Embracing Everly (9 page)

NOT ONE WORD
had been spoken between the two of us, even when we passed each other in the hall, and she practically fell into my arms. She just upped and walked away, forcing out a small, “I’m sorry.” But I noticed the difference in her immediately. It had been almost a week when I finally spotted her without that asshole grabbing her mail from the main lobby of our building. Stepping up behind her, I bent down, hovered my lips by her ear. “What is this?” I flicked the long braid of hair that reminded me of a five-year-old hanging off one side of her shoulder.

She froze, and since she didn’t answer, I assumed she was trying to ignore me. “Angel, I asked you a question. What’s the new look for?”

She looked over her shoulder and glared right into my eyes. “I was looking for a change. Is that okay with you?”

I shrugged undecidedly. It looked good, but maybe a little school girlish for my liking. I liked it down better, imagining how soft and silky it would feel between my fingers. “It’s fine if you’re doing it for yourself.”

She spun around so quickly, catching me off guard when she hit my elbow with her chest. And it felt like one second of pure heaven. “Of course I’m doing it for myself. Who the hell else would I be doing it for?”

I caged her in with my arms, just wanting a minute of her time to see if I still could still stir her up. “I don’t know, Angel, you tell me.”

She gulped, and I couldn’t help but grin knowing the affect I was having on her, holding her in one tight little spot, caged in. Her beautiful blue eyes landed on my lips for a quick second, and I knew what she wanted, but I also knew she wouldn’t do it. She knocked my arm out of her way, and steam practically billowed out of her ears. “Stop calling me that. I have a name—use it, please.” My eyes watched her sweet bottom sway as she walked up the stairs in a fit and out of my vision.
Jesus, what I wanted to do that ass if I ever got the chance
.

“Hey, Everly,” I called out knowing she could still hear me. “I’ll kiss you when I know you’re ready.”

That night I decided to check her place of business out and see what’s up with her out of curiosity. I knew she was mad as hell at me because I accused her man of cheating, but she needed a wake up call and pronto. I had been watching her for over a month at this point, and she always looked the same. She was adorable in the daylight hours and then turned into a hell on heels vixen come the evenings she had to work. But for some reason she had decided to turn into a genuine miss-goody-two-shoes. And I was determined to find out why she was playing catholic schoolgirl all of a sudden.

She was already on stage with the house lights beaming right on her. She looked beautiful, angelic, and it was obvious half the clientele came just to gawk at her. I took a seat in the back knowing she most likely wouldn’t be able to see me back this far. I was scrolling through my phone but stopped, when I heard her voice. I shook my head hearing her sing some stupid pop love song from the top 20 and could tell she wasn’t feeling it. Usually she was up there proud, head held high and moved slowly to the point it was fucking erotic to watch. It took everything not to ask for a private show. Tonight she was demure, sitting up on that stool, dressed like a twelve-year-old. No five-inch heels, no black, tight as shit clothes like normal and I didn’t like what I was seeing. Some stupid ass pair of loose fitting jeans, a shirt looking like something my mom would’ve worn to the country club and a pair of black shoes that resembled my sister’s ballet shoes when she was little.

It hit me like a freight train as I scanned the place, and my eyes landed on him standing to the side of the curtain watching her like he owned her. He must be the one for the sudden change of heart in her singing, her dressing, and her nasty behavior toward me. I was a man, so I got what it was like to be a little possessive toward a chick, especially one like Everly, but I knew he was up to no good when it came to her. I just had to prove it and get back in her good graces to make it work, or take him out of the equation like Dawson suggested.

They go home together but not to her place. It took me all of five seconds to figure out they’re heading to the frat house. Ever since I pounded on the wall, I hadn’t heard shit from her side. I knew when she was home, which wasn’t a lot anymore, and it just made me more upset with her. But, I knew men like Charlie. He’d break down and make a mistake, and I’d only be too happy to be there to pick up the pieces when he did screw up.

I’D HIT A
low point. Everly had shut me out completely, and I’d reduced myself to breaking into her place while she was in class to see what might be going on with her. I’d gone to watch her play every time she went up on stage to sing, and it broke my heart that she didn’t seem happy, seem herself at any of the shows. Nothing comes of searching anywhere in her bedroom other than dirty clothes. I couldn’t tap into her computer since it had a password lock, but smiled when I found some old photos of her when she was younger and a man I assumed to be her dad. There was a bunch of papers sitting on the table by her couch, so I scanned them. They were all songs. All words she took the time to write down on paper.

HEARTSTRINGS

A guy walks into my heart

Catches my eye, but it’s the wrong time

Asks me to love him, tells me to sin

Oh, how he
makes my head spin
(Stupid line)

The words go on and on, page after page of lyrics in her writing all making me think she was writing about me. Words mentioning my smile, the green tone of my eyes or my cocky attitude. I was sitting ass on the floor lost in her words when I heard keys and saw the knob turning. I tried to come up with a quick escape plan, but there was nowhere to go. My knees were shaking, my heart was pounding in my chest waiting for her to come in and blow up. I sank into the wall like I was a piece of it, trying to hide. She walked straight past me without even realizing I was in the room as she sifted through her mail. You couldn’t even hear a pin drop it was so quiet as I tiptoed toward the door.

“What the hell are you doing in here?”

I turned on my heel, pretending I just walked in, holding up my hands in defeat. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m fine, Mick.” I could see her giving in a tad to her little hate fest she had for me as soon as the words slipped off her tongue. She almost looked tired or low-spirited. Something was off with her, and I didn’t like it at all. I felt this protective sensation consume me as I looked at her, waiting.

