Wright Together, page 24
“Sorry that I didn’t call before. It’s been…a wild twenty-four hours.”
“It’s fine. You said you needed to deal with it. I wanted you to do that.”
“Thanks. You said you wanted to help before I left. Do you still want to do that?”
I tilted my head in surprise. “Of course I do.”
“Any chance you have access to a truck?”
I thought about Jensen’s pickup sitting out front. “Probably.”
“Could you bring it to Midland?”
“When?” I asked.
She sighed. “Right now?”
As if I’d deny her anything.
“I’ll be there in two hours.”
She laughed at our old argument about the drive time. “It only takes an hour and a half to get here.”
“Ah, but I’m in Ransom Canyon.”
“What are you doing there?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you when I get there.”
“All right.” She was silent for a moment before saying, “Thank you, Whitt.”
“Anything for you.”
34
Eve
“It’s not much stuff,” Bailey said.
We stood over the boxes that contained the entire contents of Bailey’s life. She was right. It really wasn’t much. But considering I’d figured out how to move everything in my place in two large suitcases, a few garbage bags of clothes, and a mattress strapped to the top of my 4Runner, this felt almost luxurious.
“It’s perfect.”
“He’s never going to let me take the furniture,” she whispered.
“He’s not going to have a choice.”
She looked so young and vulnerable in that moment. A waif of a girl who had let herself float into corruption and was finally seeing the light. It wasn’t going to always be easy, but this was the first time she’d admitted to her own folly.
And a plan had formed.
“If you say so.”
I put a trash bag around the bottom of the last of her clothes and tied it off at the top. “We should get this into my 4Runner. Have as much packed before Whitt gets here.”
“Any word?”
“He said he’d just made the turnoff.”
“I can’t believe he’s coming.”
My stomach twisted. Neither could I. Not after how I’d acted. I had so much to say to him when he got here and no time to say it all. Maybe I could just kiss him and hope that was enough.
I winced. It wouldn’t be enough. Not for him.
“It’ll be fine,” Bailey said to me again.
I’d told her what had happened with Whitt, and she’d insisted that the boy was still smitten with me. That my reaction had been reasonable. Even though it didn’t feel like it had.
“He’s driving all the way here,” she reminded me.
I shrugged. “Maybe he’s doing it as, like, a last-ditch favor.”
“Now who is the pessimist?”
I grinned at her. After having it out on Bailey’s bedroom floor, we’d both come to the conclusion that this wasn’t tenable. And when we’d concocted a new plan, I’d called her a pessimist for suggesting it wasn’t going to work.
It had to work.
Hopefully, I’d get to keep Whitt at the end of it all.
Ten minutes later, a pickup truck idled in the front of the trailer. Watching Whitt hop out of it did something to my insides that I couldn’t explain. The same feeling I’d gotten when I saw him in a hat and boots and on a horse. Honestly the same feeling I got every time I saw his face and he broke into a smile at the sight of me.
He didn’t this time.
There was a wariness to him that I hadn’t seen in months. I hated that I’d put it there.
“Hey,” I said as he approached.
“Hey.”
I bit my lip. There was so much that I wanted to say. To thank him for helping us out. For driving out here in a borrowed truck to put Bailey’s stuff and drive it back to Lubbock. To not think my plan was ridiculous and go along with it.
But none of that came out of my mouth. I just stared at him in fear that I’d ruined the best thing that had ever happened to me.
“I’m sorry,” I finally got out. “I’m really so sorry. I shouldn’t have left like that. I was so scared about Bailey and what was coming. I’m not the kind of person that can take help. I had to do it on my own. Everything on my own. And I know that makes me stubborn, but it’s how I operate. It wasn’t until I met you that I even knew that I could rely on someone else. I understand if you think I screwed us all up.” I swallowed, watching his big blue eyes for a reaction. “I understand if this was too much for you, if I’m too much for you.” My lips trembled. “But I don’t want any space between us. I want this…with you.”
“Eve.”
“Yeah?”
“Shut up,” he said.
Then, his hand was in my hair, and he kissed me.
I fell off the high dive and splashed into depthless water. My head disappearing beneath the waves, my lungs filling with liquid, my ears ringing, my eyes burning, my insides turning to dust. I was drowning. And he was pulling me under.
All of my fear evaporated as I descended with him and let the tide take us.
My arms came up around his neck, and he tugged me even tighter against his chest. Our bodies remembering the ease with which we moved together. Our lips pressed tight together. Our tongues a delicate dance.
It wasn’t until he kissed me so thoroughly that I was certain I’d never come back up for air that he broke away.
“Oh,” I whispered.
“You don’t have to apologize to me.”
“But…”
“You don’t have to,” he repeated.
“I know, but…”
“I was being a control freak. You needed to deal with this. I’m glad that you called and brought me in when you had the space for it.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Eve, don’t,” he said again, claiming my lips. “I’m here for you. I’m here for Bailey. I don’t need an apology when you have nothing to apologize for.”
“Okay. I don’t apologize, but I wish that I’d handled it better. That I hadn’t cut you out.”
