Page 83 of Ever With Me

“Not sure.” He couldn’t get over how comfortable he felt just holding her, and he wasn’t ready to release her yet. “I have to talk to my lawyer about my arrest and figure out what’s going on with that. Talk to my label and quit. Hire a new manager. Sort my recording contract and see what impact it has on my international label. You know . . . all the boring legal things. What about you?”

“Same thing I do week after week for the rest of my life.” She drew a sharp breath and pulled away. “I’m going to go change. I’m still wearing the same clothes I slept in. Maybe we can head back to your place after that, and I’ll drop you off.”

He nodded, and she went toward the bedroom.

Brooks glanced around the apartment, taking it in for the first time. The last time he’d been here, he’d been so exhausted and overwhelmed that he’d barely paid attention to the place.

He frowned.

For as warm and vivacious as Maddie was, this apartment was . . . the opposite. Spartan in decor and bland, it reflected nothing of her personality. He’d stayed in hotels that had more personal touches than this.

Maybe that wasn’t the best comparison, considering the caliber of hotels where he’d stayed.

Still, these were the four walls she lived and breathed in. A life so vastly different from his own. He could remember what it was like to just exist in a town known only to a handful of people, every day beholden to the doldrums of the ordinary.

How hard he’d worked to break free of it—thinking that if he just worked harder, sold more, did more, he’d be able to escape. Only to find out that he could never outrun himself. He was too fucked up, too ruined.

Dad had ruined him, and nothing he could do would change that.

Was Maddie right, though? Did he perpetuate what people thought about him bylettingthem spread rumors?

Maybe it’s about time I do something about that, too.

The door to the apartment opened, and a young woman—who looked eerily like Maddie—came in. She stopped short, hand on the knob, blinking at him. A look of displeasure settled on her mouth.

Thank God Maddie and I weren’t having sex right now.

“You must be Brooks Kent. I should have known she brought you here.” She didn’t smile, didn’t sound particularly welcoming.

“That’s me,” he said politely.“And you are?”

“Naomi. I’m Maddie’s older sister.” She came farther inside. “Theotherowner of the Depot whom you neglected to negotiate with after you wrecked the place. And the one who had to deal with most of the cleanup since you’ve been dragging my sister to . . . what is it again? Play servant for you?”

His old instinct to meet rudeness head-on flared, but this was Maddie’s sister.

Holding back, he said, “No, not exactly.”

Naomi crossed her arms. “Then what. ..exactly? Because I just got a furious phone call from Fred Strickland across the street, claiming that you two were using his storeroom for . . . fooling around.”

That son of a bitch.He’d seriously ratted Maddie out to her sister?

When he didn’t answer, Naomi’s expression darkened. “Look, Mr. Kent. I don’t know you, and I won’t make any assumptions about you, but whatever you’re doing with my sister, she’s not without people who care about her. We will take you to task for hurting her.”

He glowered at her. “Of course, the manner you’re talking to me contradicts the ‘not making any assumptions’ part, though.”

The door to Maddie’s bedroom opened and she came out, wearing a floral, long-sleeved minidress that hugged her curves. She stopped when she saw her sister. “Naomi!” A hesitant look crossed her face, and she came closer, seeming to sense the tension between them. “Hey.”

“Hey yourself.” Naomi raised a brow. “So Fred Strickland called.”

Maddie’s eyes darted to Brooks. “I can explain that.” She went over to the kitchen and grabbed a glass from beside the sink. Her hand trembled as she poured herself a glass of water.

She doesn’t deserve to be grilled by anyone—including her sister.“Whatever is between Maddie and me isn’t really anyone else’s business,” Brooks said, crossing the room toward her.

“It is when you’re making out like teenagers in the back of someone’s store,” Naomi snapped. She stared at Maddie. “What in the hell, Maddie? Why am I getting phone calls about stuff that Mom and Dad had to handle over a decade ago? To tell you the truth, it’s worse that it’s you two—you’re grown-ass adults. And at theStricklands?”

“It wasn’t like that,” Maddie said quietly, sipping her water.

“You swore up and down yesterday that you didnothave a physical relationship with this man, even after he sent a skeevy ‘whenever I want’ text to you. Just another lie?”

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