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“Of course. Let me give you the grand tour.” Everly stood and pointed to a door on the far side of the kitchen. “That leads to the laundry room, Indie’s room, and her bathroom. And in front of us, of course, are the living and dining rooms.”
The Christmas trees standing by the front windows, giant peonies splashed across the walls, a mantel covered with Christmas trees and branches wrapped in twinkly fairy lights—everything was so feminine and full of life. In one word: Everly.
“If you follow me down the hall, you’ll see the bathroom.”
“Flamingos?” I laughed as I peered into the small room, where baby pink tiles covered the floor and three-quarters of the walls. A flamingo curtain hung over the bathtub.
“The tile’s all original, and the flamingo theme seemed befitting. Plus, this is the bathroom the kids use, so the birds make it fun.” She pointed to the adjacent room, where low bookshelves spanned two walls. “This is the library and toy room. Indie helps me pick out all the best books.” I gazed into the sunlit room, already imagining the joy I’d have felt spending morning after morning here as a kid.
“The plants on the shelves are a new addition. My friend Joy brings me fun goodies from her store. I never saw myself as a plant person, but they’re like kids—you just need to find out what each one needs to encourage it to grow.” She opened a wall closet, revealing boxes of toys and craft supplies. “Here’s where I keep the stuff for school. And this is my bedroom over here.”
I hesitated before stepping inside.
Everything was frilly and… pink. Except for the wall behind her bed, which contained a mural identical to the one in my rental unit.
“You did this?” I rubbed a hand over the painted scene.
Everly pushed the mountain of pillows off her covers and sat on her bed. “Yes. I did the one at your cottage first and loved it so much that I replicated it here. My decor’s really girly, but I chose pink because it makes me happy.” She gave a nervous laugh as if waiting for me to say something disparaging about her choices.
What had Lukas said to her? I ground my teeth but kept a tight rein on my emotions as I walked around her room, wound up like a coiled spring. Everly shouldn’t bear the brunt of my annoyance; Lukas should.
A sewing machine sat in one corner, and in the other, a desk sat beneath a hanging map.
I peered at the wrinkled poster, remembering the hours we spent together studying the various cities and countries. “After all this time, you still kept this?”
Everly walked over and stood next to me. “Of course. I’ve not made it anywhere yet. But maybe someday.”
“Where would you go first?”
“Australia. I still dream of seeing the Great Barrier Reef. Perhaps this summer I’ll visit. I just need to convince one of the girls to travel with me.”
I’ll go.The words perched at the tip of my tongue, ready to leap out. I’d clear my entire schedule and travel the world with her.
No. What was I thinking? Everly wouldn’t want to go with me. Not if she was pretending to date my brother.
I should have never gone along with Lukas’s plan. It was one thing agreeing to convince Everly to fake-date him when I believed their relationship ended on amicable terms. But now I’d learned the truth from Ben and heard Ev doubting herself too often for my liking.
“What happened between you and Lukas?” I asked quietly.
She glowered. “You mean you didn’t read the gossip magazines? Didn’t hear how I called it off and broke his heart? That’s the lie he and Seline spun to the public.”
He’d told me all that too. Everly had gotten cold feet and decided she didn’t want the kind of star-studded life my brother led. Lukas’s story never sat well with me, and after hearing the truth from Ben, everything made much more sense.
But I couldn’t just go by what Ben said. I needed to hear the truth from Everly’s lips.
“Was that what really happened?”
“No. But that was the version everyone latched on to. I caught Lukas and Seline making out after our engagement party and broke up with him on the spot. The news of our separation blew up overnight, and for the next two weeks, the paparazzi stalked me. I had to quit my job and move back in with my parents to hide from it all. And if that wasn’t bad enough, fans messaged me daily, calling me names, telling me I was crazy for not loving him.
“Some even told me that the world would be a better place without me in it.” A tear slid down her face, and she swiped it away with the back of her hand. “I deleted all my social media accounts, and thankfully, within a few months, everything died down. The internet’s memory might last forever, but its attention span is short. Lukas started dating someone else, and the world forgot about me.”
Everly wiped her tear-stained cheeks and exhaled a deep breath before giving me a watery smile. “Sorry for unloading all of that on you. It might not seem like it, but I have moved on. My relationship with Lukas is old news.”
Not to me. Learning the truth changed everything.
