Page 77 of Home Sweet Home

“He’s fine,” Evie said, but the tangled knot of anxiety swelled in her stomach. “Did something happen?”

“I asked the counselor to call you,” Mrs. Jenkins said.

Evie tried to remember getting a call from the school, but she was almost positive it hadn’t happened. “No one called me.”

“It’s just…” Mrs. Jenkins started. “Josh got extremely upset during class one day toward the end of the year. I recommended he go see the school counselor because it was very unlike him. He didn’t tell you about this?”

Evie thought back to what Oliver had said that day on the baseball field, about something happening in English class.

“What happened?” Evie asked, but before Mrs. Jenkins could respond, out of the corner of Evie’s eye, she saw movement out the window of Kayla’s salon.

At first, the movement was just a blur of bright-yellow-and-cyan fabric, but then she recognized Gloria, running from the bank across the street toward the salon, her muumuu swinging wildly around her. She was looking at Evie through the window, a huge smile on her face, her phone in her hand. Before Evie could try to figure out what was happening, Gloria came into the salon, panting from the jog, her face pink and sweaty.

“What’s going on?” Kayla asked, the hullaballoo having drawn her attention away from Polly.

“Evie, honey,” Gloria said. “Have you seen?” Gloria held out her phone, which was opened up to a page of text. “Creek Water in the news. Never thought I’d see the day. And it mentions you!”

And in the middle of Kayla’s salon, Evie began to read.

* * *

Even though itwasn’t cold, as Evie turned her car onto her street, she was shaking. When she pulled into her driveway and saw what, or rather who, was waiting for her, a fresh surge of something blinding and hot shot through her.

West was sitting on the front step of her porch, in the exact spot she’d sat every day during high school while waiting for him. When he saw her, his eyes widened, and he stood up.

As Evie turned the key in the ignition, she considered her options. She could push right past him into her house and shut the door, locking it behind her. She could back the car up out of the driveway and go back to Kayla’s, Joe’s, or anywhere else where she didn’t have to be near him. But before she could decide, he walked across the lawn toward her car, and there was no scenario in which she could avoid having this conversation. She took a deep breath as she opened her car door and got out of the car.

“You’re upset,” West said as she made her way toward the front door. He was walking toward her, but she was careful to leave a few feet of distance between them.

Evie tightened her arms around her chest. “Why would I be upset, West?”

Nerves clouded his face.

He should be fucking nervous,Evie thought.

“I tried to call. You didn’t pick up.”

Evie glanced at her phone, and sure enough, she had three missed calls from West. “I just got off work. My phone was on silent.”

“Evie—” West stepped forward, but Evie took a step back.

She stared straight at him, and he looked so different from the night before. It was hard to believe that just a few hours before, she’d been so happy. It’d changed so quickly. The only time she could remember such heavy whiplash was the morning of her eighteenth birthday, baking a cake with her mom just like she always did, the trajectory of her life completely altered in the span of a few hours. “I can’t believe you did that.”

“I didn’t know.” He shook his head. “I really didn’t.”

Her entire spectrum of emotions had been hijacked by anger, and she was overwhelmed by the urge to let every particle tear through the air like shrapnel. “Just so we’re clear, which part didn’t you know? That you so selflessly donated your coaching salary to me? Or that you published this information in an article millions of people are going to read just to make yourself look better?”

His face fell, and his jaw tightened, and that was all the information Evie needed to know. A small part of her had held out hope that this was all one of Rich’s schemes, that West hadn’t been a part of it, but he wasn’t good at hiding his guilt.

“Who told you?” Evie asked. “About the house? Because I didn’t tell anyone. Especially not you.”

West glanced toward his driveway like the answer to the question might be there, then he turned back to Evie. “Mom and I were talking about you after that night at Mel’s, and my mom mentioned it.”

“I didn’t tell your mom,” Evie said.

West sighed. “Gloria’s in my mom’s Bible group.”

Evie had never hated Creek Water more, where the concept of a secret didn’t exist.

---