Wright Together, page 11
“Okay,” he said slowly. “Something on your mind?”
I sighed. “It’s been a long day.”
Whitt leaned back against the kitchen island and waited for me to explain further. I didn’t know how he knew that I needed the space, but he clearly did.
After a minute, he finally asked, “Did something happen?”
I blew out a harsh breath and ran a hand down my face. “Just a lot on my mind.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No,” I said with a stilted laugh.
“Hey,” he said, taking my hand and drawing me closer. “You can talk to me if you need to talk. You look like someone kicked your puppy.”
“I don’t have a puppy.”
He tilted his head to the side. “You know what I mean.”
God, I wasn’t ready for this. I couldn’t spew all of my family drama to him. Yeah, he didn’t have the perfect family or anything, but it was too much. I didn’t want to do this. I wanted things to be light and easy between us. Flirty and fun and…uncomplicated.
“Maybe this is just a booty call.” I tried for levity.
Whitt pursed his lips. “As much as I want you, I don’t think that’s why you’re here. You could have come over at any point for that, and you never have. What’s going on?”
What could I say? My life was a disaster, and the minutes when I could pretend it wasn’t with him made it better. I was barely coasting, and I didn’t know how to fix the hole I’d dug myself into. Sometimes, it felt like my entire world was falling apart, and I was clinging to the surface to keep afloat.
I stared up into his earnest face and knew I couldn’t say any of that. I turned my back on him. This was hard enough for me without looking into his pretty face. What if I saw pity there? What if he thought less of me? God, I wasn’t the type of girl to care what anyone thought. I was fearless. I was strong. I was fiercely independent. And I hated myself for every one of those adjectives right now.
“It’s just…do you ever feel like no matter how hard you try at something, it isn’t good enough?”
Whitt clucked his tongue, as if he were really contemplating the question. “Well, I did. All the time growing up.”
I turned slowly. “Really? Mr. Responsibility?”
“You don’t know what it was like growing up with my dad. West and I, we were always trying to be the family he wanted to come home to. There was nothing we could have done differently to make him choose us. And we didn’t even know he had a whole other life.”
I hugged my arms around my waist. “Yeah, that sounds terrible.”
“Eve, what’s going on?”
I opened my mouth to tell him, but the words wouldn’t come out. Whitt could talk about everything so easily. Could discuss being the other family like it was some minor thing that had happened to him. I couldn’t even bring myself to utter my dad’s name. I hated talking about him. I hated him. I swore under my breath as the shaking took over my limbs.
“Hey, hey, hey,” he said, taking my hands. “It’s okay. Breathe.”
But I couldn’t breathe. Tears were threatening to fall again. I had to hold it together. I had to be strong. If I let go, even for a second, I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to get myself back together.
“Baby,” he crooned softly.
He tipped my chin up to look into his bottomless ocean eyes. Tears lined my bottom lids. I blinked rapidly to clear them, but it did no good, as they collected in my lashes.
“You don’t have to shoulder everything alone.”
“Don’t I?”
“Not anymore.”
“We’re not even…” I trailed off. “We’re not…”
“It doesn’t matter,” he told me. “Whatever we are isn’t what’s important right now. I’m here for you regardless.”
At those words, the tears finally did spill down my cheeks. I leapt forward, throwing my arms around his shoulders. He wrapped his tight around my waist. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d cried. I hadn’t even done it at Gram’s funeral. I’d held it all in and let it simmer on low. For so long, the world had gotten the hardened version of my vulnerable heart. I hated showing it to anyone, and yet here I was, unleashing on Whitt.
When I tried to pull back, he scooped me up in his arms and carried me in a cradle to the couch.
“I don’t…you don’t have to…”
“I know. I want to.” He brushed my tears aside with his thumb. “Let me take care of you. You’re safe.”
I was safe.
I was safe here with him.
