"Leigh!" Troy had this tradition of meeting her outside every time Dawn drove her to the house. It was in the walk to the front door—mainly while Dawn shuttled Everleigh's suitcase into the house—that he told Everleigh what she needed to be caught up on before dealing with the family. She appreciated it every time. Troy hugged her tightly, Everleigh just as tight in return.

"Hi, Pa." Everleigh kissed his cheek. Troy was about to pull away—Everleigh could feel his arms loosening—when she hugged him a little tighter.

Troy's head tried to turn her way, but Everleigh buried her face in his shoulder. "Oh, God, I'm sorry for whatever she said to you in the car."

"You don't have to be." Everleigh still held onto him.

"She's excited. Didn't need to take it out on you. I do have to be sorry."

"Excited about what?"

Troy did pull away that time. "Florence didn't—" He sighed. "You three really need to communicate better. Holy shit."

Everleigh managed a small smile in spite of her worry about whatever the hell her mother was excited about. "Careful, don't let mum hear you say that."

Troy shook his head. "I love your mother, but I've never understood the constant fight against swearing. Fuck is such a perfect descriptor."

"It really is." Everleigh winced. "Dare I ask what's got mum with a boyfriend for me on the brain?"

"I can't believe Florence didn't tell you."

"Florence and I don't talk as often as we pretend, we do."

It wasn't that Everleigh was that mad for missing the MARS tickets. She and Florence had never talked that much. Everleigh was always travelling, and Florence was always working. Even when they were both home, London was five hours ahead of New York—Everleigh didn't have many layovers where she felt like being around Florence and Roman for days. It was self-preservation from hearing some stupid as fuck pet names. (She wanted to drink bleach when she heard Roman say the word "snuffleupagus" romantically.) (Everleigh was pretty sure Roman would've shared her toxic cocktail with her given the look on his face when he realized she'd heard him.)

"She's pregnant." Troy looked toward the house before he looked back to Everleigh. "Looks 'bout ready to pop."

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Afraid not."

"She gave mum grandma fever?"

"Afraid so."

"Oh, fuck."

"I'm sorry."

Everleigh sighed. "At least that explains a little."

"I'll talk to your mother tonight. Get her off your back."

"I already told her I'd get a hysterectomy if she asked me about having kids again."

Troy scoffed out a laugh and tried to hide it behind his hand. Everleigh never was used to the D, F, E tattoos on his ring, middle, and index fingers and that day was no exception. "Christ, you're going to give your mother a heart attack."

"I've promised to be on my best behaviour."

"Thank you, Leigh. I appreciate it."

"Should we get inside before Flo's water breaks in the living room?"

Troy snorted again. "Sure. Let's go."

Troy followed behind Everleigh as they walked to the house. It wasn't the biggest house, but with the amount of wall space Dawn had managed to fill with photos, it was a wonder they didn't spring for somewhere she could hang more frames. Florence and Everleigh through the years scattered every inch of possible space—Everleigh was certain if they looked long enough, there would be photos of them with a few too many ex-boyfriends because Dawn didn't know how to let go.

"Took you two long enough," Dawn said. "You're lucky it's not snowing. You would've frozen."

"It's fine, love."

"It's good to see you, Leigh."

When Everleigh turned to face her sister, she realized quickly her father wasn't joking. Florence was, in fact, extremely pregnant and had definitely not told Everleigh about it. Everleigh pulled on her best fake smile. "Hi, Flo."

"Em," Florence started, "surprise."

"Yeah—or—" Everleigh cleared her throat. "Congrats."

"Thanks, Leigh." Florence looked tired. Under her eyes looked purple and there were more creases in her face than the last time they had seen each other. Everleigh understood why she wasn't told, but it didn't make it less strange to her that she was going to be an aunt.

"We're excited." Naturally Roman was there too. Everleigh was certain that if Dawn hadn't been picking her up at the airport that he would've been stuck driving across Hell's half acre baby shopping with his not-yet-but-still-sort-of-mother-in-law. Everleigh deserved a thank you for sparing him from that trip.

"You guys will be great."

"We hope so." Florence let out a long sigh. "I'm sorry to say hi and dip, but I need a nap."

