Chapter Eight

Evie

“You’re ruining my life with this whole ClickByte thing!”

In a testament to just how crazy her life had become, it wasn’t Evie who was screaming the accusation, it was Camila.

She hadn’t even turned the Closed sign around when her daughter stormed in.

“I’m sorry. Your life is being affected?”

“Yes!” Camila said, throwing her hands in the air as if Evie were the exasperating one. “Sabrina saw the video of you dancing and shared it with the cheer team. This is so embarrassing.”

“How do you think this makes me feel?” Evie asked. “If you want to scream at someone, take this up with Grandma.”

“Dad’s even seen it.” Camila’s voice cracked a little and Evie’s stomach bottomed out.

Mateo was the last person she wanted to know about the You’ve Got Male clusterfuck. It was bad enough that he was getting married and having a baby with a woman he was going to give everything he’d promised Evie and never delivered on. Mateo was such a narcissist that he would think Evie did this stunt to find someone because she was jealous that he’d moved on.

Even worse, she could tell by her daughter’s expression that something had transpired between her and her father. And just like that, all the frustration from the day vanished and in its place came deep concern.

“What else is going on, Cami?”

Camila shrugged like it was no big deal, but she could tell by the way her daughter’s body was curled in on itself that what went down was a huge deal. “I realized today that Dad won’t be at camp, so he won’t see me compete.”

Which meant that her daughter would only have three people in the crowd on such an important day.

“Oh, baby.” She pulled her daughter into her arms and instead of merely resigning herself to the embrace, Camila clung to her.

Evie breathed in the moment. Camila might be growing up, but she would always be Evie’s baby and mothers protect their young. Only, it seemed that Evie had failed on that front, too. No matter how hard she pushed Mateo to be more involved, he just lacked the ability to put other people first. He never missed a child support payment, and was always contributing his half of everything, but when it came to emotional intelligence, that man should’ve been studied in a lab. Because the person who needed that cure was Camila.

“I should have known better,” Camila whispered. “But I thought that, maybe, this time would be different.”

Evie usually led with the truth, but there was only so much truth a person could take and Camila had gone several rounds with Truth and was about down for the count. “Me too, baby. Me too.”

Camila stepped back and wiped her tears. “Ryan said Dad’s an asshole and that he’d bring all of his friends to the competition.”

“He’s a really good friend.” And that was another reason why Jonah and Evie could never revisit that night.

Camila’s phone pinged with an incoming text. “That’s Ryan. He said he’d pick me up from the shop so we can study together.”

“That sounds fun. Just be home by dinner. Grandpa is making his lasagna.”

“If things go late, I’ll text. And lasagna is always better the next day.”

“Dinner,” Evie repeated.

And just like that, the teenage-tude was back with a dramatic roll of the eyes. Without another word, Camila marched out the café doors and hopped into Ryan’s truck. But just when Evie thought that her daughter would drive off without a goodbye, Camila turned in her seat and waved Evie’s way. Evie waved back and stood at the threshold until the truck disappeared down the street.

Dead on her feet, Evie turned the locks. Tossing her apron on the counter, she took in the shop and sighed. It looked like a hurricane blew through. Hurricane ClickByte had again left a path of destruction in her wake. Sales were up, but she didn’t have the bandwidth to dole out any more rejections. She was barely holding things together as it was—saying no to bachelor after bachelor was taking its toll.

This all needed to end.

With renewed determination, she walked back toward the office to tell her mom just that. Only when she hit the threshold, she came to a full and complete stop.

There were four chairs arranged in a circle, three of them taken by Julie, Moira, and Lenard. Evie had a sinking feeling the fourth was for her.

“What is this?” she asked. “Some kind of intervention?”

“We’re calling it a sex-tervention,” Julie said earnestly.

“I’m not having sex.”

“Oh, we are well aware, dear,” Moira said.

Needing a drink for this conversation, Evie walked straight past the confessional circle, to the desk, where she opened the bottom drawer and rummaged through. She pulled out the only bottle and held it up. “Seriously, Dad, all you have is Aperol? What happened to the bourbon?”

“I’m more into spritzers these days,” Lenard said, as if that were reason enough to have an aperitif hidden in the desk.

Evie put it back. “Of course you are.”

Julie kicked out the chair and it slid across the floor to bump into Evie’s shin. “For the sake of vibrators everywhere, you need to pick one of these men. Just go on a date with a couple of them. See what transpires.”

Evie plopped down. “You met the same guys I met, right? No, I’m done with this whole thing.”

“I can always set you up with one of my men,” Moira said. “In fact, I know the perfect guy. He’s an architect.”

“Let me guess,” Evie said. “His name is Art.”

“No, it’s Dwane. He’s twenty-seven, with biceps like he lifts tanks daily, and has a core of steel.”

Evie found herself rolling her eyes just like Camila had moments ago. “Mom, I’m not dating a guy whose, uh, steely core you’ve considered.”

“ClickByte isn’t going to go away. In fact, your followers have doubled since Tasha Hart got involved,” Julie said.

“I don’t want followers,” Evie said.

“Think of it as streamlining the dating pool. It will make your dating life easier.”

Evie snorted. “You seriously think this will make my life easier? Between Cami, the shop, dialysis and, well, other stuff”—like going back to college—“I don’t have time for suitors interrupting my workflow and sucking up whatever bandwidth I have left after a long day.”

They all shared a look and it was as if a whole conversation was going on between them, with Evie on the outside.

“Girl, you so need to get laid,” Julie said.

“I think what they’re trying to say is we just want you to find happiness,” Lenard said quietly, resting his hand on Evie’s knee in that supportive way he always did when her mom started applying the pressure and sharing her opinions. Her mom might be a busybody but her dad was her rock and protector. “You don’t have to find it in a relationship. But I don’t want you to live your life being afraid, sweetheart. I can’t remember the last time I saw you happy.”

Evie’s heart sank. When was the last time she’d been happy? She couldn’t remember, either. That her parents noticed made her heart ache. The last thing she wanted was to worry them and she could tell they were worried. Worried with the same fierceness that Evie was about Camila.

“I get that,” she said to the group. “But this is getting out of hand.”

Julie snorted. “Are you kidding, you have thousands of guys wanting to date you.”

“Plus, look at the shop. It hasn’t been this busy in years,” Lenard said with a huge smile. “I wasn’t sure about your idea of expanding our customer base, but I have to admit I see your reasoning. This week proved it.”

“All it proved is that you guys have your nose too far into my business,” Evie said. “Plus, this kind of traffic is temporary. As soon as I pick a guy people lose interest in this stunt and we’ll have the same problem.”

“Not if we make your dating life a novelty. Something people can follow. America loves a good love story, like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle,” Moira said.

“I doubt a prince will come and whisk me off my feet.”

“But a man courting you, a man found online couldn’t be more perfect in today’s day and age,” Julie said.

“We don’t know that.”

“This is why you need to get laid, Miss Debbie Downer,” Julie said.

“I counted this week’s earnings and if we keep this up we won’t have to lay anyone off,” Lenard said with so much hope in his eyes Evie felt it all the way in her soul.

Julie’s mouth fell open. “You were going to fire people? We’re a family.”

Moira crossed her arms. “See.”

All that Evie could see was that she needed a beard—and ASAP. It was the only way to get her family and America off her back. Plus, she needed a break from all the crazy.