Page 129 of Craving Consequences
I don’t look close enough. I don’t care as I tug open the screen door and slip inside.
She doesn’t look up, but I see her stiffen.
“Hey, baby,” I murmur, feeling like I’m approaching a spooked horse.
“I’m sorry,” she breathes, still not turning to us. “I shouldn’t have ... I crossed a line. If you hate me—”
“No one hates you, sweetheart,” Lachlan cuts in.
Her quiet sniffle guts me. I move to her with wider strides and stop once I can crouch at her tiny, pink toes.
I’m careful not to touch her, but I rest my hands on the chair, just on either side of her feet.
“Hey, I’m not angry. Lach isn’t either. It was ... different, what you did, but ... will you look at me?” I wait until she turns damp, red rimmed eyes down to me before continuing. “I promise, baby. No one’s upset.”
She runs the corner of the sheets under her nose and across her cheeks. “I should have said, before I...”
The corner of my mouth quirks, but I keep my gaze level with hers. “It was a lot and yes, it surprised me, but we can’t be upset with you for trying something you’re interested in when you’ve let us do so much to you. More than that, doing new things is a good thing.”
Her teeth sink into her bottom lip, and she sniffles again.
“Technically, you did warn us,” Lachlan adds with a slight grin. “And we fully consented.”
I nod quickly. “We did.”
She nibbles on her lip, some of the apprehension melting in her eyes. “Yeah, I guess.” She glances past me to Lachlan standing just over my shoulder. “You’re really not angry?”
“Cross my heart,” I say at the same time Lachlan says, “Absolutely not.”
She glances between us, uncertainty twisting the sheet corner around her fingers.
“Thank you. I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.”
“Well, that will never happen,” Lachlan states with a firmness of someone prepared to go to war to prove it.
But rather than comfort, Everly only shrinks deeper into the folds of fabric.
“Except once we go home,” she whispers to her kneecaps. “Last time, remember?”
I glance up at the man over my shoulder, curious to see if he knows what she’s talking about.
The lightness in his expression is gone. It’s replaced with a hard set of his jaw and a deep crease between his brows.
“Don’t think about that,” he tells her gruffly.
“What’s happening?” I interject.
Everly peeks at Lachlan like she’s waiting for him to answer, but he turns his head in the direction of the yard like he can’t even stand to think about it.
Realizing it’s up to her, she licks her lips and peers at me. “We can’t do this again once we get home. We’ll have to be neighbors. Friendly smiles in passing and the occasional wave at gatherings. No more Sunday BBQs. No more camping trips. Just ... strangers.”
Distant.
Passing waves and polite smiles.
She doesn’t have to spell it out that once we return to Jefferson, there will no longer be a reason for us to be anywhere near her. It’s only been the shield of Lauren and Bron that kept the tongues from wagging. Without them, that protection no longer stands.
“We’ll figure it out,” I blurt out loud.