Roman rubbed her shoulder. Everleigh tried to ignore the black band around his ring finger, but it was hard to ignore. No wonder Dawn had been up her ass about everything—her sister and kind-of-yadda-yadda-brother-in-law were wearing promise rings. Something Everleigh thought they'd all grown out of at fourteen.

"Deserves a little nap," Roman said with a smile.

Troy smiled. "Wee nap never did anyone any harm. Sleep well."

"I'll be out for dinner." Florence kissed Roman on the cheek before turning and walking to their room.

"You're joining us for dinner right, Leigh?" Dawn asked.

"I should probably go grocery shopping for my flat."

"I'll take her to the Tesco," Troy offered. "Stock the flat before dinner's made."

"I'll help with dinner so you can go," Roman said.

"I thought you were putting the Christmas lights up, Troy," Dawn said.

"I can put those up any time."

"It's meant to snow tomorrow."

"I can put the lights up," Roman said. "They're in the garage, right?"

"Nonsense. You're our guest." Dawn waved her hand dismissively at Roman like it was silly he even suggested such a thing. "And you're a father now, can't have you getting hurt."

Troy gaped teasingly at his wife. "I'm a father too, lass. Or have you forgotten?"

Dawn laughed. "Combined thirty hours of labour's hard to forget."

"Ew," Everleigh mumbled.

"I've got twenty years on him," Troy said.

"He's not going up, Troy."

Troy strayed from the conversation, always the gentle giant. Never one to put up too much of a fight but always willing to lay down on the wire. "If I break a hip it's on all of you."

"I'll take Leigh to the Tesco," Roman said. (Tesco sounded weird when it was said with an American accent.) "If she wants."

How dare he—that was a lose lose for her.

Mr. Nice Guy would either spend the entire trip to Tesco trying to make small talk not seem awkward, or Everleigh would say she didn't want him there and she'd sound like a bitch.

Fuck Roman Sahota and his overwhelming desire to please his potential in-laws.

Everleigh forced a terrible smile. "Sounds great."

*

i'm going to kill myself.

Contrary to popular belief, this is not a suicide hotline.

i hate you.

What happened?

where do you want me to start?

Wherever you're comfortable.

Can you call me, though? I hate texting.

two seconds.

Everleigh wasn't sure why she pressed video over voice call while she walked down the middle of the street, but Maverick picked up the phone before she could cancel.

"First thing's first." Maverick held his finger up. "Are you actually in danger or are you upset about this specific moment?"

"I'm upset that my mother thinks I'm ten and that my sister is forty."

"You mean you're not in fifth grade?" Maverick raised an eyebrow above the curve of his glasses lens. He looked like he was lying in bed, a different one than he had been before.

"Kingston."

Maverick stared at Everleigh for a moment. "Okay." He blinked. "You can tell me what's going on. Or we can ignore the problem and talk about something else."

"I wish I was adopted."

"As someone who was adopted, I don't think you really know everything about that."

"I'm so sorry." Everleigh stopped in her tracks. "I didn't mean—"

"I know you didn't." Maverick laughed. "I'm teasing you, Everleigh."

"I just..." Everleigh sighed as she started walking again. "My mother..."

"That's all you really have to say. Rhy's mom was a little overbearing. It makes sense."

"Rhy?" Everleigh would play the fool every time if she didn't have to admit to him that Esmé had told her to change his wallpaper from Rhylan to something different. (She still needed to do that.)

"I used to date... Well... A little more than date..." Maverick frowned at her. "Everleigh Meadowlark, we're talking about your problems."

Everleigh breathed out a laugh—foggy breath swirling into the night sky. "Guilty."

"I'm assuming you texted because you wanted to talk."

"I texted because if I text I'm allowed to cry."

"You can cry now."

"I'm not a person who cries in front of people." Everleigh looked both ways before she crossed the street. Nippy night air wasn't going to stop her from trying to clear her head after a too long dinner with too many references to the boyfriend she didn't have and since she didn't have him, she should date Donny again.

"Are you a person who talks in front of people?"

"Not usually."

"Early new year's resolution?"

"Consider it a lesser of two evils. Bottling it up feels worse."

"Tends to."

