My cheeks burned hot only from embarrassment that time. Julian had always told me how sexy I was, but I never fully believed him. I’d always thought he was just being nice. Jude’s words were validating.
“Stop,” I batted my hand toward him and then covered my face before trotting off to the kitchen to grab us bottled waters.
I stopped dead in my tracks over the spot where I’d found Julian lying unconscious the day he died. I forced myself to think of something else. I had to replace the bad memories with good ones, or I’d never move on. I’d be trapped reliving that moment over and over again the rest of my days.
“What’s wrong?” Jude asked when I returned, studying my face.
I shook my head “Nothing.”
“I had fun with you tonight,” he said, taking the bottled water from me, making it look small in his strong hand.
“Me, too,” I said. “I’m getting tired. Mind if I go to bed?”
Jude didn’t hide the disappointment on his face. “Nah, go ahead. I’ve got work to do, anyway. Not tired yet. Still on West Coast time.”
I hesitated wondering if I should give him a good-night kiss.
One step at a time, I reminded myself. Baby steps.
“Good night, Jude,” I said with a smile before turning on my heels and walking away. I felt his eyes on me as I vanished into the dark hallway.
17
JUDE
“What would you be doing if you were back home right now?” Evie asked, sitting perched at the kitchen table, her hands cupping a gas station coffee I’d ran out to get that morning while she slept. A box of jelly-filled, sprinkle-covered donuts sat between us.
“I’d probably sleep in until eight or nine,” I said, sipping my coffee. “Then I’d get up. Take a walk. Grab a coffee. Maybe meet up with friends. Get caught up on some reading.”
“Sounds like a peaceful Sunday morning,” she mused, staring out the window toward the tree-lined street.
“What would you be doing if I wasn’t here?” I asked.
She shrugged lowering her eyes and pursing her lips. “Probably nothing.”
I flipped the pages of the newspaper in front of me asking no questions. She didn’t need to explain anything.
“We come from such different worlds, you and I,” Evie said, reaching for a jelly donut. “Are you sure this is going to work?”
“No,” I said, setting the paper down and staring straight into her eyes. “I’m not sure of anything. But I do know that if I don’t try, I’ll always wonder.”
She cocked her head to the side nodding as she nibbled her breakfast. Reaching for her phone, she said, “I guess I should put an ad on Craigslist or something to rent this place out.”
Her voice cracked as she tried to hide how difficult it was for her. I knew her home was her sanctuary. I wanted her to feel like she still had a safe place to go, not like some strangers were living there while she was halfway across the country.
She deserved to know about the trust fund. She didn’t have to rent out her house. She didn’t need to give up her sacred space, the place Julian had purchased so that she always had a home.
“Evie,” I said, placing my hand across the table onto hers.
“Yes?” Her big blue eyes looked into mine, searching. For what, I wasn’t sure.
My mother’s threats echoed in my mind. If I told Evie about the trust fund, and my mother caught wind of that, she’d sell her share of the company, and I’d go under. If Evie found out why I’d kept that information from her, she’d kick me to the curb, and I’d never see her again. Telling her at that moment, and so casually over breakfast, didn’t feel right.
“Nothing,” I said, mentally kicking myself for not having the fucking balls to do the right thing. I released her hand, dragging mine back across the table and picking up the paper to bury my nose as she compiled a Craigslist ad on her phone.
“All right. This is happening,” Evie said ten minutes later, placing her phone back on the table and moving to throw away her coffee cup. Nothing about the way she spoke told me she was excited.
“You sure you want to do this?” I asked.
“I’m sure,” she replied, though I didn’t believe her.
“I know this is scary for you, Evie, but I’m going to be with you every step,” I said. “I’m your parachute.”
Her sweet lips curled into a smile as tension escaped her face. “That’s cute, Jude. I like that.”
I shrugged. I wasn’t trying to be cute but whatever.
“I’ll fly you home anytime you want,” I offered. “Your friends and family will always be a plane ride away.”
“I wonder if Carys will move with me?” Evie mused aloud. “She and I could get an apartment together.” She moved around the kitchen cleaning and wiping things down, a ball of nervous energy. “You know, if you’re going to whisk me away like this, you’re going to have to meet my parents. They need to know who you are and that I’m not being kidnapped or coerced by some psychopath.”
“Fair enough.”
“And you should probably meet Carys, too. I’ve sort of told her a lot about you.”
“Not a problem.”
I followed Evie into her parents’ house that afternoon, my stomach twisting with an unexpected tingle of nerves.
“Mom? Dad?” Evie called out from the front door. “You home?”
A middle-aged man poked his balding head out from around the corner, and a pleasantly plump woman with gray-streaked brown hair followed him.
“This is Julian’s brother, Jude,” Evie said. “Jude, these are my parents, George and Maureen.”
I extended my hand to her father first, followed by her mother. “Very nice meeting you. I’ve heard so much about you.”
They stared at me as if I were a ghost, and I remembered how much I looked like my brother.
“I’m so sorry about Julian,” Maureen said with sympathetic eyes. “We loved him. He was gone too soon, that’s for sure.”
