Wanting Forever (A Nelson Island Novel) (11 page)

“I’m going to the bathroom,” she said.

He refrained from pointing out that she’d just been in the bathroom. His tongue should be bloody, due to the number of times he’d bitten it since his brother and his girlfriend had arrived.

“Okay.” He yawned instead.

While she was gone, his eyes drifted closed as he tried to picture the countless nights they’d spent together sleeping on his bed after she’d crawled through his window. As he wondered how they’d gotten so far away from that easy comfort, he fell asleep. And didn’t open his eyes again until the next morning, when all that was next to him in his bed was the dent where Ever had slept.

“Ouch!” Ever screamed, hopping from one foot to the other. “This sand is freaking hot as fire!”

Sam laughed, watching her hoppy little dance as they stepped onto the sand.

“It’s supposed to be hot,” he explained, attempting to smother his laughter. “It’s the beach.”

She glared at him. “I think I hate it!”

They trudged closer to the waves rolling in and set up a little camp with chairs and towels. Sam settled into a lounge chair and sighed.

“No one hates the beach.”

Ever, continuing to dart irritated looks in his direction, sat on a beach towel and pulled her knees into her chest.

“So now what?” she asked.

“Now I think we’re supposed to relax,” Hunter offered.

Ever heaved a sigh and stared out at the water.

“You can’t deny that’s beautiful, right?” Sam asked, tugging her long red hair gently between his fingers.

“I guess.” She never took her eyes off the waves. “I’m not going in that water though. There’s probably sharks in there.”

This time Hunter was the one who burst into laughter. “Sharks? Only in the movies, Ev.”

They sat on the beach for an hour, just talking and watching the waves and the people. Then, Sam stood.

“Do you want to take a walk with me?” he asked Ever.

She eyed his outstretched hand. “Walk? On the sand?”

A smile tugged the corner of his lips, but he managed to keep an otherwise straight face. “Yeah.”

“All right.” She stood carefully and tested her feet on the sand.

“It’s not as hot the closer we get to the water.” Sam beckoned with his outstretched hand. “Come on.”

He pulled her off of her towel and they began to move away from their spot on the sand and toward some of the small hotels farther down the beach.

“Don’t you love it here?” Sam asked her quietly. He didn’t understand how she could deny the beauty of the place, even if she was attached to their hometown.

“I can see that
you
love it here.” Her answer was careful and pointed.

Sam heaved a sigh.

“Look, Sam,” she began. “I just don’t know where I’d fit in. You seem to have started this whole great new life here, and it’s without me. It’s kind of surreal. And I’ve started a great new life back in Duck Creek. I even have a new friend. Besides you and Hunt, I don’t think I’ve ever had a friend. My eyes are open to things now they weren’t before because of…you know.”

“Yeah, I know.” Sam sighed. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her in close to his side. “We’ll figure it out. I promise.”

After a few hours on the beach, they headed home to shower and have dinner so they’d be ready for the night ahead of them at Sunny’s. Sam couldn’t wait to introduce them to his friends. It was Reed introducing him to the crew at Sunny’s and the laid-back atmosphere he’d found inside the quirky little beachside bar that had put him on the path to comfort in this new place. He knew Hunter and Ever would really fall in love with the whole group.

How could they not?

Six Years Previously in Duck Creek

S
am carried his lunch tray to a table brimming with his friends. His usual seat next to Ever was empty and waiting for him. He sat, and she smiled over at him as she tore open her carton of milk and took a sip.

Sam inspected her. He had walked her to school this morning in their usual routine, but he wanted to make sure her bruises were fading.

He silently questioned her with his eyes, and she shrugged in return.

“Hey,” Chris said from across the table. “You guys coming to homecoming tonight or what?”

“I never go to dances, you know that,” answered Sam.

“We know.” Chris’s girlfriend, Julie, rolled her eyes. “But what about Ever? Maybe she’s sick of sitting them all out.”

He glanced at Ever, whose face was blushing a furious crimson.

Sam chewed his bite of mac and cheese slowly. “I don’t get it. Why do you think I would be holding Ever back from attending a dance?”

