Keep From Falling (Markson Grove Series Book 1)

by Amy Vanessa Miller

  “I just needed to see you,” I say.

  She smiles and runs her hands through my hair. “Are we good?” she asks. “I know that we left things a little tense last night, and I hadn’t heard from you at all today.”

  “We’re good,” I say. “I’m sorry that I dropped so much on you and then just brought you home to deal with it alone. That wasn’t right.”

  “I went to see her this morning,” she confesses and my entire body tenses up. A sharp stab of jealousy radiates through me as I attempt to keep myself visibly collected, even though deep inside I want to throw something at the wall.

  “Oh yeah?” I manage, being careful not to express my internal emotions. She nods. “And?” I ask breathlessly.

  She seems to sense my uneasiness. “And Spencer was there, Parker too.”

  I let out a sigh of relief. “So what happened? Did you tell her that I told you everything?”

  “I used what you told me to ask the right questions.”

  I nod but don’t say anything in return. Everything Ellie said to me earlier is still ringing in my ears and all I want to do is yell at Bree for going to see her ex without even thinking about how that would make me feel. And then as soon as I think it, I feel guilty because I know I’m being a complete idiot. I wish I could keep these ridiculous feeling in check and continue to nod and smile like nothing’s wrong, but I don’t think that I can anymore. I want to tell her what I see going on between her and Skylar and how I feel about it. But I’m scared to, because the minute I call her out on it, and she realizes that she’s still in love with her, she’ll throw me to the curb and I’ll be left nursing yet another broken heart. I just can’t take that kind of pain again. I don’t want to lose her. So, maybe I’ll just keep her in the dark for as long as I can, praying that she’ll eventually start loving me more.

  Bree waits a moment before offering more information. “She told me she was sorry,” she says.

  “For what?”

  She shrugs. “I guess for how this all turned out.”

  I want to tell her that I’m not sorry and if I had a chance to do it all over again I’d do it exactly the same way, but I don’t. She’s sad about losing her friend, and I really need to respect that. But God damn it, this is hard!

  “Come here,” I say, wrapping my arm around her shoulder and pulling her in close to me. I kiss her forehead before resting my cheek on the top of her head. “I’m sorry you’re so sad,” I say to her. It’s the truth, but it’s all I can offer for comfort at the moment, and that makes me a total douche.

  “I’ll be fine,” she says with a shrug. She looks up at me. “What about you? What’s bothering you, Evan?”

  A whole lot of things are bothering me. But a lot of those things I’m not really ready to talk to her about just yet, so I decide to stick with the one thing that I do want to talk to her about. Ellie.

  “Ellie’s in trouble,” I say finally.

  “Trouble how?” she asks, trying not to seem overly eager, but I can tell that she’s curious. I haven’t told her much about my sister, and I know she’d like to know more about her. Although once I tell her that Ellie’s life is entangled with Parker’s, she may not be so eager to know anymore.

  “She’s hanging around with a bad crowd, and I don’t know what to do to get her to stop,” I say finally.

  She looks thoughtful for a moment. “How bad is it?” she asks.

  “Dealing drugs, bad.”

  Bree takes my hand into hers and gives it a comforting squeeze.

  “I tried talking to Ellie but she’s being such a bitch about it. I don’t know what to do and it’s really bothering me.”

  “Well is she just hanging out with them, or is she dealing too? Is she doing drugs with them? What did she say?”

  I sigh, “I don’t even know. Parker says she’s smoking pot. He says that’s all it is.”

  “Parker?” she repeats his name in disgust. “You talked to Parker about this?”

  “Yeah,” I reply with an equal amount of distaste. “Apparently he’s her friend.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me! This is ridiculous! I bet she says he’s a good person, right?

  “Yeah. That’s pretty much what she said.”

  She sighs. Even though she doesn’t say it, I know she’s thinking about Skylar and what it is that she could possibly see in Parker. “So what are you going to do?” she asks finally.

  I shrug. “I really don’t think there’s much I can do. She’s got this thing for this guy, Colton, he’s Tris and Parker’s friend I guess… she says she loves him. I don’t know,” I say, feeling completely deflated.