“It’s okay.” He laced our fingers together. “I’m here now.”
A throat cleared behind us. “If y’all are done making out, can we get back to work?”
I found Bailey standing at the door with her fingers in the loops of her jean shorts. “All right. All right.”
“What do you need from me?”
“We need to load up all of her furniture and probably help with some of the heavier boxes.” I showed off my bicep. “I’m a beast, and I can squat your body weight, but I wouldn’t mind some extra muscle.”
“Got it.”
Whitt followed Bailey into her room. She was joking with him like they were long-lost friends. His smile was easy, and hers was bright.
My stomach, however, felt like it had been yanked back on a yo-yo. So much fear rolled into this one meeting, and it had been for nothing. Maybe we’d both needed this time to figure out how important the relationship was to us.
“You coming?” Bailey asked when she saw me holding back.
“Yeah.”
I hurried after them to get the truck loaded. With Whitt’s help, it went much faster. I worked out in the gym several times a week, and still, I was nowhere as strong as him. It was entirely unfair.
We’d finished with almost all the furniture when another car pulled up beside the trailer.
“Shit,” I said, dashing up the stairs and back inside. “Whitt! Bailey! Dad’s here.”
“Fuck,” Bailey snapped. “Why is he back so early?”
Whitt’s brow furrowed. “Wait, does he not know?”
Bailey sighed. “I told you we needed to talk to Dad before moving everything.”
“I thought it’d be better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.”
“Great,” Whitt said, looking between us in consternation. “What are you going to do?”
Whatever I had to.
“Evie Jo! Bailey Lou!” Dad called as he stepped into the house. “What the fuck is going on? Why is there a truck, loaded with stuff, at our place?”
I took a deep breath and then stepped up to the plate. “Because Bailey is leaving.”
“The fuck she is.”
“I’m taking her back to Lubbock with me.”
His face was turning red. “You can’t do that. She’s my kid. I choose what happens to her.”
“Look at how well that’s worked out so far,” I snarled at him. “She is back on drugs. Last year, she overdosed under your watch.”
“She’s an addict,” he cried. “I was doing the best I could.”
I actually laughed. “Your best isn’t good enough. I should have taken her then and there, but I let you trap me. I paid for rehab. I paid for her to come home. I’ve paid for everything since.”
“And you’re going to keep paying!”
“No, I’m not,” I told him, crossing my arms. “I’m done bankrolling your life. I wasn’t in a position to take her before, but I am now. I have a good job. I have a house that I’m renting with some other girls. And I have receipts from the last year that prove I’m the one who’s been taking care of her financially.”
He scoffed. “You can’t just take her away from me. No judge will approve of her going to a sister rather than to her father.”
“Why do you even want her here? You clearly don’t care about her.”
“Hey!” he yelled. “I was out there, looking for her yesterday, just like you were.”
Bailey laughed. “For what reason? You never see me. And when you do, it’s only to remind me of what a failure I am. You don’t care about me or Eve. You never have. Only Gram did.”
“I took care of you after your mom skipped town.”
“What do you want a medal?” Bailey snapped.
“That’s your job,” I added hotly. “You’re a parent. Taking care of us is the bare minimum!”
“If you take her now, it’s kidnapping,” he warned.
This time, I couldn’t stop from laughing. “Is that so? You’d have to take me to court to prove it.”
“Then, I will,” he snapped.
He could see the house of cards crumbling. Instead of seeing what was best for Bailey, he was doubling down. Typical.
“You want your church friends to find out about all of this?”
He winced. If I knew anything about him, he wanted to keep it away from his friends. He wanted to appear on the outside as the perfect father, the perfect man, but none of them really knew him. Worse, they were just as grimy as he was. The call was coming from inside the house.
“You’d need a lawyer!” he blustered. Clearly, he had no other response.
Whitt cleared his throat, stepping into view for the first time. “I actually have a lawyer.”
My dad’s eyes widened in alarm. “What are you doing here?”
“When my girlfriend calls, I come running,” he said simply. “If my deadbeat dad taught me anything, it’s to have a team of lawyers on standby. I didn’t squander that advice at least. Wrights know how to go to bat.”
“That’s…that’s…” he sputtered incoherently.
“You’re neglectful, and I can prove it,” I said, lifting my chin and refusing to back down. “I have a case, Dad. You know I do.”
“You don’t have your own house,” he argued in his last-ditch effort. “No judge will approve her to live in a room with you. She has to have her own room.”
I bit my lip. I hadn’t known that. I didn’t even know if it was true. I looked to Whitt with wide eyes. Because I did not have a place for her to live on her own. I was just going to move her into my room. I didn’t care what else happened as long as I got her away from here.
Whitt met my gaze and frowned. As if he could read the terror on my face at the thought that Dad might be right.
“They can live with me then,” Whitt said without missing a beat. “I have two extra bedrooms. One of those belongs to Bailey as long as she needs it.”
My dad laughed in his face. “Evie Jo would die before moving in with a boyfriend. She’s too independent for that.”
