Defending Everly (Mountain Mercenaries, #5)(25)

Ball about choked. “I’m not gay, and I think your granddaughter is beautiful.”

“Then why don’t you want to date her? Get to know her better?” the older woman demanded.

“I didn’t say that.” Ball tried to backpedal, beginning to sweat. Shit, Everly’s grandmother was a better interrogator than Black, and that was saying something.

“So you do want to date her! That’s what I thought. Good. I’m glad I put you in the same room, then. You can get to know her better, maybe share a few kisses. Back in our day, we had to sneak around when we stayed at my parents’ house. I didn’t want either of you having to roam around in the middle of the night. Sometimes we get up to get a glass of water or something, and it would be awkward if you ran into us.”

He opened his mouth to respond—not even sure where to begin—but luckily Everly returned, saving him. She had a large notebook in her hands, and she handed it to him with a huff, then plopped down on the floor in front of the sofa where her grandparents were sitting.

“No, dear, you have to sit next to Kannon and explain what he’s looking at,” Me-Maw said not so innocently.

Everly looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Sit next to him? Me-Maw, he’s in the armchair.”

“So?”

“So, there’s no room for me!”

“Sure, there is. Look, he’ll scoot over a bit . . .”

Ball did as directed, leaving a minuscule amount of space between his leg and the side of the chair.

“There. See?”

As if she was used to her grandmother being bossy and knew the woman wasn’t going to shut up until she did as ordered, Everly slowly stood and came over to where he was sitting. She had a resigned look on her face and mouthed, “Sorry.”

Ball gestured to his side. With a sigh, she gingerly sat on the arm of the chair next to him.

Wrapping his hand around her waist, Ball tugged until she slid off the arm and was squished between him and the side of the chair. One of her hands landed on his thigh for balance, and the other hovered in the air in front of her. He could feel the warmth of her body along the length of his own.

He raised his arm, wrapping it comfortably around her shoulders, and she fell deeper into him.

Her hair brushed against his jaw, and that familiar scent wafted up until it was all he could smell.

Ball felt surrounded by her—and surprisingly, he wasn’t in the least bit bothered by it.

He saw the smirk on Me-Maw’s face before she turned away to hide it.

Hating that Everly was embarrassed—and she was clearly uncomfortable, judging by the pink color in her cheeks—Ball opened the scrapbook.

The first picture was a newspaper cutout of a much younger Everly wearing a store-bought skeleton costume and a huge smile with two teeth missing. “Cute,” he said with a grin.

Everly rolled her eyes. “There was a neighborhood Halloween party. My mom forgot to get me a costume, but Me-Maw found this at the drugstore down the street. Of course there was a newspaper photographer there to capture my dorkiness.”

“Not dorky—cute,” Ball told her. He felt her relax against him a bit as he turned the page.

He spent the next hour viewing glimpses into Everly’s past. There were a few more pictures, but most were articles about various competitions Everly had excelled in. There were a few poems she’d written and some papers from grade school. It was more than obvious how proud her grandparents were of her.

By the time he got to the end of the scrapbook, Everly had relaxed completely and was resting most of her weight against him. She was wedged into a tiny corner of the chair, and had to be uncomfortable, but she didn’t make a move to get up when he was done.

“We’re going to head to bed,” Pop said quietly. “Allison’s done in.”

Ball looked over and saw that Everly’s grandma had fallen asleep against her husband’s side.

“Need any help?” he asked.

“Nope. I’ve got her. She does this just about every night. I used to be able to pick her up and carry her to bed, but now we just hobble there together. We’ll see you both in the morning.” And with that, Landen gently shook his wife awake, and, just as he’d said, they walked with their arms around each other’s waists down the hall to their bedroom.

“They’ve been through so much in their lives, and I hate that they’re dealing with this now too.

It’s not fair.”

“How’d your mom become the person she is?” Ball asked. “I mean, your grandparents are awesome. I don’t get it.”

“Don’t think they haven’t asked themselves the same thing,” Everly said. “And the short answer is, I don’t know. I guess it’s that old nature-versus-nurture question. Was my mom born to become a drug addict, or was it a factor of her surroundings? I’d have to guess the latter. Me-Maw says she saw no indication of her having any kind of addictive personality before high school. Then she got in with the wrong crowd, and the rest is history. It’s my understanding that she didn’t start out slow, as far as the drugs go. She went straight from sneaking a drink now and then to doing cocaine.

And that was that. She was hooked after the first hit, and from then on out, her life continued on a downward spiral. She didn’t finish high school. Got pregnant with me, and even though she went through the motions of trying to quit, she never really wanted to.”