  “How is it you found out about all of this anyway?”

  I wonder if I should tell her? She hates Parker and, to be honest, even after everything that’s been said between us tonight, I still can’t be sure how I feel about him. I mean, besides the fact that he’s kicked my ass twice in the last few days, he’s also slept with Adrienne—a number of times—in a number of positions… with Tris. God, that image will never leave my mind. It’s been years, and yet I can still picture it clear as day.

  “Parker called a truce with me last night,” I tell her finally. “He told me that Ellie’s not safe being with Colton because the people they work for can hurt her. He seemed… really concerned.”

  “See, he's not a good person! I don’t care what your sister or Skylar say. He’s responsible for what happened to Sky that night. I don’t know how, but he is.”

  And it’s back to Skylar.

  “Yeah,” I say, “about that. He told me that what happened with Skylar that night was because of his drug ties. Someone he works for hurt her. He wasn’t clear on the details, but I think he saved her from them.”

  She grows very silent as I watch her think over what I’ve just told her. It’s like she’s been trying to fit all of the pieces to the Skylar and Parker puzzle together and this was the final piece she needed to really understand who they are to one another. “So he’s a drug dealer,” she says finally. I nod. “And he’s trying to protect your sister,” she continues. I nod again. “From having what happened to Skylar happen to her,” she finishes.

  “Yeah, it seems like that.”

  “Why the hell did he get back with Skylar then if his life is so unsafe? If he wants you to keep Ellie away because he’s trying to protect her, why isn’t he trying to protect Sky too?”

  She’s making no attempt at hiding her concern for Skylar now, which is becoming more and more of a problem for me. I know she can’t just shut off how she feels about her, but at the same time it sucks that everything we ever seem to talk about lately always comes back to her.

  I sigh, “I don’t know, Bree. Maybe he thinks that Colton can’t protect Ellie like he can protect Skylar.”

  Bree doesn’t look convinced, but she lets it go anyway. I think she suspects that her comments about Parker and Skylar are bothering me. “And Ellie sees no danger at all, I bet,” she says instead.

  “She’s in love. She won’t listen to me,” I say, lying back on her bed and putting my face in my hands. I feel so exasperated by this whole mess. Why the hell did Parker have to put this on me? I can’t make her stop seeing someone. Especially someone she thinks she’s in love with. Doesn’t he know how stubborn my little sister is? She’s not going to walk away from this guy because her brother told her so. She wouldn’t even walk away if our mother forbade it.

  Bree lies her head down on my chest and curls her body up against mine. She runs her hand through my hair and along my neck, trailing her fingers up and down. I immediately feel relaxed. “I wish there was something I could do,” she whispers. “Maybe I could talk to her.”

  I smile. I love that she wants to help me with my problems, but I don’t want the first conversation she has with Ellie to be about how Ellie spends her time with delinquents. It’ll put Ellie on the defensive and poor Bree will get a pretty shocking verbal bashing because of it. “Thanks,” I say, running
my fingers through her hair. “But I’d rather take care of it myself. She won’t take too kindly to a stranger getting involved in her business.”

  “Yeah, I suppose I wouldn’t like that either,” she says with a chuckle as her fingers explore the skin on my neck further.

  “That feels really good.” I don’t know if her actions are to intentionally take my mind off of Ellie or just an effort at comforting me, but I welcome it willingly.

  I let out a little moan the minute her hand passes below my shoulders and into the neck of my shirt.

  “You should take your clothes off,” she whispers into my ear, and I’m instantly turned on by the suggestion.

  Should I? We’re in her bedroom, and I’m pretty sure the door is locked. Her parents are probably asleep by now. I give her a little half smile as I reach for my belt buckle and slowly unfasten it. I pull my jeans off and let them tumble to the floor. Next, I yank my shirt up over my head and toss that on the floor next to my jeans.

  My excitement is anything but discreet in my boxers and I can’t help but be self-conscious about it. I reach down to cover the erection with my hands, but Bree stops me. She pushes me down onto the bed and straddles me instead.

