Page 109 of An Inconvenient Marriage
Because I couldn’t wait to see her, and I seriously needed to squeal to someone about this.
“I know, right?” Spinning around, I leaned my butt against the edge of the wood and folded my arms in front of my chest. “I have everything I need and more.”
A long, drawn-out whistle blew over her lips. “That you do.” She did another three-sixty before sidling in beside me. “So you really have no excuse not to put your name up for Aurulia’s internship.”
My head was shaking before she’d made it halfway through her sentence. “I’m not—”
“Don’t you dare say you’re not ready or qualified. You are.” She reached behind me and grabbed the sketch I’d started working on while I was waiting for her this morning. Shoving it toward me, she firmly said, “You have something very few people have, Nat.”
“What?”
“Raw talent.” Twisting the book back toward her, she flipped through the pages. “It’s your time now. Don’t let an opportunity go to waste because you don’t see what we see.” Her gaze met mine. “And yes, I meant we. Zach wouldn’t have given you this if he didn’t believe in you.”
Setting my sketchpad down, she gripped me by the shoulders and squeezed. “Don’t you think it’s time you believe in yourself, too?”
My eyes slid to this morning’s sketch, then slowly scanned everything in the room before finally settling on Everlee again. I always thought she supported me because she was my best friend and it was kind of a given.
But there, burning inside the green of her irises, I saw it. She didn’t support me out of loyalty or even pity, she genuinely believed I had what it took to make it.
“What’s the worst thing she could do? Say no. Nat, you’ve been through far worse than someone saying no and you’re still standing. Stronger than ever, I might add.”
“Evie.” My voice cracked, and unshed tears stung the backs of my eyes. “I’m only standing because you’ve kept me upright all the times I couldn’t do it myself. You’re seriously the best friend anyone could ever ask for.”
We threw our arms around each other at the same time. We hugged and cried for I didn’t even know how long. It was Everlee who pulled away first.
With a sniffle, she wiped under her eyes. “All right, enough mushiness for one day. You have beans to spill, and I need to see the rest of this freaking outrageously gorgeous mansion.”
Almost thirty minutes later, I had not spilled beans of any kind, but we did thoroughly explore Zach’s home. And even though I’d seen most of it when we’d arrived, it was all so different during the day.
It was bright and beautiful, and the view from where we were sitting on the couch that overlooked the pool was absolutely stunning.
“Man, I’m glad I’m not a window cleaner,” Everlee suddenly said. “Can you imagine having to clean all this?” Sweeping her arm over the wall of windows, she shook her head. “It probably takes days just to do the first floor.”
I hummed because she had a point, but windows weren’t really what I wanted to talk about. “All we’ve done since you got here is talk about me and we barely texted these past couple of weeks—”
“Yeah, because you werepreoccupied.”
Even though my cheeks heated, I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading. Everlee might not have known any details, but it took her three seconds to figure out I’d slept with Zach. And three more for her to tell me I had a sex glow.
Which I probably had, since Zach had thoroughly rocked my world before he’d left this morning.
“Yes, I was.” I swatted her arm playfully. “And what were you up to?”
She pulled a face and shrugged. “I’ve been good, I guess. Anthony got a job at some snazzy magazine, and even though I’m thrilled for him, we don’t see each other as often as we used to.”
“That sucks.” I put my hand on hers. “Not the job, but not seeing him.” I paused for a moment, then forced out the one question I’d been too afraid to ask. “How are your mom and dad doing?”
Everlee rolled her bottom lip over her teeth. Dread slowly sank into the pit of my stomach as tendrils of fear embedded their claws into me. I needed these people to be okay. I needed it more than I needed my next breath.
“They decided to move to Portsmouth. My mother and aunt are thinking of starting a catering business with the money they’ve saved up. And just to be safe, Cece enrolled there, too.”
This was good and bad news. If they weren’t here, my father couldn’t do anything to harm them or their business. But it also meant Everlee didn’t have them close by anymore either.
“Why didn’t you tell me this when we were texting?”
Fidgeting with her fingers, she scrunched her nose. “It sounded like you were having a good time, and I didn’t want to spoil it. Besides, you never know who’s really seeing the things you send out, and I didn’t want to risk your dad finding out where they were going.”
Well, that made sense. I still hated that she had to say goodbye to them alone.