That was why I had come in the first place. Despite the distance I’d put between us, there was something more here. A new fear arose at that thought, but I smothered it. I needed this tonight. I needed it more than I’d even known. I could feel that fear another time.
For now, I leaned back against his broad chest and let him hold me. We could figure the rest out some other time.
16
Whitton
“Remind me again why I missed you.”
Harley cackled as we strode into Thai Pepper for lunch. “Because I’m awesome, obviously.”
“Obviously,” I grumbled.
Harley waved frantically at West, seated at the back corner table. West saluted her with a bemused smirk on his lips. A few girls were not-so-surreptitiously snapping pictures of him from nearby tables. Consequences of celebrity.
“God, you’re obnoxious now,” Harley said as she plunked into the seat next to West. She crossed her long legs, dangling a Doc Marten boot.
West laughed. “Uh, thanks? Missed you, too.”
“Of course you did. Both of you did.”
“We did,” I agreed with a shake of my head.
We were quite a trio. West in his unshakable rockstar garb—ripped jeans, band black T-shirt, and Vans. Harley dressed like she was on her way to Coachella in cutoff jean shorts, some kind of bra top, and a sleeveless crocheted jacket that I had no name for, but I’d guess she’d made herself. And then there was me, in a suit. No one would fit us together, and yet we’d always been inseparable. So much so that I hadn’t even moved to Lubbock when West did because I wanted to wait until Harley graduated and could come with me.
Harley ordered for all three of us when the waiter appeared, insisting we try this dish she’d eaten daily while interning at a law office in Seattle.
“So, still law school–bound?” I asked.
“Can you leave the five-year plan for a whole minute?” West asked with a smirk.
“He really can’t,” Harley said. She pursed her lips and shrugged. “I think so. I sort of hate lawyers. They’re scum. But I could change the world.”
“You don’t have to go into law to change the world,” West said.
“Don’t discourage her.”
West rolled his eyes. “Then, don’t encourage her to do something she doesn’t love.”
Ah, the tried-and-true argument.
“Y’all both shut up,” Harley said with a laugh.
West and I both put our hands up in surrender. We could bicker as good as any siblings, but somehow, our little sister was the mediator.
“Did everyone in Seattle make fun of you for using y’all?” I asked.
Harley grinned. “More or less. But I like it.”
Our food came, and we all reached for chopsticks at the center of the table.
Harley rolled hers together before digging in. “Tell me what I missed while I was gone. How was the promotion party?”
West smirked up at me before dropping his gaze to his food when I glared back.
“What?” she asked. “What happened? Did you humiliate yourself in front of everyone?”
“Of course not,” I said with a shake of my head. “It was fine. I just don’t love the attention.”
“For someone so driven, you should really get over that. If you’re going to rise to be CEO or whatever, you’re going to need to get used to giving speeches and the spotlight and shit.”
“Eloquent, Harley.”
West snorted. “He did fine. It was the disappearance afterward that he’s not talking about.”
“I didn’t disappear.”
Even though I had. My mind returned to that darkened cellar. The feel of Eve’s mouth around my cock. Her dazed look as I had come into her mouth. The wet drip of her pussy as I had driven into her. I cleared my throat and returned to my pad thai.
“Oh my God, is there a girl?” Harley asked, excitement in every syllable. “Are you dating someone?”
“Eve Houston,” West supplied.
“Thanks for that,” I grumbled.
“Oh, Eve is way out of your league.” Harley laughed. “How’d you land someone like that?”
“One, I take offense to that. And two, we’re not dating.”
West snorted. “You disappeared with the girl at the promotion party for, like, forty-five minutes. You couldn’t stop staring at her at that mayoral announcement thing. Not to mention, you showed up late to the soccer celebration at the pizza place.”
“Late?” Harley choked out. “You’re joking.”
“I’m not.” West shot her a look. “And they’re working together.”
Harley glanced at me with wide eyes. “Care to explain yourself, dear brother?”
