by Kali Brixton
His gaze frosts over. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I bring my finger down. “You may come from dishonest, yellow-bellied scum and may be marrying into even worse, but you will not stand here and judge my family. Especially when you are choosing to be a part of both, knowing what kind of people they are. Talk about hypocritical.”
His nostrils flare. “I’m not judging, I’m just relaying what Kieran asked me to.”
“Then Kieran needs to be a better brother, grow a pair, and come talk to his sister instead of sending his lackey.”
That strong jaw ticks. “He thought since he couldn’t deliver the news himself, it would be better coming from someone who cares about you. He wanted you to—”
A sarcastic laugh leaves me. “Cares about me? Really? Boy, it almost sounds like you believe that.”
He steps toward me, closing the distance between us. “I know you don’t have any real reason to trust me, but don’t think for one second it was easy telling you all this. Despite what you think, I care more about you than you’ll ever know.”
I want to hit him. I want to cause him pain and let him feel just one ounce of what I’ve carried around with me these last six years. But he doesn’t deserve my fire—he deserves the ice. I ignore the faux sincerity that drips from the lies he’s spewing and let the cold tendrils of numbness work their way throughout my body. “You need to leave.” Walking to the front door, I open it wide. “I’ll talk to the owners about security measures, but you need to leave. Right now.”
He doesn’t argue, just grabs his coat and tie. Before walking through the threshold, he pauses and turns to me. “I didn’t tell you all that to hurt you.”
Plastering on a calm expression, I quip, “You may have insulted my family, but you don’t have the power to hurt me anymore, Luca Dean Giordano. And unless there’s something I need to know about Lia or her safety, don’t darken my door or talk to me again, no matter what my spineless brother instructs you to do.”
He stands there, something obviously dying to leap off his tongue, but it never makes the jump. His jaw clenches as he gives me a curt nod. With a loud sigh, he turns his back to me as he walks down the corridor.
I close the door, emotions slamming into me every which way. Confusion. Disgust. Rage. Why is it every time this man is around me, I always end up feeling like the world’s on fire and I’m soaked in gasoline? There’s no good that comes from having any contact with him.
From this point on, I’m going to avoid him at all costs and start moving on with my life.
But first, I’m going to lie back down and try to sleep off the rest of this hangover. Maybe when I wake back up, I might actually be coherent enough to buy into those words.
16
Everleigh
When I finally wake up, the early winter sunset is quickly sinking. I know the girls will leave for RISE here shortly, so if I’m going to start fresh and really get my life back on track, it begins right now.
Stumbling back out of bed, I make my way to the bathroom to take a quick shower, donning something that resembles clothes because I need them to take me seriously. A terry-cloth robe won’t cut the mustard for this.
As I’m washing off the regrets of yesterday, I think about how fortunate I am to have these girls. They each bring something so uniquely their own to our friendship, and I can’t imagine my life without them. But all sisters have their disagreements. Having to find a fake date to keep them from setting up some ridiculous blind date situation or them planting propaganda in my bedroom for their “Let’s Get Ev Laid” campaign is not something I want to have to relive repeatedly.
I’m capable of finding my own dates when and if I decide I want them, so some ground rules are going to have to be laid. Even though Luca never returned my affections, that didn’t make mine for him any less real or raw. A love that soaks into every fiber of your being like mine for him takes time to evaporate completely, so I need time, even after six years. Time to purge him entirely out of my system before I add another man to the mix. Otherwise, I’m never really going to move forward with my life.
After slipping my clothes on, I notice the time and remember that a certain little goddaughter of mine should be napping right now. If I want to round up the girls quickly, I think I’ll have Lia do that job for me.
Dialing Lia’s cell, I take a moment to clean up my bedroom. That stupid dildo is still taunting me from the floor, which gives me an idea…
A masculine voice answers Lia’s phone. “Hello?”
“Landry,” I begin with a syrupy sweet voice. “Could you put your lovely wife on the phone, please?”
