Page 29 of Home Sweet Home

It was dark, but not so dark that she didn’t see the flash of hurt on his face. “Why do you say that?”

“It’s just…” Evie’s voice was a whisper, her eyes trained on a spot above a sink, anywhere but him. “The last day you drove me to school. I heard what you said to Kenny in the parking lot.”

She remembered the conversation like it had happened yesterday. West had taken a turn too fast, and her cupcakes had smacked against the Tupperware, smearing frosting against the plastic sides. It hadn’t stopped him from stealing one once they’d parked and gobbling it up in one big bite, and after he’d finished it, he had buttercream smudged on his top lip.

Without thinking about it, she had reached out to wipe it away. He’d looked at her, one brow tilted up, his mouth twisting up, not down, and it planted a tiny seed of hope that maybe West felt the same way.

He’d gotten out of the Jeep, and she’d stayed behind, just a few seconds, to fix the frosting on her cupcakes and to calm down the heart palpitations that had kicked off when she’d touched him. The window was rolled down to let in the warm May breeze. West had only been standing one car away, close enough his words were loud and clear.

West’s voice started rising. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Shh.” Evie pointed toward the boys. If they picked up on anything between her and West, she would never hear the end of it. “Kenny made some comment about how we looked in your car. You know, after I… wiped the frosting off your lip.” The detail slipped out faster than she could stop it, and it was embarrassing. “You told him it wasn’t like that. That I wasn’t your type. And you laughed like it was the funniest thing you’d ever heard.”

His face contorted, eyebrows scrunching above his nose. His mouth parted as he shook his head like he didn’t understand, even though he had to know exactly what she was talking about. The fact that he was going to make her say it out loud made the whole situation more infuriating.

“I had a crush on you,” Evie blurted out. “I thought you knew because before you told Kenny you wanted nothing to do with me… I thought maybe you were flirting with me. It’s stupid, and I’m over it. But you wanted to know, so there it is.”

She searched his face for every feeling she expected—amusement that she’d ever entertained the possibility, pity that she still thought about it a decade later and could replay the script of what he’d said and what she’d done. He probably hadn’t thought about her, not for one second, until the day he walked into Mel’s.

His jaw twitched, teeth clenched together hard. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, and a sharp exhale escaped him as he shook his head. “Iwasflirting with you.” Then he turned to her, his voice louder than before. “That’s why you shut me out?”

Evie glanced toward the boys then back at him. It didn’t make any sense. Not one part of it. “They’re going to hear you. And that’s not what happened. I didn’t shut you out.”

“You weren’t on the step waiting for me the next day. Barely spoke two words to me after. I remember wondering what the hell I did wrong.”

She felt fifteen again, overflowing with hurt and shame. “You laughed, West. And I saw Kenny’s face. He thought it was hilarious.”

“Kenny would have never shut up about it if I’d told him. And I hadn’t even told you.”

Evie scoffed. “Do you know how many girls I watched you slobber all over at school? The square foot in front of your locker got more action thanThe Bachelor. But yeah, when it’s me, you care what Kenny thinks.”

He tightened his fingers into a fist, and in a span of a few seconds, he’d flexed them over and over. The silence was uncomfortable, and Evie was reminded of why she’d never told West how she felt about what he’d said. He’d been the one to hurt her, so why did she feel so guilty as she watched him, clearly upset.

The fluorescent bulbs hummed as they flickered back on. The boys groaned in unison from the sudden burst of light. Evie cracked the bathroom door open. Sunlight streamed into the gym. The sky was blue and cloudless. If there had been a tornado, it was long gone.

She got up onto her feet and opened the door, gesturing to the boys. “Back to work.”

West followed the boys out, and as she trailed behind him, he walked a few feet ahead of her, enough for her to know the distance was intentional.

* * *

Since she’d started coachingthe Cougars, exhaustion was Evie’s default. She came home every night with aching limbs and heavy eyelids, drained from the heat. For dinner, she made whatever was easiest and involved the cheapest ingredients, then she showered off the dust and fryer oil. Her head was on a pillow before the sun even set.

But that night, after the tornado, when she closed her eyes, her mind replayed the moment with West in the bathroom, fixating on the look on his face, like she’d wounded him.He woundedme, didn’t he?

He’d been close enough that she could smell the sweat, grass, and pine on his skin. If he’d shifted a centimeter, his thigh would have been touching hers.“I was flirting with you.”

She pictured his muscles flexing as his fingers curled up and stretched out over and over. She imagined what one of those fingers would feel like trailing a path up her spine—

Evie snapped her eyes open. Her skin felt electrified, like he’d touched her for real and not in her imagination. It had taken her a long time to fall asleep after that, and when she finally drifted off, she woke up what seemed like an hour later. The pink light of dawn was streaming in through the window. A new day had arrived, and her tired body wasn’t eager to greet it.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Kayla said when Evie walked into the diner. “The zombie apocalypse has arrived. Time to call your prepper cousin in Alaska.”

“Ha,” Evie said, sliding onto a stool before grunting out the only two syllables in the English language worth the effort. “Coffee.”

But Kayla had already placed a mug in front of her, a smile on her lips. Her eyes were wide, with perfect eyeliner and mascara.

“How? How are you so awake?”

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