“We haven’t talked in a while. You feel like dinner? I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

She let out a deep breath. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“Can I ask you something?” I stepped forward breaking the huge gap between us. I hated how miserable she looked, and hated even more how much I wanted to fix it.

She bit down on her lip, chewing it with her teeth for a few seconds and then nodded, tucking her hands into her front pockets. And I wondered if she was doing it to refrain from touching me like I had done before.

“What happened to the beautiful girl who pulled a .38 on me? Where the hell did she go? Because I really liked that girl, that version—this one sucks.”

Her chin dropped, and I knew she was trying to avoid looking at me. “I’m still here,” she mumbled.

“No, you’re not, Ev. Go change, and when I say that, please put something on that you want to wear, not what you think I want, or anyone else wants. Be yourself. If there’s one thing, I can teach you that’s it. Be yourself, Angel, that way you never let yourself down.”

“Charlie just has this idea of the perfect girlfriend, and I’m just trying,” she admitted, finally giving me something. A second later she sighed and ran her hand through her hair. “Besides, you don’t even know me. Why do you keep trying?”

I took another step until we were toe to toe and lifted her chin with my finger. “Tell Charlie to take a hike for the night and give me a chance. One chance to show you what he’s doing when you’re not looking, Ev? I know you don’t love him. Just tell him. Rip it off like Band-Aid. Tell him it’s over. I know I don’t know you well enough yet, but I want to, and that’s something, something fucking huge for me.”

She started to shake her head, not wanting to accept what I was offering, but I needed for her to see what an ass he is. “Yes, Everly, say yes to this offer. I know you think that maybe you love this dude, and you think he loves you, but sweetheart, he’s a fraud and it’s about time you opened your fucking eyes, because I can’t take watching you do this to yourself.”

I was trying not to be a total dick, but it was hard not to be when you were trying to convince someone something they didn’t want to believe. I have a twin sister who I cared for and kicked many assholes after they broke her heart in my day, back when she loved me, and I loved her. Back when I thought I knew what family and love meant.

A lone tear dropped from her eye, and it nearly ripped my heart in half. “You really think he is?”

“Baby,” the word slipped off my tongue taking even me by surprise, but I needed to forge ahead to make this work. “I know he is. You can do so much better.” I placed a small, kind, brotherly kiss on her forehead, noticing her hair smelled like coconut. I breathed it in enjoying the fragrance.

She sniffled. “Did you just smell my hair?”

“It smells clean, unlike me. I reek like Marlboro Lights.”

“I don’t mind it.”

“Go get dressed, yeah?”

“You better pick me up and let me cry on your shoulder if I see him doing anything.”

“I promise, Angel, that I’ll hold you up as long as you need me to.” It was the first damn promise I’d made to a girl since high school, besides my sister Mary Catherine. I broke those promises all the time, but I have no intentions of breaking any when it came to Everly.

The fact I was still standing there waiting for her to get changed, her agreeing to come with me only confirmed how right I was. If she loved him, really loved him she wouldn’t have agreed to come out with me tonight. I just had to get her on the same page as me and let the dice roll.

“Where we going?” I asked her once she emerged ten minutes later from her room looking like pure sunshine. There was nothing like a woman who could pull off a pair of black jeans, and an old Ramones T-shirt that hung off her shoulder revealing her smooth skin, making it my new favorite shirt of hers. The final piece was a pair of heels that made her look taller and sexier. Heels that I wanted to be wrapped around my waist. She looked damn right edible, lickable, fuckable and whatever else I could come up with to do to her.

“I just feel like a piece of pizza. Is that good?”

“Pizza it is, Ev. You twenty-one?”

“Three more months away.”

“You feel like a beer?”

She rolled her eyes as if I was asking the craziest question. “I can’t get served. Have you seen me?”

“I know a little place.” We pulled into this dive burger joint twenty minutes later that serves pizza, shit pizza, but I knew she wouldn’t need an I.D to drink a beer if she wanted one.

Once seated, I ordered a pitcher of Bud and the waitress didn’t even flinch before fetching it along with two glasses. “So I’ll warn you now the pizza sauce sucks, too watery for my liking, but the burgers are pretty good.”

“Oh,” she scanned the small menu. “Do they have salad?” She asked with hope as I watched her check out the menu.

“You are not ordering rabbit food. Order a bacon burger. They’re really good.”

Her eyes lifted to mine, and her teeth bit down on the corner of her lip looking like she had something on her mind but was hesitant to tell me. “I’m kind of a vegetarian.”

I dropped the menu. “Come again?”

“I try not to eat meat. I’m not hardcore, but I do try and avoid it most times, but sometimes I cave.” She scanned the menu again and smiled brightly once she closed it. “I’ll just get the pizza.”

“Are you sure? Fuck, I’m sorry. I had no idea. We can go somewhere else.”

“It’s okay. I never told you.”

I read the menu hoping to find something that’ll appease her but come up short. “Would it be terrible of me to order one, and eat it in front of you?”

I watched, unable to take my eyes off her hand as it slid across the table and covered mine like the whole thing was happening in slow motion. The warmth of her touch felt so good that I left my hand there never wanting hers to slip away. “Get what you like. It doesn’t bother me. My dad is a total carnivore. He never really understood the vegetarian thing either.”

Suddenly, I had an image of her crawling across the table and lowering herself on my lap, and I could feel my zipper pinching my cock. I shifted trying to ease the pressure, and cleared my throat. “Speaking of your old man, why don’t you tell me a little bit about him.”

Her face grew somber but then a small forced smile flashed my way. One I’ve witnessed when Charlie’s name was ever mentioned. “He’s on vacation right now, which is really good for him. My mom died a few years back, and I’m afraid he’s not really recovered from it. He works like a dog. I barely see him anymore.”