“Fast?”
“Yeah. Suddenly he’s decorating our tree and trying to kiss you. You barely know the guy, Ev.”
My brow pulls hard enough to make me conscious of the frown I must be making. “The tree thing was Mom’s idea. As for fast, you started pushing this thing with Knox the second you heard of his existence, when he was just some rando guy at the diner.”
Oakleypffts.
“You’re being weird.” I push past her into the house and go upstairs.
Like a pesky fly on the patio in summer, she follows, flipping on the hall light. “What do you really know about him, Everly?”
In my bedroom, I pry loose the heart ring on my right hand and work it up my finger. “I know stuff.”
“What kind of stuff?”
After looping the silver ring I wore onto the crystal stand on my dresser, I begin working free an aquamarine one from my other hand.
“What kind of stuff, Everly?” she repeats.
I reach beneath my hair and feel around for the clasp on my necklace. “Why are you being so nosy?
The mattress huffs along with Oakley as she plops hard onto the end of the comforter. “I’m not being nosy. I’m asking important questions, and I hope you are too. What all have you guys talked about?”
This is getting ridiculous. Still, she’s my sister, and these are the kinds of things we share, even when her approach needs refining. I sit on the white stool at the girly vanity I insisted on having when I was thirteen. “I know he’s from Kansas City. He’s close to his grandmother, who just had a heart attack, by the way, and he rushed home to see her. He has a brother.” I tilt my head, considering, but yeah, as far as details, that’s about it.
Huh. Whatdidwe talk about all night? Did I hog the floor? Oh, I hope I didn’t make a fool of myself.
“That’s it? That’s all you know?”
I scowl. “It’s a good start, if you ask me. My word, Oak, it was a simple date at a Christmas tree lighting.”
“I assume you’ve stalked him on social media?”
I pinch the back off the earring through my left lobe. “Of course I tried. Couldn’t find a single thing.”
“Isn’t that kind of a red flag?”
“Red flag because a grown man doesn’t plaster his business all over the internet? Uh, no. If anything, his lack of presence is agreenflag.” I drop the diamond stud on the glass vanity top. “Ease up already.”
Her eyebrows pinch insultingly, as if I’m too lame to look out for myself. “I just don’t want this to be another Ethan kind of thing.”
Her words suck the air from my lungs like a fist to the diaphragm. As my mouth hangs, words flail around in my head. “Ethan?” is the best I manage. I slap my palms onto my thighs. “Knox isnooothinglike Ethan.” I draw the word out. How dare she. Sure, it took me a while to open my eyes, but there were tons of red flags I stupidly ignored and will never forgive myself for so doing.
But there’s a world of difference between Knox and Ethan. My former coworker tried long and hard to worm his way into my life with gifts and pretty words. Words were as deep as it went, though. Little things were said and done that should have made me ask questions. The revelation of his secrets, when it came, was a life-lesson, an a-ha moment that stung like fire.
Intense, Oak folds forward, the move bringing her closer, close enough to tempt a sisterly, don’t-get-in-my-face nudge.
“Are you jealous, Oak?”
She pops off the bed. “Excuse me?”
I try to get a read from the depth of her eyes. I know she wants the best for me, but we’ve always been close, and it’s hard on sister-friends when it feels as if the other might be slipping away.
Honestly, I don’t find envy looking back at me. I don’t know what I see. Her abrupt about face on the subject of Knox makes no sense. I sigh. “Sorry, Oak. It was just a thought.”
She huffs, floating her chin high. “I’m only looking out for my sister, and I’m telling you, you need to slow your roll. Don’t get sucked in by someone you barely know.”
I choose to ignore the unspokenagain. Her ponytail hops as she flounces from the room, and her feet stomp along the hallway before her bedroom door closes harder than normal.
