I stood up straight tugging my shirt into place. I checked my makeup one last time and slicked on a fresh coat of lip balm. My hand covered my chest where the thumping served to remind me that I was still alive. I was going to be fine.
“Let’s go,” Carys said, dragging me by my arm to the dining room.
We waded through a sea of people and tables until we returned to our cozy little nook, the backs of Jude and Sam facing us.
“We’re back,” Carys announced, slapping a smile on her face like nothing was the matter.
Jude turned around nearly choking on his mouthful of beer when he saw me. Oblivious, Sam rubbed his back as he coughed.
“I’m Evie,” I said, extending my right hand to Sam.
“Nice to meet you!” Sam said, her white smile nearly blinding me as she shook my hand.
“Hi, stranger,” I said to Jude, taking the chair between him and Carys. His hazel eyes locked on mine.
“So, Evie,” Sam said, leaning into the space we shared. “Jude tells me you used to be married to his brother? I’m so sorry to hear about what happened.”
So kind of her to remind me of my deceased husband at that moment. Either she was a cunning bitch or a complete social idiot. My money was on the latter.
Our server approached taking our drink orders. Vodka double for me.
“I’m surprised you’re not getting wheat beer tonight,” Sam said to Jude as if she knew him so well.
“In the mood for something different,” Jude replied, his eyes casually drifting toward me. “You look good, Evie. There’s something different about you.”
“Thanks,” I said, watching his eyes fall to my lips before he turned away. The air between us was charged more than ever before, and there wasn’t a damn thing either one of us could do about it. “You seem happy.”
He bowed his head down glancing over at Sam and then looking back at me.
“I could be happier,” he said, his voice barely audible enough for me to hear.
“Everything happens for a reason, right?” I looked over at Sam, who was sipping her freshly-delivered gin and tonic and obliviously paging through the drink menu once more. She oozed confidence and sex appeal, the kind of girl who wasn’t afraid to go after what she wanted. She was beautiful in a Kim Kardashian, two-hours-of-hair-and-makeup-every-day sort of way.
“Will you excuse me for a minute?” I scooted my chair away. “I need some fresh air.”
I stood outside the restaurant breathing in the chilly, December evening air. Christmas lights hung from the street lamps shaped like stockings and candy canes. Palm trees wrapped in yellow holiday lights lined the street. For the first time in all my life, I missed the snow. I forced myself to think about Christmas lights. Happy, carefree, jolly Christmas lights. I closed my eyes and let the chilled air brush against my cheeks as I pretended, for a moment, that icy little snowflakes were falling from the sky.
“Evie?” a man’s voice said softly a minute later. I opened my eyes to see Jude standing in front of me, alone.
“Hey,” I said, my eyes focusing on his face.
“Just checking on you,” he said. “Everything okay?”
“It was just a little stuffy in there.” I forced myself to play it cool. “I’m fine.”
He studied my face, not believing me, and bit his lip as if he were trying to stifle the words he so badly wanted to say. I stood, paralyzed, waiting for him to make the next move. I ached for him to kiss me again, the way he had that night when he first took me. I yearned for him to show me he still loved me. I wanted to hear him beg for another chance, just like he’d done the day I told him I was leaving town for a while.
Jude rubbed the side of my arm with his hand, the way a parent would comfort a kid. “We should probably head back inside.”
My irrational hopes were dashed in an instant. “Right.”
I followed him back into the restaurant where we reclaimed our seats. The server was in the process of taking food orders, and I hadn’t even so much as looked at the menu yet that night.
“Where the hell’d you two wander off to?” Carys whispered.
“Outside. I needed air,” I whispered back. “He checked on me. It was nothing.”
“Whatever,” Carys said with an eye roll.
Our food arrived a short time later, providing a much-needed excuse from dissecting all the tension between us that night. I focused on the delicious pasta dinner steaming from my plate and ordered a second drink. Every so often, I’d glance over at Jude and Sam, shots of jealousy zinging through me each time I’d catch her trying to feed him a bite off her plate like he was a baby bird. Jude had completely abandoned all the attention he’d lavished on me earlier that night.