Whitt shot me a look. A question in his eyes.
I still couldn’t believe he’d even said it. Was he serious? Or was he just saying it to get at my dad?
The shocking thing was that despite my dad being right, I’d never considered moving in with a boyfriend. But I didn’t feel that way about Whitt. That felt right. That felt like something I wanted to do.
“You’re wrong,” I told my dad. “We’ll move in with Whitt.”
He shook his head. “Wow. I see you’ve thought of everything.” Finally, he sighed and met Bailey’s gaze. “Is this really what you want?”
“Yes,” she said desperately. “I want to be with Eve. Dad, just…let me go.”
He nodded. “It’s a bad idea, but if this is what you want and I can’t change your mind, then fine. Go move to Lubbock.” He met my gaze. “But you do it right, Evie Jo. You get her enrolled in school. You keep her clean. Okay?”
“I will,” I told him, my heart threatening to beat out of my chest with shock.
It had worked.
It had really worked.
I almost didn’t believe it when Dad stepped back out of the trailer and left us for the last time.
35
Whitton
“You didn’t have to do that,” Eve said once her dad was well and truly gone.
I blinked at her in surprise. “Do what?”
“Offer to have us stay with you.”
“Even if I didn’t have to, I wanted to. I want you to live with me, Eve.”
“We haven’t been dating that long.”
He smirked. “Somehow, there is no prerequisite for how long a couple has to be together before moving in together.”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t feel early?”
“Only if you don’t want to. Otherwise, I will lie through my teeth for you and move Bailey into your room with Piper and Blaire.”
Bailey cleared her throat behind us. “Uh, I do not want that if there’s another option.”
Eve laughed and shoved her. “Go finish packing!”
“Fine. Fine,” Bailey said. She slunk off to her room.
“You really want this?” she asked shyly.
“Yes.” I took her hands into mine and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “I want you. I thought that was obvious. I’ve been the one pushing for this from the start. It’s you that I’ve had to convince. Are you convinced?”
She grinned. “I suppose I am.”
I tugged her forward, capturing her lips in another searing kiss. I’d been fucked up, thinking I was going to lose her. And I was never going to take for granted having her in my arms. If I could throw her over my shoulder and take her to the nearest bed, I would, but we didn’t have the time…or the privacy.
Instead, I reluctantly released her and helped move the rest of Bailey’s stuff into the truck. Her 4Runner was packed to the brim.
Eve patted her car twice. “She’ll get the job done.”
“Let’s hope she doesn’t break down with all the extra weight.”
She rolled her eyes. “Not going to happen. Where’d you get this truck anyway?”
“It happens to belong to Jensen Wright.”
“What?” She laughed. “How the hell do you have Jensen’s truck?”
“That is a long story. And has a lot to do with Colton accidentally throwing a rager, being forced to clean up the party alone.”
Her eyes widened. “Does that mean he’s not going back to New York?”
“Nope. He’s staying in Lubbock for the year.”
“Wow.”
“So, he and Bailey will be at the same high school.”
“Who is this?” Bailey asked. “A hot guy?”
“He’s fifteen,” Eve said.
Bailey sighed. “Fine. Can’t help a girl out.”
“Let’s focus on academics, eh?” Eve said with an eye roll. “And maybe the volleyball team.”
“No way will some rando volleyball team that doesn’t know me let me try out when school has already started.”
I shrugged. “I know someone who works at the school. We’ll see what we can do.”
Bailey looked hopeful for a second, and it warmed my heart that she could still hope.
Eve dragged me in for another kiss before we split up and made the trek back up to Lubbock. It was much closer to two hours with so much stuff in the vehicles. On the way, I texted my siblings to meet me at the house. I did not want to unload all of this alone. It’d take a fourth of the time to have them all there.
So, I was happy to find West’s, Jordan’s, and Julian’s cars on the street when we pulled up to the house. I hopped out and clapped hands with West as he came out of the house. I was glad that I’d given him a key.
“You’re lucky I’m not already in California,” West said.
“He’s leaving tomorrow,” Harley whined. “I did not sign up for him ditching us all fall.”
“How’s Nora taking it?” I asked.
West grinned. “She decided to come with while she builds her celebrity wedding business.”
“I’m glad for you, man.”
“And what’s happening here?” Jordan said, shaking hands with me.
“Unloading.”
“Where do we start?” Julian asked next.
“The furniture is in Jensen’s truck. The boxes and clothes are in Eve’s SUV.”
Eve headed over to the guys with Bailey trailing uncertainly behind them. “Hey, y’all. This is my sister, Bailey.”
They all said hi and welcomed her to Lubbock. We’d all moved here ourselves in the last couple of years. We knew what it was like to be a newcomer.
Harley slid her arm through Bailey’s. “Come on. I’ll show you which room you want.”
I groaned and Harley just cackled. I’d forgotten they were only two years apart. As my sister dragged Bailey away, I hoped that a friendship would bloom. Bailey needed the support, and Harley was as strong as they came.
