Page 12 of P.S. I'm Still Yours
A much skinnier version of Evie stands on our porch, wearing a long-sleeve shirt and faded jeans. Her blonde hair is damp, as though she just stepped out of the shower, and her face is bare.
I analyze her thoroughly.
No makeup.
No jewelry.
Not a trace of the woman I call my godmother.
Whoever this is, she’s nothing like Evie. For starters, Evie has never looked so… normal. I barely recognize her without her fancy dresses and high heels.
“Oh, Eve, come here.” Mom opens her arms as soon as her best friend comes into view. Evie doesn’t waste a second, marching into my mom’s embrace.
“I’ll never be able to thank you enough, Lil,” Evie whispers.
That’s when my eyes land on him.
The boy who stole my heart before his father broke his.
Kane stands a few steps behind Evie, the strap of a gym bag thrown over his shoulder—is that all he brought?
He’s lost weight, like his mom, his cheeks hollower than I remember and his jawline sharper than a knife. His green eyes are rimmed with dark circles, and his short brown hair is uneven, which tells me Evie probably had to cut it herself.
Even then… he looks incredible.
“Hey, Hads,” he says in a low voice, and it takes every drop of restraint in my body to stop myself from hugging him.
“Hey,” I say right back.
I missed you, a voice in the back of my head whispers.
“Dude, get in here.” Gray’s voice startles me, and I spin to see my twin brother walking toward us. “Dude, what the fuck? When’d you get so tall? Got me looking like a fucking Oompa Loompa over here.”
Mom scolds my brother for his colorful language, and Gray cracks a smile.
I step aside to let Kane in. He gives Gray a quick handshake paired with a bro hug. Evie separates from Mom soon after and wraps her arms around my brother and me, the air thick with questions we’re not allowed to ask.
Everything about her is different.
She even smells different—probably because she can’t afford whatever expensive perfume she used to wear before.
“Welcome home,” Mom tells Kane as she squeezes him into a tight embrace, and call me crazy, but I think I see him wince in pain. He doesn’t say anything, though, slapping his poker face back into place in no time.
Gray gestures to the stairs with his chin. “Come on, I’ll show you your room. Well, our room.”
Kane’s gaze catches mine before he takes off with my brother, and the vessel in my chest tightens. Two months ago, I thought he was broken because he was faking smiles.
But now?
He doesn’t smile at all.
The spark in his eyes is gone.
And there’s one thing I know for sure…
I’m going to get it back.
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