For Everly (35 page)

“Sam, no jumping on the furniture,” Avery said from somewhere in the house.

“How the hell does she do that?” Cole asked, looking at his father.

“Cole, don’t say that word around Sam,” Avery called out.

“Oops. Sorry, kid.”

“No problem, Uncle Cole. I’ve heard worse. One time, grandpa—”

“Whoa, there, little man,” Cole’s father interrupted. “Let’s not break the Man Code here.”

“Oh. Right, Grandpa.”

Cole smiled. “Are you having a nice Christmas, pal?”

“Sure,” he said, looking at the model train set Cole had given him. “Mr. Wallace knows all kinds of things about trains. He worked with trains for a long, long time. He’s the best at putting the tracks together.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying your present. Everly helped pick it out.”

Sam’s gaze moved to her. “She has red hair.”

Cole’s eyebrow went up. “Um, yeah. I guess she does.”

“Really red. She could play Mary Jane in the next Spiderman movie.”

Hiding a laugh by taking a swig of his beer, Cole made a noncommittal sound. His father, however, chortled and slapped his knee. Cole’s eyes lifted to the ceiling.

“Are you going to marry her?” Sam asked.

Why was it that when kids asked questions like that, the television always happened to go quiet and all other sound ceased? Cole battled a wave of discomfort as Sam’s question carried across the house. Multiple pairs of eyes turned to him…including Everly’s.

“Well, we’ve only been dating for a month,” he told Sam. “We’ll have to see if she can handle dealing with me for much longer first.”

Sam nodded sagely. “Girls are funny like that.”

“They sure are.”

Fortunately, outside of Sam’s question, his family behaved themselves the rest of the evening. As they all gathered around the table to eat his mom’s roast and potatoes, it really hit Cole that it was the first time he’d ever had someone there with him. It felt nice, he realized, to not be the only single person there. To not be plagued with questions about when he’d finally get serious about someone.

To not envy the love his siblings shared with their significant others.

His mom seemed as enamored with Everly as his father was. He spotted her looking between him and Everly a couple of times. Once—though he tried to convince himself otherwise—she actually got a little misty-eyed.

In the end, although he dearly loved spending time with his family, he was ready to head home and decompress from the past couple of days. He walked Everly and Jake out to Everly’s car, since they’d driven separately. When Jake was safely in the passenger seat, he turned to Everly.

“You’re getting your stitches out at what time tomorrow?” he asked.

“Nine in the morning. I’ll come by afterwards.” Though she didn’t say it out loud, they both knew she was planning on working with him on PT and cardio. “My shift at Prix Fixe doesn’t start until four.”

“Okay.” He reached up and stroked her cheek. “I wanted to ask you if you’d be interested in going with me to this charity ball thing on Saturday. It’s being touted as a New Year’s gala, but they wanted it on the weekend.”

Her eyes widened. “This coming Saturday?”

“I know it’s late notice. I wasn’t going to ask you because I usually hate these things and I didn’t want you to have to suffer with me. It’s a bunch of pretentious people pretending to be interested in a cause for a chance to see and be seen among other pretentious people. But the food’s good.” He tried a winning smile since her expression had grown dubious.

“I don’t own anything suitable to wear to a ball,” she began.

“I can fix that.” When she was about to argue further, he said, “I’ll resort to unmanly begging, I swear. Isn’t there some saying about suffering for love?”

He didn’t think about what he’d said until he said it. He couldn’t help but feel exposed as she studied him in silence.

“If that’s true,” she said at last, “then I guess I don’t have any choice. I’ll suffer with you, Mr. Parker.”

*     *     *

Cole knew how to make up for a lousy Christmas gift, Everly would give him that.

The day of the ball, she attended salon and spa appointments with Cole’s mother and sister. He treated them all to the works. By the time Everly was in Brenda’s car on the way back to Cole’s parents’ house, she’d been massaged, buffed, and glammed to a point she didn’t even recognize herself.

