Wingless Book Series (book 1) (23 page)

Evan studied my face closely as if
he was looking for some sort of sign he was doing the wrong thing.
“I really doubt that would happen,” he laughed.

I put my other hand to his neck,
interlocking my fingers, and wrapped my legs around his waist as
tight as I could possibly make it.

Kenny got up, watching what was
going on with a confused look on his face. “What are you guys
doing?” he said puzzled, throwing his sunglasses on the chair. Ari
swam away.

Evan moved a few steps
toward the water, pulling my chin up to meet his lips, and gave me
a quick kiss. “Sorry!” he said, jumping in with me still
holding on.

I gasped at the cold water hitting
my skin, letting go of him to go under. Coming up to the surface,
Kenny stood there shaking his head at us.

“
Come on, Kenny!” Ari yelled.
“Just come on, get in!” she coaxed.

Kenny pulled his shirt over his
head, doing a running flip into the water.

“
Are you having fun?” Evan asked
me, wiping his eyes, the water dripped off his face glistening. He
looked even more amazing wet, I thought to myself. He pushed my
hair off my shoulders, laughing at me.

“
Absolutely. Everyone should swim
at least once in the summer,” I replied.

I swam away from him, doing a lap
across and slowly floated back lazily towards him.

Evan watched me as I floated with
a smirk on his face. He wasn’t much of a swimmer; he more just
stayed in one place. “Were you planning on going to the picnic your
dad told you about?” he asked out of the blue.

I made my way back to him, leaning
against the wall of the pool. “I don’t know what I was doing, it’s
no big deal.” I shrugged.

“
It’s your family picnic. You
should go, those types of things are important,” he
said.

Our family picnics were all the
same every year. Same food, same cousins, aunts and Grandma’s, same
everything. It was important to my parents to always go. Ever since
I was a baby we went. I don’t think, besides when Marcus died, we
had missed one.

“
Are you coming with me?” I
asked.

“
If you want me to come I have no
problem doing that at all,” he said, pulling himself out of the
water and sitting on the edge of the pool. His body gleamed. The
sun did a very good job at showcasing how muscular and tan he
was.

“
Okay, well, I need to get ready
and we can leave,” I said as Evan helped pull me out.

I walked down the hallway,
wondering if everyone in my family would be accepting of the
choices that I had made. If they found out about them at all. I was
starting to think it probably wasn’t something my mother
would choose to share with her relatives because
it made her look bad. I didn’t want to be the sore thumb that
everyone discussed
there, and at the same
time I didn’t care. I was proud of Evan and I wanted everyone to
lay his or her
eyes on this remarkable guy
that had stolen my heart. But regardless, these picnics were not
something I looked forward to, ever.

Evan whistled at me as I came into
the foyer. I literally blushed. Ari came up to check me out as
well.

“
You have amazing legs, Eve!” she
gushed, touching my arm, looking at me like I was an alien or
something. I put my phone in my pocket. Evan smiled, just watching
me be eyeballed by Ari. “Evan she’s like a model. I wish I was that
tall,” she said, backing off as my expression wasn’t the best
one.

I didn’t like to be fawned over. I
didn’t see what the big deal was about me. I threw on jean shorts
and a light, dusty pink tank top that cut a little low, and this
cool necklace that was one of my favorites- it had teal stones
scattered all over its rope. I’d pulled my hair into a messy bun. I
was just grumbling about my hair before I came out because so many
strands were falling in my face. But no matter what, it always
seemed, everyone thought I was just spectacular. I put on my white
strappy sandals with the cork-like wedge heel-it made me almost to
Evan’s mouth level.

“
She’s gorgeous. I don’t even know
how I got so lucky,” he said to Ari, not taking his eyes off of
me.

I sighed, taking my purse from the
closet. “Are we ready?” I said, heading out, leaving Evan behind.
He hurried out, laughing with Ari.

“
Bye guys I hope you have a lot of
fun. Eve, you can tell me all about it when you get back,” she
said, going back in the house.

“
Are you annoyed again that we
told you you’re pretty?” he asked, taking my hand, walking with me
to the truck.

“
It’s flattering. I just don’t
think it’s necessary,” I said, hopping in. He closed my
door.

“
No, it’s not, but get used to it,
because I can’t help saying it when I look at you sometimes,” he
said, pulling down the driveway.

“
How many times can you remind
someone of something like that? It’s like telling someone every
day, Hey, you know you have two legs?” I scoffed.

“
Oh, so what you’re saying is
you’re so full of yourself, you already know?” he laughed, rubbing
my leg.

“
No, not at all. I mean, yeah, I’m
not bad, but geez,” I said, shutting up. I was starting to sound
like a moron.

Some people would give anything to
be told that. I just was over being told all the time how blessed I
was to look the way I did. Beauty was not always a blessing in my
book. It came with its own set of problems.

The drive to Fairway Park did not
take that long; it was closer to Evan’s house than my parents’.
Everyone’s cars were in the parking lot, I recognized them all. All
my aunts, cousins, uncles, were there. We had a decent sized
family. Most of them were similar to what my parents were
like.

Evan pulled down his visor, taking
a glimpse of himself. He messed with his hair and I gave him a
weird look. What was he worried about?

“
Are you really making sure your
hair looks alright?” I asked, rolling my eyes.

“
Yeah, sometimes I care about my
appearance,” he said opening his door, but not getting
out.

“
You always care what you look
like,” I muttered under my breath, getting out.

He met me on my side, taking my
hand. I walked slowly towards my gathered family, children ran
everywhere, and my dad was commanding one of the grills.

