Page 292 of Hide and Keep

“Munreaux.”

I step forward and pull Ever’s wrist back, ending the handshake.

Both my parents alternate their gazes between me, my girlfriend, and the hand I just took out of my own father’s grasp.

I don’t explain myself or apologize. Blood relation or not, he shouldn’t have held on to my girl’s hand for so long.

Finally, my dad clears his throat, and says, “Beautiful, uh, motorcycles…I hear.”

I almost fucking groan. Jesus.

“Yeah. Um, thanks. Although, I don’t have anything to do with that.” She laughs.

Imagining Ever designing motorcycles is pretty funny. In all the drawings I’ve seen of hers, not one of them was a motorcycle. She’s a nature girl. Not an engine, cogs, and motor oil girl. What the hell was Arthur thinking trying to make her head of Munreaux Motorcycles?

Maybe he’s dying and doesn’t have any other choice.

One can hope.

“You would’ve if your dad had his way,” I mutter to her before announcing, “Ever’s staying with us for a while.”

“No?” she says in that way of hers that sounds more like a question than it should. “I’m not.”

I swing a frown her way. “Where else are you gonna go?”

She side-eyes my parents and lowers her voice for no real reason other than shame, obviously, because she says, “I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.”

“I’ll save you the trouble. You’re staying here.”

“But—”

I cut her off with our usual, “You’re welcome,” before she can get another word out. Over my dead body is she staying somewhere else.

Her foot stomp makes me chuckle, mainly because her foot is so small it doesn’t make any noise whatsoever.

I press a kiss to the top of her head. Such a cute little creep.

“You’re welcome to stay as long as you want, Ever,” my mom says with a soft smile before squeezing past us to go to the kitchen. “We were planning on having a beach day. Would you two care to join us?”

“A day at the beach sounds nice.” The job search can wait. I’ve never had difficulty finding myself a new job. And Ever…could use some fun right now. A little sun wouldn’t hurt either. We’ve been spending way too much time indoors. The tan she got from Florida last month is long gone, replaced with an almost sickly pallor to her skin.

“The beach? We can go there?” Ever asks me.

“Yeah. It’s right down the road,” I say, a little confused. “It’s not private or anything, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“It’s not that. I just…” She shakes her head. “I’ve never been to the beach here.”

I turn to follow my dad, and Ever shadows me.

“You have a beachfront house.”

“We have a bay view house. We live too high up to go to the beach.”

“But…Sea Haven is a coastal town. There are beaches everywhere.”

“None that I’ve been to. My father said the beaches here were—” She glances toward my parents. “Uh…you know.”

Oh. Right. Arthur’s belief that it reeks down here.

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