Page 119 of Seven Year Itch
“Why are you messing with my shit in the first place? You’re in a different country. Don’t you have homework to do or something?”
“Yes, but I swear, it’s a full-time job dealing with you three.”
“Who three? Me, Wyatt, and Luke?”
“Yes!” Everly growls into the phone. “You guys make it damn near impossible to help, do you know that? All I’m trying to do is find you three someone to love and care for in your old age so you don’t die alone, and I can have some cool aunties. Why do you have to make that task harder than it already is?”
“None of us asked you to do that,” I state, my face twisted in confusion. “Wait. Are you telling me you had something to do with Wyatt and Trista getting together?”
“Um... duh!” Her voice rises in pitch again. “You think Uncle Wyatt would have found a surrogate as perfect as Trista on his own?” She lets out a laugh. “Of course that was all me. You guys are so clueless, I swear. And now you’re over there sabotaging all my good work.”
“What work? My dating apps? That shit you put in there was crazy. No way was that going to bring in a decent woman—”
“Not the apps, the palapa!”
My lips part. “You had something to do with that?”
“Good God, yes. There was an open room at the villa for you, but I had Carlos lock it up and tell everyone it was under renovation. Getting you and Dakota to share that little grass hut is some of my best matchmaking work to date, and I’m still very impressed by my work with Dad and Cozy.”
I stand up, my chest expanding with this very irritating intrusion on my goddamn life. “You don’t need to matchmake me, Evie. I’m good over here.”
“Oh sure... so good you take your cat for walks in a cat carrier multiple times a week.”
“What’s wrong with caring about my cat?”
“Nothing, but being a cat daddy isn’t as hot a flex as you think it is, Uncle Calder.”
My throat tightens at the humbling truth falling out of my sweet, innocent niece’s mouth. Except she’s not so sweet andinnocent. She’s a fucking demon child who’s lost her ever-loving mind.
“I don’t know what shit you’re trying to pull, Everly, but just stop it, okay? Dakota and I are not what you think we are. We’re just...” I can’t even bring myself to say the wordfriendsbecause it hurts too much “...enemies. She literally hates me, just like she has for the past seven years.”
“There’s a fine line between love and hate.”
Her words jab into a place that I am trying not to feel right now. I can’t believe I actually thought I loved Dakota. Love is not kicking someone in the teeth when they’ve screwed up. Love is not harnessing someone’s fucked-up past against them as a weapon. It’s unconditional. It’s bigger than the moment. It’s something a person can say out loud, and that word is not something either of us have said to the other.
And your fear of failure has arrested your development, so now you’re stuck in a constant state of never growing up. Going to sex clubs, living on a mountain with your brothers, working the same job that was handed to you by your dad, never opening yourself up to relationships. I’m surprised one of your self-help books didn’t help you see you’re just a passenger of your own damn life.
She’s made it clear what she really thinks of me. How much she hates me. Love is a fucking lie.
“I’m afraid it’s just hate between us, kid. I’m sorry if you got your hopes up, but trust me... Dakota is not my end game. Direct your matchmaking hopes to Luke, and just leave me be.”
I sigh and end the call before chucking my phone at the wall, chipping the drywall, and cracking my screen in the process. Milkshake meows, staring at me like I’m an idiot.
“I know, Fuzz. I know.”
Chapter 41
Friends in Low Places
Dakota
“Hey Trista, it’s Dakota.” I say, pressing the phone into my shoulder at my shop on Monday morning.
“Hey girl! How’s it going?” she answers, and I hear the sound of a goat bleating in the background.
“Fine, fine. I was just calling to let you know that your Mount Millie T-shirts came in, and they are super cute.”
“Oh my God, awesome!” she squeals excitedly. “This is making it all feel so real. I still can’t believe Wyatt is going to let me build my rescue center on his land. Let the rebrand from Fletcher Mountain to Mount Millie commence!”
