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“No, actually, I’m taking some time off. Feel like I need to get my head straight about…things.”
“Andwhois things, Everett?” Beau asks. “Because you’re generally a bubble of energy and this evening, you’re sucking the life out of the room.”
I laugh, a little bitterly, and stand. “Gee, thanks. Didn’t mean to ruin your night. I’ll head out—"
“No, no, I did not intend to insult you, Everett,” he quickly insists. “It is merely an observation. Something troubles you. You can talk to us.”
The others nod, and I’m tempted to talk to them, but I’m not sure how to start. Sitting back down seems like a good beginning, so I plop back onto the chair. “It’s…complicated.”
“Start from the start of things,” Sophie says gently.
Another sigh, another swig, and I clear my throat. “A long time ago, I met this girl—"
“Oh, I knew it,” Lily says to Cormac. “Pay up.”
He laughs and passes her a twenty.
“You bet that a woman was the source of my problem? I’m not sure if I’m insulted or impressed.”
She laughs, and he says, “I thought it must be work, but she decided it had to be a woman.”
“Only a woman can get a man so twisted up,” Lily says, “and you don’t seem like the same guy who threw Beckett into the ice-cold ocean a while back. I don’t know you well, but even I can see something is bugging you.”
“Never been good at hiding my feelings, so that tracks,” I mumble. When I try to take another pull from my scotch, I find it empty and sigh.
“On it,” Beckett says, snatching my glass as he strolls to the bar.
“You don’t need to wait on me—"
“It’s already done,” he calls back. “Not like you have to drive home, man.”
I shrug and decide to let him. “So, this girl, she’s stunning. Physically…just perfect. But that’s not the best part about her. In fact, other than getting me to talk to her, her looks are immaterial.”
“This out of you?” Beau asks incredulously.
“I’m serious. Have you ever met someone who, the moment you spoke to them, they just…had you? Like they saw you for who you are, who you could be, and everything just fit right then?”
“Yeah,” all six of them wistfully agree.
“That,” I snap, pointing at all of them. “That’s exactly what I want, and that’s exactly what I thought I might have with her.”
“Well, what happened?” Sophie asks.
Beckett returns with my refreshed beverage, and I nod my gratitude before sipping this one. “Not sure how much you know about me, but we met the night before I left for the Andes. It was the trip that changed my life, and—"
She smiles and nods. “Beckett told me about that. Sounds magical.”
“It was. But it started terribly. Like I said, that night, I met her, and we just…connected.”
“I’m sure you did,” Cormac says with a smirk.
“Not like that. Well, okay, like that later, but first, it was our conversation. I could have talked to her all night long. Or for the rest of my life.” I sigh at the memory. “She listened, you know? Really listened. And her stories fascinated me, no matter how ordinary they were. It was like seeing the world through her bright blue eyes made it all new again. And she saw me that way, too. Like I was special…I know it sounds crazy—"
“No, it doesn’t,” Beau says. “When you feel that thing, that inextricable, unexplainable connection, there is nothing like it. It does not need to make sense. It only needs to exist to make you feel whole.” He squeezes Elsie’s hand, and her engagement ring reminds me he has that now. Beau gets it.
Slowly, I nod. “Yeah. And then, there was the sex.”
“Was it bad?” Lily asks, confused by my tone.