She loved the way her stylist had done her makeup so much that she splurged and bought some of the outrageously priced cosmetics so she could do touch-ups if she needed to. And her hair! She felt like she’d stepped off a runway. Whatever they had done to enhance her natural color made her ecstatic to be a redhead. The elegant up-do they’d given her had her fearing every tiny brush of wind between Brenda’s car and the house.

Fortunately, she made it inside with her hair still intact. All she had left to do was slip on the ball gown that Brenda and Avery had helped her pick out the day after Christmas. It really had been a steal thanks to post-Christmas sales. That relieved Everly, even if Cole insisted on paying for the dress.

“You’re going to knock Cole on his ass,” Avery declared, lifting her glass of wine in a form of salute.

Everly caught the other female’s gaze in the full-length mirror and smiled. Avery was stretched out on the bed in what had once been her childhood bedroom and was now a spare. Sam was downstairs with his grandparents while Avery helped Everly get ready.

It was surprising how comfortable she was with Avery in the room. Cole’s family had a way of making people feel like they belonged. It hadn’t taken an hour into the ball gown shopping trip for Everly to relax and enjoy herself. Maybe it was because she’d known Wyatt for so long and was so close to Cole now. Whatever the reason, she felt lucky just to have them in her life.

“If I do,” she said, “it’ll be because I trip in these heels and he tries to save me.”

Avery snorted. “You’ll be fine. I know you didn’t want to wear heels because you’ve got legs for miles and no one’s likely to see them anyway. But you’ll know you’re wearing fabulous shoes and you’ll show that confidence to the world.”

Everly couldn’t argue. She studied herself in the mirror with something bordering on disbelief. The black gown was deceptively simple. The sleeveless bodice had a sweetheart neckline and hugged Everly’s curves to the middle of her ribcage. There, a one-inch band of diamante crystals met the flowing, floor-length skirt. She hadn’t wanted a large, poofy gown. This one oozed sophistication and suited her tall frame. For the first time in her life, she truly felt beautiful.

“You should wait to put on the shrug,” Avery suggested. “Let Cole see how incredible your shoulders and neck look with your hair swept up like that. He’ll want to attack your neck with his lips.”

Her face heating up, she caught Avery’s gaze again. Seeing the other woman’s grin, she couldn’t help but grin back.

“Speaking from experience, I wager?”

“Drives Mike out of his mind,” she confirmed. “We don’t go to many fancy events, but it’s always fun to dress up when we do. Just wait until Cole sees the bustier you’ve got on underneath that dress paired with those heels.”

“You’re going to have me red as a tomato when Cole gets here,” Everly said, touching her burning cheeks and wishing she didn’t color so easily.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

Avery leaped from the bed. “Don’t move. I have to get my camera. I’ll be right back.”

As Avery set her wine down and dashed from the room, Everly battled the nerves she’d been suppressing all day. She’d be meeting some of the city’s most influential people that evening, including Cole’s teammates and much of the team’s coaching staff.

How in the world was any of this possible?

The door opened again and Avery hurried in. Everly had found that Cole’s sister did everything with a great deal of energy. She imagined that could only help when keeping up with a five-year-old little boy.

“He found them,” Avery said, lifting a bag as she entered. “Well, I’m thinking Margaret did, but who knows? He might’ve, considering how smitten he is with you.”

“Found what?”

“The perfect accents to that gown.”

Avery pulled out several boxes and began opening them. Everly’s mouth fell open over the amount of glitter she saw.

“Jesus…these are real,” Avery said with wide eyes, holding up a choker and matching teardrop earrings that appeared to be made of diamonds. The choker mimicked the band of crystals around Everly’s bodice.

“How did—?”

“Mom called Cole after we picked your gown and told him what to look for as far as style. He said he wanted to get you something. Oh, man…a matching bracelet and hair clip.”

“I can’t wear that,” Everly said, her voice an octave higher than usual. “That all had to cost more than my grandpa’s house.”

“You have to wear it.” Avery walked up to her with the choker and began putting it on her. “It would be a sacrilege to women everywhere if you didn’t wear these gorgeous accessories.”

“But—”

“No buts. Put on the earrings.”

