Chasing Ever After Read online

  “Don’t’ worry about them. They’ll be fine with it, more than fine actually. This is seriously perfect Sadie. We were already talking about how we needed to find another roommate. With us gone so much and Danny doing this new DJ gig for the radio at night and his photography stuff during the day, he’s gone a lot too and I’d like to be able to leave Ivy at home and not have to board her when we’re gone. You’d be helping all of us out so much, especially me. We’d all rather have you there than have to worry about trying to find someone trustworthy or hiring someone to come in and take care her and the place.”

  “Wait, who’s Ivy?”

  The corners of his mouth turned up. “My new puppy. She was a rescue I adopted right before we left for Hawaii and I picked her up on Sunday when we got back.” His eyes were lit up with excitement and it was hard not to melt when he talked about her. “She’s so damn cute, and already this dog owns me, not the other way around. She’s clever as fuck.”

  “What kind of dog?”

  “She’s a German Shepherd and Lab mix with reddish brown coloring. She’s really sweet. I know you’ll love her. So what do you say? At least try it temporarily and if you hate living with us then we’ll all help you find somewhere else and get you moved in without you having to lift a finger.” He batted those pretty ice blue eyes at me. “Please.”

  Chapter 9

  Ace

  “I still can’t believe you talked Sadie into moving in so easily. I expected to see you have to go down on your knees and beg,” Spade commented over the sound of bacon sizzling in a frying pan, while he cracked eggs for omelets.

  “Yeah, for a minute there I thought I was going to have to throw her over my shoulder, but there was no way I was leaving her there,” I confessed.

  “Yeah. She didn’t belong there,” he agreed.

  “She belongs here. With me.” Even I was surprised by how adamantly I spoke. I was still so unaccustomed to the powerful feelings she evoked in me, the need I felt just to be near her, to hear her speak and laugh, to see her smile. The need to make her mine and proclaim it to the whole damn universe. Fuck, she made me want to beat on my chest and grunt like a damn cave man and at the same time throw myself at her feet and shower her with adulation.

  Holy shit. I’m turning into Ky.

  “Well you got her here, now you just have to convince her not to leave first chance she gets.”

  “Fuck if I know how to,” I sighed.

  “Yeah, don’t ask me for advice. I only know how to get ‘em in the sack and then get the hell out. Never wanted to get one to stay before.”

  My eyes kept going to the doorway, waiting for Sadie to appear. She’d scurried off to go take a shower a little bit ago and I was pretty sure I could still hear the water thundering in her bathroom, even from downstairs. She’d been in there a while, but I suspected that she was relishing her shower time, much like we all had for the first month after moving in. The showers might have been what really sold me on this place over all the others that we’d looked at. Each bedroom had its own master bath with big, open walk in showers, with stone backdrops and a showerhead built into the wall that water cascaded out of like a waterfall. They were what I imagined the showers were like in Heaven, and some mornings it was hard to walk away from that. This was only Sadie’s second day here, so I didn’t expect the length of her showers to lessen to under thirty minutes for at least another week.

  I hadn’t seen much of her since she moved in. She’d taken to hiding out in her room, using unpacking as an excuse. It didn’t matter though, I was still walking on sunshine and rainbows and all that happy ass shit. How could I not be when the day started with me walking into the kitchen and being greeted by the sight of a sleepy looking Sadie in cute little cotton shorts and a tiny tank? She’d been reaching for the coffee we kept on the top shelf above the coffee maker, (I was going to have to thank whoever decided to put it up there) and where her top rode up, a small strip of creamy flesh was visible. My only thought had been that I could definitely get used to this. I had to fight the urge to walk over to her, press my body up against her from behind and wrap my hands around her sexy little waist to feel her soft, warm skin beneath my fingertips. I’d wanted to bury my nose in the crook of her neck and lay a trail of kisses up her throat and along her jaw. At that point, I’d mumbled a quick good morning and turned my ass around to go take a cold shower. When I reemerged she was rinsing her cup in the sink and that’s when she disappeared to take her own shower.