He’s a good man, I reminded myself. He wouldn’t ignore his date. That’s not his style.
The waiter took forever bringing our dinner tab and running Jax’s credit card, and I was in sheer agony. I just wanted to get out of there and go home. I couldn’t take another moment of watching Sam grab Jude’s hand under the tablecloth or watching her rub his back as if it were second nature and they’d been together forever. It was always her touching him, though, never the other way around.
We walked out together, the five of us, and I did my best to stay glued to Carys and Jax avoiding Jude like the plague. I didn’t want an awkward goodbye, and I didn’t want him to say anything that might remotely get my hopes up.
I headed toward Jax’s Audi until I heard Jude yelling from behind me. “Wait, Evie.”
He jogged toward me, his heavy shoes scuffing the pavement. “You weren’t going to say goodbye?”
I took a few steps in his direction, meeting him in the middle. Sam stood back by the front door of Blue Wave mindlessly paging through her phone. “Sorry, you seemed a little preoccupied with your girlfriend.”
Jude laughed. “Don’t be like that. She’s not my girlfriend. We hang out, that’s all.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
He opened his strong arms wide waiting for me to step into his embrace, but I stood frozen, my arms crossed. He wrapped me up in his arms anyway, pulling me close and burying his face into the side of my hair. He breathed me in, lingering for a few seconds too long before finally letting go.
“Look, I…” I started, my lips starting to tremble.
“Don’t say anything,” he said.
“You don’t even know what I was going to say,” I argued.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, turning back and glancing at Sam. She was in her own little world, chatting to someone on her phone. “Let’s not complicate things. Not here. Not now.”
“I guess I’m confused,” I said. I turned around. Jax and Carys were in his car already sharing sweet kisses over the console and in their own little world. “I thought in the restaurant you implied you weren’t happy in your life right now, and then when you followed me outside, I thought you wanted to talk to me in private.”
“You’re confused?” he said with a sarcastic chuckle. “I think you know exactly how I feel, Evie.”
“Do I?” My hand flew to my hip. “I’m not sure I do.” Jude spoke in ancient hieroglyphs, and I didn’t have time to decipher everything.
“Hey, what’s going on here?” Sam said, skipping up to us with a clueless smile as she slipped her arm under Jude’s. She tossed her long, black hair over one shoulder and smacked her glossed lips together evening out the color.
“Nothing,” Jude said. “Just saying bye to Evie here.”
“Oh, you going back to Kansas?” Sam asked, cocking her head to the side and feigning a pout as if she were truly sad to see me go. “I keep telling Jude he needs to take me home to meet his family. I’m dying to see Haverford. It sounds adorable.”
“Great idea, Jude,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him. “Your parents would just love her!”
Jude shot me a dirty look.
“Yeah, I want to meet his parents,” Sam said, pinching his arm like a five-year-old. “Y
ou never talk about them. I bet they’re nice.”
She was a complete idiot.
“They are,” I said with a facetious air about my words. “Especially his mother. You’ll love her. Sweetest lady ever.”
“I just love him!” Sam squealed. I watched Jude’s face cringe with those words, leading me to believe it wasn’t mutual at all. “Isn’t he so cute?”
Jude stood rigid and uncomfortable with Sam hanging all over him, not once returning her affections.
“Evie, you coming?” Carys yelled from the passenger seat of the Audi, window cracked.
I reached up and bumped Jude’s shoulder with my fist, the way an old buddy would do, gave him a half smile, and strutted away to the car. Behind the shelter and shade of the tinted glass, I observed as Jude stood on the corner, Sam on his arm, and watched us drive off. Sam appeared to be rambling on and on about something, and he seemed to pay her no mind. He just stood there with his hands in his pockets watching us drive away.
“What the heck was that about?” Carys asked.