Sighing, Everly gave up and took out the tiny diamond studs she had in her ears. When she felt the weight of the earrings Cole had bought her, she almost picked her argument back up. Avery gave her a look that mothers had perfected over the ages. Everly snapped her mouth closed. She put the earrings on and allowed Avery to clasp the bracelet on her right wrist and secure the sparkling clip in her hair.

When Avery turned her so that she could see herself in the mirror, Everly’s breath caught. She looked like she belonged on the cover of
Vogue
.

“You’re going to have them tripping over themselves on the red carpet,” Avery said.

“Red carpet?” Everly echoed. “What—?”

“Wait one minute, then come downstairs,” Avery interrupted. She reached out and gave Everly a quick hug. “I want full details when I see you next, okay?”

“Okay. But what was that about a red—?”

“One minute, okay? See you downstairs.”

Everly shook her head as Avery ran back out the door. The action had her new earrings swinging and catching the light. She couldn’t help but stare at her reflection for another long minute, trying to memorize this moment.

Look at what life could hand you when you least expected it, she thought. She would hold onto this mental image whenever she felt that things were too tough to get through.

Putting her small stud earrings in her little black clutch and making sure she had all of her makeup, she picked up her black shrug and took Avery’s advice by leaving it off. She carried the clutch and shrug in her left hand and used her right to hold her skirt while she descended the stairs. The entire time, she prayed she didn’t catch her heel and fall on her face.

Cameras flashed as she reached the landing and turned to descend the rest of the way into the foyer. Cole stood beside his parents and sister, all of whom held cameras. She felt for a moment like she was going to the prom, something she hadn’t experienced in high school. Despite the bright pops of light, Everly kept her attention on Cole.

His reaction was even better than she’d imagined. He looked like a destitute man who just won the lottery. His jaw remained unhinged even as she stopped in front of him.

“Hello, Cole,” she said. “Are you ready to suffer together?”

Chapter 48

From the moment Cole took her hand and bent to kiss the back of it, Everly felt like she was floating on a cloud of happiness. His family insisted on them posing for some photos together before they got into the waiting limo. Although Cole griped and complained, he grinned through it all.

On the way to the ball, he poured her a glass of champagne and lifted one of his own in a toast.

“To the most beautiful woman in the world,” he said. “Thanks for suffering with me tonight.”

She smiled. “Thank you for making this such a special day.”

They tapped their glasses and sipped. It tasted divine, Everly thought. A perfect touch.

When they arrived at the ball’s location and the driver walked up to open the door, Cole caught her gaze and said, “Try not to look too shell-shocked. You never know where these pictures will end up.”

She tilted her head in confusion as the door opened. Since the driver reached down to help her out, she didn’t have time to think about it. She took the driver’s hand and held her skirt so she could emerge from the limo without stepping on it. When she looked up, she was nearly blinded by brilliant flashes of light.

“Told you,” Cole said as he joined her.

There really was a red carpet, Everly realized. Fortunately, the champagne helped ease her nerves enough that she threw on a smile as soon as she saw the cameras. Cole smiled and gave a wave as his name was called out, making it look natural. He presented Everly his arm so they could make the long walk up the carpet and into the venue.

“Who’s your date, Cole?” one reporter asked.

“How long have you been seeing each other?” another queried.

“Whose design are you wearing, sweetheart?” called out a third.

Cole leaned down and said, “Don’t worry about responding. It’s all par for the course.”

She nodded and followed his lead. They were instructed to stop in front of a banner bearing the event’s branding. After a minute of them getting photographed together and fielding a slew of questions from the crowd, the staff person manning the station asked her to step away from Cole. She did so, figuring they wanted some promotional photos just of him. When she moved further down the carpet to where the staff person indicated, she was shocked that a number of the cameras followed her.

“Hey, Everly!” shouted a voice above the crowd. “You’re lookin’ extra sizzln’ hot, little mama.”

Javier waved at her from near the door to the venue, which was clogged with people. A woman she assumed was his date clung to his arm.

Laughing, Everly waved back. Cameras went off like they were capturing the first lunar landing. Behind those cameras, people murmured. She heard enough to guess they were wondering who in the world she was.