“Great. See you out there,” he said, leaning down and pressing a kiss to my forehead. He walked away toward the French doors, which I’d learned on my tour led to the veranda. Devon and I sat at the table for a few seconds in silence. I knew he was upset, but didn’t really know how to broach the subject. As my best friend, my loyalty should have always been with Olivia. However, in this situation, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Devon.

   “I think Olivia has gotten into the habit of confusing having fun with being drunk,” I said cautiously, not sure if Devon would be offended for Olivia by my words. I raised my eyes to look at him, only to find him looking directly at me. We didn’t speak for a few moments, but then he sighed, brought both of his hands up, and rubbed them down his face, groaning.

   “Has she always been like this?” he asked, his elbows coming to rest on the table with his forehead resting in his hands.

   “No,” I said thoughtfully. “She didn’t start drinking heavily and often until a few months ago.”

   “You mean, until she met me.”

   I hadn’t thought about it that way. “I guess. But I don’t think it’s you who’s making her this way. I think if she were seriously involved with anyone, she would have a hard time dealing with it. It’s always kind of been against her MO to be exclusive with someone. Maybe she’s using alcohol to deal with things she’s had buried that are being brought up by your relationship.”

   “Hmm.” Now he sounded angry. Irritated. “Maybe one of these days she’ll open up enough for me to figure out what’s bothering her.”

   “She hasn’t talked to you about it yet?”

   “No. Every time our conversation turns serious, she changes the subject or suddenly remembers she needs to be somewhere and bails.”

   Without thinking about it, I reached out and covered one of his hands with my own. “She really is a great girl, Devon. You just have to break through the tough exterior she puts up.” He heard my words and then turned his hand upward and his fingers closed around mine.

   “The funny thing is, Evie, before I met Olivia, there was this one girl who I’d been thinking about for weeks.” His fingers squeezed mine a little harder and my throat went dry. “If only I’d been brave enough to ask you out that first day we met, things might be different right now.”

   “Devon,” I whispered, my voice betraying me and saying his name like a curse. I shook my head and pulled my hand free from his, both afraid of the words coming from his mouth and the way they made my heart tumble in my chest. I was panicking. Panicking because even though Devon had made small remarks to me over the last few months about caring for me, I had never chosen to believe they were meant in any more than a friendly capacity. Not only out of respect for my friend, but also out of preservation of my heart. I’d fallen for him that first day too, but learned to live with the regret of letting him walk away. Learned to tamp down the longing I felt whenever he was near – and even when he was nowhere in sight. But his words, his acknowledgment that I wasn’t alone in those feelings, was dangerous.

   Before I could say anything more, even if I could think of the words that were supposed to come next, Olivia came out of the hallway clad in a pink bikini that left little to the imagination. She came right up behind Devon and leaned down, wrapping her arms around his chest, putting her lips to the skin of his neck that I had imagined to be soft and smell of him. She kissed him there, tenderly, as his eyes bore into mine.

   “Come on, baby. Let’s go get in the hot tub. I bought this new bikini just for you.” His fingers came up to pat her hands that were clasped together over his chest.

   “I’ll be out there in just a minute.”

   “All right,” she said with an easy smile while standing up. “I’ll just go make sure it’s extra warm for you.” She strolled away, opened the French doors, then closed them not so gently behind her, and disappeared into the darkness.

   I was frozen in place. Stuck in what seemed like an important moment. I didn’t know what to say, how to move forward, or if I should even acknowledge what Devon had said. Then, making my decision for me, he stood up from the table and walked down the hallway toward his room.

   I exhaled as soon as he was out of sight, feeling a tremendous weight lift from my shoulders. For the rest of the weekend Devon made obvious efforts not to be alone with me – not obvious to everyone, but plain enough to me. And I tried to convince myself he hadn’t meant what he’d said, and I didn’t feel what I felt.

Chapter Eight

Present Day

   “Evie, I’m really sorry, but there’s another late meeting I’ve got to attend. If you can’t stay late with the kids, could you maybe see if Mrs. Welner from next door could sit with them? I don’t have her phone number handy. Thanks, Evie. Let me know what’s up.”

   I swiped the screen of my phone to the left, deleting Devon’s voicemail. “Sure,” I said to no one since I was in my car all alone. “I’ll just leave your children with the woman next door who is so old she can’t even walk from room to room without assistance. That sounds safe.” I flung my car in reverse, taking all my frustration out on my poor gearshift. “How in the hell did your wife live with you all these years?” My own breath caught at my words. Liv hadn’t lived with it. In fact, she’d died. But I knew she’d give anything to be here with him, being the one he called when he was going to be running late home from work.

   I took in a deep breath trying to push away the sadness I felt at the thought of Liv, and the disgust I felt with myself as I took everything I’d been given for granted. Liv, in essence, had given me a family. I loved Ruby and Jax, and I needed to recognize that Devon could very well have hired a nanny, and I’d be stuck with weekend visits to the children I loved dearly.

   I sighed as I merged into traffic, pulling my sunglasses down to cover my eyes. Knowing full well I’d be going to his house to be there when his daughter got out of school, then going to get his son, I silently cursed Devon for having such wonderful children who would always have a hold on my heart.

   After I’d wrangled both kids, we walked up the driveway as I tried to text Devon to tell him the kids and I would wait at his house for him – no need to bother his elderly neighbor.

   Ruby unlocked the door and Jaxy ran in ahead of us. As usual, the kids headed for the kitchen because they hadn’t eaten in over forty-five minutes so, obviously, they were starving.

   “I’m hungry,” I heard Jax yell from the kitchen at the same time I heard the sound of the refrigerator opening. I heard the hum of the freezer, but something else was catching my ear. I put my purse down on the table and stood still, trying to figure out what was making me uneasy. I looked around and nothing looked out of place, and then I zeroed in on the noise coming from the laundry room.

   I walked down the hallway and immediately knew something was wrong. Halfway down the hall, my feet were met with water. Standing water. Water that was slowly making its way toward the kitchen.

   “Oh, my God,” I whispered, trying to make my way through the lake that used to be the hallway. When I opened the door to the laundry room, I couldn’t stay calm anymore. “Holy shit!” My yells were heard by the children and somewhere in the back if my mind I registered they were coming toward me, but couldn’t think past the sight of water spraying out of the wall behind the washing machine. The water was freezing cold and ankle deep by the time I’d made it into the laundry room. The water was spraying out from behind the machine, sending water everywhere. It was coming straight at me. It was falling from the ceiling, and it was running down the walls. And I could tell it was coming out fast and I knew soon it would be flooding the whole bottom floor of Devon’s house.