“Everything’s fine,” I insisted. I refused to spill my guts with Jax there. “He seems happy. Sam seems nice. The world is a wonderful place.”
Jax fiddled with the radio as he merged into traffic hauling me back to my place where my cozy bed was calling my name. He reached across to Carys’ lap and their fingers intertwined. At least someone was happy.
33
JUDE
“You taking me home tonight?” Sam asked as I drove toward Beverly Hills.
“Yeah. That okay?”
“Oh.” She pouted. “I thought I was staying with you tonight?”
“We’ve spent the last five nights together. Don’t you want some space?”
She leaned over, her lips parting into an impish grin. “I like my cuddle buddy.”
Cuddle buddies. That was all we were.
“Whatever you want,” she sighed, pulling her phone out and burying her nose in it.
All these months, and she’d still barely learned the business. She was slated to take over J-Corp in three months, and if things went south between us, that deal would crumble like an avalanche, and there wouldn’t be a damn thing I could do about it. It seemed no matter what I did, my livelihood was always a matter of balancing the beams, and no matter how successful I became, no amount of money could ever buy the one thing I needed—time.
“Good night,” I said, pulling up to her apartment.
She unbuckled her seatbelt turning her body toward me as if she wanted to kiss me, but I faced away. I didn’t want to kiss Samantha. Not now. Not ever again.
“It’s her, isn’t it?” Samantha said, her voice low and serious.
I couldn’t look at her. I could only nod. We both knew this day would come. We couldn’t pretend to be something we weren’t forever.
“I figured when you wouldn’t even sleep with me that you were in love with someone else,” Sam said, her voice trembling.
I reached over taking her hand. This was harder for her than it was for me. Like most women, Sam had hopes that she could change me, that with time she could make me fall in love with her.
“I’m sorry, Sam.” I turned to face her, her big, brown eyes welling with tears. “You deserve to be with someone who can’t live without you.”
She nodded wiping her eyes.
“I’m a shell of myself without her,” I added.
“I noticed,” she huffed. “I just hoped…”
“Look,” I said. “You’re a nice girl, Samantha. I enjoy your company. But we’re not together. We never really were. You knew that, right?”
She pursed her lips, wiping away more tears and nodding. “Kind of.”
“Shit.” I sunk back into the seat of my car.
“I don’t think I can work with you anymore, Jude,” she said, indicating I’d hurt her more than I realized. “It’ll be too weird.”
Fuck.
“I’m sure you can find another buyer for your company,” she said, her hands fumbling on the door handle as she scrambled to get out.
“Sam, wait,” I said, climbing out of the car. “It doesn’t have to be like this. We can still be friends, right? We can still work together?”
She clutched the strap of her purple leather satchel, her big brown eyes raising up to meet mine from across the hood of the car. “I can’t, Jude. I fell in love with you.”
I hung my head burying it in my palms as the clicking of her heels indicated she was trying to get as far away from me as she could. I never intended for Sam to get hurt.
I climbed back in the car, finding myself in the midst of calling Evie, but she didn’t answer. Massaging my temples with my head low, I drew in a deep breath.
Thwack! Crack!
The crackle of glass to my left forced my eyes to squint to the point I could barely make her out. Sam stood outside my driver’s side door, black tears streaming her cheeks and the wildest-eyed look on her face I’d ever seen.
This is why I don’t date.
“Sam! Stop!”
Thump! Crack!
The glass was splitting and crackling. Tiny glass pebbles fell into my lap. With her stiletto in her hand, she beat the glass of my window repeatedly until it split clear down the middle and her hand sailed through broken shards of glass.
This is why I stay far away from girls like her. They’re all fucking crazy.
I shielded my face from flying debris and climbed out staring at the desperate girl who’d just had her heart broken. She stumbled, one foot shoeless, away from me. Her right hand clutched her spiked stiletto as blood dripped from cuts going up and down her arm.
“Sam,” I said, holding my arms out as if it could keep her from charging at me.
