“Unless you want to walk home, we’re leaving,” Griffin says in his big brother voice, which used to terrify us. Now it’s barely a blip on the radar—but still effective because Brig stands, grumbling something under his breath, and puts his jacket and shoes on with Griffin and Rogan. Half-eaten sandwiches in hand, they all give me a quick wave and take off up the dock to their parked car, leaving me alone with Eve, who’s biting her lip, confused.
As the door closes behind my brothers, a pang of regret hits me all at once. Here I am with this woman who has practically taken over my brain, and I was just talking about her as if I could let her go. What was I even thinking?
“They didn’t have to leave. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt whatever you were talking about.”
“It’s fine.” I beckon her with my finger. She takes off her coat and walks over to me, and with a tug, I pull her down on my lap and cup her jaw. “Hey, you.”
“Hey,” she answers with a furrow to her brow.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Just concerned, that’s all. I mean, I haven’t heard from you all day, and then when I come over, all your brothers are giving you what looked like an intervention. Is everything okay? Are we okay?”
“Yeah.” I swallow hard. “Everything’s fine.” The lies flow before I can stop myself.
“What did your dad want to talk to you about? Was it a Willy proposition?” She smiles, but it barely reaches her eyes. Mine barely reaches as well.
This was the moment I’ve been dreading ever since my dad and I talked—and why I’ve been avoiding Eve all day: I just can’t decide if I should tell her about my dad’s proposition, especially since my answer is still up in the air. Not to mention the fact that her brother is involved as well. And now, confronted with her uncertain gaze, I realize that even though we’re together, this is something I don’t think I can talk to her about. Not right now—not when I don’t even know what I’m doing yet.
So I stroke her back and say, “Just some new investment he’s doing—he wanted to get my opinion.” Not entirely a lie, just not the full truth. “The boys came over because they wanted to share a meatball sub. We haven’t had one together in a while.” I hold up the sub to her. “Want a bite?”
She studies me, and in her eyes I see the questions starting to brew, the suspicion that I’m holding something back. She glances down at the sub and then takes it.
I can feel the moment a small fissure fractures the space between us, born from my little lie of omission. She knows it; I know it—I just hope it doesn’t do too much damage.
“I love a good meatball,” she says before taking a bite, but her voice isn’t the same; her excitement isn’t there. She knows me too well, knows that what I just told her isn’t the full truth.
The question is, Will she ever call me out on it?
I sure as hell hope not.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
EVE
“He’s lying to me,” I say, falling back on my bed and looking up at my apartment’s cracked and chipped ceiling.
“What?” Avery says, her voice over the phone scratchy from the early hour.
I haven’t been able to sleep the past few days, not since Reid had his conversation with his dad. He was off that night, and though I could tell he was trying to be normal, his laughter wasn’t genuine, and his attention was never completely there.
And we didn’t have sex.
He said he just wanted to cuddle instead.
Sweet, I know, but that’s not Reid. He’s stripping me down every chance he can get. Even when he visits me at work, he tries to take me to the back to do naughty things—as he likes to say. He’s rabid when it comes to sex, so when I started to peel off my clothes for him, and he just pulled me in close, claiming he wanted to hold me instead . . . that was my first major warning sign.
From there, it’s gotten worse. A claim that he was too busy to meet up, missed text messages, and a quick phone call last night, telling me he was going out of town and that he would hopefully see me when he gets back.
Hopefully.
As if maybe when he gets back he won’t see me.
What the fuck is that about?
“Reid,” I say, trying not to panic. “He’s lying to me.”
Avery gasps, alert now. “Did he cheat on you? I swear I will fly up there and cut his dick off; then he really will be cursed.”
“He’s not cheating on me.” At least not that I know of . . . no, I mentally shake my head. Reid isn’t like that. The Knightlys aren’t like that. And if Reid did cheat on me, I’m sure Avery wouldn’t be the first one in line to chop his dick off. First his mom, then Jen, then I’m sure his dad, followed up by all his brothers. If anything, the Knightlys are the most loyal clan I’ve ever met. If you’re in with them, you’re in for life. It’s why even when Reid and Eric were in culinary school and doing their restaurant thing, and I was back home taking care of my parents, the Knightlys would check in on me, offer up little deliveries of fudge. They did what they could and are a huge reason why I don’t think Reid would ever cheat.
“Okay, well, that’s good, because chopping off penises just doesn’t seem like something fun to do. Not to get gory, but do you use a meat cleaver? Pruning shears? An axe?”
“It’s too early for that kind of questioning.”
“Hey, don’t you give me sass—you’re the one who called me. I was having a wonderful dream about the choreographer I take tap lessons from. You should see his thighs, Eve. Bigger than my head. I want to know what they feel like wrapped around me while I blow him, and I was just getting to the good stuff when you called.”
I rub my hand across my forehead, my patience wearing thin at the visual—those massive legs encircling my friend’s head. “That’s a little too much for me to handle right now.” The man calves are hairy. I take a deep breath, banishing them from my mind. “I’m sorry for interrupting your dream, but I really have no one else to talk to about this. All my girlfriends here are kind of tied in with Reid somehow.”
“Then tell me everything. We can dissect it.”
“Well, he had a conversation with his dad and said it was about some sort of investment but didn’t go into any more detail. I could tell it shook him because he was acting weird that night. I didn’t push the matter, though, because I’m still trying to get to that level of trust with Reid.”
“He doesn’t trust you? That seems pretty fucked up. You’ve known each other for such a long time. At this point, you should be one of the only people he trusts.”
I can’t deny that she’s right.
“I know, but this is also a different kind of trust. It’s the boyfriend-girlfriend trust. We’ve been friends, but we’ve never explored our feelings until now. And if I’ve learned anything over the last few weeks, it’s that Reid really doesn’t tell anyone anything. He holds everything in. Even when he and Eric were close, I don’t think he spoke up much.”
“Yeah, I can see that. But maybe you could be that person for him, the one he confides in.”