Ever suddenly pushed back from the table and ran from the cafeteria. Sam stared after her, a bite of food halfway to his mouth.

“What am I missing?” he asked.

Julie shot him a death glare from across the table.

“You’re so clueless, Sam. You and Eve…you two are such a
couple
. No one takes care of her like you do. Why haven’t you taken it to the next level?”

Disbelief and shock imploded Sam’s world as he stared at Julie. A couple? He and Ever? That wasn’t…oh, shit.

Did Ever want more than what he was giving her?

Without another word to the group, he pushed himself back from the table and left the cafeteria. He walked out of the school’s big double doors and spotted Ever a few feet away, sitting alone on a bench.

He paused, just taking a breath as he watched her. Slowly, he walked over to her. “What’s up, Ev?”

She didn’t glance up at him as she sniffled. She rubbed her nose with a tissue, and stayed silent.

Her tears prickled his heart. She cried enough. He never wanted to be the cause of her tears. Never. He sat next to her on the bench and leaned into her until his shoulder bumped hers. Then he placed an arm around her and stared out into the parking lot.

“I messed up, didn’t I?” he asked softly. “You want more, don’t you?”

She turned to look at him. And he looked back at her, really looked at her, for the first time.

He noted how long and silky her thick auburn hair had gotten; he found that her cheeks weren’t as chubby and freckly as they used to be. Her face had hollowed out into the slim, sculpted face of an angel.

She was thin, but not waiflike, with curves in all the right places. She had an ethereal quality about her, a beauty he hadn’t quite noticed until this moment. He suddenly understood
Hunter’s comments about how Ever was changing, and how somebody ought to do something about it.

But it was the perfectly broken girl underneath all of that exterior beauty that he could no longer resist. Of course they should be a couple. Everyone else had realized that they already were.

He just needed to make it official. That’s what should naturally happen next.

“Ever,” he whispered, pulling her head down to rest on his shoulder “If we do this…if we take this friendship to the next level, there won’t be any going back. That scares me, because apart from Hunter, you’re all I have.”

She nodded. “I know. I never would have said anything. You’re all I have, too, Sam. Without you I don’t know where I’d be. Dead, maybe. But I do want more. I…I love you.”

He caught his breath sharply at that. His mind raced, trying to catch up with his quickly beating heart. He loved her, too. He had for a long time now, he just hadn’t realized what it was.

He knew now. And maybe it wasn’t the kind of love that’s felt with a burning passion and an uncontrollable need to be with the other person. But it was love all the same: warm, comfortable, safe.

He lifted her chin with his finger and bent his face toward hers. The very first meeting of their lips was sweet, and warm, and friendly. She had always offered him a home where he’d never had one before. This was no different.

D
eep into the evening found Sam, Hunter, and Ever in Reed’s Silverado, with Sam riding shotgun on the way to Sunny’s.

“So, Hunter,” Reed was asking. “Did you play football, too?”

“Naw,” Hunter answered. “Sports are Sam’s thing. I was more of a watch-from-the-stands kind of a guy.”

“Me, too,” Reed answered. “With football, anyway. But I lettered on the swim team.”

“I’m sure you did,” Hunter answered wryly.

Sam glanced back sharply at him. Hunter just grinned, and shrugged.

When they arrived, Ever glanced out at the lapping waters of the ocean and stopped.

“This rickety old place is sitting
right on the water
!”

“Yeah.” Sam chuckled. “It threw me for a loop the first time, too.”

“I’m not going in there,” she announced.

Reed stared at her, incredulity filling his handsome features. “But in there is where the bar is.”

“So?” she shot back. “That place is about to fall into the water!”

Reed shook his head and breezed past. “I’m going to leave you out here to deal with this, Sam. I have a shot of Cuervo and twins waiting on me inside.”

Ever folded her arms and squared off against Sam. A new stubborn set to her jaw was forming that Sam didn’t recognize. “I’m not going in, Sam.”

Sam groaned, the vein in his neck throbbing visibly as he looked at Ever. “Ever, our ride just went inside. We have to go in.”

