AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Wait a second.
Had everyone known about Wyatt coming except me? Had they kept me out of the loop because of my history with Lukas? Surely they knew that Wyatt and I had a relationship separate from his brother for years. We were best friends long before Lukas and I even started dating.
Mom handed Wyatt a mug of coffee and a plate, and he took a seat across the table. As he pulled in his chair, his feet brushed against mine, and a memory of our times studying across from each other at the library flashed through my mind. Wyatt was forever nudging me under the table to get my attention.
“What brings you to Sunnyvale?” I asked, careful not to let my tone betray too much. He and I may have been inseparable during our first three years in college, but sometime around our senior year, we drifted apart. Seeing him here, eating Mom’s pancakes, felt nice but strange.
Wyatt turned his steady gaze on me again. “I’m doing a book signing at Landry’s Comic Book Store.”
“Don’t tell me you still haven’t read his StarFire books.” Ben helped himself to a pancake. “Geez, Ev. I’ve only been telling you about it for months.”
I shook my head while avoiding both of their stares. I vaguely remembered my brother saying something about Wyatt quitting his teaching job to write full time, but I’d added his series to my list of books to check out later.
“I’ve been busy setting up the school,” I mumbled.
“Are you still teaching?” Wyatt asked.
I nodded. After Lukas and I broke up, I left the public school setting, deciding I needed a change. “I run a home-based preschool.”
“So you’re running your own business? Doesn’t surprise me at all.” Wyatt’s gaze was kind and warm. “You were always great with little kids.”
Dad helped himself to a pancake and placed a hand on Wyatt’s shoulder. “We’re glad that you’re staying here. Gives us some time to catch up. The last time we saw you must have been a couple of Thanksgivings ago.”
During college, Wyatt spent several Thanksgivings with my family. His and Lukas’s mom died when they were just kids, and then they’d stayed with their grandfather for a few years until he passed away too. When Mom found out about them not having a family to spend holidays with, she opened our home to them. Lukas always found reasons not to come, preferring to party in LA with friends, but Wyatt came faithfully every year until graduation.
“And now that Wyatt’s back in Sunnyvale, he has plenty of time to kill people.” Ben smirked at me. “Or show them his pumpkin… what did you call it again, Ev?”
“Never mind that,” I blurted out, shoving a forkful of pancakes into Ben’s mouth.
“Stop teasing your sister,” Mom chided. “Actually, Wyatt, since you’re here, maybe you can help Everly put up her Halloween decorations.”
“I’m sure he has much better things to do than put up witches’ hats and pumpkins.” Weirdly nervous, I played with my fork. Wyatt and I were once so close; we knew practically everything about each other, and yet I’d had no idea that he was visiting my hometown. Our years of friendship had passed, and now I knew nothing about his life.
“Is Halloween still your favorite holiday?” Wyatt asked.
Ben rolled his eyes. “It’s gone way past being a favorite. Holidays are Ev’s obsession. You should see her place. It’s Halloween on the outside and Christmas on the inside. All she needs is a Thanksgiving-themed bathroom and an Easter-themed backyard, and she’d be all set for the year.”
Although I laughed along with my brother, my gut tightened. Ben thought it just a funny quirk, but the decorations meant something more. One of the first things I’d promised myself after breaking up with Lukas was that I’d stop living my life to please someone else and start living it the way I wanted to. And if that meant wearing overalls and decking my house in miles of twinkly lights, so be it.
Decorating therapy. It was real.
“I’d be glad to help,” Wyatt said. “It’ll give us some time to talk and catch up.”
The pancakes settled like rocks in my stomach. “Sure. I’d like that.”
