Meant To Be (The Callahans Book 4)

by Monica Murphy

  “Oh, you’re Eli’s best friend. It’s so good to meet you. He’s told me a lot about you,” she says, sounding warm and friendly.

  “Nice to meet you too.” Kayla clears her throat and Brenden stands at attention, grabbing her hand and acting as if he likes her or some shit. “This is my girlfriend, Kayla.”

  “Hi,” she says, wrapping her other arm around Brenden’s arm like she owns his ass, obviously dodging my girl’s hand she was about to stretch out.

  I sling my arm around Ava’s shoulders and tuck her under my arm like I own her too. Thank God she comes willingly.

  “Are you two actually—dating?” Kayla asks with sarcastic wonder, if that’s even a thing.

  “We are,” I say without hesitation. Ava rests her hand on my chest as if she’s claiming me.

  That’s kind of hot.

  “Watch out,” Kayla says to Ava. “That guy you’re with is a complete douchebag.”

  I feel Ava tense up. She’s scowling.

  Uh oh.

  “You don’t know him at all, so if I were you, I would watch what you’re saying,” Ava snaps, sounding ready for trouble.

  Damn, I really, really, really love this girl.

  “It’s your funeral,” Kayla says snottily.

  “It’ll be yours if you keep up the insults.” Ava walks right out from underneath my arm, heading straight for Kayla. I grab her before she can do any damage.

  “Hey, hey little mama. Simmer down,” I tell my girl, keeping her in place. She struggles against my hold, and I can admit it.

  I’m a little turned on.

  “What the hell? You want to fight me? She’s perfect for you, Eli,” Kayla says with a sneer before she turns her attention to Brenden. “Let’s go.”

  “But I wanted—”

  “Come on, Brenden.” She takes his hand and they leave us, Brenden sending me one last pleading look over his shoulder before the crowd swallows him up.

  “I hate her,” Ava says once I let go of her. She turns to face me. “I was kind of shocked by how hostile you were toward her at first, but now I understand why.”

  “She’s a complete bitch. Remember? She’s the one who drove a huge wedge between me and Brenden.” I touch her cheek, overwhelmed with the need to get her alone. “That was hot by the way, how you wanted to fight her.”

  “She made me so freaking angry. She doesn’t know me. She doesn’t even really know you. How could she make all those assumptions about you?” Ava’s voice rises, and I can tell she’s still heated.

  “I don’t know.” I shrug. “Kayla hates me. Has since day one.”

  “I hate her too,” she says vehemently, glancing around at the crowd, which is gradually thinning. It’s cold as a witch’s tit out here—fitting since we’re transitioning into October in a few days—and people are going home. It’s probably getting late.

  “Do you need to go home soon?” I ask.

  Ava grabs her phone and checks the time, frowning. “Probably.” Her gaze lifts to mine. “But I don’t want this night to end.”

  “Me either.” Yet again, I yank her back into my arms, and I drop a simple kiss on her lips. “Think people are watching us?”

  “Yes.” She wraps her arms around my neck, playing with the hair at my nape and making me shiver. “Should we put on a show?”

  “Not too nasty of a one.” She laughs. “What we do, we do in secret.” I kiss her again, absorbing the sweet taste of her lips. There is nothing better in the world than a kiss from this girl.

  Nothing.

  “I wasn’t talking about getting naked in front of everyone, Eli. Jeez.” She rolls her eyes and laughs. I’m about to kiss her with full on tongues showing and everything, but Jackson starts singing and she turns her head just as I go in for the kill, leaving me kissing her cheek like a lame ass.

  “I always thought he was overrated, but not tonight,” she tells me, as we both push our way into the thinning crowd around the fire, so we can watch and listen to my friend sing. I recognize the tune. Can’t quite place it, but I know the words. In fact, I start singing along with them and so does Ava, who’s laughing.

  “He’s singing ‘Lucid Dreams’!” she says. “But all slow and kind of country sounding.”

  “It’s a fucking great song,” I say. “Though it got overplayed fast.”