  She reaches for my hands and takes them both into hers, guiding them to the buttons of her shirt. She wants me to undress her. I can’t even express how much that simple gesture excites me. I have to use all the will power I can muster not to rip that shirt open. Instead, I calmly unbutton it, and once I do, I’m met with the most beautiful sight ever. Her perfect breasts are bulging out of the top of a white bra with a tiny pink bow positioned right in the center of it. Why do bras always have bows there? It must be some sort of man-bait designed to drive us crazy because the only thing I’m thinking about right now is finding a way to get my teeth on that bow.

  She lies down on top of me with her breasts pressed against my chest and her pelvis pushing into mine. Her most sensitive area, still covered by her pajama pants, is pressing down on my now very sensitive erection.

  Oh my God, she’s not even naked, we aren’t even close to having sex at this point, and yet if she wiggles her body anymore, I’m done. This is by far the most intimate thing I’ve ever done with a girl. I reach for her hips and grasp them so tightly that I think I might leave little bruises from where my fingers are. This is too fucking good.

  She starts to kiss my neck and simultaneously begins rocking her body back and forth over mine ever so slowly.

  I gasp.

  “Oh my God!” I say. I can’t help it, she needs to know how amazing she is.

  She brings her mouth to mine and kisses me, still softly rocking her body over mine, and it’s amazing; she’s amazing.

  Her mouth moves back to my neck now. She licks her tongue up from my collarbone to my earlobe. I push my head back into the pillow and groan.

  I don’t notice the noise the bed is making right away, but the minute I hear footsteps in the hallway and notice that Bree has stopped moving, I realize that the bed had been making a lot of noise.

  Someone tries the knob of the door and when it doesn’t open, they proceed to knock loudly. “Bree, open the door!”

  It’s her mom.

  Bree jumps off of me and reaches for her shirt lying beside her. I roll off the bed and hit the floor with a loud thump. It takes me less than a second, however, to get back up and pull my jeans on. I fumble with the belt for a few seconds and then reach for my shirt. As I’m pulling it over my head the door flies open and I jump back, startled. I look at Bree and see that she’s managed to put her shirt back on but didn’t have the time to button it back up. She wraps it tightly around her body with both hands. I peer at her mother and if looks could kill, I’d be dead right on the spot because it isn’t hard to tell that this woman is pissed. I back up toward the window because she may try to hit me, and I want to give myself as much of a head start as possible in case that happens.

  “What’s going on in here?” she asks, staring right at me like I’m the only evildoer in this scenario. She seriously needs to get to know her daughter better.

  I’m literally at a loss for words. I hear myself stammer a few incomprehensible sounds, but it doesn’t get me very far. I don’t know what to say to get myself out of this situation. We’ve been caught red handed.

  Bree’s mom moves toward me angrily, and before I even have a chance to react, she grabs me by the hair and yanks me out into the hallway. “Leave Evan. Now,” she hisses. “And you’re not welcome back, so don’t even try.”

  Like I was ever welcome to begin with.

  I bet she was just waiting for this. I’m the womanizing asshole from a broken home whose only intention with her daughter is to take advantage of her.

  As I’m walking away from the house, I hear Bree yelling angrily at her mother from the opened window above. “You hassle me to get a boyfriend, and now that I have one, you disapprove! Maybe I should just run off and be with a girl then!”

  I feel a sharp stab of pain in the pit of my stomach. I don’t stick around to hear any more.

  Skylar

  Being in Parker’s arms, in his house, in his life, after all of this time should feel off, but it doesn’t. It should feel like everything with us is happening too fast, but for whatever reason, it just doesn’t feel that way. It doesn’t feel fast because, in our hearts, it hasn’t been fast at all. This night was supposed to have happened the night of our ‘first date’ but that possibility was torn from us through circumstance, a circumstance that put everything between us on hold until this very moment.

  It feels like I’ve found something I’ve been missing. Something I hadn’t even realized was missing till I got it back. There’s a comfort in the connection the two of us share; a comfort in loving an equal that I’ve never experienced with Bree, because as much as I love her, she has never been my equal. She was my protector and the bearer of my solace, but I was never those things for her.

