Page 7 of Play For Keeps

I want to kiss them.

And now I’m thinking about where else I would like that pretty mouth.

I run a hand through my hair. Why am I so fucking curious about this girl? I may as well ask for her goddamn Instagram handle, that’s how intent I am on finding out every single thing about her. This is fucking ridiculous.

“Is Reed Point home?” I ask.

“It is now,” she nods, twisting a bracelet she’s wearing around her wrist. “We moved here in March.”

“What brought you to Reed Point?”

“I was ready for a change” she says, and again I can see there is more that she doesn’t want to open up about. “And my parents live here, so it will be good for Birdie to spend time with them.”

I resist the urge to ask her more. I want to know where home was, and what really made her move here. But it doesn’t feel like it’s my business. I don’t want to scare Everly off. I already get the sense that there is an invisible timer ticking down the seconds of our conversation. Sure enough, a second later our time’s up.

“Well, we should get going. It was nice talking to you, Jake.”

I stand up, brushing the sand from my legs. A voice inside my head tells me I should walk away—she’s not interested, she has a kid. Read the writing on the wall, Jake. But a bigger part of me needs to take the chance. To get her number, to keep talking. There is still so much I want to know about her.

“Yeah, I guess I should head out too. Hey, Everly, do you think we could—”

“Jake, it was really nice to meet you,” she interrupts. “You seem like a nice guy.” Fuck. Nice guy. I know a brush-off when I hear one. Everly gives me an apologetic smile and I know what’s coming. She’s not interested. “My focus is Birdie right now. It’s just the two of us and it’s… complicated.”

I nod. “Yeah, of course.” But as I say it, I take note of the way Everly’s gaze rakes over my chest and down to my board shorts, appreciation in her eyes.

“Birdie, time to go!” she calls, bending to gather their blanket and shake the sand off of it. I watch her, wishing there was something I could say to change her mind. But I know I don’t stand a chance.

Everly is the first girl I’ve felt a spark with since Jade. I’m hooked and she’s not interested. Fuck my life.

“See you around, Everly.”

“See you around.”

Birdie appears beside us, and Everly wraps a towel around her shoulders and then picks up her bag. She gives me a little wave and I watch as the two of them walk to the road, trying to ignore the feeling that I just missed out on something good.

THREE

YOU CAN’T MISS THE OBVIOUS BULGE

Everly

Six hours after falling into bed after my night shift at the restaurant, I wake to the sound of my alarm clock blaring from my bedside table. I groan and force myself to get up, my legs still sore from being on my feet serving tables all night.

I’m exhausted, but six hours will have to do. I need to get Birdie up and fed so she isn’t late for school.

I pad down the hall to her room. The house is quiet, Birdie still sound asleep, and as I quietly push her bedroom door open, my heart sighs when I look at her perfect little sleeping face.

She looks even younger when she’s asleep, so tiny and innocent. My heart aches. I wish she didn’t have to go through any of this. I wish I didn’t have to uproot her from the life she knew, from her home and her friends and the routine that felt safe and familiar. I feel a rush of anger at my ex for making it impossible to stay with him. He made it impossible for us to be a family.

I am partly to blame for the way our marriage imploded. I was a fool for believing Grant loved me when he had been upfront with me from the very first day we met. He told me he wasn’t looking for anything serious, that he didn’t ”do” relationships. But to me, it always felt like more. It felt like the kind of whirlwind romance you read about. Grant called and texted me all day, every day. He took me on dates to nice restaurants, introduced me to his friends. We slept at each other’s apartments almost every night. We even cuddled after sex. It felt like we were in a serious relationship, but as I was falling hard for him, he was falling hard for half of Brookmont. Behind my back.

I was young, and maybe I was just being naïve. I overlooked his character because I was enamoured with his charm. My friends were all in happy, committed relationships, and I was happy to have someone who paid attention to me, who showed interest. Grant had made me feel less alone.

He was handsome and smart and came from a wealthy family. Everyone in Brookmont knew the Billings, for better or for worse.

His parents seemed to like me well enough until they found out I was pregnant. As soon as that news broke, they told him to drop me. They were convinced I got pregnant on purpose to trap Grant. In their words, “A girl like that only wants one thing with a guy like you. Money.”

To Grant’s credit, he defended me at first, but his family’s accusations cut deep. I could get over being called a gold digger, but I couldn’t understand how they could so easily just toss their own grandchild aside. They quickly decided I wasn’t good for Grant, and over time he seemed to agree. At the very least, I wasn’t enough for him. He thought he could have his cake and eat it too—me waiting for him when he came home, and whoever else he wanted when he went out. It went on like that for years. Finally, I stopped trying and accepted the fact that he didn’t want me. When I suggested a divorce, he didn’t argue. I stayed at the house for a long time— too long probably—to make the transition easier on Birdie.

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