Page 32 of More For Me

Everly

Iwalk into my parents’ house the next morning on a mission. I’m slightly hungover, my head is pounding, and I’m about as angry as I’ve ever been at my family. No one should get in my way today.

“Hey, sweetie,” Aunt Karen says as I stride into the kitchen on my way to the back yard. She does a double take when she sees my face, then narrows her eyes. “Who do I have to kill?”

I falter in my march to find my idiot cousins. “What?”

She waves a finger around my face. “Clearly someone pissed you off. Lead me in the right direction and I’ll take care of them.”

I can’t hold back a giggle, and some of the anger goes out of me. She comes around the kitchen island, abandoning the pitcher of mimosas she was stirring, and wraps an arm around me. I relax into her, resting my head on her shoulder.

I don’t have a favorite aunt. My uncle’s wives have been nearly as influential in my life as my own mother. I could never choose one over the other.

But if I did have a favorite, it would be Karen.

She’s not technically my aunt, not by blood at least. But she’s been my mom’s best friend since grade school and she’s married to my dad and uncles’ best friend, Levi. That makes her family.

I don’t have a middle name—just an initial. K. Because that’s what my mom always calls her best friend. They both had daughters within a few months of each other. Since our moms were pretty much constantly together, that meant Alex and I were, too. It also meant that I spent a ton of time with Karen. She’s an amazing photographer who travels all over the world to work. She brought Alex and I along to Paris, just the two of us, for the first time when we were twelve. Since then we’ve had numerous girls trips overseas, sometimes with my mom, too.

Karen is the one I went to when I got my first period, because my mom was out of town. Teenage me cried on her shoulder over the tyranny of my strict father when he forbade me from dating Logan Jeffries my freshman year. When some of the girls at school started a rumor that my dad had paid them to be friends with me, Karen was the one I told, because I knew my parents would be upset that I was getting bullied.

Basically, she’s one of my favorite people, and I feel better just to lean on her like this.

“Let me guess,” she says, brushing some hair away from my face. “You’re pissed at your cousins about dinner last night.”

I lift my head to gape at her. “You knew about that, too?”

She rolls her eyes. “Silas and Nix are terrible at remembering which group thread they’re on. Half of their texts go to the parents.”

I probably look like a fish the way I’m gaping at her, mouth open. “Silas and Nix?” I screech.

She frowns. “I figured from that look on your face you knew your cousins were in on it.”

I’m so mad my hands are actually shaking. “I knew the older ones were involved. And I figured my sisters. You’re saying it’severyone?”

Karen laughs. “Come on, girl. When is anything in this family ever contained in a small group?”

“I certainly didn’t tell anyone when Will and River got caught smoking pot behind the movie theater when they were teenagers,” I snap, and she snorts.

“We totally knew about that. None of you are as sneaky as you think.”

I sink into one of the kitchen island stools. “I can’t believe they would do this.”

“Why?” She walks back over to the mimosa pitcher and fills two glasses, then takes the champagne and adds an extra healthy pour to the top of our drinks. She hands one over then takes the stool across from me.

“Why what?”

“Why wouldn’t you think your interfering family would interfere with your life? That’s basically what they do, babe.”

“Well they shouldn’t do it to Bodhi!” I snap, surprising even myself with my anger. “It’s one thing to mess with me, but what the hell did he ever do to any of them?”

“Maybe they’re trying to help him,” she says softly.

I glare at her. “Don’t you dare take their side.”

“I’m not saying they’re right to interfere. I’m just saying, if they’re willing to go to all that trouble for him, they must really care.”

I cover my face. “He was so embarrassed, Aunt K.”