  “If we are going to do this, we’re going to do it right,” Parker says, breaking into my thoughts, and scooping me up into his arms.

  “Parker!” I shriek, instinctively wrapping my arms around his neck as he carries me out of his room and into the bathroom. “What the hell are you doing?”

  He carefully sits me down on the side of a beautiful Jacuzzi and proceeds to run water into it. I watch as he reaches passed me to a shelf of shampoos, bath oils, and bubble baths that I assume had once belonged to his mom. He chooses a small peach colored bottle, twists off the cap and brings it to my nose. “You like this one?” he asks, and I take a little sniff. It smells really nice, like peaches and cream.

  I smirk. “It smells great,” I tell him as I grab his wrist and pull him down toward me so I can kiss him.

  He bends down and kisses my lips softly but pulls away when I part them for something more. “Not yet,” he says with a cute little grin as he pours the bubble bath into the water and turns on the jets.

  He starts out of the bathroom and looks over his shoulder just before shutting the door behind him. “Get in, I’ll be right back,” he assures me.

  I’m not sure what exactly he’s up to, but it’s adorable watching his efforts play out. Besides, the bath really does look inviting.

  I eagerly undress and climb in, taking in the fruity scent of peaches and cream as the jets massage my back. This is really nice.

  When Parker doesn’t return after a few passing minutes, I hit the button to shut off the jets and call out to him. “Parker?”

  “I’ll be right there,” he calls back. I hear the sound of glass clinking together and then his footsteps heading toward me.

  He walks into the bathroom barefoot and shirtless, wearing only his jeans. In one hand, he’s carrying a little basket of what looks like candles, wine glasses, and something else I can’t make out. In the other hand, he has a bottle of wine.

  “Well, aren’t you Mr. Romantic,” I say, sitting up so that I can see what’s in the basket a bit better.


  He puts the bottle of wine down on the side of the tub. I reach for it to read the label as he begins lighting the candles and lining them all around the tub. There is something incredibly hot about watching a guy covered in tattoos lighting candles for a romantic soak in the tub with his girlfriend. I want him so much at this very moment it’s ridiculous.

  Once he finishes, he sits a plate of strawberries and chocolate dip down beside me and a corkscrew beside the plate. I can’t help but smile a goofy grin as he walks over to the light switch on the wall and flicks it off.

  “Mind if I join you?” he asks, flashing me his flawless grin. The shadows around his face and naked torso make him seem even more mysterious than he normally already does, and it literally takes my breath away for a moment.

  I bite down on my lip and reach over for a berry. “I thought you’d never ask,” I say breathlessly, dipping the berry into the chocolate and then taking a bite.

  He undresses and climbs into the tub, sitting himself across from me. He turns the jets back on. “Come over here,” he says, motioning for me to sit between his legs so he can hold my body to his.

  This is the first time we’ve ever been completely naked together and realizing that has me blushing. Seeing him naked is not the issue, that I can handle easily, it’s the idea of his naked body pressing up against mine intimately that has me nervous as hell. I wonder if he’s feeling as nervous as I am but is putting on a confident front for my benefit.

  I turn myself around and calmly ease my body to his, taking a deep breath the minute we touch. His thighs tighten around my hips, telling me that the feeling of our skin touching together has the same effect on him and he’s also unsure how to react casually about it.

  He wraps his arms around me, exactly how he used to do when we’d sit together on the couch at The Misfit Mansion, only this time he allows his hand to linger overtop one of my breasts. I lean my head back slightly, making my chest rise and forcing his hands to have to do more than just linger on one. His fingers tentatively move across my breast and work their way to the nipple. I look down, needing to see exactly what his hand is doing to me at this very moment, and I nearly melt when I notice his fingers are shaking slightly. He’s nervous! Knowing this, somehow relaxes me. I needed him to be just as scared about all of this as I am. It means that regardless of how much experience either one of us has had in the past, this first time is just as important as a virgin’s first time for us because it’s ours.