She comes off the cushion, stabbing her pointer finger into the air and gloating like she beat me at checkers, which I happened to be the perennial champ of growing up. “Ah-hah!”
“Notah-hah.I didn’t ask. He volunteered the information.”
Wrong thing to say. Her watery eyes glitter. “Even better.”
“How so?”
“He told you his name because he’s interested in you.”
“I highly doubt that.” In place of actual flirting, I put my foot in my mouth at least half a dozen times
She groans. “Ev, you’re being difficult, and I specifically asked you not to do that.”
“Oak—”
“Now, give me all the deets. We know he’s nice, but is he cute? Hot? Sexy?” She teases her expression into a steamy look.
“Chill, please.”
“Spill the tea, girl. I want to know.” She rubs her germy hands together.
I should never have opened my mouth.
Oh, wait. I didn’t. My sister tapped into her mindreading skills.
Obviously, I’m not getting out of this without feeding her something. “Okay, fine. Yes, he is cute.”
“Tall? I know you like tall.”
“Quite tall. And big.”
Her nose curls. “Like, um…fluffy?”
Knox, fluffy? I shake my head. “Wide shoulders. Just…he looks very strong.”
Her nose wrinkles. “Like an ox?”
“Maybe—but not in a negative way.” I only snarkily thought of him as a moose because he’s so tall, I was harried, and I had a bad attitude at the moment.
“But is he cuuute?”
Knox’s features dance before me. His jaw is solid and strong like the rest of him, and covered with a couple days of stubble. “Yeah. He is.” I was so ticked at his entourage the first day that I failed to appreciatehim.
Other than the gawking, that is. That was kinda obvious even to oblivious-with-men me.
Giggling, Oakley snatches another tissue from the box and lays it over her nose. “Eye color?”
“Brown with gold flecks.”
She lowers the tissue without blowing into it. “That was oddly specific.” She hums. “This is big. Remember when you were dating Lance? You were Christmas shopping with Hadley and looking at shirts for him, and when she asked what color his eyes were, you didn’t know. Aftersixmonths together.”
I remember. Naturally, our middle sister thought the incident was hilarious and promptly reported back to Lance. He broke up with me two days later—at which time I learned my failure to identify the shade of his eyes wasn’t my only offense.
I toe off my ugly shoes, something I should have done at the door. “Not only is this thing with Knox not big, it’s completely nothing. I doubt I’ll ever see him again.”
“He helped you, Everly. He lingered. He gave you hisname.”
He told me to lock up.Quite gallant, and the intensity with which he said it, as if my safety mattered to him personally…