“I’ll stay out here all damn night—”

“Ever,” Hunter interrupted. Sam’s and Ever’s heads both snapped around to stare at him. “Let’s go in and get a drink. I’ll order you a nice bottle of Bud. Then once we’re inside, if you feel unsafe, I swear I’ll wait outside with you the rest of the night.”

“You don’t have to wait with her,” Sam said.

His annoyance with his brother and Ever was growing, and he still couldn’t understand what was causing it. Why did it seem like they were the two who had bonded for years while he watched from the sidelines? “I’m here.”

Ever conceded. “Fine. One drink.” She took off toward the door to Sunny’s, her boots crunching in the gravel as she stomped.

They entered and Sam led them toward the table on the deck where his friends waited. Ever groaned when she noticed the location of the table, but Hunter squeezed her shoulder and she didn’t complain aloud.

“Guys,” Sam announced. “This is my girl, Ever. And my brother, Hunter.”

Greetings went up around the table, and Sam grinned as he saw Tamara’s watchful eyes scoping out Ever.

When everyone was settled, Ever on one side of Sam and Hunter on the other side of Ever, Sam went up to the bar to get their drinks. He held up one finger to the now-familiar bartender to indicate his Michelob and asked for two Bud Lights for Hunter and Ever.

“She’s gorgeous,” said Aston from beside him as she leaned her back against the bar and crossed her arms.

Sam glanced over at her and ran a hand over his short dark hair. “Yeah, she is”

“You doing okay? You seem tense.”

He watched her study him, and the familiar pang hammered in his chest. Then he looked closer. There was something different about her. Her face was less stressed somehow, and she had a genuine smile on her face as she spoke to him. He glanced back at the table, and his eyebrows rose with the curiosity now burning a trail through his mind.

“I’m doing okay,” he replied. “Things are just kind of weird right now. Just the long-distance thing, I guess. We’ll be okay. I just need to spend some time alone with her. It’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, you said that twice,” Aston pointed out.

“Did I? Well, that’s because it will.”

“I’m sure it will,” she agreed.

She stuck her hand out toward the bartender and pointed at the glass bottles behind her on the wall.

“Give me a gin and tonic with a lime, Kelly,” she said.

Sam looked at her in surprise. “You’re drinking tonight?”

“Seems like a night that I might need one.”

“Where’s the boyfriend, Princess?”

 “We broke up. It was tough…but we were never going to make it, Sam. I knew it, and if Prince thinks really hard about it, so did he.”

The words he wanted to say lost their way somewhere between his heart and his mouth.

Kelly brought Aston’s gin and tonic over along with Sam’s three longnecks. He paid for all the drinks, including Aston’s highball.

“Thank you,” she said. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Us country boys are gentlemen,” he pointed out. Then he smiled. “I had fun working with you yesterday. Glad you didn’t stay mad about the other night.”

She waved a dismissive hand. “Water under the bridge. Plus, you were right.”

She walked back to the deck, and Sam followed, with a worry-line creasing his forehead. When he arrived back at the table, Tate was regaling Hunter and Ever with tales of the group’s adventures in Sunny’s over the years.

“So don’t worry about this place falling in,” he finished as Ever furrowed her brow doubtfully. “If it’s still standing after a rumble between Blaze and that Vin Diesel look-alike last summer, it’ll be standing forever.”

Sam and Hunter clinked the tops of their beers together before they took a sip.

“So what took you guys so long to visit?” Ashley asked, leaning forward to rest her elbows on the table.

“We had a lot going on back home,” answered Hunter. His tone was careful and succinct, and he kept his gaze coolly focused on Ashley.

Ever looked down at her beer, not meeting anyone’s eyes.

“Yeah, but Sam’s here,” Aston pointed out. “You must have missed him. Now that we have him, we don’t know what we’d do without him.”

Sam stared over at her. Since when was Aston part of his fan club? Most of the time he couldn’t decide if she wanted him, or if she hated him. Tonight, she
was
different. He tried not to think about it.

Not to like it.

“We did miss him,” Ever said, looking up and meeting Aston’s eyes. “More than he knows.”