“You!” she screamed, chucking her shoe at me. I ducked, barely missing it as it grazed past my cheek.
“Sam, I didn’t mean to hurt you,” I assured her, keeping my voice low.
“You knew what you were doing,” she seethed, running toward me like a crazy person.
Fuck me.
Her blood-soaked hands flew up at my face, her long nails scratching my skin and digging into my flesh. I wrapped my hands around her small wrists and gently pushed her back like the wind to a leaf.
“Let go of me!” she shrieked. I could still smell the booze on her from dinner. I should’ve stopped her after two drinks. Two drinks she could usually handle. Not four.
“Sam! Calm down,” I said, bass in my voice that jarred her into attention. She yanked her hands away from me and stumbled backward.
“Everything okay, you two?” a passerby said as he walked across the parking lot toward us.
“Yes,” I said, shooting him an understanding smile and remaining calm. I wanted to make it perfectly clear that she was the psychotic raging lunatic. Not me. “I’ve got this under control.”
“He’s a fucking dick!” Sam screamed at the guy as he scurried off not wanting to deal with our drama. “This is not okay!”
“Do you need me to walk you inside?” I offered. “Help get you settled?”
“Stay away from me, asshole!” she yelled, pointing her bloodied finger in my face as she stumbled backward. “I hope someday someone hurts you the way you hurt me.”
I wanted to tell her it’d already been done.
34
EVIE
“There she is,” Carys said Saturday morning as we strolled across the lobby of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Carys’ future mother-in-law, Georgina, was in full wedding-planning mode and insisted on booking the Beverly Wilshire for the wedding reception. “Thanks for coming with me.” Carys squeezed my hand before letting it go and running toward the open embrace of a beautiful, middle-aged woman with hair the color of onyx.
I stood in awe of Georgina. I’d seen her as we walked across the lobby, all five feet nine inches of her. Her shiny dark hair, her bronzed skin and high cheekbones, her sleek bob, and the biggest brown eyes I’d ever seen were practically otherworldly. Where we came f
rom, people who looked like her didn’t exist.
Georgina’s white skinny jeans and billowy, rose pink blouse were complemented by the white Chanel purse that hung from her shoulder on a gold chain. The woman oozed grace and elegance, yet her never-ending smile made her approachable. I liked her already.
“Oh, Carys!” Georgina said as she wrapped her in a warm hug. “Good morning, my darling!”
Georgina and Carys kiss-kissed before Georgina swiftly turned her attention to me.
“This must be Evie,” she said with a glimmer in her eye. “I’ve heard so much about you from Carys. I can’t wait to hear about your European escapades!”
“It’s so nice meeting you,” I said, unable to take my eyes off her distracting beauty. She looked nothing like Jax. Nothing at all.
“Okay, ladies, I’m starving,” Georgina said, spinning her lithe frame around on one heel. “Let’s eat, shall we?”
We followed her to the dining area where we were seated in the middle of the room. Sweeping ceilings and glimmering chandeliers invited us in, and warm, muted earth tones screamed simple sophistication. We weren’t in Kansas anymore, that was for sure. The soft, incandescent lighting that fell from above only served to make Georgina appear all the more radiant.
I perused the menu as Georgina rambled on and on to Carys about flowers and tux colors and traditions and catering. I silently observed how Carys’ life had become nothing short of a true fairy tale. She was getting her happily ever after, and I couldn’t have been more thrilled.
“So, Evie, what do you think?” Georgina asked, politely including me in their conversation.
My face turned five shades of crimson as I realized I’d completely tuned out the last of their conversation.
“About May?” Carys asked. “May seventh for the date?”
“May is a beautiful time of year for a wedding,” I said. “April would be too rainy, and June would be too hot.”
“Exactly!” Georgina exclaimed. “My thoughts exactly, Evie.”
“May seventh, it is,” Carys said.
The End of Everything - Garner-Willoughby Brothers Duet Book Two Page 17