“So, what brings you to Haverford?” George asked, arms crossed and brows furrowed. He was going to be a hard man to please, I could tell that already. “Weren’t you just here last month?”
Maureen nudged George as if he’d spilled some top secret of hers, and Evie threw them both a knowing glare as if she’d mentioned me to them once before.
“I was checking on Miss Evie here,” I said casually. “We’ve become quite good friends these past few weeks.”
George’s eyes widened as he drank me in, and Maureen smiled as if she admired me. That, or she couldn’t get past how much I looked like Julian.
“Oh, yeah? Where you been staying?” George asked.
I cleared my throat, searching for the right words.
“At my house,” Evie interjected before I had a chance to respond. “On my couch. I couldn’t have him stay at some flea-infested motel.”
“I’m very grateful for that,” I said with a chuckle.
“Anyway, I just came here to tell you I’m leaving in two days,” Evie said, cutting to the chase.
“Leaving for…?” Her mother’s eyes searched our faces. “Vacation?”
“I’m moving to Los Angeles,” Evie announced. “Just to try something new. I need a change of pace. A change of scenery.”
“What?” Judging by her mother’s reaction and the hand that clutched the cross around her neck, she wasn’t too excited for Evie to leave. “That’s crazy talk.”
“My mind is made up,” Evie said with a shrug and a gentle assertion in her voice. “I know you don’t understand any of this, Mom, but it’s something I have to do, and I need you to trust me. I’m renting out my house. I leave on Tuesday.”
I watched from the sidelines as Maureen and George scoffed at Evie’s plans countering with several valid arguments which Evie carefully rebuffed. They shot down her plans left, right, and center, but Evie had a response for everything. She’d apparently thought about it more than I realized.
“We should go,�
� Evie said, turning to me. “I’ll be staying with Jude until I find a place of my own. I’ll call you when I get there.”
She tugged on my arm, and I flashed her parents a friendly smile before turning to leave. I could practically feel George burning holes in the back of my head as he stood there breathing fire. God, they probably fucking hated me.
“I was worried you were going to change your mind there for a bit,” I said as we climbed back into my car.
“Never,” she said with a smile, her eyes sparkling in the afternoon sun that trickled through the passenger window.
I pulled her hand up to my mouth gently kissing her soft skin.
The next forty-eight hours were a whirlwind of complete and utter chaos. Evie packed her bags, found a nice young man to rent her place for a year, met up with Carys to explain everything, and kept her best game face on the entire time. If she had reservations, she sure as hell fooled me.
I gave Evie the window seat and sprung for first-class tickets, anything to make her more at ease and replace any lingering nerves with excitement. The distinctive, stale scent of airplane oxygen filled my nostrils as we watched throngs of travelers shuffle on board, bags in tow, and find their seats behind us in coach class.
Evie nervously sipped the champagne that’d been given to us the second we boarded ahead of all the other passengers. The first-class cabin was sparsely filled with all the action happening behind us.
The plane taxied to the runway coming to a stop before furiously taking off like a bat out of hell moments later. My stomach tickled the second we became airborne, and Evie reached over to clutch my arm. We were headed to LA, and there was no going back. At least, not yet.
Evie rested her pretty little head on my shoulder and closed her eyes. I flagged down a flight attended for a warm blanket and covered her up as she rested. I’d given Evie my word. I was going to take care of her, and she trusted me. She trusted me enough to hop on that plane and fly far away from the only home she’d ever known.
We touched down a little after noon, and as we walked hand in hand down the terminal and toward baggage claim, Evie said not one word. She didn’t have to. Her face said it all.
“You okay?” I asked, sensing apprehension on her end. She’d been quiet the last four hours. The reality of the situation was probably beginning to sink in for her.
“Yeah,” she said, forcing a smile.
I squeezed her hand and tugged her close as we waded through the sea of people at LAX. Half an hour later, we were locked and loaded cruising down the freeway to my place.
“You should invite Carys out sometime soon,” I said. I’d been racking my brain for hours trying to figure out how to make the transition less difficult on her.
“Really?” she asked, perking up a bit.
“Yeah, I’ll fly her out. Name the dates.”
“Oh, you don’t have to pay for her,” Evie insisted. “I’ll use money from my rental.”
I shook my head. There was no sense in fighting a lost cause. This girl refused monetary assistance every time it was offered. No fucking way my mother was right about her. A gold digger Evie was not.
Evie rolled the windows down, the mild California breeze kissing her face and rustling her long, dark hair. She smiled for the first time all day as she soaked in her surroundings fixating on swaying palm trees lining every street.
I wheeled her bags to my closet the second we got home sliding a bunch of my clothes out of the way.
“I’ll have to find more room for your stuff,” I said, scratching my face. For a man, I knew I had more clothes than the average guy.
“It’s okay,” Evie said quietly. “I don’t have a lot of stuff, anyway.”
She stared down at her two suitcases and hoisted her carry-on over her shoulder. Her entire life was in those three bags.
“I’m exhausted,” I said, stumbling out of the closet and heaving myself across my fluffy bed.
