Evelyn Vine Be Mine (58 page)

“She has?” I asked, completely lost.

Logan nodded smugly. “She finally agreed to move in with me.”

“Oh,” I said with surprise, “Um, that’s really exciting Lo…”

“I’m going to tell everyone,” he continued, “I had to wait for her to realise she can’t live without me, but now that she has, I wanted you to be the first to know.”

“I’m missing something,” I said slowly, “All this because your girlfriend wouldn’t move in with you? You wanted her to move in and she didn’t?”

Logan’s smile grew to a broad grin as he shook his head. “We’re having a baby,” he said simply.

My ass hit the floor.

***

“You’re what?!”

“Ivy is pregnant,” Logan said with a laugh, helping me up.

“Congrats,” I said shakily, blinking rapidly as I tried to make sense of what was happening, “When’s she due?”

“Tomorrow,” Logan said with a shrug, “But first babies are apparently always late.”

“Tomorrow?!” I squeaked, “Logan!”

“Shhh,” Logan soothed me, pulling me into a hug, “I didn’t tell anyone because Ivy freaked out about it. She left me.”

“What? Why?”

Logan shifted uncomfortably against me and sighed. “Well, we’d been keeping things pretty casual…Ivy hadn’t really wanted to make our relationship a big deal. You know, she didn’t want to do the whole ‘meet the family’ thing. I thought that was all fine, she let me call her my girlfriend when we went out and all that, so I thought we were just taking things slow and would eventually get serious…”

“Then she fell pregnant,” I supplied.

“Yeah,” Logan said a little sheepishly, “I didn’t think it was too big a deal. I wanted children eventually and I love Ivy…but Ivy was…um, well, she wasn’t really happy about it.”

“Why not?” I asked carefully, looking up at him as he squeezed me tighter.

He wrinkled his nose at me. “One of those stupid woman things. She thinks she’s too plain to marry me.”

I blinked. “Come again?”

Logan sighed, “She thinks I’m too sexy for her.”

I burst out laughing at the irony, but Logan gave me a small shake. “Hey,” he said softly, “Not funny.

“I’ve been busting my balls for the last seven months trying to convince her to just move in with me and give us a shot.”

I winced, “I’m sorry, Lo. No wonder you didn’t tell the others.”

I could just imagine the chaos of mixed reactions that news would have incited in my family. There’d be jokes, there’d be reprimands, there’d be constant streams of advice…and my mother? I shuddered, glad that I wasn’t bringing the first grandchild into the world.

“So, you want to help me write my email?” Logan asked hopefully.

I smiled sadly and guided him over to the computer. “Only if you stay while I read the others’.”

“Deal,” he answered quietly and wrapped one arm around me as I clicked open the first link.

***

I managed to hold back the tears as we read each email and sent our own. I hugged Logan tightly when he rose to leave, knowing that if he hadn’t been here, I’d have been a complete emotional wreck. As it was, I was hanging on by a thread.

My door flew open and heavy steps announced Stone’s arrival. His tread stopped abruptly and I pulled away from Logan to look at him. Oh boy, he did not look happy.

His gaze went from me, to Logan, and back again, his expression becoming increasingly more tense.

Logan looked at me sharply and raised an eyebrow, “He still doesn’t know?”

I shook my head quickly and Logan closed his eyes, pulling a pained face. “I’ll just let you two talk,” he said quickly, nodding at Stone briefly, before making a quick exit. I almost smiled, knowing that if it had been any other brother – they’d have stayed.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Stone’s temper snapped. “What the fuck is going on?” he growled at me.

I trembled a little, and sat down on the bed. “Please don’t yell at me like that,” I said softly, “Not today.”

“Then talk to me,” he said in a low, fierce voice, “Because I’m sick and tired of running after you like some love sick puppy, while you tell everyone we’re not a couple. I’m through trying to figure out what you want and how to make you happy… and I’m fucking done pretending I can handle being one of many.”

“You’re not,” I whispered, “There’s only you.”

“BULLSHIT!”

I winced and opened my mouth to correct him, but he powered on.

“Logan and Cooper are always ringing you. I thought they’d stopped when we started dating…but you just started hiding them.”

“No, I didn-”

“SHH!” he barked, “Then there are the names on your phone and today, there are emails!”

He shook his head, his shoulders shaking a little from the ferocity of his breaths. “I thought you were this shy, sweet little thing that needed protecting…a cute little kitten with a hidden spunk, a sharp humour and an inner sex goddess!

“But here you are, stringing more than ten men on at once! How many more do you have your claws into Evelyn? Is this sweet act just a game to you?”

I stood up and reached a hand towards him. “Grant,” I tried to soothe, “Please calm down. I promise I’m not playing with you or anyone else. Logan and Coop are my older brothers. They’re all my brothers.”

Stone’s laugh was cold and soft. He stepped back from me and ran a hand over his face. “You expect me to believe that all those names are your brothers? Nice try, Eveyln, but I’m not buying it.”

I lost it. I wasn’t going to be talked down to. I wasn’t going to put up with this today. I was hurt and sad and I’d had it up to here with Stone’s bossiness and assumptions.

“What’s the point in asking me to talk if you’re not going to listen?!” I snapped, “You tell me to talk, then you tell me to shush, then you tell me I’m a lying bitch!”

