Never Say Never

by Taylor Holloway

  Never Say Never

  Taylor Holloway

  Contents

  Also by Taylor Holloway

  Thanks for reading!

  Prologue

  1. Charlie

  2. Eva

  3. Charlie

  4. Eva

  5. Charlie

  6. Eva

  7. Charlie

  8. Eva

  9. Charlie

  10. Eva

  11. Charlie

  12. Eva

  13. Charlie

  14. Eva

  15. Charlie

  16. Eva

  17. Charlie

  18. Eva

  19. Charlie

  20. Eva

  21. Charlie

  22. Eva

  23. Charlie

  24. Eva

  25. Charlie

  26. Eva

  27. Charlie

  28. Eva

  29. Charlie

  30. Eva

  31. Charlie

  32. Eva

  33. Charlie

  34. Eva

  35. Charlie

  36. Eva

  37. Charlie

  38. Eva

  39. Charlie

  40. Eva

  41. Charlie

  42. Eva

  43. Charlie

  44. Eva

  45. Charlie

  46. Eva

  47. Charlie

  Epilogue - Eva

  Epilogue - Charlie

  Epilogue - Eva

  Exclusive Teaser: ‘Bleeding Heart’

  Bleeding Heart Chapter 1

  Bleeding Heart Chapter 2

  Bleeding Heart Chapter 3

  Bleeding Heart Chapter 4

  Bleeding Heart Chapter 5

  Author’s Note

  Also by Taylor Holloway

  Thanks for reading!

  Also by Taylor Holloway

  Suggested Reading Order

  Prequel to Scions of Sin

  Never Say Never - Charlie

  Scions of Sin

  Bleeding Heart - Alexander

  Kiss and Tell - Nathan

  Down and Dirty - Nicholas

  Lost and Found - David (Coming Soon)

  Thanks for reading!

  I hope you enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed writing it! I specialize in creating rich, fascinating escapes, where the heroes and heroines bring out the very best and worst in each other, and where the endings are always satisfying. HEA all the way.

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  Visit my home on the interweb:

  http://www.taylorholloway.com

  Prologue

  “Is it always this hot here?” The Duke campus was shaded by tall, leafy trees, but the North Carolina sun was relentless. It was ninety-two degrees and ungodly humid at eleven A.M.; I already regretted wearing lace.

  “No. Usually it’s really nice in May. We’re having a heatwave.” My brother, Dylan, fanned himself with the program from his commencement ceremony as we stood outside his dorm. “It’s a pretty campus though, right?”

  “Yes, it’s really beautiful.” Everything looked old and grand, like the old-world buildings in Belgium, where we grew up. We had lived our entire childhoods on a stark military base, just waiting for those moments when we could get out and enjoy the city. And like Belgium, Duke’s campus welcomed us with immense beauty and charm.

  “I’m sorry I can’t take you on the tour myself,” Dylan told me.

  I looked at his cast, which extended from ankle to thigh on his right leg, and then at his wheelchair.

  “It’s probably better if you just try to rest.”

  My stupid brother managed to get run over by a golf cart. A freakin’ golf cart. He told everyone, including our own father, that he was in a “car accident”, but I knew the shameful, hilarious truth. He got wasted during a celebratory golf outing with some of his fellow law school graduates, and they decided to play “bumper carts”. When another cart slammed into his, he flew out of his seat into a small rocky creek.

  That was some real mature, valedictorian behavior right there. I was holding off on teasing him for now, but once he wasn’t in so much pain, I had every intention of never letting him forget.

  “Charlie said he would take you around to see the sights instead. Are you cool with that?”

  My heart fluttered in my chest and I nodded. Hopefully my blush was hidden by the shade from my floppy sun hat.

  Dylan pointed at Charlie coming down the path. “Great. Here he comes now. I’m gonna’ go soak up some air conditioning. You wouldn’t believe how badly this thing itches when I sweat. And I Can’t. Ever. Scratch. It.”

  “Maybe not, but I can smell it from here. It reeks like your old gym bag.”

  Dylan made an incredulous face that slowly morphed into horrified embarrassment as I stared at him with a straight face. His eyes got huge behind his thick glasses.

  “Wait, can you?” He leaned forward and tried to sniff the plaster.

  I giggled, and he scowled.

  “Brat.”

  “You should probably Febreze it though, just to be on the safe side.”

  “I’m just going to wheel myself away now with whatever dignity as I have left. Have fun on your tour.” He made an awkward four-point turn back toward his dorm as Charlie approached.

  “What’s up with Dylan?” Charlie asked me.

  I shrugged. Being around Charlie tended to render me speechless.

  “He’s concerned about his foul body odor,” I blurted, loud enough for Dylan to hear it. Still facing away from us, my brother flipped the bird.

  “I’m so glad you said something, so I wouldn’t have to,” Charlie said just as loudly, playing along.