Sam put his arm around her and pulled her closer. She looked up at him and smiled tentatively.

Reed was already settled comfortably in his chair with the twins, Kelsee and Kaylee, sitting on each of his legs. Tonight he’d dialed down his usual look, opting for a plain black T-shirt and worn jeans. A single black leather cuff adorned his wrist, and the sun had turned his skin golden brown. He looked older, and somehow like he was settling into himself. He spoke up.

“We think Sam’s great. My dad saw the potential in him right away. Moved him from tearin’ it up out there with the horses to working in the office. Dad thinks Sam is going to make it big in the company one day. Thank God, because I sure as hell don’t want to!”

Hunter studied Sam. “So you think you can make it work, Sam? Staying here and moving up the corporate ladder? What about school? What about Ever?”

“Why can’t Ever come with you?” Aston asked, watching Hunter closely.

“Because they’ll notice if I’m suddenly gone, too,” Ever snapped.

Aston’s eyes widened. “Who will notice?”

Sam cut in. “We haven’t worked it all out yet, guys. We’ll just see what happens at the end of summer. I enjoy working at the company. I…like it here. But I never meant to make this permanent.”

He met Aston’s glare head-on, his eyes searching hers for understanding, hers narrow and unwavering.

Finally, he blew out an exasperated sigh. “We’ll see what happens, okay?”

The tone of his voice told her to drop it.

“I need some air,” Ever said suddenly, moving to stand. Sam opened his mouth and she threw up a hand, walking toward the front of the bar.

Sam stood up to go after her. Hunter stopped him.

“Let me, bro,” he instructed gently. “You two have been apart for awhile. She’s having a rough time seeing how well adjusted you are here on top of… just let me go talk to her. She’ll be okay.”

Sam stared at him with more confusion. “
You
want to go talk to her?”

“Yeah.” Hunter nodded. “I’ve been with her over the last few months, Sam. I know how she’s been feeling. I’ll bring her back in here in a minute, okay? You stay here.”

He got up and followed Ever, and Sam stood there, watching his brother’s exit.

“Sam,” Finn said in a low voice. Sam turned to meet his gaze. “We’re your friends. What the hell is going on? Did you guys get into some kind of trouble back in your old town?”

Finn’s voice was full of concern, and when Sam looked over at his friends he saw it etched on everyone’s faces at the table. Even Reed moved Kaylee and Kelsee off his legs, ignoring their squeals of protest, and leaned forward.

“Go get another drink,” he told them, thrusting some bills into their hands.

As the twins left, Aston spoke up. “Sam. You can tell us anything.”

Sam leaned back in his chair and pulled at his earlobe. He closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again Aston’s were burning into his, looking straight through him the way she always did. It was too much for Sam, and now he was the one who wanted to bolt outside for fresh air.

“Guys…I promise I’ll fill you in. Just not tonight, okay? I’m going after them.”

He got up and moved quickly through the crowd now gathering on the deck as the live band set up in the corner. He brushed past the bodies squished together inside the bar and opened the door. He stepped out into the night and breathed deeply. The still air and the sound of lapping water against wood was a relief.

He looked around the parking lot for Hunter and Ever. When he didn’t see them, he walked around the side of the building to head farther down the pier. He understood Ever’s feelings. It was overwhelming, being together again and meeting new people and thinking about possibly making this her new home. She’d been given a lot to absorb. He wanted to give her the time she needed to take it all in, but he wanted to spend that time with her. Getting comfortable with each other again was what they desperately needed.

In the back of his mind, a voice told him that as long as he and Ever had been together, they shouldn’t need any time at all to get used to each other again. They’d been the main portion of each other’s lives for years; not merely as lovers but also as friends and saviors.

He pushed that voice down deep.

He saw Hunter’s and Ever’s shadowy forms down near the end of the dock. As he drew closer, his footsteps quiet as the wood of the pier met the rubber soles of his boots, he stopped short.

Hunter had come outside to talk to Ever. Sam could have accepted that, even though he should have been the one consoling her. But the image of their arms wrapped around each other, their
lips locked together
in a passionate kiss would haunt Sam for the rest of his life.