Fuck. She fucking did it for me.
She takes care of me. She listens. She remembers.
How could she chooseanyoneelse over what we were starting?
Maybe it’s harder for me to understand because of my own complicated relationship with my father. I suppose I chose football over my mother, but that was at my own mother’s urging. She didn’t want me to change my life to accommodate her. In fact, it was an explicit request.
But Everleigh is changingherlife to accommodate her father. He asked, and she felt pressed. I know she’s loyal to her family. Fuck, her loyalty is one of the things I love about her.
But this meaningful little gift is another thing, and it just serves as a reminder of everything I’ve lost.
I toss the paper on the counter. I can’t bear to look at it.
A knock at my door lifts my spirits a bit. People don’t typically drop by unannounced in a building with a doorman, which means it’s her. Ithasto be her.
It’s not.
To my utter shock, it’s her brother.
“Can I talk to you?” Dex asks.
“Talk,” I grunt.
He stares at me for a beat, and I stare back. I finally back down and open the door a little wider, walking away to let him in without saying the words to actually invite him in. Idon’t invite people in—not physically, and not metaphorically.
I wander over to my windows, and Dex falls into place beside me. I’m silent while I wait for him to make the first move, and predictably, he does.
“You doing okay?” he asks.
“Not really.”
“Did you know my dad had me bringing in whales when he first opened the lounge?” he muses.
We’re both still staring out the window, and I make some grunting sounds.
“I got out when it put my relationship in jeopardy,” he says, as if that’s opening the door for me to tell him about my relationships that are or are not in jeopardy because of the very same lounge he’s referencing.
When I don’t answer, he asks, “What’s going on with you and my sister?”
“Nothing,” I say, which feels like a truth and a lie at the same time. “Not anymore, anyway,” I amend.
“Then whatwasgoing on with you?”
I blow out a breath. “Look, I don’t know you.”
“No, but if something’s going down between you and Ev, then maybe we get to know one another. You know what I’m saying?”
“We were together. It was good.” As if that’s not the understatement of the century. “But when your underground place was raided and I was caught there, I had a choice. I could give up the operator’s name, or I could protect your sister. I let her decide, and she chose family loyalty. So whatever it was…it’s over now.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” he says softly.
I glance over at him, surprised by his words.
“But let’s get one thing straight,” he adds. “It’s not my fucking lounge. I got out when I could.”
“Okay,” I say. I don’t really care what his role is in the place. It belongs to the family, so it’s tied to him.
“Look, a few months ago, I would’ve saidfuck you. We don’t get along, Jennings, and maybe we never will. But if you make my sister happy, I’m willing to try.”
