“Oh Knox. You didn’t have to do this. Ev, your friends are so kind.”
“They are.”
“I set you one up too Evy-” He stops mid-sentence, realizing he was about to call me our special name.
“Evy? Such a unique nickname.”
“Yea.” I don’t know what else to say. I’m really trying not to be rude or short with her, and I know it keeps coming out that way, but I just don’t know what to say. I feel so guarded. Like every word, every sentence can be used against me, or reveal my secret. Part of me just wants to say fuck it and spill the tea because it’s only been one night, but I miss my guys. I miss the connection, the closeness. I just miss them.
She takes a deep breath and sits in the chair and I take the one beside her.
“Where’s mine, Knoxxy?” Lizzy coos.
He pulls his lips. “Beside Evy, of course.”
“Evy and Knoxxy. So cute,” Mother says, setting her bag down and digging out a puzzle book.
“Logic puzzles?” I ask.
“Yes. I saw you playing them at Easter and I thought they looked interesting.”
I dig in my bag and pull out my book and show it to her.
“The same one.” She smiles, tilting her head to the side. “I’m stuck on puzzle sixty-nine.”
“Being stuck in sixty-nine is the worst,” Lizzy chimes in and I cut my eyes at her.
I didn’t miss theinversusonin her sentence. She’s trying to be clever and make a joke about the one time I told her about doing sixty-nine in the bedroom with Knox and we tried to use rope and somehow got tangled up and stuck. It was super fun when Jax found us and teased us verbally, then teased me sexually before he undid the ropes. He, of course, made sure I was ok first, but damn.
“You play these too?” Mother asks cheerfully.
“God no. I don’t have the patience. I just remember the one-time Ev was stuck.”
“In this book? Can you help me?”
“Lizzy is being Lizzy.” I snarl at Lizzy before I turn towards my mother.
Mother’s brow furrows, and she tilts her head to the side like a dog does when you ask it a question.
“She’s confusing the situation.”
“I’m not. I remember it like it was just last week.” I see the smirk dancing across her lips as she digs a book out of her bag.
“Jax could probably help,” Knox offers with a light gleam in his eyes. I want to run over and put him in a chokehold, but before I can, he’s throwing his shirt on the ground and flittering off to join Jax near the ocean.
“He seems fun and so full of energy.”
“He does have a lot of energy.”
“So you can’t help me?”
“No, Lizzy was talking about volume two.”
“Volume two?”
“Yes. You have the third volume.”
“Third?” She flips the book closed and sees volume three right under the title.
