Page 26 of Forever Wild
“Still time to drive back and meet up with him.”
Her mask slips ever so slightly. She might want to play it off like I’m keeping her here, but I’m not. She chose to stay here tonight, and she wouldn’t have if she really wanted to be fucking Will.
Not that any of that gives me the right to be an asshole. I can’t seem to stop myself lately. And Everly doesn’t deserve that. This is why I’ve spent all summer alone. No one should be subjected to me in this state.
Standing, I’m glad that my knee seems to be feeling better so I can walk away from this conversation and leave her in peace.
“You can have the guest room upstairs. Second door on the right. Across from mine,” I add since she seems to have found that one just fine.
“You don’t want dinner?”
“I’m not hungry.”
9
FORTRESS OF SADNESS
EVERLY
I sleep like shit. It’s not the weird house, but the fact that Jack is sleeping across the hall. What a strange day yesterday was.
At a little after five, I give up and decide I might as well do something. After pulling on a pair of sweatpants I found in Jack’s room last night, I quietly open the door. His bedroom door is closed, so I tiptoe down the stairs. The TV is on and there’s a blanket and pillow like someone slept on the couch, but no one is in sight.
I come up short in the kitchen. The man in front of me looks more like Jack than I realized yesterday. With his eyes clear and coloring back in his face, it’s like looking at Jack in thirty years.
“Hi,” I say when he looks up from over his coffee mug. There’s no recollection in his expression, which tells me he probably doesn’t remember much of yesterday. “I’m Everly. A friend of Jack’s.”
“Well, this is a treat. I can’t remember the last time Jackson brought a girl home.” He slowlylowers the mug.
Jackson? That’s fun. I file that information away for later.
“We’re just friends,” I clarify. “My brother is one of his teammates.” And because I can’t seem to stop justifying why I’m here, I add, “Jack was letting me use the pool at his house yesterday and asked me to give him a ride.”
“Friendly, accommodating…are you sure you’re talking about my Jackson?” A tiny quirk of a smile lifts one side of his mouth.
I didn’t even realize how tense I was around him until a laugh bubbles up in my chest. Moving farther into the kitchen with him, I nod. “He has his moments.”
“That he does.” He lifts his mug again. “You want some coffee?”
“Yeah. That’d be great.”
He starts to stand, wobbling a bit as he does. I wave him off. “I can get it.”
I cross over to the coffee pot as he settles back in his chair.
“Mugs are in the cabinet to the right. Half and half is in the door of the fridge and sugar is on the table.”
Finding it, I pull down a Wildcat Hockey mug that looks well-loved with a chipped handle and a scratch over the logo. Once I have my drink, I take it to the table and sit across from him.
I’m staring, unabashedly. His expression is softer than his son’s, friendlier but also warmer.
“It’s a little unnerving how much you two look alike,” I say.
“Don’t let him hear you say that. He’s spent a lot of his life doing everything he can to not be like his old man.”
Before I can question him about that, though I have no idea what I’d even ask, he lobs one at me. “What do you do, Everly?”
“I just graduated college, so nothing yet.”
