Page 103 of Wright Together

“Don’t yell at me, Evie Jo,” he ground out.

“Have you contacted anyone else? Anyone from the volleyball team?”

“I’m not an idiot.” I would disagree with that statement. “No one has seen her. She never showed up to practice.”

I put my hand to my head and breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth. I knew what had happened. I knew it without him even having to say it. We both did. That was why he’d called me.

“I’ll be right there.”

Then, I hung up and reached for my clothes. Whitt had thrown clothes on while I was talking and was standing in the hotel room with concern on his perfect face. I wanted to explain, but how did I even begin?

“I need you to take me home.”

He nodded. “All right. Everything okay? What happened with Bailey?”

“I don’t know,” I lied.

But he must have seen it on my face because his lips pursed in disapproval. “You can talk to me, Eve.”

I turned away from his reproachful eyes. He had no idea what he was asking. No idea at all.

“Is it your dad?” he asked. “Did he do something shitty again?”

“No, it’s not my dad.”

“Then, what happened? He sounded like the same prick as normal.”

I clenched my hands into fists. I hadn’t ever wanted to tell him. I’d been keeping everything bottled up for so long, but I could feel it all trying to escape me now.

“It’s not my dad. It’s never been my dad.”

His hand came to my shoulder. “What do you mean?”

I looked up at him then. “He’s a jerk, but he’s not the problem.”

“I don’t understand. I met the man. He’s assuredly a problem.”

“Yes, but…nottheproblem.”

“Explain.”

I took a deep breath and released it. Then, I met his confused blue eyes and uttered the words I’d been avoiding for the last year. “Bailey is the problem.”

He still looked confused. Of course he was. Why wouldn’t he be?

He’d met Bailey. My wild, whimsical sister who loved volleyball and joked about dating boys. The one who smiled easily and rolled her eyes about school because it had always been a piece of cake. He’d seen the girl that I’d wanted him to see.

Not the girl that she was.

“A year ago, Gram died,” I said, starting the story from the beginning. “Bailey and I were both devastated, but I was on my own. I was here in Lubbock, living my own life. I fell in with Arnold as a coping method. She was stuck with Dad in an old house with a man she hated and nothing but free fall under her feet. And when she fell, they caught her.”

“Who?” he asked, his brow furrowed.

“The drugs.”

His eyes widened as the pieces fell together.

“She’d always been smart and driven and focused. She’d been an athlete with friends and good grades and a future. But those things didn’t provide her an escape from her reality.” I sighed. “A little weed was fine. Then, weed with Luke turned into coke with Michael. Until Michael couldn’t give her what she wanted and introduced her to Xavier.” I felt sick even saying his name. My eyes were haunted as the memories hit me fresh. “I learned all of this after the fact. I didn’t know she was falling until she fell. Until she overdosed and had to have her stomach pumped. Until a judge said rehab or jail.”

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