  Not long after she’d fled the kitchen, Spade had stumbled in, still half asleep. Once he had some coffee in him, I convinced him to cook us some breakfast while I battled to keep my mind from wandering in inappropriate directions. At the moment it was very difficult not to think about Sadie in the shower.

  Then something, actually two somethings, caught my eye out the kitchen window. “Speaking of loving and then leaving, asshole, did you hook up with those two girls the other night?” From the satisfied grin he wore I knew he had.

  “Yes I did, and I have to say, I thought the blonde was going to be the fun one, but the Asian one was a freak. She seemed all quiet and shy at first, but oh man, she had her tongue pierced and I’m telling you –”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever, but did you tell them where we lived? Or could they have followed you back in the morning?”

  “No way. When I left them, neither one had the energy to get out of bed, let alone follow me back here. Why? We got peepers again?” He came to stand next to me and eagerly looked out the window, where I could clearly see two girls sneaking around the edge of the property. Since we got this place last year, we actually hadn’t had too much trouble. It was a pretty exclusive and private neighborhood. It was out of the way and we never brought anyone back here who we didn’t trust. The occasional photographer and paparazzi asshole would figure it out, but we had ways of dealing with those pricks. The easiest one was just to ignore them and let them waste their time for nothing. We didn’t give them shit to talk about when we were at home. Before we hit it big, home for us used to be party central, but so much had changed in the last couple years that now it was our haven, our escape from all that, and I didn’t appreciate slutty bitches all up in our bushes trying to invade our privacy.

  “I can’t see their faces, but those are not the girls from the other night,” he declared.

  I set my cup of coffee on the counter. “I don’t really care who they are. I’m gonna go deal with them,” I told him.

  “Wait, see if they’re hot before you throw their asses off our lawn.” I just looked at him. “What? They already know where we live and maybe if I make their visit extra special they’ll keep it to themselves.” I didn’t even bother with a response and slipped out the side door, just off the kitchen.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” They hadn’t heard me come up behind them and they startled and shrieked before turning to look at me with matching guilty expressions. When I say matching, I mean identical, like identical fucking twins. Spade would eat this up, or more accurately, eat them up. There was something kind of familiar about them, so I wasn’t entirely sure that he hadn’t already.

  “Holy shit, it really is him,” the one on the left whispered.

  “Yeah it’s fuckin me, now one of you want to tell me why the hell you think you have the right to snoop around my damn house?” They looked scared, and young. Couldn’t be more than eighteen or nineteen, and I almost felt bad for being such a dick, but this shit just didn’t fly. The one on the right just stood there trembling, while the other raised her head and threw back her shoulders in an attempt to appear confident, but I could tell by how wide her eyes were and the way her hands were fidgeting that she was nervous too. “I’m sorry. We weren’t trying to invade your privacy.”

  “Then what the hell do you call crawling through the fucking bushes and trying to look in our windows?”

  “I told you this was a bad idea,” the other one finally spoke up. “We should
have just tried to find her another way.”

  So they were trying to find someone, that didn’t really add up though, since nobody that we’d invited here would have told these girls where to find the place. More than likely it was an excuse. They were probably looking to get back at Spade or Chris for blowing them off after sex, or hoping for a chance with one of us. Shit, it was possible they were just trying to get their kicks by peaking in our windows, hoping for a good picture or two of us to sell. I didn’t really care what their reason for being here was. I just wanted them gone. “If you’re looking for a friend, I can assure you, she’s not here. We don’t bring girls back here, and even if one of the other guys did hook up with your friend, I doubt he would know where to find her now. They don’t usually keep in touch afterward.”

