“House calls?”
“I’m sure that’s a foreign concept to you big-city dwellers—”
She laughed. “Bellingham is hardly a big city.”
“—but we’re very familiar with them here. I think your aunt did them back when she remodeled the clinic.”
“That’s a really great idea…”
“Then why do you sound hesitant?”
“Well, itisa good idea, but I don’t have any way to actuallydohouse calls. My car got damaged, too, remember?”
Yeah, I remembered. I recalled every word the chief mentioned of the damage done to Everly’s place while she’d stood there, eyes glazed as she’d leaned into me like she hadn’t been able to hold herself up.
“What kind of alternate reality are we in thatI’msuddenly the one finding a way to make things work and you’re throwing up roadblocks? Just take my truck. There. That’s settled. Anything else weighing down that gorgeous mind of yours?”
She breathed out a sigh and relaxed back into me. “Only one last thing…”
I ran through the list of issues in my head, unable to come up with anything I hadn’t already covered.
“I just need to figure out where I’m staying.”
With me, that was where. I didn’t want her anywhere but here. Didn’t want her figuring this out on her own—especially when she was already overwhelmed. That would lead to stress, which would lead to exhaustion, which would lead to her skipping meals because she was too busy or just plain old forgot, which was a downward spiral she’d gone down too many times to count. And I refused to let her do it again.
“You’re staying with me.”
“But eventually—”
“You’re staying with me,” I said, firmer this time.
“I feel like we’ve already had this discussion.”
“We have. A couple times. So can this be the last?”
“You promise you’re not going to get sick of me? What happens when you reach your limit of Everlyness?”
I was starting to believe my limit for Everly did not exist.
“Don’t worry about it because it’s not going to happen.”
“Easier said than done.”
“Sounds like you’re thinking too much.” I reached for the wine bottle and topped off her glass before handing it to her. “No place else to be tonight, so you can get as drunk as you want and forget about all this other shit.”
With her head resting against my chest, she tipped it back and stared up at me. “How come tonight is get Everly drunk, but you don’t even have a beer?” She furrowed her brow. “Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you drunk… Why is that?”
Well, fuck. I hadn’t been prepared to talk about this tonight. Or ever. And I could still keep it to myself…could feed her a bullshit story and not have to sift through the mountains of baggage piled on my shoulders. But Everly had cracked herself open in front of me today. She trusted me with her tears, so I could trust her with a tiny piece of my history.
I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Because I saw what too-much looked like before I even knew what alcohol was, and I decided a long time ago that was never going to be me.”
She was quiet for long moments before she finally said, “Your dad?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you want to tell me about it?”
I swallowed, having no idea how to share this with someone because I’d never had to. The only people who were remotely close enough to me to warrant knowing about it had already lived through it, same as I did. But I found myself…wantingher to know. Wanting to share this part of myself with her that I hadn’t shared with anyone else.
