Evolve Series (Complete Box Set)

by S. E. Hall

  He’s looking at the ground when I crack open the door, but slowly his head lifts and his soulful brown eyes move to mine.

  “Dane, did you forget something?”

  “No, but can I come in for a sec?”

  I pull the door open further to allow him entry and then close it behind him, taking a moment for a deep breath before turning to face him. His presence usually puts every sense I have on high alert, but I feel the spark of something even more intoxicating in the air right now.

  He reaches out and takes one of my hands, giving it a light squeeze. “You were on fire tonight. Did you have fun?”

  “I did, a lot. Did you?” Our joined hands hang between us and his thumb rubs across my wrist, so faint it’s almost as though I’m imagining it.

  “I did once I realized you weren’t too mad.” He lets out a sigh, running those long fingers through his dark hair. “I’m sorry Whitley was here, on your bed. She followed Sawyer from their room, looking for me. That’s it.”

  “It’s okay. Pretty sure I got her back.” I shrug, laughing. It was way more fun to slaughter her mercilessly in pong than get catty.

  “That you did, that you did.” He chuckles. “You’re amazing when you loosen up a bit.” One eyebrow touches his hairline. “Did I see Sawyer grab your butt?” A smile tugs at the corner of his mouth, though he’s fighting it.

  “No!” I swat his chest with the back of my hand playfully. “There’s a big difference between grabbing my butt and giving me an ‘atta girl’ slap.”

  “So you’re good? We’re good?” His worried brow is unnecessary so I boldly reach up a finger to smooth it.

  “We’re fine, Dane, I promise.”

  “Can I spend some time with you when you get back?” He runs one finger along my jawline tenderly.

  Do not shiver, Laney. “Okay,” I say, taking a deep breath in hopes my next words come out in a normal octave. “I’ll text you.”

  “Good night, Disney.” His voice is sultry as he leans over to kiss my cheek. “I’ll be waiting.”

  Climbing in to bed, the glow to my cheeks and upturn of my lips can’t be helped. Sleep comes easily and I wake to board the bus just hours later. If I had known what awaited me on the other end of that ride, I would have never gotten on.

  KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE, AND…

  Laney will be here, on my campus, in just a little while. I don’t care if I have to drive her home for missing the bus, we’re going to talk. We agreed making some changes was best for our friendship—what friendship? She hasn’t returned my calls or texts in way too long and I’m going to find out why today. This is unacceptable.

  I pull into the parking lot right behind the bus and wait as girl after girl unloads until finally she comes into view. She’s everything to me. My Laney Jo is ten feet away. She’s even more beautiful than the last time I saw her, if that’s possible. Her hair is pulled back in a ponytail and she’s in ball gear…so sexy.

  Time to figure out just what the hell is going on with her. I jump out of my truck and call, “Laney!”

  She turns to look at me and a gorgeous smile lights up her face. She throws down her bags and runs into my arms. I catch her mid-jump and twirl her around, planting kisses all over her face. There she is—my girl.

  I set her down on her feet, already missing the feel of her in my arms. Once she’s over the initial shock of being near me again after so long, I see her smile fade and she suddenly looks angry. “Evan, why are you here? How did you know?”

  “Kaitlyn doesn’t hold her alcohol very well. She let it slip the other night when she was drunk at a party. I texted you right when she said it, why didn’t you answer? In fact, why didn’t you answer any of my texts, or my calls?” I grip her shoulders and the mere touch helps calm me immediately. “You said you were fine with our decision, Laney, but how does ignoring me protect our friendship? How does it make me feel any better to not talk to you at all?” I’m kinda rambling, and my voice could be kinder, but dammit—it hurts to be ignored by your whole world.

  “Evan, what are you talking about? I haven’t gotten a call or text from you in forever…NOT ONE.” She pokes me in the chest and reduces me to nothing with her glare. “I thought you hated me, or had moved on, or needed time. I would never ignore you, ever, you know that.”

  She holds my eyes as her words linger and the look in them begins to slowly soften. Glancing over her shoulder and back to me, she sighs. “Listen, I gotta get into this clinic; we can talk more after.”