  “Whatever, I love it.” She’s swaying her cute ass to the beat, singing along with everyone else. I watch her, completely entranced. She’s having a great time, moving toward a group of girls who smile at her as they all continue singing. She’s not acting shy or timid or clinging to me like a class A stalker.

  In fact she’s having so much fun I’m almost…jealous. That she can have such a great time and it’s not all about me. But that’s a good thing. She may be the center of my universe, but I want her independent. Stand up for herself Ava is my favorite version of this girl.

  Well. I’m a real fan of naked Ava, too. Clawing at my back and coming Ava. Gripping my hair while my head’s between her legs Ava is also pretty damn fine…

  When the song ends, everyone applauds and shouts, and Jackson’s grinning as he rises to his feet with the guitar still clutched in his hand. Ava comes back to me with a giant grin on her face, flinging herself at me as she says, “That was so good!”

  “You dancing around was pretty good too,” I tell her, settling my arms around her waist. “He loves that damn song. You want to hear a funny story?”

  “Sure.”

  “Last year in English, we had to write some freestyle poem as an assignment. Our teacher was like, write what you feel. Write your pain if you have to. Let me feel it with your words. So Jackson wrote, word for word, the lyrics to ‘Lucid Dreams.’ And our teacher made him read it out loud, calling it a masterpiece. We tried really hard not to laugh, but about halfway through, Jackson started cracking up, and we all did too.” I shake my head at the memory. “It was so damn funny.”

  “Did he get in trouble?”

  “No. The teacher yelled at us for being disrespectful when Jackson’s the one who started laughing first. I even said we were laughing with him, not at him, but he wouldn’t hear it.” I start laughing all over again. “Poor old Mr. Johnson. He retired after that school year. I blame ‘Lucid Dreams.’”

  “He probably thought he had a poetic prodigy in his class.”

  “Yeah, when he really had a plagiarizing asshole who stole from Juice WRLD.” I stop laughing. “RIP to that guy. Sucks that he died.”

  “I know.” She makes a little sad face. “I should probably go get Ellie. We need to get home before her parents have a heart attack.”

  “You’re spending the night at her house?” I raise my brows.

  “Yeah, that way I don’t have to deal with my parents.” She presses her lips together, looking guilty.

  Leaving me suspicious. “Are your parents cool with us together?” I ask.

  “Uh…” Her voice drifts and I’m immediately defensive. “They don’t know I’m here with you.”

  “Where do they think you’re at?” I ask her warily. Now I’m flat-out annoyed. I don’t want to be her dirty little secret any longer. That shit is beyond tired.

  “At Tony’s,” she confesses, guilt flashing on her pretty face.

  Everything good that just happened the past couple of hours blows up in my face. She’s lying. Hiding me. I had an issue with that before what happened last Friday night at her house. She promised after homecoming, she’d come clean. Everyone—meaning her family—would know we’re together.

  Yet she didn’t tell them she came to see me. Is she afraid of their reaction? Is she scared they’re going to try and keep us apart? Or is it more convenient to keep our relationship a secret from everyone?

  She’s putting on a show here. It suddenly all feels fake.

  “This won’t work,” I say, my voice wooden. “If you’re going to keep hiding me—hiding us—then I can’t be with you, Ava. No matter how much I care about you, I refuse t
o be with a girl who’s ashamed to bring me home and introduce me to her family.”

  Her mouth drops open and her eyes go wide. “I’m not ashamed of you.”

  “Bullshit. You should’ve been honest and told your parents you were coming here to see me,” I throw out at her. “Maybe you should invite me over tomorrow, so I can hang out with the Callahans for the afternoon. Can you do that? Are you brave enough?”

  Her eyes are luminous. Like she might cry at any moment. Seeing her tears would gut me, but damn it, the way she’s still hiding me has already left me gutted.

  I can’t keep going like this.

  “That’s what I thought,” I say when she hasn’t responded. “When you’re ready to tell everyone who you really want to be with, come see me. If you don’t have the guts, then leave me alone.”

