Page 50 of Wild Ever After
I search for the right words. Everly is eighteen, young and a little naïve. She’s had a hard life growing up with parents who didn’t care for her like they should have. They kicked her out after one too many screw ups and she was forced to live with her brother. She then fell into a shitty relationship with an older boyfriend who freaking hit her. But, somehow, she still has this innocence about love and relationships that I don’t have it in me to squash it by telling her the wedding wasn’t real.
“Ty told me you were doing Jade a favor,” she says, reading my mind, but I don’t see any surprise or judgment on her face at that added bit of news.
Well, shit.
“Actually, Ash let it slip, but Ty and Piper confirmed it. What’s been going on?”
I give her the brief version, ending with, “Please don’t say anything.”
“I would never.” She looks appalled at the suggestion otherwise. “I was really curious why you randomly wanted help picking out a guest bedroom set. Did she like it?”
“Yeah. You have expensive taste, by the way.”
Totally worth it when I saw the look on Jade’s face.
“I figured you were good for it after signing that seven-year contract.” She punches my arm lightly. “Congratulations, again.”
She texted me from a café in Paris when she heard the news. Ev and I are tight. When she came to live with Tyler, I recognized something in her. She was angry and acting out, which is why her mom tossed her out. I knew that feeling though, like your whole life was in front of you but held nothing good.
I was young when I went to live with my grandparents, so my acting out was different, but it stayed a constant in my life until I was about seventeen. My granddad passed suddenly, a heart attack in his sleep, and it shifted things for me. I was still angry, but I realized that I could either hold on to that anger or decide to let it go and see what else there was out there for me.
In some ways, being angry was easier. Living life, that’s hard. If you let people in, they can disappoint and hurt you. I already knew that lesson, but what I learned when my granddad passed was that sometimes people slip past your defenses anyway. I was angry, but I still loved him, and it hurt worse knowing I hadn’t been the kind of grandson I should have been to him. He gave me a chance, and I repaid him by being a shithead.
I shake the thoughts and smile at Everly. “Thanks. Want to see how the place is coming?”
“Definitely.”
I show Everly around the house. She loses interest about five seconds in, and I give up the tour, grab her a Monster energy drink from the fridge, and ask her about the trip. She is animated and excited as she tells me stories and shows me pictures.
She looks different. Her hair is straight and shiny, and she has on a preppy skirt and midriff shirt with spotless white shoes. She’s a far cry from the girl I met almost a year ago in scuffed boots and dark eyeliner. She’s figuring out who she is, finding her place in the world, and it makes me smile. She deserves it.
When she’s done telling me about her trip, she hops down off the counter in my kitchen and says she has to go. As I walk her out, Jack is pulling up.
He gets out of his car and comes up short when he sees me and Ev.
“Hey, Jack,” she says.
He has sunglasses on, hiding his eyes, but a muscle in his cheek flexes at the sight of her. “You’re back.”
“Yeah, late last night,” she says.
He just stares at her.
“It’s good to see you too,” she quips. She rolls her eyes and then waves at me one last time, before jogging across the street to Ash’s house.
Jack watches her go and then turns his attention back to me.
“What’s up?” I ask. Jack and I are old friends, teammates for eight years now, but he’s the kind of guy that shows up with a purpose.
“I’ve been trying to get ahold of you. Have you been online this morning?”
“No. Why?”
“Dude, you and Jade are everywhere.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“The magazine came out today,” he says, and looks at me like I’m supposed to know what that means.
