Page 27 of Everything After

Inhaling deeply, I closed my eyes when an image of Lily’s distraught face played through my mind, and a pang of regretrolled through me. A heavy boulder weighed heavily on my chest when I considered what I’d done.

Shaking that thought away, I lifted the tumbler to my lips and tossed the amber liquid to the back of my throat. Grimacing, I regarded the patterned glass and threw it full force, clean across the room. It smashed on the brickwork of the small fireplace. “Fuck,” I bellowed, not caring whether my neighbors heard me.

My cell phone buzzed in my jacket pocket, and thinking it was Lily, I sprung out of the chair and grabbed it. When I saw who it was, I fumed again.

“What?” I snapped, sounding aggressive.

“What? That’s all you’ve got to say to me? What the fuck’s gotten into you?” Jack, Lily’s close childhood friend barked down the line.

“Butt out. It’s none of your business,” I warned, pissed that she’d called him for support.

“Oh, no. You don’t get to throw a hissy fit and leave our girl in pieces,” he argued.

“Ourgirl? She’smine,” I ground out, enraged that he’d take an opportunity like now to yank my chain.

“You left her, right? So—not yours. And if you don’t get your arse back to that house and make things right, she’ll never be yours again,” he threatened in his posh London accent.

When I’d first met Jack, I’d hated him with a passion. I was convinced that their touchy-feely relationship was more than the weirdly close friendship Lily insisted they had. But, as the years passed, we found we had more in common than our protective stance and love of Lily, and in time we became weirdly close friends.

Jack marrying Mya and having kids with her helped me to understand that what he had with my wife was a special, intuitive bond that they’d shared since they’d been babies.That knowledge didn’t stop me from feeling envious of their connection at times.

“This has nothing to do with you, Jack. I suggest you go play happy family with Mya and leave us to it.”

“Lily called me.”

“I should have known she would,” I muttered.

“Which makes it my business too,” he suggested

“No way. This is for Lily to figure out. Do you know how often my bandmates have given me shit for the effort I put in to us? I’m tired of coming last,” I snapped and cut the call.

Less than a minute later a text came in.

Jack: I’m landing in Miami tomorrow with the brood. You and I need to talk.

“No! No, Jack, we fucking don’t. Keep your sticky beak out of my business,” I raged aloud.

CHAPTER 16

LILY

“Jesus, sweetheart. Come here,” Jack, my rock, said, stepping over the threshold of my home. One look at the empathy on his face made me break down in tears.

In the near distance an engine roared to life as the water taxi that had brought him left. Relief flowed through me, and I felt myself relax somewhat, knowing, at least for tonight, Jack was staying.

Usually, a protective hug from him would have set my world straight, but it didn’t. He must have sensed I wasn’t hugging him back because he abruptly pushed me away from his body by my upper arms and studied me closely.

“Let’s take a seat,” he suggested in a soft tone, moving me gently backward through my open front door, and closing it quietly behind him. Wrapping an arm around my shoulder he turned us and guided me into the sitting room. Once there he sat me on the sectional sofa and plonked down next to me. “Alright, what’s going on?”

“Oh, Jack,” I muttered, hiccuped and began to sob, unable to hold back another flood of tears from falling.

“Have you eaten?” he asked, frowning. His loving eyes studied my face. I didn’t need to wonder if I’d looked distraught, I caught sight of my puffy eyes and blotchy face in the mirror before I’d opened the door.

“Not hungry,” I mumbled as he swiped his thumbs under both of my eyes and inspected the black mascara trace his action had left behind on his skin.

“You need to eat, but first we’ll get you out of that crumpled jumpsuit and into something more comfortable to cry in,” he teased, making light of my attire.

“I’m fine,” I protested, even though I’d slept in my clothes.