Ever After Read online

  She wasn’t the least surprised when the door opened by itself.

  “Thank you,” she said and went up the stairs to her bedroom, closed the door, and locked it.

  Thirty minutes later, she was in bed, wide awake. The joy of the shopping trip was gone and all she could think about were Todd’s words. What made her so deeply angry, what hurt the most, was that Todd was right. She was desperate for a family. She had been flirting with Jamie’s relatives. She hadn’t recognized it until now, but she realized that every moment since meeting them, she’d imagined being part of the big Montgomery-Taggert family.

  But Todd was also wrong. She liked Jamie the best. From the first day they’d met, they’d worked together, talked and laughed as though they’d known each other forever. His injuries were the least of it. His laughter, his concern for others, all that was what she liked so very much.

  As for Todd saying she’d marry any of them, that certainly wasn’t true. Adam was too remote. Hallie thought a woman would have to work too hard to really get to know him. Ian had the air of someone who would be happiest living in a tent on a mountainside. Raine…Well, there wasn’t anything wrong with Raine.

  Except that he wasn’t Jamie.

  As for Todd, she did not like him. How could he be Jamie’s brother? They didn’t even look alike. And the more she was around him, the less attractive he seemed.

  But Hallie knew that what she thought about them wasn’t the problem. It was how they saw her.

  Throughout her life, she’d always had goals. The only time she came close to giving up was when she learned that her father had allowed her college fund to be spent on Shelly’s many lessons. It had been a dreadful scene. Ruby had cried and said that when Shelly was a famous actress or singer or model she’d repay everything. “You’ll get it all back,” Ruby said, tears glistening in her once-pretty eyes.

  Hallie had been devastated. As usual, her father dealt with the turmoil by getting in his car and driving away. As he went out the door, he mumbled, “Sorry, Hallie. I thought the money would be replaced by now.” She knew that Ruby had talked him into believing that Shelly was always just a day away from great success. But then Ruby knew enough to never let him attend any of Shelly’s lessons.

  But Hallie had seen and heard them. Shelly couldn’t carry a tune, her acting was flat, and she was stiff in her dancing lessons. She couldn’t even master the runway walk in her modeling classes. It was Hallie’s opinion that the harder Ruby pushed, the worse Shelly did at every lesson—and furthermore, Hallie thought Shelly failed on purpose.

  One time, when Hallie was driving her stepsister home from a session, she said, “If you don’t want to take all these lessons, then you should tell your mother so.”

  “I guess you would do great at them, wouldn’t you?” Shelly said nastily. “Are you hiding some fabulous singing voice?”

  Hallie’d just sighed. It was no use trying to talk to Shelly about anything.

  On that horrible day when she’d been told that the money that had been put aside for her college tuition was gone, Hallie had gone into shock. Her dad left right away. Ruby was holding Shelly as though to shield her, her eyes daring Hallie to say something negative.

  But Hallie knew that going into a rage wouldn’t put the money back in the bank. She went outside and without even thinking about what she was doing, she went across the street to the Westbrook house.

  Only Braden was home. By that time he was in law school and had a girlfriend. He answered the door to Hallie but barely glanced at her.

  “I’ve got something on the stove,” he said.

  She followed him to the kitchen and sat down on a stool at the counter. She was too stunned to be able to speak.

  Braden slid an omelet onto a plate. “I came home unexpectedly, but Mom still left for the weekend,” he said. “Looks like the honeymoon stage is over. I’m having to fend for myself. The worst thing is that I only know how to cook omelets so I’ve been eating them twice a day.” He put the plate in front of Hallie. “There. Eat it.”

  “I can’t. It’s…” She was afraid to speak for fear she’d start crying. “If your mom isn’t here, I’d better go.”

  “No,” he said firmly. “You and I have to eat because we need our strength for what’s coming.”

  She looked at him.

  “I know I’m not Mom, but you’re going to tell me every word of whatever Shelly and Ruby did to you this time.”

  Hallie stared in horror. “I can’t…” she whispered.

  “Can’t talk to a friend? I don’t believe that. Are you old enough to drink coffee?”

  “I’m eighteen.”

  “Are you?” Braden said. He had his back to her as he made a second omelet. The toaster popped up. “Could you get that? And put a lot of butter on mine. I need the energy for when I tell you what my girlfriend did to me.”

  Hallie got off the stool and went to the toaster. “What did she do?”

  “Nope. You first, but I bet I can top whatever you have to tell.”

  “My dad let Ruby and Shelly take the college fund my grandparents set up for me. I don’t know how I’m going to pay for school.”

  Braden halted with a plate in his hand and stared at her. “Hallie, that’s serious. Is all of it gone?”

  “Every penny.”

  “Did your dad leave?”

  “So fast that he’s probably in Texas by now.”

  Braden shook his head. “That’s some family you have. Come on, let’s take this into the study. We have to figure out how to get a brain like yours into school.”

  She followed him down the hall and they spent hours figuring out what Hallie was going to do. Braden made calls and looked online.

  In the end, Hallie didn’t get to attend the school she’d dreamed of, but she did go to college. And she did so well there that she qualified for a partial scholarship for the second year. But the summer after her first year, her father and Ruby were killed in a car accident and Hallie had to put her education on hold to take care of Shelly.

  The sound of Jamie on the stairs brought her back to the present. In spite of his crutches and the brace, he made little noise. He went into his bedroom and she heard the shower running. There was a bit of quiet, then she heard him go downstairs.

  A few minutes later he was again on the stairs, but his gait was hesitant. Her first thought was that he’d reinjured his knee, and her impulse was to run to him.

  But she didn’t move.

  When he tapped lightly on her door she didn’t respond, but then it was as though Todd’s words were screaming in her head. Playing over and over.

  “Hallie?” Jamie said. “I made us some tea. It has lots of milk in it, the way we like it.”

  Don’t be a coward, she told herself, then she got out of bed. She grabbed her robe from the back of the closet, put it on, and opened the door.

  To her dismay, Jamie was shirtless. He had on gray sweatpants that were barely hanging on to his hips. A tiny tug on the drawstring and they’d fall to the floor. In spite of all his scars, he looked so good her heart started pounding. If Todd’s words weren’t in her head, she would have dragged him back to bed with her.

  But she didn’t. Instead, she smiled pleasantly and took both mugs of tea from him. “How did you manage to get up the stairs on crutches with these in your hands?”

  “Juliana and Hyacinth carried them up for me.”

  She didn’t laugh, and when he took a step forward as though he meant to go into her bedroom, Hallie slipped past him to the sitting room. She sat down on the window seat, put one mug on the sill, and began sipping from the other.

  She saw the frown he gave as he turned and took the other end of the seat. “Aren’t you cold like that?” she asked.

  “I’m still sweating. I did two workouts today. The first one was with Todd and Raine.”

  My enemy and my supposed lover, she thought but didn’t say. “I’m sorry I didn’t work on your knee today.”