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“Shh.” I wave him away and answer her FaceTime, “Happy Birthday, sissy.”
Her face pops up with a sleeping one-year-old Jax resting on her chest. “Happy birthday, sissy,” she whispers back. “I wanted to be the first to say it.”
Ares laughs, and I kick him as Everly’s face scrunches.
“Was that Lennon? I thought she was going home this week?”
I walk away from Ares, hiding my limp. I’ve definitely overdone it the past few days. “No. It wasn’t Lennon. It wasn’t anybody. What are you doing up with Jax at three a.m.?”
Everly presses a kiss to Jax’s head. “He spiked a fever earlier and only wants to sleep if he’s on me. Funny to think I met his daddy exactly one year ago today.”
“First birthday we ever spent apart,” I muse. “Guess the universe decided to reward you with Cross Wilder. Not a bad trade-off.”
“Yeah,” she hums quietly with a contented smile. “Best reward I could have ever dreamed of. But I still wish we weren’t spending our birthday apart two years in a row. Are you doing anything special today?”
I look over at Ares, standing on the other side of the room with his arms crossed over his delectable chest.
“Nothingtoospecial.” I flinch as the words choke me like dry sawdust in my mouth. “I heard Mom is throwing you a dinner tonight. I wish I was going to be there.”
Everly doesn’t bother hiding the hurt. “You could have been here. But you’d rather be homealonethan at the beach with your family.”
“Evie... you’re going to have to stop the guilt trips. I’m meeting with Jenkins today to go over audition choreography. I needed to stay here.”
“I’m sorry. I just miss you.” Her frustration quickly morphs, and I recognize the concerned look in her eyes. “I thought you were taking off and taking it easy this week. How’s your foot? Are you resting it? Did you have your follow-up yet?”
“Yes,mom. I’m taking it easy,” I assure her as Ares eyes burn into the back of my head.
“Don’t give me that shit. You haven’t even told Mom you’re hurt.”
“I haven’t said anything because she’d worry. I’m fine,” I insist, as I move through my bedroom into my bathroom and sit on my counter. “A few days off is all I needed.”
Nothing like hiding in your own flat.
Shit.
“How’s everyone back home?” I change the subject and turn the shower on. “How are the boys?”
“Well, I told you Nixon moved in with Ares. But did you hear that now Bellamy and Caitlin live there too? Ares is probably fucking Caitlin. Who knows? But Sam will kill him if he finds out. Maddox too, so there’s that.”
Even knowing that’s not happening, the idea that another woman gets to see him every day hurts like hell.
Another reason why this can’t possibly work.
Long distance would be bad by itself, but add in our careers, and it’s a recipe for disaster.
“Nix is super excited to be staying in Kroydon Hills. Cross and Easton and Ares have been practicing with him already. Not sure Dad has come to grips with the fact his son is playing pro football instead of hockey, but he’s trying. Leo and Henny stayed on campus in the hockey house at the college for the summer. Mom wasn’t thrilled, so she’s hyper-focusing on Jax and Kerrigan. My kids are a whole new level of spoiled that even we weren’t. But truthfully, I’m not trying to guilt you. I think she just misses having us all home.”
My heart pangs.
I miss being home.
“Uncle Tommy went fishing with Cross and Kerrigan and Ares last week, and the four of them were so excited they caught a big fish. Then Kerrigan lost her mind when they told her they were going to cook it. She made Uncle Tommy take it off the hook and throw it back into the lake. Now she wants a pretty pet fish—not eating fish.Her exact words.”
I lean back against my mirror and force a sad smile.
I’m missing it.
All of it.