  From their appalled reactions, I started to doubt my theory that they were Spade’s former hookups. After taking a closer look at their appearances, I realized they definitely didn’t look the type. They weren’t showing nearly enough skin, and not only were they young, but they had a sheltered naivety about them that was uncommon in the girls we usually dealt with, not to mention that from the tips of their designer shoes to the diamond encrusted Chanel sunglasses on the tops of their heads, (I’ve got a sister who likes pretty things, I know what that shit is and how much it costs) they oozed so much money that I could practically smell it coming off of them in waves – the kind that is bestowed at birth and leads to a sense of entitlement and snootiness that I had little patience for. They didn’t seem like the type to need to stalk a band. They could have just bought back stage passes at one of our shows or begged Daddy to use the connections that he no doubt had to get them an introduction. It led a little bit of credibility to their story that they were just looking for someone. They were way too classy to be typical groupies, but it’s possible that their friend was a different story.

  “Good luck finding your friend, but it’s time to go.” My patience was quickly dwindling.

  “Well … actually,” the one on the right said nervously, but I didn’t have time to listen to whatever excuse or story she was gonna use.

  “Look, I don’t really give a shit why you’re here. I promise you whoever you’re looking for, if you’re even really looking for someone, isn’t here and you shouldn’t be either, so I suggest you get your asses back in your car and get the hell away from here before I decide to call the cops and press trespassing charges, and you need to forget where we live because if we find out you leaked our address we’ll sue,” I was practically shouting and completely bullshitting them about that last part, but I needed to be a dick to get rid of them.

  The one on the left looked like she was going to argue, I’d definitely wager that of the two of them, she was more outgoing and had more attitude, but lucky for her, her sister stopped her before she could really piss me off.

  “We’re really sorry. We’re not here to cause trouble for you, and we’ll go I swear, but we didn’t drive. We caught a cab and our cell phones are dead.” I looked at her skeptically. I could see where this was going and I wasn’t buying it. “I promise I’m not lying. It’s a long story, but we only came to find our sister and we flew all the way from Seattle. We dropped our bags at the hotel we’re staying at and came straight here without charging our phones. I haven’t slept in I don’t even know how many hours because I was too nervous about possibly finding her and I have to pee. If you would please just let me use your bathroom and call a cab we’ll get out of here and won’t bother you again.”

  I sighed. I didn’t know whether to believe her or not, but really they seemed harmless. It wouldn’t hurt anything to let them take their peak inside, if that’s what they were after. On the slight chance that she wasn’t lying, and they really weren’t from around here, and were without a phone or a ride, I couldn’t just send them away without feeling like a real asshole.

  “Fine, you can come in and use the bathroom and call a cab, but that’s it. Then you’re gone and you can go wait down by the main road for your ride.”

  “Of course. Thank you so much.”

  It was hard to gauge her level of sincerity. I hoped I wouldn’t regret this as they followed me toward the house and I led them in the same door I had come out of. Just to test their story a little and see if I could get a better feel for where they were at on the crazy scale, I decided to ask about the so called missing sister. “So what’s your sister’s name anyway?” Just as the words left my mouth, Sadie chose that moment to walk into the room.

  All three girls froze in their tracks. Spade was still standing at the stove with a spatula in hand, a sly grin on his face and an appreciative gleam in his eye. “Well, well, what do we have here?” I ignored him though, because Sadie’s distress was apparent. I detected more than a little apprehension directed toward our visitors. Her eyes were locked on the two of them, and at first I thought she might be upset or jealous that I brought them inside, thinking they were guests of mine. My ego took a check though when I heard both of them whisper, “Sadie.”

  I guess I had the answer to my question. Really I should have figured it out sooner, because even though they had darker hair and were taller than their sister, they still looked like younger replicas of Sadie. Same eyes and bone structure. That’s why they seemed so familiar.

  “Leila? Caitlyn?” Sadie’s voice trembled with emotion. She looked at her sisters like she was having a difficult time believing they were really in front of her. I watched the tears form in her eyes and fall down her cheeks before the two girls hesitantly approached her and then pulled her into a three way hug.