  I turn and walk away from her, my cold- blooded heart threatening to shatter. But that fucker is made of steel, so I know it’ll stay intact. Ava calls my name, but I don’t turn around. She doesn’t chase after me.

  Fine. I didn’t think she would anyway.

  Eleven

  Ava

  The back and forth of our relationship is killing me. I knew admitting I hadn’t told my parents where I really was would make him angry. But I didn’t expect him to get that angry.

  Or for him to walk away.

  I let him go. I didn’t even cry. I felt like it, though. I wanted to chase after him and beg him not to go, but he wouldn’t listen. I know I have to make things right. With my family. With Eli.

  By the time I’m in Ellie’s car and we’re headed back to her place, I’m in a complete funk.

  “So, you and Eli back together?” she asks, her voice lightly teasing.

  “Sort of,” I mumble, pressing my head against the seat and closing my eyes. “We still need to work out a few details.”

  “I’m sure you will. You two looked pretty cute earlier, when he was standing behind you with his arms around your waist,” Ellie says.

  My heart pangs at the too recent memory. Maybe we moved too fast. We should’ve talked more. I should’ve been more open about our family situation. How it’s still really tense, especially between Jake and me. My parents still aren’t one hundred percent happy with me either. I’m making mistakes over and over again, and I don’t know how to correct them.

  I decide to change the subject.

  “Let’s forget about Eli and me for a moment and focus on you.” I pause. “And Jackson Rivers.”

  Even in the dark interior of her car, I can tell Ellie is blushing. “It’s nothing.”

  “Oh it’s something. Tell me what’s going on.”

  “He’s nice.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “I love watching him play the guitar. He’s got great fingers.” A dreamy sigh escapes her as she clutches the steering wheel tight.

  “Are you thinking about all the places those great fingers of his could touch you?” I ask. Now I’m the one who’s teasing.

  But I’m also very serious.

  “Oh my God, Ava. Come on.”

  “Come on what?” I shake my head. “I couldn’t have grossed you out. I know you’re attracted to him. So what’s the problem?”

  She’s quiet for a moment as she navigates the winding road. A car passes by us going in the opposite direction, its headlights flashing briefly across her face and I see the worry and fear there. All the insecurities she suffers from.

  My best friend has always had a problem seeing how great she is.

  “I don’t think he’s attracted to me. I’m not the type of girl he’d go for,” she finally says, her voice small.

  “That’s a bunch of crap, and you know it. You’re almost too good for him, if you ask me. You’re smart and cute and funny. You go out of your way to help people. You’re interesting and fun to hang out with,” I tell her. “I could create a long list of all of your amazing qualities, but you’ll eventually get embarrassed and tell me to stop. So I’m going to quit now before it all goes to your head.”

  She laughs, but it sounds forced. Fake. “I don’t have a chance with a guy like him.”

  “A guy like him? He’s just a guy, Ellie. And I saw the way he looked at you. You definitely have a chance.”

  “How did he look at me?” she asks quickly, her gaze whipping to mine for a brief moment before she refocuses on the road ahead.

  I want to describe the moment I witnessed perfectly. It looked like something momentous was happening between them, and he was fully aware of it. And pursuing it. “He looked at you like he might want to write a song about you,” I finally say.

  Ellie makes a face. “No way.”

  “Yes, he did! I swear!”

  “Really?”

  I hate how unsure she sounds. Like she can’t believe me when I literally witnessed their flirtation. Everyone by the fire did, too, if they were paying attention. “Really,” I say, my voice firm. “I think you should go for it.”

  “But how? What do I do next? What do I say? Send him a text admitting I have a giant crush on him?” Ellie sighs, sounding dejected. “He’ll be like, that’s great. Lots of girls have giant crushes on me. Next!”

  “He will not. I could tell, the way he watched you, he’s interested,” I reaffirm. “Maybe just hit him up on Snap. Ask to start a streak.”

  “Uh, I already did that,” she admits. “We’ve been Snapchatting since the last party we went to at the cabin.”

  Just like I kept secrets from my best friend, she’s been holding out on me too. “Get the hell out,” I breathe. “You never told me!”

