Page 97 of Backup Plan

And I need from now until then to prepare for it all.

But I don’t get all that time because Everleigh calls again. She hangs up, waits a few minutes, and tries again.

I finally pick up once I’ve composed myself enough to answer. “Hey.” My voice is bright. Too bright. Blindingly, overly bright.

“What’s going on with you and Liam?” she demands.

I blow out a breath. “Nothing.” I pause, and I add, “Anymore. As of about an hour ago.” I look up at the ceiling to try to ward off the tears, but it’s futile.

“Oh, babe,” she whispers. “I had no idea.”

“I know, and I’m so, so sorry.”

“You could’ve told me,” she says gently.

“You were always teasing me that he’s so young, and I felt like I couldn’t tell you. I didn’t know what it was anyway, and I didn’t want you to hate me for taking advantage of your brother’s kindness to me.”

“Did you?” she asks.

“No. I fell in love with him,” I admit.

She sighs.

“How’d you find out?” I ask.

“Your ex.”

“That fucker.”

She laughs. “I won’t argue that, and I think he did it maliciously, but I don’t care. I’m sad you two felt like you had to hide it from me.”

I sniffle. “It was your wedding. We didn’t want to overshadow your big day.”

She scoffs. “As if anything could have.”

I can’t help but giggle at that. “You’re right. I’m sorry. He wanted to tell you. It’s my fault.”

“Why didn’t you want to tell me?”

“Because you’re my best friend, and he’s your younger brother. I guess I just wanted to make sure it was serious before we made it into some big deal.”

“I guess I can understand that even though it still hurts. And by the way, Liam still tried to overshadow my day with the baby news.”

I picture her rolling her eyes.

“The baby news seems to sort of be what ended it. Well, he ended it. About an hour ago. He said he thought Brent would use our relationship in court, and Brent made some snide comment to him about how we’re not offering a stable environment to the kids since I was, quote, shacking up with him when he also knocked up another woman.”

“How does he know about that?” she asks.

“No clue, but he said he has eyes and ears all over, and honestly, he does. He knows everyone in the city. Could be Izzy, could be someone else at the bar or in Liam’s building. The news hit headlines anyway, so it's not like it's a big secret. How he found out doesn’t matter to me. The fact is he’s using it against us, and it was enough scare Liam away.”

“Ugh, Brent. Such a dickwad,” she mutters.

“Seriously. The biggest bag of dicks this side of the Mississippi.”

“This side of the Yucatan,” she agrees.

“This side of the Pacific,” my mom chimes in, and I had no idea she was even listening. Both Everleigh and I giggle.