I STARE DOWN AT my watch, counting how much time I have to get Everly home and then to work. Another appointment. They seem to be happening more and more as Everly’s pregnancy progresses. I’m happy with each visit when they tell us everything looks good, but do they have to happen so often? Today was thankfully close, happening at the hospital she’ll deliver at.
“Niko?” I hear my name called and turn to see who it is.
“Siobhan?” I say as one of my favorite cousins approaches me. I haven’t seen her in a while, and she’s a welcome sight after so long.
“Oh my God!” She steps forward and wraps her arms around me. “How have you been? I haven’t talked to you in so long.”
“Christmas two years ago? You should have called.”
“Pot calling kettle.” She’s not wrong, but my life has been crazy busy, and that was before Everly and the baby.
“Hey, I’m not the one who changed their number.”
She rolls her eyes. “Could’ve gotten it from Charlie,” she says, a slight Irish accent coming through on her brother’s name, a habit picked up from growing up in an Irish household.
“Ditto. What are you doing here?”
“Ah, it’s my day off, but a friend of mine delivered her baby after my shift, so I’m visiting.” Her brow furrows as she looks me over. “What brings you here? Everything okay?”
I nod. “Things are great.”
“Yeah? Well, look at that smile you’re sporting. What’re you up to?”
“A baby boy Callahan.”
Her eyes widen. “Oh, God, that is great. Seriously wonderful. How far? How come no one told me?”
“She’s twenty-five weeks, and we haven’t told anyone just yet. It wasn’t exactly planned.”
She laughs at me. “Most of them aren’t. I work as a labor and delivery nurse, remember? I hear some crazy stories. We had a woman in a few weeks ago that had no clue she was pregnant. She went to the ER with back pain and thought she had a herniated disc in her back. It turns out she was thirty-nine weeks pregnant and had back labor. Boyfriend came home on leave from the military and apparently left something behind.”
“Oh wow! How do you not know you’re pregnant? I mean, I’m not a woman, but Ev is already all belly. Did she not notice she had one?”
“It happens. Some women don’t get their periods. Some still have bleeding when they’re pregnant. It can be light or a little heavier. That’s not always a sure way of knowing, but she honestly didn’t look pregnant due to her build. Good thing she wasn’t a smoker or drinker. The baby was born strong and healthy. Once the shock wore off, the mother was actually thrilled once she held the little girl,” she says, and I just can’t imagine not knowing you had a child coming into the world.
“That’s a crazy story,” I say because it is.
“I know, right?” She smiles at me, and I’m glad I ran into her. I’ve missed her. She was always more of a sister when we were younger than just a cousin. Or at least I wanted her to be. Out of all my cousins, she was the one I hung out with during anything family related besides Charlie. She didn’t judge and was a genuinely good person.
“So when do I get to meet her? What’s her name?”
“Everly. Everly Hayes.”
She tilts her head to the side, and I see the moment the name clicks with her. “As in Cameron Hayes? Your best friend, Cameron?”
I laugh and nod my head to confirm. “That would be the one. It’s his younger sister.”
“Well, I have missed out on a lot, haven’t I, cousin?”
“Maybe a little bit, but it’s all good. We can get lunch, and I can catch you up. I want to know what’s going on with you, too.”
“Not much, but yes! We should all do lunch together. Bring Everly. I’d love to throw you guys a baby shower,” she says as she rifles through her purse.
“Yeah, you’ll have to talk to Ev about that. I don’t usually do that stuff.”
“Well, cuz, you’d better get used to it because it’s your baby too. It will be Jack and Jill.”
“Jack and Jill? What the fuck is that?” I say entirely perplexed with her train of thought. She just laughs me off, grabbing a pen and a piece of paper from her bag.
“Don’t you worry about it, silly man. Everly will know what it means. All you need to do is show up. Here’s my number. Call me next week, and we can compare work schedules so we can make a date.” She hands me her number and then hugs me again. I squeeze her back, and even though I have no idea what Jack and Jill is, I can’t wait for her to meet Everly.
“It was so good to see you, Siobhan,” I say and step back
“It was good to see you too, Nikolas. I better run. Don’t forget to call me!” she says as she makes a quick retreat.
I turn back and Everly is standing in front of me, her expression a mix of anger and sadness.
“Everly?”
“Why?”
I scrunch my brow. “Why what?”
“You made me believe you, Niko. You made me think I was the only one, but the truth is you’re still looking for your next lay.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Everly?” I can feel the tension rising. Feel her walls returning brick by brick as she prepares to shut me out.
“You took that girl’s number; did you give her yours too?”
My eyes widen when I finally understand. Shit. “You have the—”
“The wrong idea? Yeah, you’re right about that. It’s funny. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard that same line before. It’s exactly what my ex said to me when I walked in on him fucking another woman. Do you guys go to some training and all of you learn the same shit to say when you get caught?” She shakes her head, and I see tears pooling in her eyes.
“Ev, baby, you do have the wrong idea.”
“I had the wrong idea in thinking this was going to work, that I could trust you and that maybe, one day, we would be a family. How fucking stupid. After everything, how could I be so stupid? Goodbye, Niko.” She turns and storms off.
I stand there, watching in stunned shock, trying to figure out how my life went from pretty perfect to shit in two point five seconds. There’s no way I’m letting her walk away, and it only takes a few strides to catch up with her.
I reach out and grab onto her arm, stopping her. “Everly, wait. You don’t understand.”
“Let go of me!” There are tears running down her cheeks, and she’s pulling to get away, her entire body bowed away from me.
“Everly!”
“No! Just leave me the fuck alone!” she screams, and I let her go. People are looking at the scene, and even though I want to go after her, I’m still in shock at how everything just went down.
After two days of no contact with Everly, I understand entirely how Tate feels. She won’t pick up my calls and doesn’t return them either. Text messages go unanswered.
A few months ago she was a mess, and now I’m the one that’s a mess.
“Dude, you need to eat,” Cam says as he tosses a plate down in front of me.
I shake my head. Hunger left me when Everly did. What’s worse is that she isn’t staying at her house, and I have no idea where she is. I want to ask Cam about her, but I know what can of worms that will open.
“What happened?”
I shake my head. “She saw me talking to a woman, exchanging numbers, and she flipped.”
“And you don’t see the problem here?” Cam asks, clearly taking me for an idiot. “What the fuck were you doing talking to another chick?”
I stare at him. “Siobhan Callahan.”
His eyes go wide and his mouth opens, still waiting on the food inches from it. “Your hot-as-fuck cousin, Siobhan?”
“Yeah, I knew you had the hots for her.”
“Who doesn’t?”
“Me. I only have the hots for my girl and now I can’t get her to talk to me.”
“Dude, I would hope you didn’t have the hots for your cousin. That’s fucking gross,” he says in disgust. “Didn’t you explain?”
I throw my hand up in the air. “She wouldn’t let me! She caused a scene and yelled at me to leave her the fuck alone.”
Cam doesn’t say anything to that, just looks down at his plate for a second. That’s just great. He’s been busting my balls about her since we started, and now a look of pity crosses his face. If he only knew that “she” in this scenario was his sister. I might have been able to ask for his help on this, but I’m fucking stuck trying to figure out how to get her to talk to me on my own.
What’s worse is the plan was to tell Cam this weekend, but if she refuses to let me explain, to talk to me, that conversation is out the window for now.
“Just eat. If we get a call, I don’t want to have to carry your ass out of a burning building because of you fainting,” he finally says. You know you’re good and truly screwed when Cameron Hayes is being the concerned and rational one.
Fuck my life.