  The look in her eyes tells me she’s not lying. She really didn’t get any of my messages? What does that even mean? “Laney, do you have your phone on you?”

  She hands it to me. “Why?”

  “While you’re in there working, I’m going to take a look and figure out what’s going on, why you didn’t get any of my calls or texts.” I look down, taking a deep breath, not wanting to scare her with the intensity of my frustration. “That’s just crazy, and it killed me.”

  “Oh, okay, I’ll see you after then; maybe you can explain this to me.” She picks up her bag, slinging it over her shoulder. “Cause right now I’m hurt too…and a bit skeptical.” She runs to join her team. Her ponytail bounces and she looks back over her shoulder at me once, gracing me with a small smile.

  I could stand here, in this one spot, for the rest of my life, just waiting for her to give me that exact look again.

  She’ll be in there a while, so I decide to go grab something to eat and figure out this phone thing. I stop at Joe’s, a mom and pop burger joint, and grab a booth in the back. I don’t need anyone bothering me, so I sit with my back to the door. I’ve got to crack this phone and figure out exactly how my life was shattered the last few weeks.

  Obvious step one, I call my phone from Laney’s. I got in on my first guess, my birthday was her code. I smile at that because hers is mine and it just reminds me how we share the same brain. It also reminds me how close it really is to her birthday and I need to get her something special. Something that says “I miss you like oxygen and I’m sorry I left you. Oh, and by the way, girls wake up in my room but I swear I don’t touch them and please don’t leave me or I’ll die.” Something tells me a teddy bear and card won’t cut it. I won’t be able to see her on the day, but I can still let her know how much I love her.

  It rings, but rather than coming up as “My Girl,” or the sound of “Ho Hey” instantly lighting up my day, it comes up as just her number. So I text, same thing. What? Okay, so I call her from my phone, it doesn’t ring. I text from my phone, it doesn’t pop up. I scroll through her contacts, I’m in there. It’s the right number and I smile when I see I’m in as “Babe.” My contact picture is one her dad took of us; I’m giving her a piggy back ride out by the pond.

  So the problem is my phone…I pull her up, open it, and there ya have it—the number is not her number. So when I called or texted her, it didn’t go to her phone; she never got it. And she didn’t call or text me, because not only was there no text to reply to or ring to answer…she thought I was ignoring her. Oh God, my poor girl thought I had just ended all communication with her. Maybe she was one of those random messages with no contact name that I deleted, thinking they were from a clingy Bulldog Babe. No way I’m opening up that can of worms by asking for clarification though. I slam my fist on the table, knocking over the salt and pepper. Too late, salt, the bad luck already hit.

  Leaning my elbows on the table, head in my hands, I rub my temples. My head is throbbing and my chest is tight. l can’t get a full, deep breath. Laney must’ve been so hurt and the thought of her hurting makes me see red. More importantly, who the fuck changed her number in my phone? The only person here that Laney and I have in common is…no way, NO! Kaitlyn is Laney’s best friend! WHY would she do this? Yes, we had an awkward morning, but I thought we were cool about it.

  Is what I’m about to do creepy? Yes, and I feel like an ass, but I pull up the texts between Kaitlyn and Laney. I want to see if anyt
hing in them confirms or refutes my suspicions. I’m really hoping for the latter. Laney adores Kaitlyn and this will cut her deep if true.

  Oh fuck.

  My whole body starts shaking and I have to swallow the burning acid that shoots up my throat. Please don’t let this actually be happening. I’m so screwed. My sweet, sweet girl has seen this. A picture of me doing a tit shot off some blonde. Kaitlyn sent it the night she was “being a good friend” and got me home safely.

  Laney never mentioned it. Laney would never mention it. We broke up, so she thinks I’m entitled to a motorboat with whoever I want and she’ll never go back on her decision. She gave me freedom so we wouldn’t fight, so she won’t berate me about it.

  I deserve to have my ass kicked. If I got a picture of some dude’s face shoved in Laney’s cleavage, I’d find him, kill him, and then check myself into an asylum. I couldn’t handle it, and yet, she had. She’d drawn the image, the hurt, the betrayal inside herself and let me go on about my day.

