She’s right and she doesn’t even know the half of it. She doesn’t know that I waited weeks to confront him after I found out he was cheating on me. I kept all my feelings bottled up because I didn’t want to make such a huge move alone.
“Yeah,” I whisper, pulling my sweatshirt hood up over my head. “I was an idiot.”
The couch shifts, and Eve grabs both my hands. “Ree, listen to me. You were not an idiot. You were in love with him, and he knew exactly how to use that against you.”
“I know that now,” I say, squeezing her hands, “but sometimes I suffer from caring too much. No matter how much he hurt me, I still want him to be happy. I think that’s why I picked up the phone.”
Eve slides her hands back to her lap and frowns. “I know, Ree, and that’s what I love about you,” she explains with specks of warm honey glittering in her eyes. “What did he say?”
I groan and throw my head into my hands. “He wants to get back together,” I mumble, the words barely audible against my skin.
“What a tool,” Eve mutters, “and what did you say?”
I pull my bottom lip between my teeth. “I told him thatwe’d never be able to move past what he did, and then I hung up on him.”
“Atta girl!” my sister says, smacking my thigh. “And then you blocked his number for good, right?”
“Um, not exactly. I—” Before I can come up with some lame excuse, my phone starts buzzing on the kitchen counter. Eve snaps her eyes to me with her eyes narrowed.
“I’ll get it,” she announces, jumping to her feet. A cement block forms at the base of my stomach. I know exactly who it is.
“Wait, Eve!” I yell, trying to beat her to the phone, but it’s no use. Eve ran track in high school and most of college, and I was breaking a sweat sprinting less than five feet to the kitchen.
“If this is that douche bag, I swear I’m going to—” As soon as Eve sees the name on the screen, she goes silent. “Apparently, Patrick isn’t the only ex you didn’t block. Why the hell is Knox Cooke calling you?”
“He’s fixing my truck,” I say with an innocent smile. Except, Eve knows better.
“Then you won’t mind if I answer it then, right?” she says with a slightly less innocent smile and more of the kind that would make a supervillain squirm.
I open my mouth to answer, but she doesn’t wait. “Hello?”
She must put the call on speaker phone because I can hear Knox’s gritty voice say, “Bambi, is that you?”
Eve’s forehead wrinkles, displaying disapproval of the nickname that was forced upon me. “Bambi?” she mouths. My stomach plummets to the floor.
“No, this is Eve,” she replies with her eyes locked on mine. Her lips slowly fade into a smile, and I know she’s enjoying this a little too much. “Who is this?”
There’s a pause and then a signature, nonchalant Knox Cooke chuckle comes through the speaker. This man doesn’trealize how terrifying my big sister is. He’s lucky she was away at college when he broke my heart.
“It’s Knox Cooke,” he replies smoothly. “Is your sister there? I have some news about her truck.”
Eve’s smile sharpens, and I can tell she’s getting ready to go in for the kill. “Oh, I’m sure that’s what you want to talk to her about, Loverboy. If this is strictly professional, then why are you calling her Bambi?”
“Eve!” I hiss, wrestling the phone from her hands. She is fast, but her coordination is shit, which makes it easy for me to steal my phone back. “Sorry about that. I’m here.”
Another unbothered chuckle rings in my ears. “It’s alright. Is this a bad time?”
“Yes!” Eve yells loud enough for Knox to hear.
“Eve, I am this close to kicking you out and making you spend the night at the shady motel down the street.”
She gives me a soft version of her infamous death glare and grabs a bag of chips from the counter before stalking off.
“She sounds fun,” Knox says. “I think we’re going to be best friends.”
“I think you have a better chance of winning over Marie,” I laugh, surprising myself. It wasn’t that long ago that I was the one giving him a hard time. This town is making me soft.
“I don’t know,” he sighs, “I did a pretty good job at winning over her sister.”