I yanked the top drawer of my bedside table open and grabbed the large, laminated photo from it. I slammed it into Stone’s chest and snarled at him like a beast. “Well fuck you!” I shouted at him, “If you’d ever bothered to ask me about my family, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. If you’d bothered to ask me to be your girlfriend, your friends wouldn’t have kept this from you! They’re the ones who have been fucking with your head!”

I grabbed the photo back from Stone, ignoring his shocked expression as I slammed it against the wall.

“Recognise him?” I said, pointing to a fifteen-year old version of Logan. “What about her?” I continued, pointing to an eight-year old me.

“Oh, and you met Jake,” I snapped, pointing to the seven-year-old triplets, “Meet his triplets, Mike and Luke.”

“Want to guess the rest of their names?” I yelled, poking him in the chest, before pointing at each of my sisters, “They’re Victoria and Charlotte!”

“Let’s not forget Cooper! Or Harvey! Or Evan, Paul and Zane!”

I pointed to the man and woman in the centre of the picture and drew a deep breath, my whole body trembling as tears spilled down my cheeks, “And just in case you couldn’t guess, those are my parents!”

Stone gently took the photo from me, but I barely noticed as I flung my arm towards the computer.

“Those emails are from my siblings, Grant! Logan was here, hugging me, because we both needed the comfort!”

“Where were you last night after he called?” I accused, “Where were you when I went to bed alone and cried myself to sleep? Where were you this morning, when I needed you?!”

I flung my arm back around to point at the photo again. “That’s the last fucking photo I have of my whole family. Ten years ago today, my father was blown to fucking bits by a car bomb!”

I gasped for breath as I fell to my knees and Stone sunk down heavily on the bed, his head in his hands.

“He was in fucking pieces,” I whispered to the floor, “There wasn’t even enough of him to bury. Not enough for us to look at. Nothing for us to say goodbye to. We hadn’t seen him for four months and then there was nothing.”

I shoved to my feet and pushed wet strands of hair from my face. “I needed you,” I said fiercely, “And you were off fucking sulking because you couldn’t ask me a simple question.”

I stormed from the room, slamming the door behind me before breaking into a run down the hall. I needed to run. I needed to escape.

Donny stopped on the stair landing, halfway between the first and second floors. He took one look at my face and held out his arms, catching me as I crashed into him. The dam broke completely and I collapsed into his hold, clutching at him for support as I sobbed. I barely even noticed when he lifted me and carried me to his room.

***

When I finally cam back to my senses, I was lying in Donny’s double bed, wrapped snugly in his arms as heavy metal music pounded through his speakers. I sniffed hard and wiped my face.

“What the hell is this screamo shit?” I demanded with a raised brow, my voice sounding raspy and strained from the heavy sobbing.

Donny laughed and grabbed the remote, turning the volume down as he let me go and rolled to his back. “It fit my mood,” was his flippant reply.

“Wow, you must have some serious rage going on then,” I joked, shifting self-consciously as it suddenly penetrated my brain that I was in Donny’s bed. I didn’t know how I felt about that. I shuddered as I wondered when he’d last cleaned his sheets. I sat up gingerly, trying to unobtrusively examine the sheets for any suspicious-looking stains.

It took me a minute to work out Donny hadn’t answered my question and was staring at me thoughtfully. Finally, he said, “You seemed to have quite a lot bottled up as well.”

I cringed. “Did you hear everything?”

Donny nodded slowly and sighed, “I think everyone heard, honey.”

He rolled his shoulders and rubbed the back of his neck, “I’ve never heard Stone shout like that, so I came down to make sure you were okay.” The corner of his mouth tilted up, “Never expected you to shout back. Wouldn’t have been game enough myself…”

I smiled sadly and let Donny tug me into the crook of his arm as we sat back against the headboard. “I can’t believe I did that either,” I whispered, letting my head thump backward against the wall.

“Stone will come round,” Donny told me, “Now that he knows what’s going on, he’ll make it up to you.”

“What’s the point,” I said hollowly, “Even if we patch this up, there’ll always be the next misunderstanding. We’re doomed to failure because we don’t talk.”

Donny looked at me like I was an idiot, “Then talk.”

I raised an accusing eyebrow, “Like you and Fredi talk?”

“Ouch,” he said with a groan, “Winnie and I are complicated.”

I looked up at him curiously, but was hesitant to ask him about it. He must have seen the question in my eyes though, because he hugged me a little tighter and chuckled softly. “I take it Briar hasn’t told you anything about mine and Fredi’s history?”

I shook my head.

Donny closed his eyes and smiled. “Winnie and I have been friends for years,” he murmured, “We’ve always just clicked. We were inseparable as kids. She’s my best friend and I can’t stand fighting with her.”

“What happened?” I asked with a frown.

“Puberty,” Donny said with a laugh, “We reached high school and the both of us started competing against each other, trying to get the most dates, trying to round each base before the other, setting each other challenges and generally causing a lot of trouble.

“Then, towards the middle of grade eleven, Fredi asked me to be her date for the debutante ball her parents were throwing for her sixteenth. She hated the way her parents tried to show her off like a show pony. They tried to change who she was as a person. She couldn’t bear to sit through the whole night without me.

Donny suddenly grinned, “It was a great night. Winnie looked so beautiful in her white dress. We danced and laughed all night, before escaping out a back door when her parents wanted to take her home. She took off her heels and I piggy-backed her back to my place, where we climbed up into my little brother’s cubby house.