  Selflessly.

  Staying on the road takes full effort as I drive back to the field to see if Laney’s out yet. I had seen new contacts in her phone and she’s told me about the new people she’s been hanging with at school, but it hurt a little to see four new guys entered. Not nearly as bad as it hurt to think I’d become the slimiest prick she could possibly know.

  I slam my truck in park and rest my forehead against the steering wheel. I just want her to come out and let me make everything better. I want to rewind and be snuggled against her, watching her movies with the smell of her hair all around me and none of this having ever happened. How do I face her? How do I look her in the eye? Do I tell her I know she knows? Do I try to explain? Would she really buy the whole “the team peer pressured me” bit? I wouldn’t.

  I wait a little over an hour until I see her headed my way, bag in hand. She’s captivating. I swear I can see the halo above her golden locks as she ambles towards me. I bolt out of the truck as soon as I see she’s crying, but I don’t pull her into me right away. I don’t have as much right to do that anymore.

  “Coach says I can ride back with you…if you feel like driving all that way. It’s getting late, so I understand if you can’t. If not, I need my phone and I’ve gotta go right now and we can talk that way, if you figured things out with it.” She sniffles and looks down, her shoulders slumping in defeat.

  “Of course I’ll take you. Run and tell your coach, sweetie.”

  She’s back quickly and climbs in through my side as I settle her bag in the back.

  Silently I climb in, trying to decide what I should or shouldn’t say to this precious, forgiving creature beside me. After I pull us onto the main highway we’ll be using for the next several hours, I finally find my voice. “Why you crying, darlin’?”

  “Something’s wrong, Evan, and I hate what I’m thinking. Someone sabotaged me on purpose; someone took away UGA for me.” Her body tenses and she falls silent but for a second, the calm before the storm. “Someone TOOK YOU AWAY FROM ME!” she screams and breaks into full body sobbing.

  I give her a minute to gather herself before I ask questions; she can barely breathe. I may be a sorry bastard, but I can’t just watch her hurt from across the cab. Hesitantly, I place my hand on her thigh, hoping to fuse comfort into her.

  “Laney, what are you talking about? No one took me from you; I’m right here, baby girl. I figured out the phones, we’ll be able to talk now. Just calm down for me, lamb.”

  “Yeah, and what’d you figure out on the phones?”

  “Your number had been changed in mine and I would never think to even look at that, so all the time I was texting and calling you, it was to the wrong number. And you never called me back ‘cause you never got them, so you thought I was ignoring you and I thought you were ignoring me.”

  “And how would my number get changed in your phone, Evan?” Her head whips towards me, nostrils flared and eyes glowing.

  I’ve never seen her so mad.

  “I already know the answer, but I want to hear what you’ve come up with. Just tell me—cause trust me, your shocker is not even close to as big as mine.” She starts shaking, crying again.

  “Laney, there’s only one person at school with me who knows you and would know your birthday to crack my passcode.” Kaitlyn better steer clear of me.

  “Say it—say her name—say out loud who did this to us!” she screams.

  “Kaitlyn. It had to be, Laney, nothing else makes sense.” I hate to say it, Kaitlyn’s her best friend; it’s got to hurt like hell. What the fuck was that bitch up to? Sending a picture, appearing in my room, hacking my phone…why?

  “It hurt so bad, Evan, to think you just took the breakup pass and ran, didn’t care to even talk to me anymore.” Poor angel’s whole body lets out a quiver. “She couldn’t have taken anything more valuable from me than you. She hit where it would hurt the worse. And then, she took more, she just had to twist the knife. I’m surprised she didn’t just kill my dad, that’d have wiped me out completely.” She slams her hands on my dashboard, the most gut-wrenching wail I’ve ever heard coming for her.

  “You’re scaring me, sweetie, what else are you talking about? I fixed the phones, and she’ll never touch mine again…so what aren’t you saying?” Please don’t let her say the picture. Or maybe please let her, it might be better to just get it out in the open, cause Lord knows I’m pussing out on fessing up.