  “I didn’t want to say anything because it feels like getting my hopes up. I’m always waiting for him to realize that he doesn’t really want to talk to me anymore,” Ellie admits. “I’m sure he’ll ghost me any day now.”

  “Oh my God, Ellie. You are so negative.” I give her shoulder a tiny shove. Nothing too major, so she doesn’t wreck. “Are you just sending photos to each other or are you actually talking?” I’m so curious. Maybe there’s more going on than she wants to admit, for fear of jinxing it.

  “At first, it was just photos. And all of his photos were so hot, I swear he could be a model,” Ellie says with a little groan. “Compared to him, I’m so boring.”

  “You are not,” I say irritably because I’m definitely irritated. This girl needs to see her worth, not worry that she’s not worthy. “Tell me more about these evolving conversations between you two.”

  “Right. So after a few days of endless photos back and forth, I finally sent him a photo with me making a goofy face and asking how his day was. And he responded right away telling me it was good, and then he asked me how mine was,” she explains.

  “Okay.” I draw the word out. Sounds fairly mundane.

  “And it sort of took off from there. He’s told me a lot about himself. About how he used to always move around when he was younger, and how much he hated it. How he loves playing the guitar and football, and how much he likes living here. He’s actually very interesting,” Ellie says.

  “But that’s it. You’ve only talked. Now you see him tonight and nothing else happened?” I ask.

  “He hugged me before I left.” Another dreamy sigh leaves her. “He’s really muscular. And so tall.”

  “Well, you’re kind of short so…” I let my voice drift, grinning when she sends me an annoyed glance. “I’m teasing.”

  “No, it’s true. I’m short. And he’s tall. So tall. And broad. I just want to run my fingers through his hair, Ava. Just once. So I know what it feels like.” Her voice lowers. “It looks really, really soft.”

  “Girl, you’ve got it so bad,” I tease her, making her laugh. For real this time.

  “True. You’ve got it bad too. You and Eli are really back together then? I’m happy for you but…how will your parents feel about that?”

  I remain quiet as Ellie comes to a stop sign and turns onto the main road that leads back into town, where her house is. “I have to tell
my parents Eli and I are back together. He got mad when he found out I lied to them about where I’m at tonight.”

  “Oh.” She’s quiet for a moment too. “Doesn’t he understand how delicate a situation this is?”

  “He doesn’t get why I can’t just be honest. He believes I’m treating him like a dirty little secret. That’s a direct quote.” His words and the pain on his face made me feel terrible.

  More than anything, his accusations made me feel guilty.

  “I mean, you sort of do treat him that way, but you have good reason to. You go to a different school. He shit talked your brother endlessly. They got into a fight. Eli screwed around with Jake’s now ex. Their rivalry is pretty well-known around the area. I’m sure your parents don’t think the best about him.” Ellie makes a face. “You’d think he’d get it.”

  “But he’s right. I can’t treat him like my secret any longer. If we’re going to be together, really together, then I have to put it out there for the world to see. I have to show him I’m proud to be seen with him,” I explain. “That’s why he’s upset. He thinks I’m ashamed of him, or something.”

  “You’re not, are you?”

  “No, not at all,” I say, feeling defensive. “I’m in love with him.”

  “Then I guess he wants you to prove it,” Ellie says.

  “Yeah, you’re right.” I stare out the window, watching as the city lights come into view. Grabbing my phone, I send the quickest text to Eli, not expecting an answer.

  I’m telling my parents about us tomorrow. I swear I’m not ashamed of you, Eli.

  But he does send me a response. And it’s only two words. The very ones Ellie just said to me.

  Prove it.

  “We’re going to the Bulldogs game. You’re going with us, right?” Mom asks me the next morning when I walk in the door. I spent the night at Ellie’s, but she had to be at work at ten, so she dropped me off at the school where I left my car and I drove straight home.

  I come to a stop by the kitchen counter, glancing over at the table to see my entire family sitting there. Dad, Autumn, Jake and Beck. In front of them, empty plates with a few scant crumbs. Remnants of their Saturday morning breakfast.