“Nothing to explain,” I grunted.
“Bullshit,” West said.
Harley sat back and held her chopsticks out. “You don’t get like this unless there’s a girl.”
“I’m not like anything. We’re not dating.”
“So, just fucking?”
It was my turn to nearly choke. “You’re too young for that word.”
Harley rolled her eyes. “I’m almost twenty. I’ve had sex. Jesus.”
“Don’t need to know that,” West said, firmly in agreement with me.
“I know you’re your own woman and all that,” I told her, “but if I ever met the guy, I’d definitely beat the shit out of him.”
“Seconded,” West said.
“Y’all are gross. Your misogyny is showing,” she said, brushing at my suit coat. “Now, rein in the patriarchy for one goddamn minute and tell me how this happened with Eve.”
I let my chopsticks clatter. “I already said, we’re not dating.”
“Right, but we’ve established that neither of us believes you.”
West nodded. “Basically. Look, we know that you subscribe to the hot-and-crazy model of a perfect girlfriend. Eve acts like she fits that mold, but she actually seems really down-to-earth and chill.”
“Wait,” Harley said, holding her hand up. “Why exactly does she seem that way?”
“Yeah, West, why does she seem that way?” I asked, crossing my arms.
“I…I,” he stammered, as if realizing he’d put his foot in it. “Look, she has a rep, all right?”
“Explain,” Harley insisted.
“She was seeing Santi from the band for a little while,” West said with a sigh. “He mentioned she’d dated a dude that could have been her dad. You remember Chase Sinclair?”
Harley swallowed hard. “Uh-huh. We met at the wedding.”
I arched an eyebrow at her, and she purposely didn’t look at me. What exactly had happened that night?
“She dated his dad, and then rebounded with Santi. He just…said she was wild.” West cleared his throat and looked down. “In bed.”
“Wow,” Harley said. “Men are disgusting. He had no right telling you that. And then you bring it up in conversation when Whitt is interested in this girl.”
West held his hands up. “Hold the feminism. I’m just repeating what was said.”
“News flash: she’s allowed to sleep with whoever she wants,” Harley argued vehemently, as if it was a personal offense. “Just because she hooked up with these men doesn’t mean anything. God, when did y’all start slut-shaming?”
“I didn’t say anything,” I reminded her.
“Right!” Harley said, pointing at West. “You need to get your act together. LA is ruining you.”
West stammered out an apology, but I couldn’t stop smiling. Leave it to my sister to defend Eve to her last breath.
I’d heard the same rumors that West had stated. Eve had bad reputation written on her forehead. Maneater. Homewrecker. Starfucker. All that bullshit that centered around a woman for seeing multiple men. If I’d done the same, no one would have even blinked. Hell, I’d guess rockstars slept with more people than that in a weekend. I knew about her reputation and didn’t give a fuck. She was just Eve with me.
“When do I get to meet her, meet her?” Harley said. She put her chin on her fist and looked at me with wide, excited eyes.
“Uh, she’ll be at the fundraiser for Jensen this weekend.”
“Oh, yeah. Jordan sent me an invite,” she said. “And she’s your date?”
“Not…exactly.”
“You keep saying you’re not dating, and I’m starting to wonder if you’ve asked her,” Harley said. “Because if I find out you’re fucking around with her emotions, we will have words, Whitton Wright. Situationships suck, bro.”
“Hold up. She was the one who wanted it to be casual.”
“So, something is happening,” Harley said with satisfaction.
I blew out a breath. “Damn, you’re going to make a good lawyer.”
“I know.” She made a face that said obviously. “So, you’re asking her out then?”
“I’m not going to be bullied into this.”
Even though I wanted nothing more than for Eve to go to this thing with me. I’d wanted it all from the start.
And spending time with her like we had the other night made me want a relationship. I’d never seen Eve vulnerable. Never seen her cry. I could have held her all night if she had let me. We didn’t even have to kiss. I loved the other stuff, but holding her and comforting her were on the same level. I just needed to convince her of that.