Lia’s husband Landry affectionately gave me the nickname Edwina Scissorhands, so he knows when I use this voice—the one I reserve for men at the club acting up, there’s going to be some carnage. There’s a rustle, then a moment of silence. “She said she’s not here.” A loud smack rings out, followed by an Oww! “I meant, she’s not here.”
I smile. Okay, Lia. I’m here to play ball. “So, if I use my key to enter your apartment and bring my loud self over there, I won’t find Lia?” I pause for dramatic effect. “Or a napping Aliana?”
Another rustle and Landry’s voice drops to a whisper as he talks to someone who supposedly isn’t there right now. “She just got to sleep.” Silence. “But she’s using the scary voice.” More silence. “The one she uses with the men at the club who are going to leave with their balls no longer attached.”
I laugh to myself. Poor guy still hasn’t figured out that I’ve only made a few nicks here and there—I’ve never severed an entire sack before. Sometimes I’ve wanted to, but as my father has said to me on several occasions when I got a little too rough with my sparring partners, the punishment should always be worth the amount of paperwork you’re gonna have to fill out.
My heart squeezes at Luca’s words from earlier. There’s no way on God’s green earth that my dad got caught up in something he shouldn’t have, especially with that dickface Giacomo, who he himself despises after what he did to Lia. No fucking way. He’s the best man I know, and I’ll need substantial proof to convince me otherwise. And I need to talk to my brother as soon as he returns because he’s obviously been fed some subpar bullshit as well. I can’t believe he would even suggest something so vile about our dad.
“But I already lost the Papi Dean bet and have diaper duty for a week. Haven’t I suffered enough?”
There are a few curses that scatter around in the background before another voice chimes in. “Ev! How nice of you to call…”
Point to me. “Oh, Liiiiaaaa,” I say in singsong, channeling my inner Ricky Ricardo. “You’ve got some ’splainin’ to do.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I clear my throat and cast a glance at my drawer full of condoms and my new neon door stopper. “Oh, come on, bestie. Orange you going to ask me how my date went last night?”
The line goes so quiet that I look at my phone to see if she hung up on me. We’re still connected, so I patiently wait for her to respond. “Give me ten minutes.”
Good choice. “Make it five or I’m coming over with a spoon and a pot for a drum solo.”
After she hangs up, I decide to reward my friends—because she’s no doubt on the phone with both Eden and Addy, talking strategy—with a special treat. Revenge, after all, is a dish best served cold.
Five minutes on the nose, a knock at my door reveals not one, but three new houseguests.
“I see you brought reinforcements.”
Eden presents a peace offering in the form of a bag of popped kettle corn. “That’s because you get a little psychotic when you’re pissed. And nothing says I love you like salty yet sweet kettle corn.”
“Me pissed? Not at all!” They look at each other warily and enter the apartment with caution, probably wondering where I’ve hidden all the booby-traps.
“Please. Go make yourselves comfortable in the living room,” I say wit
h a Betty Homemaker smile.
“Okaaaay,” Lia offers as they make their way through the apartment and find a comfortable seat, each checking the cushions before sitting down.
I grab my covered serving platter and join them, setting it on my coffee table. “I thought we could have some dessert before you all head out to RISE tonight.”
“You did? Trying to give us a sugar rush before showtime?” Eden adds, quirking an eyebrow my way.
“Sure! Since you all were so kind as to leave a few sweet surprises in my bedroom last night, I figured you might want me to share the wealth.”
Three guilty expressions all bubble to the surface at the same time as I take my seat in the recliner. “Addy, since you’re closest, will you do the honors?”
She gives me a pained smile. “Sure, Ev…”
Carefully lifting the lid, she slowly wrenches it back to reveal my little surprise for them. “What the hell?”