“Me, too.” Evie followed, climbing onto the bed and curling up next to me. I closed my eyes, but I could feel her gaze on my face. I’d have killed to know what she was thinking at that moment, but then again, maybe I didn’t want to know.
18
EVIE
He looked just like Julian. Lying there with his eyes shut, he was a living, breathing Julian Garner-Willoughby. I shook my head forcing the thought out and stared at his lips remembering that when he kissed me, he was all Jude.
I pulled his arm out and around me nestling up to his shoulder. The heat of the early afternoon sun beat down through the window warming the bed. I closed my eyes for just a moment and fell asleep listening to the faint whooshing of Jude’s heart as it beat strong in his chest.
By the time I woke a couple of hours later, our legs were intertwined, and my head was buried in the crook of his neck. If Julian made me feel loved and valued, Jude made me feel safe and sound. This brawny, muscled, tatted-up businessman who insisted on taking care of me and promised he’d never hurt me had done the impossible. It was a damn miracle that I left Haverford.
A few audible moans and sighs escaped his mouth as he roused from his deep sleep and loosened himself from me. His long body stretched out across the bed.
“That was the best nap ever,” he said, stretching his arms above his head. He rolled back toward me and leaned on his side resting his head on his hand. “Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life, Evie.”
“You’re so cheesy,” I said, grabbing a nearby pillow and shoving it in his face.
“You hungry?” he asked, scooting off the bed and heading down the hall.
“A little,” I lied. I was starving. I’d been too nervous to eat anything that morning, but I didn’t want him to know that.
“Guac and chips okay?” he asked as he grabbed an avocado from the refrigerator. “Too early for margaritas?”
“It’s never too early for margaritas,” I said.
“I make them pretty mild,” he said with a wink. “Don’t worry. I’m not trying to get you drunk or anything. I’d never do that on purpose.”
“I can make them, if you want,” I offered. Anything to make myself useful and keep me from standing around like a bumbling idiot.
He nodded toward the cupboard where I found a blender, an uber-expensive bottle of tequila, Cointreau, and rock salt.
We worked diligently on our little projects until we were finished, and then we sat side by side at the island sipping our icy margaritas and munching on our little snack. The clock on the microwave read 3:30 p.m. The day was still young.
“I was thinking we could go for a walk after this,” Jude proposed. “It’s nice out. I could acclimate you to the area a bit.”
“Sounds great,” I said, sipping my drink. A small part of me was in vacation mode. This didn’t feel like home, and I wasn’t sure it ever would, but I was damn sure going to try to see it that way.
We slipped on our shoes and headed down to the street below a bit later, Jude grabbing my hand and pulling me close as we walked as if he wanted the world to know I was with him.
“I still need to call Carys today,” I said. “I want to plan her visit.”
“Right. And you should.”
“So, did you mean what you said earlier about inviting her out this weekend?” I asked.
“I always mean what I say. Please. Invite her out. My treat.”
I slipped my arm around his hips giving him a side hug as we forged ahead on the busy, West Hollywood sidewalk. Jude pointed out various shops and eateries giving his quick two cents and telling me which places to avoid and which places had the best sushi or burgers.
The whirl of cars and people were like a harmonic symphony of beautiful chaos, like the soundtrack of my new life. It was fitting, to say the least. Carys always told me happiness was a choice, but it never really clicked until walking down the street with Jude on that impossibly gorgeous July day. Dammit, I was choosing to be happy.
“Carys,” I said that evening as I locked mys
elf in Jude’s room for a little privacy. “I’m here.”
“Oh, good,” she said. “Glad you made it. Everything okay?”
“You want to come visit this weekend?” I wasted no time. “Jude wants to fly you out.”
“This weekend?” she asked after a long pause. “Lucky for you I’m off.”
“Yay!” I squealed, bouncing on the bed. “I’ll book your flight and email you the itinerary. This was much easier than I expected!”
“Evie, you know you don’t have to twist my arm when you’re offering me a free vacation,” she quipped.
I hung up with Carys and rushed out to the living room beaming happily.
“She’s coming, I take it?” Jude asked, looking up from his laptop.
“Mmm hmm,” I said, sliding in next to him on the couch.
He closed his computer and turned to face me, his hazel eyes drinking me in.
“What?” I asked, smile fading as I tried to get a read on him. “Why are you looking at me all intense like that?”
“I can’t believe you’re here,” he mused, his lips turned into a half-smile. “It doesn’t feel real.”
I reached over and gave him a quick pinch. “I’m here. It’s real.”
“I could stare at you for days,” he said, entirely smitten by my presence.
I immediately recalled a time when I felt the same way about Julian, but I knew for my own good I had to stop comparing the two. It wasn’t fair to either of them. It wasn’t fair to the memory of Julian and the beautiful life we’d so briefly shared, and it wasn’t fair to the man sitting next to me lavishing me with his brand of affection.
“That’s creepy and sweet all at the same time,” I said. “But now I’m always going to be wondering if you’re admiring my extraordinary beauty or if I have something stuck in my teeth.”
He leaned over kissing my lips softly and then tracing my jawline with his finger before nuzzling into my neck, breathing me in.
The End of Everything - Garner-Willoughby Brothers Duet Book Two Page 9