Both Axel and Maisie nodded, and then it was chaos. Everyone was hugging them and congratulating them, but Slater and Evie stayed back for a moment. When he looked down at her, he saw a few tears slowly streaming down her cheeks.
“Hey,” he whispered. “Are you okay?”
Without looking at him, she shook her head.
Carefully, he stepped in front of her. “Talk to me.”
But she ducked her head first, composing herself. When she looked up at him, the sadness in her eyes nearly gutted him. “I’m happy for them; I truly am, but…” Another head shake. “When is it going to be my turn? Just once, I’d like someone to be congratulating me. I want…I want what pretty much everyone in this room has. I want someone to love. Someone to love me and share a life with—have babies with and then have all my friends around to celebrate.”
“Evie…”
“Please don’t,” she said. “I know we’ve talked about this, and I guess I’m just super emotional because I’m going home tomorrow. And, let’s face it, this is a pretty emotional moment for everyone here with wedding and baby announcements, so…”
It would be so easy to tell her he could give her everything she wanted, but it was one thing to commit to moving; it suddenly seemed like so much more to be talking marriage and babies.
What the hell am I thinking? How can I possibly give her all of that when I have no idea what that level of commitment even looks like?
Sniffling, she gave him a small smile. “I’m going to go and freshen up in the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”
He watched her go, but Milo quickly came over, looking majorly annoyed. “What did you say to her? I thought after everything we all talked about today…”
“I didn’t say anything,” Slater murmured. “And that was the problem.”
“What does that…?”
“Listening to all of you talk about weddings and babies made her realize that’s what she wants, and it keeps happening for everyone else and not her.”
“So why didn’t you say…”
“Because that got heavy real quick,” he snapped quietly. “I was just coming to terms with moving to Seattle and then it’s marriage and kids and…” He raked a shaky hand through his hair. “I panicked.”
The look of disappointment on Milo’s face spoke volumes, and when Walker and Connor came over and heard what happened, they looked at him the exact same way.
“I told you guys I’m not good at this,” he said, but there was very little heat behind his words.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Evie walking across the room and going right over to hug Maisie. She was immediately embraced by all her friends, and it just made him feel worse about everything. He might not be as callous as his old man, but the end result was the same.
Dammit.
No one argued with him or tried to change his mind, but mainly because there wasn’t time. A timer went off in the distance, and Connor excused himself to check on whatever was cooking, and it seemed like a good time to rejoin the rest of the group. Evie surprised him by walking over with a smile and resuming her earlier position right beside him.
“Um…”
Looking up at him, she clearly saw the panic on his face. “I’m fine, Slater. Relax. It was just an emotional moment, okay?”
Actually, it wasn’t, and he wanted to talk to her about it, but suddenly everyone was moving toward the table while Axel and Maisie continued to gush about their excitement about the baby. Evie went to move with the group, but he gently grasped her arm and held her back. When she looked up at him curiously, he knew he needed to say…something.
“Evie, I…” Pausing, he cleared his throat. “I want to talk about this. I mean, obviously we can’t right here, but…I don’t know…I kind of like that you had an emotional moment and I think we should talk about it when we leave.”
She eyed him warily. “Really?”
Nodding, he gave her a lopsided grin. “Yeah. Really. I don’t want you to hide how you’re feeling, remember? I like the version of you that doesn’t hide.”
Whispering his name, he saw her visibly relax. “Okay. When we get back to the cabin, we’ll talk. But for now, we need to celebrate our friends.”
And because he couldn’t help himself, he leaned in and gave her a quick but thorough kiss. “Deal.”
Taking her by the hand, they walked over to the table to join everyone, Slater held her chair for her before sitting beside her. The conversation was as loud and lively as ever, and as much as he loved nights like this, he knew this wasn’t going to be the norm anymore.