  I felt incredibly awkward intruding on the moment, but there was no way I was leaving them alone. I wanted to know what the hell was going on. Spade shot me a questioning look and I knew he was just as confused as I was. All I could do was shrug. In the almost two years I had known Sadie, I’d never heard mention of these two or any family. I mean, we didn’t share every detail of our lives, but shit, she at least knew about my family. From the way her and Jaxyn spoke, I had just assumed Sadie didn’t have any, that they had died or something. Now, standing here in my dining room, was evidence to the contrary.

  “Sadie, you going to introduce us?” Spade took the lead, trying to break some of the tension in the room when the three of them finally pulled apart.

  She wiped her eyes and cleared her throat, “Sorry, I uh – these are my little sisters, Leila,” she indicated the one I thought had attitude, “and Caitlyn.”

  “I actually go by Cait now,” her sister corrected her.

  “Oh. Okay,” Sadie mumbled awkwardly.

  “And just how young are we talking?” Spade wore a wolfish grin and Caitlyn, or Cait now, blushed, while the other one put on her best flirty smile and batted her eyelashes.

  Sadie put a stop to it before my idiot best friend crossed that line. “Spade, I know where you sleep, and you better remember that. They’re my little sisters.”

  “We’re nineteen,” Leila protested, earning a glare from her older sister before she turned it back on Spade.

  “Yeah, yeah. I know.” He threw up his hands. “It’s just, twins! I’ve never had twins before, sisters yes, but not twins.” He looked over at me. “I know what I want for my birthday now.” I had no doubt he would get his wish and find himself a set of twins, probably even before his birthday.

  I started to drag him out of the room before he could spit out anymore offensive comments. “We’ll leave you guys to talk, but Sade,” she looked at me nervously, “after this, it’s you and me who need to talk.” She just nodded, but her eyes told me so much, chiefly that there were a lot of secrets buried in their depths, secrets that went beyond this.

  I knew that Sadie’s favorite color was violet, not purple, but violet. What the fuck is the difference? I know she likes her coffee to be like dessert, with more creamer and sugary shit in it than coffee. The rain makes her sad and all of her favorite movies are John Hughes films. She skips to the last chapt
er of a book to make sure it ends happy. She mutes the TV during the scary parts of horror movies because she says that makes it less scary, and she likes to put sour skittles in her chocolate ice cream, which I think is disgusting. I knew all those things about her, but I walked out of that room feeling like I didn’t actually know her at all.

  Chapter 10

  Sadie

  “You’re here, but how did you guys know where to find me?” I think I was still in shock. I just couldn’t believe they were standing in front of me, and they were so tall. The last time I’d seen my sisters they were thirteen, eyes full of tears as I dragged my suitcases out the door while my mother coldly told me not to bother coming back.

  I was nervous about their reasons for being here, but the way they greeted me gave me hope that our parents, our mother especially, hadn’t completely poisoned their minds against me. I had no idea what they’d been told at the time, what reasons our mom gave for throwing me out. I’d tried to keep the arguments, which had been frequent during the months leading up to that final one, from them and Mia, but I knew they’d felt the tension and animosity that grew between my parents and me.

  I’d always hoped for this day, a chance to rebuild the relationships my parents took away from me. I would have tried to contact them the day they turned eighteen, but my fears had prevented me from reaching out. Six years was a long time, enough time for them to come to see me as the disgraceful and shameful Pierce daughter, the way my parents did.

  “I think your face has been in just about every magazine out there. That wedding was the event of the year,” Leila pointed out and I thought I detected a little bit of jealousy in her voice. She was always the diva as a little girl. Caitlyn had always been quieter and more comfortable in Leila’s shadow. I wasn’t surprised that they’d seen the leaked wedding pictures. It had been too much to hope that no one back home would see them. As thankful as I was to have the opportunity to speak to my sisters again, not everyone there would take seeing my face plastered in the tabloids so well.