“We’d have been good together, you and me, Everly Taylor.”
I sigh and shake my head. “Maybe in another life, but not this one, Ty. My life is down south now.”
“You could come back home, though. I mean this house is yours, right?”
“It is. Yes, I could come back, but I’m likely going away to university in September.”
He grins, running a hand through his bleached hair. “You always were too good for this town. I don’t blame you for escaping.”
I take the towel from him and empty the melting ice-cubes into the sink. “I didn’t escape Tyler. I lost my mum, and I had no choice but to live with my dad. I didn’t ask to be uprooted half way through my a-levels and to move to a place where I know no one. If you think this last year has been easy for me, it hasn’t.”
Tyler nods in understanding. “You’re right, but I meant what I said. You were always too good for this town. Not like me, I’ll likely live and die here.”
I frown. “You don’t know that.”
“Don’t I?” He asks, one brow cocked. “There’s no university for me. I have to stick around and take care of my mum and my brothers and sisters. Pick up the pieces from my mum’s latest heartbreak.”
We both remain silent for a few seconds before Tyler cracks a smile. “I need a beer and some weed.”
“Knock yourself out, Fury,” I say teasing him as I follow him back into the front room. Jake and Courtney are wrestling over the remote as he tries to turn off the chick flick and put on something with more action.
Izzy is sitting watching the movie, ignoring them like a parent does when they have had enough of their kids fighting. Well, she is staring at the screen, but she looks a million miles away.
“Earth to Izzy,” I say as I sit down beside her.
She blinks and shakes her head. “Sorry, I was lost in my thoughts.” Izzy looks at me and then at Tyler, who throws himself down in the seat on the other side of me and opens himself a beer. “Everything okay?”
I nod. “Yeah, course.”
Everything is okay. Coming home has made me realise that my life has moved on. Yes, this place is home and I will always have so many happy memories of my life growing up here, but with mum gone, it doesn’t feel the same. There is this huge gaping hole and being here just reminds me how much I miss her. I am ready to go home, to my dad and my family and my guy. If you’d have told me all those months ago as I boarded that plane down to Heathrow that I would be feeling this way, I would have laughed and said that would never happen.
Grayson.
I down the last bit of my Jack D and coke and sigh. Fuck my life. I hate coming to these things. They were full of pretentious arseholes and their fake as fuck wives. It is all about making the right connections, being seen with the right people, talking shit. I want to be at home with my girl, not here tonight. I hate that she has faced going home without me. Yeah, I know she has Izzy with her, but fuck, going home will be hard. Harder than I think she’d probably prepared herself for.
My dad is here tonight to get closer to clinching a deal with Damon Hillcrest. A hotshot in the entertainment and hospitality industry. The reason my dad insisted I come along is becoming clear as the second evening of this shit weekend dragged on. My Dad has been pushing me towards Hillcrest’s daughter, Imogen. Imogen was a real daddy’s little rich girl. She has an insta account with over ten thousand followers and posts endless photos of herself in barely there clothes, lounging on some luxurious yacht in the med. She is every inch the socialite and my devious fucking father sees her as the way into a deal with Hillcrest.
Before Manchester, I wouldn’t have blinked. I’d have charmed my way in and I would have likely been fucking the Hillcrest princess on the hotel grounds somewhere tonight. Now, nothing turned me off more than some random fuck with some soulless pampered little daddy’s girl. Everly Taylor is my fucking world. The way I feel about her terrifies me sometimes, because I don’t know who I’d become without her. I hear Tess’ shrill laughter as she hangs off one of my father’s golfing buddy’s arm.
Where is my dad actually? I haven’t seen him for a while.
Two finely manicured hands snake down my shirt from behind me, and blonde hair falls over my shoulders.
“Grayson, I want to dance,” Imogen purrs.
I roll my eyes and lift her hands off my chest. “Then go find some fucker to dance with.”
“You’ll dance with me Grayson, otherwise I might just have to tell daddy dearest that you’ve upset me and that would not bode well for your dad now would it?”
God, she is fucking poison. The girl is rotten on the inside and the image of an angel on the outside.
Clenching my fists, I stand and offer her my hand. Smiling dryly, she slips her icy fingers into mine and I lead her out on to the dance floor. She wraps her hands around my neck and places her body flush against mine. Her large fake breasts rub up against my chest and she gives me a sultry look.
“You could at least look like you’re enjoying my company,” she hisses, the fake smile never leaving her face.
Ignoring her and looking anywhere but at her, I search out the place for my missing father.
“He’s not here,” she tells me with a smirk. “I saw him following Paige out the room about twenty minutes ago.”
“Fuck,” I growl. I spin on my feet and leave Imogen on the dance floor and stalk off through the main doors out into the