  Dylan wheeled his chair faster toward the door. If a wheelchair can locomote in a petulant fashion, his was practically throwing a temper tantrum. We watched him go for a second before turning to one another. I felt myself staring, but I couldn’t stop. I’d never wanted anyone like I wanted my brother’s best friend. I’d seen him plenty of times before, but every time felt like the first time.

  He was tall, much taller than me, and his face was stubborn, strong, and handsome. I’d seen models that couldn’t boast Charlie’s defined jaw, straight nose, and prominent cheek bones. I could easily imagine him being a bit too pretty and delicate as a teenager and growing into his face more properly in his twenties. Now mature, it suited him perfectly. There was nothing fragile about his looks. Even his inquisitive brown eyes were a warm, vivid color. The way he filled out his clothes suggested that his body wasn’t that of a timid library-dweller, either. We’d never been alone together before and my body felt electric.

  The silent moment lengthened until Charlie cleared his throat and stood up straight.

  “So, Eva, welcome to Duke University. I’m Charlie Townsend and I’ll be your tour guide this morning.” His voice was overly dramatic; we’d known each other since Dylan started law school when I was sixteen and he was twenty-two. He was just joking when he offered me his arm, but I took it anyway. His eyes widened at my touch, but he kept up his act. “What would you like to see first? The library? The dorms? We have a wide variety of student amenities.”

  “I want to see where the cool kids hang out,” I told him, leaving my palm in the crook of his arm as we started to walk, and feeling giddy and grown up to have his attention. I wasn’t usually this bold, but it felt nice.

  Charlie smirked at my answer. “I’m probably the wrong guide for you in that case. I’ve never been a cool kid.”

  “I find that hard to believe.” The words were out of my mouth before I thought about them, but then I felt myself flushing. Charlie’s dark eyes flashed to my face as if to see if I was teasi
ng him. I wasn’t. I thought Charlie was pretty much the coolest person in the world. A smile threatened at the corners of his mouth but didn’t quite win out.

  “How about we start at the student union?”

  “That works for me. Lead on, Mr. Townsend.”

  Charlie quickly proved to be a very capable tour guide. I doubted that Dylan knew, for instance, that the Duke gardens were a full fifty-five acres of landscaped woodlands planted over in the 1930’s what was originally a failed artificial lake.

  “Did you have a work-study job as a campus guide or something? You really seem to know your stuff,” I remarked as we walked paths lined with lavishly planted iris and tulip beds.

  The tips of Charlie’s ears turned pink. “I may have Googled a few things when Dylan asked me to show you around for him. I pretty much spent the last three years living in the law library. I didn’t want to disappoint you.”

  Just walking around with him was more than enough for me. “I don’t think you could disappoint me,” I said honestly, staring at the flowers because I couldn’t meet his eyes.

  “Do you still think you want to continue with the nursing track in the fall?” he asked, changing the subject.

  I nodded and shrugged.

  “You wouldn’t rather be a doctor? They make a lot more money.”

  “I’m not doing it to make money.”

  “Sure, but you have to consider that as a factor.”

  “I know. But nurses do pretty well financially. They aren’t rich or anything but they’re solidly upper middle class.”

  “I suppose. I would worry about the respect factor, too. Don’t doctors get treated better?”

  “Respect is earned. My mom was a nurse in the army, and you had better believe no one with half a brain disrespected her. Doctors are great and all, but I want to actually spend time with my patients. I like the idea of interacting with people and making them feel better.”

  “Yeah, but you have to touch poop,” Charlie said simply. By the look on his face, he clearly thought it ought to disqualify the entire profession from my consideration. Spoken like a man who’d never changed a diaper. I’d babysat plenty of not-so-potty-trained kids in my time. Touching poop isn’t pleasant, but it also isn’t the end of the world.

  I shrugged.

  “What about blood, phlegm, sweat, mucous, bile, semen? You really want to mess with those all day?” he said with a teasing smile, as if testing my resolve.

  “Bring it on.” I giggled again, and Charlie shook his head in horror. He had a notoriously male reaction to anything gross. Men are such babies about blood. He’d been with Dylan during the catastrophic golfing accident and apparently threw up when he saw Dylan’s tibia.

  “No. Gross… you know we better change subject before your brother pops out from behind a bush and beats me up with his crutches for saying the word ‘semen’.” He looked around as if to verify that Dylan was not following us.

  “I do know what semen is, you know,” I told Charlie. “I’m nineteen years old. I just finished taking Anatomy and Physiology. I bet I know way more about ejaculate than you do.” Charlie turned a laugh into a strangled cough. His face was slightly purple by the time he quieted.

  “Are you trying to kill me?”

  “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”

  He shook his head and looked me up and down. “I think you do. I think you know exactly what you’re doing. You’re trying to get me murdered by Dylan by thinking about you that way.”

  We kept walking, rounding a garden path until we came to a small pond.