  “Well, you know, I thought it was odd when my good friend and I hadn’t talked in weeks, even weirder when she barely acknowledged me at clinic.” Her head is snapping back and forth now, anger frothing from her. She’s all kinds of worked up and I’d rather throw myself from this moving truck than hear whatever big conclusion she’s leading to.

  “I also found it strange when I went up to her to give her a big hug and venom dripped off her voice when she said my name and the girls around her laughed. But I gotta say…the highlight was when the freaking coach of the college of my freaking dreams, The University of Georgia, told me how sorry he was when he received my declination of his offer.”

  Darting my eyes from the road to her quickly, she’s now slamming one fist into her other flat palm faking a huge grin in sarcasm. “He said he sure had been looking forward to having my big stick in his lineup this year!”

  She’s gone back to crying so hard now I find a safe spot to pull over; I have to hold her.

  “Come here, baby, come here.” I undo her seatbelt and pull her into my lap and hold her. I will all the love and peace I can into her, running my hands up and down her shaking arms, kissing the top of her head, whispering that it will all be okay.

  “She did this, Evan! My best friend, Kaitlyn, who stood by me when my mother didn’t, who helped me pick out my prom dress, who taught me how to put on makeup…she did this to me. I had the scholarship to UGA, Evan! THEY WANTED ME! I WAS GOOD ENOUGH, DAMMIT!”

  I hold her as tight as I can and I literally cannot contain her thrashing.

  “I could have been there with you this whole time! All this heartache, all this damage, all the misery…it was her. No one else would intercept my letter and decline for me. The only people with that kind of access to my life are you, my dad, and her. And the minute he said it, I knew what had happened with the phones, too. She screwed us, Evan, she cost us so much.” Her head and body go limp against mine, exhausted.

  Goddamn that bitch! How could she? WHY would she? Kaitlyn and Laney were so close; she had no reason to want to hurt Laney. It’s not like Laney’s spot would have cost her hers, that was on lock. And why send a picture that will only crush her best friend’s feelings? Laney would never hurt Kaitlyn, so WHY? I could have had Laney at school with me this whole time; holding her, loving her, not being miserable, her not being miserable. How do I solve this? Can I solve this?

  When Laney settles down a bit, I place her back in her seat gently and buckle her up. She’s a bit like a zombie right now. We again set off down the road. �
�Laney, what do we do? Can you still come to UGA?”

  “No, all the scholarships have been given out, Evan. School’s started; the girls who accepted are there. It’s too late. I could have been there with you!” Too tired to cry this time, she drops her chin against her chest, wrapping her arms around herself. “Tell me this isn’t happening; tell me I’m having a nightmare! Why would she do this to me, to us? I guess me coming down here finally cracked her; she knew the coach would say something.”

  I have no idea what to say to her. I can’t believe it myself. I can hardly drive; my hands are throbbing because I’m gripping the steering wheel so tightly. Laney and I were robbed of our happiness, our chance. She had her shot at playing D1 ball stolen by her best friend. Talk about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer.

  Laney’s eyes are closed, her head leaning against the window. I’m sure she’s exhausted from all this and my heart aches for her. All this time she thought she wasn’t good enough, that UGA didn’t think she was good enough, but she was and now there’s nothing she can do about it. She’s been all alone at Southern, and I can’t imagine how hard that is for her, especially when she didn’t have to be there at all.

  Kaitlyn will pay for this. I don’t know how yet, but she will pay.

  Hours later, I pull up to Laney’s campus. I’m not quite sure where I’m going so I’m forced to wake her up. “Laney, baby, where’s your building?”

  She sleepily gets her bearings and guides me to her dorm. When we get there, neither of us move to get out of my truck. We just kinda stare blankly at one another, not sure what to do or say. The ride back was supposed to have been spent talking about why we hadn’t talked and making up…but we’d never been fighting, we’d been brutally tricked. So what do we do now?

  “Laney, I hate to leave you, God, especially like this, but I gotta get headed back. If I miss, I don’t dress out. At least we can talk again now, right?” I try to get a small smile from her, hoping this will make her feel better, but I know it doesn’t; it doesn’t make me feel much better, either.