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“I just need some air.” I kept staring out the window as Everett sank into the wingback chair. He made all the furniture here look comical. His knees were always elevated above his hips because his legs were too long. His shoulders never fit, so he sat sideways. Out of the corner of my eye I could see him running his hand over his beard. “Maybe if I catch someone’s attention we can get the manager up here with a key.”

“The phones probably work if you’re that desperate to escape.” He kept stroking that beard.

Which I knew meant he was studying me.

I felt his gaze as it traced over every inch of my body. What did he see when he looked at me? Was it just information? Was he trying to gauge my level of anxiety?

Or was it more?

Because it felt like more. It felt…languid. The way a man appreciates a woman he finds attractive.

My reactions to Everett baffled me. I knew men. And I definitely knew Everett. Boys were my friends and always had been. My dad and I were a team, just the two of us against the world, until I got to college and added Seth and Everett to my family. I loved sports and boys always relaxed around me when they knew they could spout stats and yell at the screen and I’d join in on the fun. I could work a grill better than most and told dirtier jokes the older I got.

Things between Everett, Seth, and me had always been easy.

So why were things different now? Our twenties had changed us all. Seth became a grumpy sex crazed man-whore until Annalise snapped him out of it. I became a workaholic. But Ev was still Ev in most ways.

Maybe the reason I felt these strange things around him was because I didn’t know him like I used to. What had he really done all these years?

“You’re thinking awfully hard over there,” he murmured. “What’s on your mind?”

I could make up a lie. I could pretend nothing was amiss. Or for once in our lives, I could use this strange circumstance to talk to my best friend. “Have you ever been in love?”

He blinked, shock blanking his features and he turned a ghostly shade of white. “Wh-what?”

I shrugged, leaning my elbow against the sill. “You used to tell me everything. I knew how you felt about every girl you dated. So after you went home to Calusa Key, did you meet someone? Did you fall in love?” Was that the reason he’d so happily stayed hidden away?

Jealousy and a little hurt throbbed behind my heart.

“I…no. I’ve never been in love before.”

He said before oddly. Like the word wasn’t quite the one he meant to use.

“But you dated? Who? Tell me about them.”

He blinked, something flashing behind his hazel eyes before he banked it away. “Why are you suddenly so curious about my dating life?” He shifted in the chair, moving from one corner to the other and resettling his legs.

I shrugged. “We’re stuck together. I figure this is the perfect opportunity to dig into the areas we haven’t gotten caught up in yet.”

“Of all the topics we could discuss, you decided on dating? Talk about going for the jugular.”

Now I was even more confused. Everett never shied away from discussing anything with me. Least of all his love life. So I pressed harder. “I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable. But if I want to know what I missed, that's a pretty telling area to focus on.”

He stared at me, his jaw working, then with a nod, “Have you ever been in love?”

That sounded a lot more like an accusation than a question.

I laughed. “Absolutely not. Nope. No.” I made a handful of friends in California, none of them anywhere near as close as I was to Seth or Everett. I certainly hadn’t found a man I was willing to give my heart to.

But I did manage to find a lot of men to stay far, far away from.

Process of elimination was progress.

His eyes narrowed. “But you dated. Who? Tell me about them?” He tossed my questions right back at me.

Which was weird. “Everett, what the hell? Why are you being so…defensive?” I really couldn’t think of a better word for it. He was defensive but also…angry?

Why was he angry?