right to the details of my life. But he was a nice guy—at least to me—and he was kind of already involved in this part.
His face was made of stone, hard and solid. Honestly, I worried he’d break his own jaw. “That fucker.”
“Hey.” I reached out and put my hand on his arm because the man looked like he was about to come undone. “I can’t have you talking like that here. There are kids around and parents aren’t going to like it if their kids come home from camp swearing like sailors.”
He nodded in agreement, his features softening but only slightly. “But that sure sounded like a threat.” All he’d done was lower his voice. The venom was still very present.
“That’s what I thought, but if he shows up again, I’ll let the director know and he can take care of it. I can’t have this be a problem.”
“It’s about to be Madden’s problem.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “This isn’t for you to take care of,” I told him. “This is my problem and I never should’ve asked you to tell him to back off. It seems to have made him more determined.”
“I can’t just stand here and do nothing.”
“Why not?” I snapped. “We’re not together. Or is it that you don’t like someone else sniffing around what you think is your territory?” My voice was getting a bit louder. “I’m not your territory, Urban. It was one night. Is this another case of you wanting me because you can’t have me? Is it like him?”
Urban snapped back as if I’d slapped him. “I’ve got news for you, Everly. I’ve already had you. This isn’t that.”
I wanted to tell him to fuck off for that comment, but this was camp and I couldn’t do that. Instead, I shook my head and walked away.
It took an immense amount of effort, but I was able to avoid Urban the rest of the time they were there. We only exchanged words when it was necessary and then they were off to get ready for their game.
By the end of the day, I just wanted to get in my car and go home, but as soon as I’d started it, the phone rang. It was my sister. The one I still talked to sometimes, so I answered.
“Hey, Telly,” I said. That had been her nickname since she’d been a kid. I was the youngest, so I wasn’t there when she’d gotten it and for some bizarre reason that nobody ever thought to explain to me, they also didn’t tell me the meaning behind it. “What’s up?”
“So, I have a favor to ask…” And that was when I wished I hadn’t answered the phone. “I’ve got rent due and my check was shorter than it should’ve been. Is there any way I can borrow eight hundred from you? I’ll pay it back as soon as I can. ”
I closed my eyes and sat back against the seat with a hard thump. Fucking Typical.
“I’m all out of favors today, Telly,” I told her. “And as I’ve said before, I can’t afford to pay your rent. I have my own.”
“Evie…”
“Don’t call me that,” I snapped. It was the nickname only used in my family when they were trying to get something out of me but it sounded like nails against a chalk board to me..
Well, today, I didn’t have anything to give. I ended the call without saying goodbye.
That night after I knew the game had ended, I sat on my bed with my phone in my hand hoping Urban would call me. I could’ve called him but was too embarrassed over how I’d acted earlier.
Hell, I’d felt a bit guilty when the words had come out of my mouth but not enough to watch the game on TV, even though I knew that was an option.
Then he didn’t call and I was more upset about that than I should’ve been.
As if my day could’ve gotten any worse.