“Eve—”
“He showed up, and we slept together again, and holy shit, it was like . . .” I make an explosion sound and slap my palms on the water. “He kinda blew me off after that, but then when I went to his party, we hooked up again, started talking, and here we are.”
“Eve, but he’s kind of—”
“Don’t freak out, okay? I really like him, and at first I thought he was just using me, but he’s taken me out a couple times, and I don’t want to hide this from you or anyone anymore.”
“Old.”
“What?”
“Don’t get me wrong. Cameron Kyle is about as handsome as they come, but isn’t he forty or something?”
“No, he’s not forty!” I flick water at her. “He’s thirty-eight.”
“Big difference.”
“Jonah’s older than you.”
“Yeah, but not by”—she counts on her fingers—“seventeen years.”
“Age doesn’t mean anything, Rave. And you know I’ve always had a thing for older guys.”
“True.”
“Please, just be happy for me. It’s been a horrible day, and I could use a little good right now.” I tilt my head to the tequila bottle. “I mean good outside of Se?or Patron.”
“Of course I’m happy for you.” She waddles across the shallow end and hugs me as much as she can with her pregnant belly between us. “I just don’t want you to get hurt again.” There’s pain in her voice.
My chest cramps. I hate that she feels responsible for what went down between Vince and me. “Rave, I’m fine. I’ll never get hurt like that again. I’m walking with my eyes open from here on out, okay?”
She pulls back and smiles. “Okay. So let’s celebrate. You get a shot. I’ll go grab a carton of ice cream.” She claps her hands and exits the pool to the outdoor kitchen freezer.
God, I love her. A wave of sadness hits me. We’ve been everything to each other for so long, but once that baby comes, things will never be the same between us. She’s the only family I’ve ever had. Jonah’s taken a piece of her, and whatever’s left needs to go to her baby. I breathe deeply through the cramping in my chest. This is life; people change and they move on. Everyone does it, and soon it’ll be Raven’s turn to walk away.
It’ll be okay.
I’ll be okay.
I have to be.
*
Cameron
“’Li, you have to turn on the TV here and the cable box here. If you want to watch a DVD, you have to hit input until it says HDMI.” I’m pointing to all the different buttons on the new remote I got. I thought it would be easier for her since each button clearly says “TV On” and “TV Off,” but I was wrong. She’s still not getting it.
I don’t remember her being so dense when we were younger. Then again I was more about her image than I was about her as a woman. Being married to a model gave me some exceptional bragging rights, but I never really searched to know her well beyond her gorgeous looks and public personality. If I had, I doubt we ever would’ve gotten married.
“Oh, so here.” She presses “TV On.” The television flickers to life.
“Yeah.”
After a few more lessons with the remote, I’m ready to get home and call Eve. I never got the chance to tell her about my conversation with Slade this morning. I’d hoped to call her on my way to ’Li’s, but ended up on the phone with Ryder.
“Any plans for the big day?” She picks at the ends of her hair.
Ryder’s eighteenth birthday is coming up, and the poor kid always has to share it with Rosie, even though she’s not around to celebrate with us. Except for the couple times D’lilah was in rehab, she’s a mess when the twins’ birthday rolls around. It starts about a week before and escalates until the day of, something I’m really not fucking looking forward to for my kid.
“Ry wants to hang with his buddies this year. I’ll take him out to dinner the weekend after.”
“Oh, that would be great. Can, uh . . .? Can I go with you guys?”
Since we’ll be celebrating the week after, she should be in decent condition to be out in public. I’d hoped to bring Eve along, depending on how things go between us until then. She gets along well with Ryder, and now that I think about it, she hit it off well with ’Li too. Eve’s like a catalyst for all things happy. She can talk music with Ry and fashion with D’lilah.
“Yeah, I’ll talk to Ryder and see where he wants to go. We’ll work out the details.”
“Thanks, Cam.” She turns and flips through channels.
“You good?” I push up from the couch and fish my keys from my pocket.
“You’re leaving?” It’s obvious from the look on her face that she doesn’t want me to go. The woman has lost every friend she’s ever had because of her drinking, and it’s got to be lonely living in this big house alone, haunted by memories.