Page 78 of Meant for You

When she looked at the screen, she stiffened. I wasn’t surprised when I leaned over and saw her aunt’s name there. Everly was contemplating not answering it—it was written all over her face—but then that guilt dimmed her beautiful eyes and she put her phone to her ear.

“Hi, Aunt Julia.”

Everly listened for a bit and her face paled. I listened as she said a lot of yes, this and yes, that.

“I’ll leave soon,” she eventually whispered.

My gut clenched, heart racing as she ended the call. Leaving? What the fuck? “Is everything okay?”

Eves shook her head. “Aunt Julia, she said she’s not well, that she needs me home for a while.”

Every muscle in my body went tight. “A while? What does that mean?”

“I don’t know. A week…maybe two. Cassy already said I could have some time off, after how busy we’ve been. So at least I won’t be leaving her in the lurch.” Her eyes came to mine and they were hollow.

I held her chin between my finger and thumb and stroked her smooth skin. “You don’t want to go?”

She shook her head. “You know what our relationship’s like, especially now.”

Everly and her aunt’s relationship had always been strained. “Why especially now?”

She toyed with the covers. “After what happened with Clayton. She couldn’t show her face in church again—her words. That creep’s father was my aunt’s pastor, and I’d humiliated her and disgraced our family.”

“The fuck? He was going to drug you…” I couldn’t finish the rest of that sentence, not if I wanted to keep my shit together.

Everly shook her head. “Julia won’t believe it. She thinks…” She threaded our fingers together. “She never liked me talking about my time in foster care or you. So when you showed up and did what you did, everything between us got a whole lot worse.”

“How much worse?”

“Just…words said in anger.”

“Like what?” I growled.

“Like she should have left me in that house, that she never should’ve come for me.”

I tugged her in close and held her. “You don’t need to go back there.” I didn’t fucking want her to go. I finally had her back. I didn’t want to let her go even for a week or two.

That sounded like forever to me.

She cupped my jaw and pulled back so I could see her face, her eyes. “But she did come for me, Dane. She made sacrifices, took care of me, made sure I had everything I needed, more. I’m all she has. I can’t not go.”

Fuck.

I knew that, too.

I pressed my lips to hers. “Just promise me you’ll come back.”

“I promise,” she said against my lips.

Chapter Seventeen

Everly

I set my bags on the bed in my old room and walked to the window.

My aunt’s ranch in Rutherford was pretty. A lot smaller than Cassy and Cal’s, but to me, when I’d first arrived here, I thought it was huge. I’d just turned fifteen and thought a prettier place couldn’t possibly exist. I’d spent hours wandering the fields, spending time with Aunt Julia’s horses.

It had also been a good way to avoid her.