Everett Holden had sworn to live the rest of his life a single man, but his plans are disrupted when he finds himself sharing an apartment with his best friend's ex - the one woman he detests with every fiber of his being yet simultaneously desires...
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I'm not sure how I wound up here.
Maybe the overwhelming budding of emotions crawling up my throat led me outside this door. Perhaps the pain coursing through my heart, unrelenting and unwavering, drew me to seek out more. Or maybe, just maybe, it's because Emery was right about me. I'm giving into my demons, and right now, they're swallowing me whole.
My suitcase is beside me as I stand and wait for someone to answer, the burning again forming in my eyes. I've already cried enough tonight, and I'm about to cry more. Just great.
The door swings open, and my Dad blinks twice when he sees me standing there, almost as if he thinks he's in some sort of dream. "Everett?" He glances behind him into the darkness of the room. "Your mother is asleep already. We left not too long after Emery."
"I know, I..." I run a hand over my hair, wondering what the hell I've gotten myself into. "I'm here to see you, actually. To talk."
"Me?"
I nod.
"Uh, yeah. Sure. Of course. Come around the balcony. Some chairs overlook the water there."
Following his broad shoulders around the corner of the hut much bigger than mine, torches cast a golden glow over the gentle lapping of the waves, easing the crushing pain in my heart and all the nervous energy stirring in my chest. I sit beside him, letting the silence overwhelm us, and in that silence, everything comes racing back.
Emery was right. My insecurities—my demons got the best of me. Things between us were going too smoothly. They seemed too good to be true. And when Liam showed up, I let the insecurities that took root so many years ago when I was only a child overpower all my rationality. I've never been chosen. I've never been put first. My Dad chose football over me, and regardless of how stupid that sounds, it's how I felt, and I'm afraid Emery is doing the same thing. I was scared of being put in second place again, so I left before it could happen.
I only have myself to blame.
But sitting here in silence isn't going to change anything. Regardless of whether Emery will ever forgive me, I'm so tired of holding onto something from when I was seven. It's festered for too long. If I don't talk about this now, I'm worried about who I'll become ten years in the future.
With the wind blowing a few curls off my forehead, I inhale a deep breath of air laced with sea salt and lean back in the chair. "You missed my seventh birthday," I whisper.
He tilts his head to the side, allowing me to continue, but the regret is evident in his features. The fact that he knows exactly what I'm referring to is clear that this has weighed on him, too.
"We were supposed to go to the zoo, and you missed it. And maybe it sounds ridiculous, but it mattered to me. You promised you'd be there. To other people, maybe they would have understood that you had interviews to attend after winning a championship, but I was only seven, and I hardly saw you as it was. I..." My bottom lip trembles as I try to hold myself together. "I needed you there.