Gray was with Devan chatting
with my cousin, Marshall. Marshall was the same age as Gray, they
both were into football and that’s all they talked about
when they saw each other each year. The only
difference with Marshall was, he wasn’t such a jerk as Gray was. I
think he more dealt with Gray because he was his family. I was
starting to wish for rain as we got closer.

No one seemed to notice us at
first. I took a seat at one of the picnic tables. Evan stood in
front of me at first, not sure what to do, and then gave up and
sat.

“
Don’t you want to introduce me to
everyone?” he said low, staring at everyone a little
uncomfortable.

“
That’s what most people do.
Believe me, give it a few minutes, and you will meet them all. Once
my dad sees us.” I pulled my sunglasses out of my purse, putting
them on to hide my eyes from everyone.

“
Alright, but this just feels odd.
Maybe I should ask your dad if he needs help or something,” he
said, jumping up. I sighed, following him.

“
Hey there,
Evan. You guys made it,” my dad
said all
polite and friendly as he flipped the burgers.

“
Yeah, we did. Do you need any
help with anything?” he offered.

“
Well, yeah, actually. There are
two bags of ice over there just melting. Could you fill the coolers
for me?” he said, pointing.

Evan hurried off, coming back with
both bags in one arm.

“
Oh my God!” my cousin Bree
squealed.

I turned rather annoyed at her
valley girl behavior. Clearly she wasn’t out of that phase of her
life. She was a year older than I was and still seemed
younger.

“
What?” I asked, half not caring
what it was in the first place.

“
Who is he? I sure hope he doesn’t
belong in our family,” she gushed, staring at Evan who was bent
over tending to the ice.

“
That’s Evan,
Eve’s friend,” my dad
chimed in before I
could say anything. He gave me a smirk, going back to what he was
doing.

Bree looked at me in disgust.
“Where did you find him at?” she said, looking back to Evan who was
fast approaching.

“
Huge sale at Abercrombie,” I
said, laughing to myself.

Evan gave me a strange look.
“Abercrombie, what?” he asked. I nodded. “I like to think of myself
as more the Polo or Ralph Lauren type,” he laughed, joining me on
the joke.

“
Oh, that’s right, forgot,” I
said. Evan kissed my forehead, he extended a hand to Bree, and Bree
shook it.

“
I’m Eve’s cousin Bree.” She
flipped her bleached, bottle blond hair off her shoulder, flashing
a smile.

I never understood why she was
such a snotty person, but it made her whole being just simply ugly.
If she was nicer she would have been such an attractive person.
That and about two pounds less makeup, and if she laid off all the
perfume.

“
Evan. Nice to meet you,” he said,
smiling and nodding.

“
So, Eve. I heard that you moved
out of your parents. Are you nuts? Your parents spoil you guys,”
she scoffed.

“
Yeah, well, I’m not into all
that. I wanted to move out,” I said.

“
Where are you now?” she asked,
looking at Evan. It was clear she already knew the
answer.

“
She stays with me,” he chimed
in.

I nodded, taking Evan’s hand.
“Well, it was nice to see you. We are going to go, uh, mingle,” I
said, pulling Evan away.

“
Whoa,” Evan laughed.

“
Yeah, she’s just rude. If we
stayed any longer you would have totally thought you were talking
to the female version of Gray,” I said.

“
And is this who I think it is?”
my uncle Mel exclaimed loudly, bringing all the attention to
me.

One by one, the family pointed out
the fact that I was there.

He grabbed a hold of my shoulder
squeezing it. I backed away.

“
Hey, Uncle Mel,” I said
dryly.

“
How you doing?” he asked me, a
beer in hand like usual.

“
I’m good,” I said.

Uncle Mel was not the person
I was hoping to run into here. Uncle Mel was the one exception to
our family. He was an alcoholic, plain and simple. He was my
father’s brother; a good five years younger than my dad
and I plain and simple just did not like him. I
more like despised him.

“
Your dad said he wasn’t sure you
were even going to come, now that you got your new life and all. He
wasn’t sure if you would have time for your family,” he said, his
hand coming back up to my shoulder. My body stiffened at his
touch.

Evan wrapped his arm around my
waist, pulling me towards him. “Eve can have all the time she wants
with her family, that doesn’t change because she moved away,” he
said, breaking into the conversation.

Uncle Mel looked Evan over,
his face turning a little perplexed. “That’s not what I hear. I
heard she doesn’t come around anymore. Why don’t you come around
anymore Eve?” he said, stumbling close to the grill. My dad
didn’t seem to notice, he was too busy chatting
with his cousins.

I sighed, looking away from Uncle
Mel. “I do, and it’s not like you would know because you’re not
allowed at our house,” I snapped at him.

I hated drunks. Ever since I
was a child,
they just didn’t sit well
with me. A drink was one thing, a drunk a totally different thing.
To me, drinking was an easy way out of your life’s problems. A
weakness that I hoped never consumed me.

“
Your parents don’t understand,
but I do,” he spouted. “He’s an older, good looking man. They know
all the right things to say, and just when to say them.” He looked
at Evan with a grin. I looked at Evan as well, seeing no amusement
at all on his face.

“
It was nice to meet you. Mel is
it?”

“
Yep,” he said, heading over
toward the water.

There was a lake near the
park where
boating and fishing went on and
teenagers came to Jet Ski and party. I watched Mel stumble off to
the water, glad he was gone.

“
Are you alright? You never told
me about your Uncle Mel. I don’t like him,” Evan said, watching
him.

“
Yeah, my dad’s younger brother,”
was all I said.

The food was done and
everyone crowded around
the tables waiting
with his or her plates to eat. My mother busied herself with
passing out plates and silverware, not even taking a second glance
at me and Evan waiting in line. I couldn’t believe after a few
weeks she still
wasn’t talking to me. Did
I truly
do something that
terrible?