“I feel nervous around her. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I can’t stop thinking about her.”
“I love this for you. You know, I heard from Kit the other day,” Evelyn says, mentioning August’s baby sister.
“Yeah, where’s she now?”
A few months after August died, Kit decided to go off travelling. Scared the hell out of her mum and me when we didn’t hearfrom her for five whole months. She’d been backpacking around Australia.
Ever since, she’s never stayed put in Heart City for longer than a week or two.
“She’s been in Puerto Vallarta, working at a medical clinic.”
“She can do that without a medical degree?” I ask.
“She was helping with admin stuff, learning the language. Said she really liked the medical side, though.”
“How did she sound?” She struggles with grief like me. The loss of her big brother is probably harder on her. The reason August and I were even in the car that night was to pick Kit up from a party that had gotten out of control.
“She’s coming home next week.”
I nearly pull my neck out with the speed at which I turn to look at Evelyn. “For Christmas?” Kit rarely comes home, but she’s avoided Christmas in Heart City since August died.
There’s a hopeful smile on Evelyn’s face as she nods. “Yep.”
“Shit.” I gasp.
“I know. My baby’s coming home for Christmas.”
I wrap an arm around Evelyn’s back, hugging her into me. “That’s good. Right?”
“She sounded good. Maybe she’s found something to live for, something that makes her excited about life again.” She looks up at me with bright hazel eyes. “It’s never too late to start living.”
Chapter fourteen
“I’m so glad we could do this,” Tenley says as she looks over the waterfront at the restaurant where we’re having brunch.
“Me too,” Beth says, and holds her phone out, taking a selfie of the three of us.
“It’s hard to expand our circle of girlfriends.” Tenley takes a sip from her mimosa. “Lord knows my brothers won’t be bringing girlfriends home any time soon. Certainly not ones I want to be friends with.”
My phone lights up beside me, showing that Beth has tagged me on Instagram. This is the second time that Beth has invited me out to spend time with her and Tenley. The first was last week when we went to The Wayside, and Gage asked me not to dance with a guy who had been talking to us. I obsessed over his request for the rest of the night. Could it be that he feels some of the chemistry I have been feeling? All signs lead to yes, and I can’t wait for the next time we’re around each other to test that theory out, but my mind still snags on what I overheard him say to Caleb the night at Smoke and Barrel.
“Are you saying you two struggle to find friends?” I ask, squeezing some lemon over my salad.
“Ugh, the amount of people in our social circles that are so fake is truly disappointing,” says Tenley. “It gets too hard to know who to trust. Makes you realise it’s about quality, notquantity.”
“Mmhmm,” Beth mumbles through her salmon.
I look over at Tenley, with her strawberry blonde hair styled in a perfect blow-out. She’s wearing a lilac boucle dress with capped sleeves and gold buttons. She’s a picture-perfect heiress, and after working with her on a few projects over the last few months, I’ve developed a hardcore girl crush. She is so graceful and intelligent.
“Your brothers are still causing trouble then, Tenley?” Beth asks.
Tenley rolls her eyes. “Dad took Carter to Portugal with him for a board meeting last month, who managed to sleep with another board member’s wife while he was over there.”
“Oh shit.” Beth chuckles.
“Yep. And, in Dad’s absence, Alistair had to fly to Queens Coast for the grand opening of a new racecourse and ended up getting arrested for indecent exposure.” Tenley smiles and raises her glass to us. “I’m just hoping all this means Dad hands me the controlling percentage of the Callahan Group when he retires. God forbid he dies of a heart attack from sheer embarrassment over my brothers. I do hope his will is up to date. It’s why I’ve been working so hard to build my own business portfolio.”
“With Caleb and Isabelle at your back, not to mention how clever you are, I have no doubt you’ll succeed,” Beth says with a nod.