“Voila! Dildo a la mode with a cherry on top.” I say with a flourish, extending my hand to showcase their little—and big—surprises from last night. The neon orange eyesore sits nestled in the middle, with four bowls of ice cream flanking it, a cherry-flavored condom still in the wrapper sticks out of each pile of whipped cream that caps off the rocky road beneath.
I grab a bowl for myself and remove the condom wrapper, licking the whipped cream off it before tossing it onto the platter. “Bon appétit, bitches.”
They each grab a bowl, snickering at the lewd display before them.
“I thought you were going to strangle us all,” Lia says before taking a big bite.
“Thought about it.”
“You mean you don’t like a nice day glow dildo to spice up your sex life?” Lia remarks with a smirk.
I rim the bowl with my spoon, picking up the spare whipped cream. “My question is, which one of you all had the balls to walk up to a counter and pay for that thing with a straight face?”
“Amazon is a girl’s best friend,” Addy adds, her amused grin showing no signs of regret. “So, how’d the date go?”
“Well, the condom factory in my nightstand amused him, but the instrument of vaginal death you all planted officially put the nail in the coffin.” I lick my spoon and plunge it back into the quickly melting mess. “I’m pretty sure that thing would make a prize bull feel inadequate.”
Eden grins ear to ear. “I’ve seen bigger.”
Our laughter fills the space as we continue to make jokes about the new table decoration for a few minutes while consuming way too many delicious calories. “So, what really happened last night?” Lia asks. “Because I need an explanation for what I saw this morning.”
Eden and Addy exchange glances, apparently unaware of Lia seeing me and her brother in a state of undress.
“My date and I wound up at a rave and somehow got so drunk, I woke up in Luca’s shirt.”
There’s a sparkle in Eden’s eye. “Everleigh Greene, two men? You little hussy.”
“More like no men, but plenty of humiliation,” I groan. “I guess I should start at the beginning…”
I sift through the details of the past day, from finding out Gia was Luca’s fiancée to the body paint rave, then the bits and pieces I remember from last night as well as Luca’s assurance that we didn’t sleep together. The only topic I don’t touch on is what Luca stayed to talk to me about because I need to speak with Eden and Addy about the security concerns. I may think he’s full of baloney about my dad, but I share his desire to keep Lia’s life as normal as possible while making sure she’s safe.
“Wow. That’s…wow,” Addy laughs. “I bet you were a sight to behold. Damn shame we missed that.”
I roll my eyes. “That’s why I don’t drink. Y’all know I get way too chatty, as this one can tell you.” I chuck a thumb at Lia, who found out about me and Luca sleeping together a couple of years after the fact one miserably drunken night. “That shit’s truth serum.”
As the girls recount the handful of times they’ve seen me drunk, a sobering realization pops into my mind. Holy fuck, did I say something to Luca about my feelings when I was drunk? He never mentioned anything, but maybe he was trying to save me some embarrassment. I internally groan. What if I told him I never got over him? That the last time I was underneath a man was the night I told him I loved him?
I need to ask Aaron and see what in the hell I said and did when we got back from that rave.
And never, ever let alcohol pass these lips again.
“Girls, I need you all to promise me something.” I start, my voice taking on a much more serious tone. “I need you all to promise that no matter how long it takes me, you’ll respect the fact that I will go on dates when I’m ready. I don’t need you creating fake profiles for me or arranging some…interesting party favors in my bedroom. When I’m ready, you’ll know.”
The girls put their dishes on the tray as Eden replies, “We just want to see you happy, Ev. We didn’t mean to add insult to injury. It was all done in good fun.”
Their expressions are full of pity, which I normally hate, but I know deep down, everything they do is with the best of intentions. “I know, and I love you all for wanting that, but I need a choice in the matter.”
“No interference…unless solicited. Got it,” Addy chirps as Eden nods. But Lia is notably silent.
I prepare to say something about it, but Eden stands up and dusts her hands on her pants. “Ladies, we need to get moving. Lia, text us as soon as you finish getting ready. And Ev?”
My eyebrow raises in question.