  “Look!” I cried, pointing to a momma duck and her eight, little yellow babies walking behind her. “Aren’t they cute? This is the best part of the tour so far.”

  Charlie smiled at me. He looked vaguely proud of himself. “I thought you’d like them. They just hatched last week. I saw them while I was running last night. Dylan said you liked baby animals.”

  “Charlie, all girls like baby animals. Plus, what’s not to like? They’re so tiny and fluffy!”

  “I’ll keep that in mind for future dates.”

  I felt a pang of jealousy at the thought of Charlie dating someone else, and my joy at seeing the ducklings quickly faded. His voice sounded distracted, as if he were thinking of someplace he’d rather be. Or someone else he’d rather be with. I wondered if he took all his dates to see the stupid ducks—not that we were on a date; I was just his friend’s kid sister he got stuck babysitting.

  “Well we should probably get back to Dylan, huh?” I suggested, pulling my hand out of his arm and waiting for him to direct us back toward the dorms.

  “I guess so.” He didn’t seem to know what to say to me after that.

  We continued our walk back in silence. I didn’t know what to say to get us back to the teasing and flirting. I just stayed quiet. Charlie seemed to be deep in thought as well.

  “Hey Charlie!” The young man who’d called out hopped off a bicycle to fist bump a greeting. “Great speech today. Congratulations.”

  “Thanks Cameron, I’m just glad I made it through without any burping or swearing or spontaneous vomiting. There were so many ways for me to humiliate myself.”

  Dylan and Charlie had graduated as valedictorian and salutatorian of their law school class, respectively. I’d thought their speeches were great as well.

  “Well you can rest easy. You nailed it. Aren’t you going to introduce me to your lady friend?” Cameron asked, looking at me curiously.

  I looked at Charlie with just as much curiousness. Cameron wasn’t really my type—a bit too nerdy—but a pang of unexplainable anxiety hit me as I waited for Charlie’s response.

  “Eva, this is Cameron Isaac. He just graduated with us. Cameron, this is Eva. She’s not my date. She’s Dylan’s little sister and is transferring in the fall. I’m just showing her around.”

  Even though everything he said was the truth, I didn’t love the way Charlie was distancing himself from me. Like I was somehow shameful or gross.

  Cameron didn’t seem to think I was repellent or taboo at all.

  “Nice to meet you, Eva.” I felt his eyes crawl up my body, taking in my blue lace dress and lingering on my exposed arms and legs, as well as my chest. He was very openly checking me out.

  “Nice to meet you, too.” My voice was less enthusiastic than his, but he didn’t look put off by my lukewarm response.

  “Well we need to get going Eva,” Charlie said abruptly. I waved politely to Cameron and turned away.

  “Wait,” Cameron said before we walked off. We turned back. “Eva, if you’ve got the time do you want to grab some dinner this evening?”

  Was he really asking me out just like that?

  My lips parted in surprise, but before I could answer or even consider the offer, Charlie was already replying.

  “She can’t, Cameron. She and Dylan have plans tonight and she flies home tomorrow morning.” Charlie’s voice was cold.

  Cameron smiled as if unconcerned. “Oh well. It was nice meeting you Eva. See you later Charlie. Congratulations again on the speech.”

  He jumped back on his bicycle and rode off.

  “You should have let me answer for myself,” I told Charlie as soon as Cameron was out of sight. I was angry now. “I’m a grown woman. I don’t need your help.”

  “I was just—” he started.

  “Being an asshole,” I finished furiously. “Do me a favor and lay off the paternalistic bullshit. I get plenty of that from Dylan and my dad.”

  We were close enough to the dorm now that I knew my way back. I stormed off down the footpath, nearly shaking with anger.

  “Eva wait!” Charlie ran to catch up with me.

  “I can find my own way back.”

  “Just wait. I’m sorry.”

  “Just because you don’t like me doesn’t mean no one else will.”

  “Eva, please.”

  I stopped and let him catch up to me before turning. We stared at one anoth
er, my angry scowl boring holes into his shocked expression for a few heartbeats.

  “I like you,” Charlie said finally. I blinked in surprise.

  I tried to find something snappy and witty to say, but all my anger had vanished and been replaced by shock. Charlie liked me?! There was only one thing to say in response.

  “I like you too.”

  He reached out carefully, like he thought I might break, stepping closer and angling my face up to his. When he kissed me, I closed my eyes and melted into him, wrapping my arms around his waist and yielding completely when his tongue flicked into my mouth. I kissed him back tentatively and then with urgency. I wanted to invade his mouth like he’d invaded mine and take up all his attention the way he’d captured mine. But he pulled back much too soon.

  “This would never work,” he said, still holding me and looking down at me. “I wish it could, but it won’t.” His hands dropped away, and with them, my hopes.

  “Why?” I at least deserved to know why.

  “You’re nineteen, I’m almost thirty.”

  “That’s not really so unusual.”

  “You’re just starting at Duke, and I’m leaving for Philly in three days.”