Page 81 of Meant for You

Her eyes were sharp, back to probing. She thought Martin was her golden ticket, that I’d see the boy she knew I once had a crush on and he’d turn my head. That I was so fickle I’d fall head over heels and forget all about Dane.

She was so sure of it, she’d all but agreed to give me her blessing to be with Dane if this dinner didn’t work out.

Little did she know Martin had taken my virginity, and we’d continued to share some extremely inadequate sex in her barn on numerous occasions. That there was no crush; there had barely ever been one. As a matter of fact, we were still kind of friends. And even if he was the hottest guy on earth, nothing—no one—would make me give up Dane.

I owed her. She’d provided me with a safe home when I desperately needed one. I hated to think what would have happened to me in that house when Dane reached eighteen and had been forced to leave me behind. Without him there to protect me, my life would have been unbearable.

Which was why I’d do this, why I owed her this. I knew in her own way she wanted the best for me. I hoped so anyway. I hoped this wasn’t just about how she looked to her church friends.

That’s what I’d told myself all these years, what I’d needed to tell myself.

“If that’s what you want, then I’ll do it.”

She dipped her chin. “Now go finish unpacking, then come back down for dinner.”

I turned away, but not before I saw a smile curl her lips.

She thought she’d won.

Chapter Eighteen

Dane

I stared up at the ranch house that Everly had lived in for a lot of years, and my gut tightened.

She’d come here after we’d said goodbye the first time. Everly had been fifteen. I was seventeen. I felt like my whole world was being torn from me, even though I knew it was for the best, even though I was relieved that she’d be safe.

The memory was etched in my mind.

“I don’t want to go. Please, Dane, don’t make me go.”

Tears ran down Everly’s face. She was crying so hard each sob shook her. I was scared she was going to hurt herself crying like this.

“Please, stop, baby girl,” I said, throat tight, fighting back my own tears. “I’ll visit you, I promise. I get out of here in six months. I’ll come and see you as soon as I turn eighteen.”

Everly clung to me, fingers trembling, those big tears rolling down her face. “I don’t want to go with her. She’s not my family. You are.”

I took her chin in my hand, swallowing hard, desperate to control the emotion trying to get free. If she saw it, it’d only make this harder on her. “It doesn’t matter how far away you are. That will never change, Eves. Not ever. Understand?”

There was a knock at the door. “Time to go.”

I’d promised to take her with me when I turned eighteen, that I’d take her to Rocktown, and no one would find her there. But as we got older, we both knew that was impossible. She had to come here to her aunt’s.

This place, those years of her life here, I hadn’t been a part of. Yeah, we’d called and texted, and I’d seen her when I could, but it wasn’t the same after having her pretty much every day, all day for three years.

Going to bed at night without her had felt wrong. I’d felt wrong, empty without her there beside me. For a long time after she left I’d wake expecting to feel her warmth beside me. She was on my mind constantly. Always there.

She’d only been a kid, and what I’d felt for her back then wasn’t what I felt now. There was no resemblance. But it had been deeper than anything I’d ever experienced. We had a connection that was unexplainable but undeniable from the start.

I didn’t feel whole when she wasn’t with me. I hadn’t for the eighteen months I’d stayed away from her, and I didn’t now.

Having her back with me—then not. A whole damned week without her. I couldn’t do it. My heart wasn’t beating right. I couldn’t think straight. My body actually ached with the need to have her in my arms, under me, to just fucking have her close to me.

Anticipation pumped thickly through my veins as I climbed off my bike and made my way to the front door.

When I’d visited Eves in the past, we’d meet somewhere else. A field down from the house, usually. She’d ride her horse across the property to meet me, afraid her aunt would find out we were still friends.

Not anymore.