“Tell me more about Seattle,” I said instead.
Harley huffed and then dived back in.
Harley’s words burrowed into my brain and stuck there. Eve and I were in a situationship. It didn’t suck as much as she’d claimed it did. I wanted the hot cellar sex and the cuddling on the couch as I rubbed her back. Was that too much to ask for?
I’d said that I didn’t want to be bullied into it, but now, it was all I could think about. I wouldn’t have an answer unless I asked. I’d bent for her. We were as casual as it got. Maybe she’d see that something more was worth it and change her mind, too.
I pulled my Lexus to the curb in front of Eve’s place and strode up the front walk. I knocked twice, nerves settling in my stomach. I didn’t want to ruin what was happening, but I needed to know.
“Whitt!” Blaire said when I answered the door. “Hey, Eve is out.”
“Oh. She said that she was on her way back from the gym. I must have beat her here.”
“No problem. You can come in,” Blaire said with a knowing glint in her eye.
I stepped over the threshold and found Campbell Abbey lounging on the couch with his signature guitar in his hand. He was humming some tune that I didn’t know. He and West were best friends, and so I rarely saw Campbell without him. It was strange to be in his presence without my twin.
“Hey, man,” I said with a short wave.
Campbell glanced up from his guitar and grinned. “Hey, Whitt. Here for Eve?”
“Yeah.”
“Smart.”
Blaire took the seat next to him and plopped her feet into his lap. She reached for her laptop, typing away as he went back to strumming. They looked so comfortable together. My heart ached. Just seeing that made me realize more than ever that I wanted that with Eve.
The jiggle of the doorknob had me turning away from the display. Eve stepped inside, and I froze. She was dressed in high-waisted sky-blue shorts, a matching sports bra, and platform Converse. Her long hair was up in a high-braided ponytail. She wore barely a drop of makeup, and she was stunning.
“Hey,” she said. Her smile lit up her face. “You got here fast.”
“I did.”
I took several steps closer. I wanted to kiss her. Screw the conversation I’d been planning. I wanted to lift her over my shoulder, carry her to her bedroom, and forget the rest of the world.
“I really need a shower,” she said by way of what appeared to be an apology. “All sweaty.”
“I never minded before.”
She flushed. “That’s true.” She nodded her head to the side. “Come see my room?”
“Lead the way.”
Blaire and Campbell said hi to Eve as we passed. Blaire’s knowing look was almost too much. As if she expected us to be stripping out of our clothes before we got to her room. Not that I’d mind…
Eve’s room was bare bones. A bed in a corner, a small dresser, and a full closet. Nothing on the walls or floor, except a few unpacked boxes and her half-full suitcase. As if she was waiting to be kicked out of the place and needed a fast getaway.
“Really moved in,” I joked.
She shrugged. “Oh, yeah, I’m sort of the worst at unpacking. It’s such a hassle.” She dropped her gym bag next to the suitcase and stretched her arms overhead.
“How was the gym?”
“I feel like I was run over. My trainer had me do everything to failure today. He’s a masochist.” She rolled her neck out. “You’re in a suit. I thought you were meeting Harley.”
“I met her for lunch with West. I took a half-day.”
“Look at you, taking time off,” she said with a laugh. “Didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Well, Jordan sent me home early. He’s sending us back to Midland and told me I should take some time because we’ll be there on a Saturday.”
“Oh yeah, I got that email,” she said with a smile. “Should be fun. Maybe two rooms this time.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”
She grinned, running my tie through her fingers. “You think I’ll share a bed with you again?”
“We don’t have to share the bed,” I said, dragging her fingers up to my lips. I pressed a kiss into each knuckle. “We could share the couch and the shower and the desk.” I kissed up to her wrist. “The floor.” Another kiss up her arm. “The wall.”
