Addicted to Mr Parks (The Parks Series #2)(48)

Steph was in her infamous leggings and a baggy blue jumper when I walked in on her cooking at the oven. Her curly hair had been tied up with a spotted bandana, and she was reading from a cookbook.

I threw my bag onto the sofa and kicked off my Jimmy Choos. “Steph, really? Reading how to cook a casserole?”

She turned around to face with me with the book in her hand and an exhausted huff from the side of her mouth that blew up a stray curl. “Its hard work. How do I know how much a cup full is? We have all different size cups.”

“Do what you think. Here…” I took over like I knew I would, but I enjoyed it, so I didn’t mind.

“Thank God someone knows what they’re doing.” She sagged back down onto the sofa and put her feet up. “I miss having you around.”

I missed it too, but I didn’t want to admit that. “Don’t be so soft. How’s things with Mathew?”

Surprisingly, she didn’t roll her eyes like she normally did, but she did roll her head back with exhaustion. “I don’t know where I am with it all, Evey. I love him, but I’m not in love with him anymore.”

“So that gave you the right to shag Julian?” I had to scold her for it. No one else was going to. I knew she loved Mathew, but Julian was something new. Something to add that spice to her plain life. Well, she should have added that spice to herself and Mathew instead of dipping her finger in somewhere else!

“Don’t.” She scrubbed her face with her hands. “I hate myself for that.”

“So you should.” I pointed at her with my wooden spoon. Then she started giggling. “What’s funny?”

She shook her head at me and crossed her legs on the sofa. “The way you told Julian how small his todger was. God, Evey. I miss your mouth.”

I laughed, turning back to the food on a shrug. “But it so was.”

“I know,” she howled.


I plated up the casserole and asked Steph if I could take some home for Parks, then got seated on the sofa.

“How’s it going with him, anyway? I noticed your clothes and shoes, by the way. Is he trying to make you dress how he wants you to?” She started eating her meal but then stopped chewing because of my pause. “Evey? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I shrugged her off and began to eat.

“Evey.” She frowned. “No bullshit.”

With a roll of my eyes, I began to tell her. “He wants to buy me things and make me feel good, that’s all. He knows how much I love clothes, so bought me so many I could run my own London Fashion Week. I don’t want to take advantage, but the way he treats me, Steph, is just like a…princess.”

Her frown was annoying me, so I twirled the spoon around the bowl to ignore it.

“So why don’t you sound happy?”

“It’s not that. I am happy. He makes me happy, but I don’t want to say it and jinx myself. The thing that’s pissing me off is that Carla is at work with Parks.” That phone call was also niggling away at me, but Jesus, I couldn’t worry Steph about that; she’d probably go into cardiac arrest.

“And?” The shrug of her shoulder made me frown.

“And?” I sang. “I know she’ll be flirting. She’s probably already showed off her fanny.”

“Don’t you trust Wade?”

“Explicitly.”

“Well then. Fuck her.”

She made out like I was crazy for worrying. She didn’t know what Carla was like. And it was maddening how much I was beginning to need him. It felt like I couldn’t breathe when he wasn’t around. Like I couldn’t function without his scent nearby. Could never settle unless I felt him. Excluding everything else in my life, I knew he was slowly but surely becoming my addiction, and I wasn’t sure it was healthy.

Steph saw me pondering, and the way I was playing with my food rather than eating it gave me away. “You got it bad,” she scolded me. Maybe she was against me liking him.

“Don’t,” I warned.

“Why, because it’s the truth?”

“No. Maybe. Yes.” I sighed. “It’s complicated.”

She finished her food and walked to the kitchen to put her bowl in the sink. “Evey, you are complicated. There’s something else.” Her eyes were beady and intrusive as she sank back down on the sofa. Yes, there was something else, but I wasn’t going to worry her about it.

“I’m fine.”

A beeping from my smartphone took the attention away from me. Surprisingly, it was Tabby.



Tabby: Would love to re-arrange a night out with you. What about Thursday night?



A frown dominated my forehead. Not because she was being a nuisance, but because I couldn’t decline without sounding a bitch. So I accepted.



Evey: Sure.



It was on the tip of my tongue to invite Steph, but she would have given me a lecture, so I said nothing. “It’s Parks,” I answered Steph’s curiosity and went back to my food.

“Why do you call him that?”

“It annoys him, so I do it even more. I call him Wade in the bedroom, though, or if I’m being good.” I laughed.

She pulled on my arm like an excited puppy. “Tell me how good he is in bed?”