“Make sure you use plenty of lube for your new friend.” Her laugh echoes along with the girls as I throw my cherry condom sundae topper toward her. She catches it midair and brings it up to examine. “Suddenly, I’m in the mood for a big ol’ cherry popsicle.” With a sly grin, she slides it in her back pocket and winks at me.
“More like a cherry mansicle,” Addy adds, tossing hers into the front pocket of her jeans.
Eden and Addy make their way out to go back to their own apartments as Lia follows me into the kitchen. “So, what did Luca want to talk to you about that was so all-fired important?”
I busy myself with putting the dishes in the sink and rinsing off the neon Goliath, trying not to meet her stare as I figure how and where to let this bastard dry off. Shockingly, they don’t make a dedicated spot on dish drainers for air-drying your dildos. “Kieran had some things to tell me, but since he’s on assignment right now, he sent his whipping boy to do his dirty work. By the way, did you loan him your key for my place?”
Her eyes scrunch. “No, why?”
“Because I found them”—I nod my head toward the countertop where they sit—“when I was putting together my little surprise for you all.”
She blows a raspberry. “That jackass. He came over last night and waited for you to get back until it was time for us to go to bed. As many times as he checked the peephole, I figured he’d wait outside in his car. Not gonna lie, I was kind of hoping you and your date were hittin’ it off so well, that you wouldn’t come back until morning and teach him a lesson.”
I furrow my brows. “And what lesson would that be?”
“That you’re not going to wait around forever on him.”
Putting some dish detergent on my dry sponge, I set it where the spigot will stream water soon. “Lia, did you know Gia’s his fiancée?” I wait for an answer that never comes, which answers my question anyway. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She exhales softly. “Ev, what good would it have done? It would've only hurt you more, and I’m hoping that someone will open his pretty hazel eyes and see that he’s about to make the biggest mistake of his life before he ruins more than just his own.” Even though I can’t see her facial expressions, I get the feeling she’s not just talking about Luca and Gia. “But I promise you, I did not invite her and her father to the baptism. That was my parents’ doing.” Her eyes roll in disapproval.
I turn on the faucet, let
ting the sink fill with enough warm water to wash our bowls and plates from this morning, which gets me to thinking about who cooked breakfast. Ugh. I need to redirect this path of conversation before we tumble down this road any further. “How did it feel to have them there?”
Lia perches her arms on the island. “I honestly don’t know how to feel. I still hate my father for the way he treated me over Giacomo, then kicked me out on my ass when I decided enough was enough. But deep down…” She takes a big breath. “I still want my parents to love me.” My best friend has grown into such a kick-ass woman, but that eighteen-year-old girl who’s afraid to disappoint her parents still lives deep within. Her laugh is watery and rueful. “That’s ridiculous, isn’t it?”
I shut off the water and let the heated suds get busy while I join her at the island. “Not at all. I’ve had kids in class before who were in foster homes because their parents were abusive assholes, yet had breakdowns because they missed Mommy and Daddy.” It still amazes me that no matter how badly a person can treat another, the mistreated person so often puts up with more shit than they should because they crave approval and respect from the person mistreating them, whether or not they realize it. “I think it’s hard-wired in us all to want our parents’ love and acceptance, no matter if they’re deserving of it or not. Because it’s not about them being worthy, it’s about us needing to feel valued. So, you feel however you need to feel, because Magnolia Marie, you’re pretty damn special. And your parents are lucky you’re even willing to think about letting them back into your life when you have every right to slam that door of opportunity in their faces.” I take my thumb and brush away a stray tear that’s fallen on her cheek.
Her eyes are glassy as she looks at me. “Thank you. I…I really needed to hear that.” We embrace like we have so many times before in our long history as friends. She wipes away another tear and glances up at my kitchen clock. “I’d better go.”
She grabs her keys and strides to the door, standing in the threshold after it opens. “Ev? You know I love you and only want what’s best for you, right?”
