Read Eversea A Love Story for Free Online Page A

everywhere you went. No wonder Jack Eversea was nervous about going out. I sincerely hoped my idiotic little display over in produce hadn’t been witnessed.
    “Hey, Lizzie, how are you?”
    “I’m good, glad the rush is over. How’ve you been and how’s Joey?”
    My brother had been most girls’ crush at some point, I was sure. After our parents died, he added tortured soul to his list of assets.
    “Good. He’s good. Just a year more before he starts his residency, so he’s pretty busy.”
    Liz nodded. “Good, well he was always so smart. Destined to do great things,” she added with a smile.
    She was a kind-hearted girl. Unfortunately, her kind heart and trusting nature had gotten her into early single parenthood and a job at the grocery store rather than the career she had planned on. She never spoke about who the father was, although the town had been rife with gossip touching on most of the senior class that year. Liz had stayed tight-lipped, even when urged to confess for the sake of child support from the father. As she scanned my items, we chatted about some online college classes in education Liz was taking, and how her son Brady was doing. I was glad she was getting her life back on track.
    Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jack’s face peering at me from the check out tabloids. One had the headline, “Hit the road, Jack!” Another read, “Where in the World is Jack?” I had to physically restrain myself from reaching for them.
    Chances were if anyone had seen an unknown male on my doorstep this morning, Liz would have asked about it. Knowing Liz and I were friends meant that the curtain twitchers of Butler Cove were bound to dig for clues at The Pig while they shopped. The town’s obsession with Joey and me and what we were doing was extremely tiring. If I didn’t feel obligated to the Butler home, I would’ve been gone ages ago.
    Not for the first time, I longingly thought of Joey and his Butler Cove-free life at college. Living here gave me a small idea of what it must be like to be Jack Eversea living his life in a Hollywood fishbowl. But seeing his face all over these magazines reminded me he had it far worse than I could imagine.
    “Planning a nice dinner with someone?”
    “What?” I looked down to the salmon steaks and wine that Liz was indicating and felt myself flush red again.
    “Um, no. I mean yes, it’s just for ... I’m trying to eat more healthy.” I swallowed. Well, that wasn’t awkward.
    Liz looked at me with a funny expression and then shrugged. “With wine ... okay. I heard Jasper is in town again before he heads up to Charleston for school, you seen much of him?”
    I had never noticed before, but suddenly it seemed very obvious from the slightly wistful expression on Liz’s face that Jasper McDaniel featured in some of her daydreams. It was no secret he had asked me out way back when. Not that I’d accepted, of course, not on a date anyway. But we were friends, we all were. Maybe Liz thought the dinner was for him. Not ideal, but better than suspecting anyone else. Luckily, she didn’t ask more questions. I quickly paid in cash, noticing belatedly I hadn’t separated out Jack’s and my purchases, then realizing that would have been more obvious anyway. God, I really wasn’t good at this cloak and dagger stuff.
    “Bye, Liz!” I tinkled breezily, hightailing it out of The Pig.
    “Bye, Keri Ann.”
    I could feel Liz watching me curiously as I left the store and put the groceries carefully in the back of my truck. I climbed in and just sat for a few minutes in the baking cab, my forehead resting on the hot steering wheel. Then, taking a deep breath, I gunned the engine and headed home. Home to a girl’s most secret fantasy. I just hoped said fantasy had managed to find a t-shirt.
     

 
    F I V E
    “Andy. Jack. What’s up?” Jack was on the phone as I came in through the back door, into the blessed air conditioning. I guessed he was talking to the agent he