"Can I actually rant?" Everleigh asked as a shiver worked it's way up her spine. "That's a thing you're going to let me do?"

"Unless you have someone else you'd rather talk to."

Normally she'd talk to Juno. But she was in Singapore with her family and Everleigh wasn't bothering her when she was relaxing.

(Everleigh tried desperately to ignore the parts of her brain that were telling her Maverick should've been relaxing when he wasn't performing. He had picked up the phone for a reason.)

"Sometimes it's like I only exist to be compared to my sister and that any person I want to date will automatically be compared to her boyfriend... fiancé... baby daddy... guy. Not that that's bad because he's so fucking nice and he took me to Tesco and, by God, it seems impossible for someone to be that relaxed but he is. Constantly. And my family adores him because he's the dictionary definition of perfect, which sucks for me because I'll never find someone they think that highly of," Everleigh said. "And sometimes, even though I already know all of that, it still pisses me off to no end. Because I feel like I'll never be who they want me to be.

"I'm getting a masters to be a nurse practitioner on top of the bachelors I already have and somehow it feels like my mother would rather I sit at home and only exist to have children. Which I don't even want in the first place." Everleigh pushed her bangs away from her forehead. Breathing in the cold night air that sometimes she wished would suffocate her. "And sometimes that makes it difficult to come home.

"Then somewhere in my brain, I convince myself that this time will be different. And the cycle starts over again, and it pisses me off that I'm surprised every time. I mean, she fucking told me she didn't like my hair. Of all fucking things, she critiqued how short it was. Not even the dye job. I could change the fucking dye job, you know?" Everleigh looked upwards at the sky. Of course it started snowing. Another thing her mother had been right about. She swallowed hard. "And now I'm ranting to someone I met not that long ago, and I'm probably scaring the shit out of him."

Everleigh looked back to Maverick, his eyebrows knit together with concern that she hated the look of.

Everleigh laughed because if she didn't, she'd cry. Colour her shocked she hadn't already. "He's now stunned to silence because the woman who's forced him to listen to her because otherwise he's scared she'll spill one of his secrets to the world has spilled her heart out to him for no reason other than she needed a friend, which he may or may not have been in the first place.

"Sound about right, Kingston?" Everleigh waved a hand in front of the camera. "You still with me?"

"Processing." Kingston adjusted the hearing aid in his ear.

"Tell me I haven't made you consider taking those out."

"No, never." Maverick let out a soft chuckle.

"Glad you think it's funny."

"I'm not laughing at you..." Maverick smiled again. "It's... I... your hair looks really nice. Suits you."

Everleigh laughed. "That's what you got from that?"

"I got all of it," Maverick said. "That just... do you like your hair?"

"This isn't about my hair."

"Yeah, but do you like it?"

"Yes, I do."

"Then why does it matter what your mom thinks?"

"Because..." Everleigh trailed off. Watched snowflakes fall on her—Maverick's—phone in the light of the streetlamp she stood under. "I don't know."

"Then that's silly." Maverick laughed.

Everleigh laughed with him. "Suppose it is."

"That works for a lot of the frustration as well," Maverick said. "I know it's hard when you feel like you have to listen to her because she's your mom... but you don't."

"Sometimes I feel like she's better when I'm not here because she doesn't have aspects of my life to pick apart because she doesn't see them in person. And that hurts too." Everleigh pressed her lips together because she was afraid more trauma would be blurted out that she never thought would be spoken aloud. "You don't have to stay on this call. It's depressing as shit."

"I like watching the way the snow falls on you."

Everleigh tilted her head to the side. "It's not snowing in Japan?"

"I mean—" Maverick got up from his bed and took a couple steps. The sound of a sliding door came from off the camera as Maverick stepped out of the hotel room onto what Everleigh assumed was the balcony. He turned around, back facing a cityscape covered in snow. A smile grew on his face. "—I'm on Norwegian soil now."

"Welcome to the same time zone."

"I'm still an hour ahead of you," Maverick said. "Don't count us lucky yet."

Everleigh laughed. "You were one hour away from having your phone back."

"Enjoying my time away from Instagram, actually."

"Should I post pictures of London to confuse everyone?"

Maverick laughed. "You can tour London on my Instagram while I tour the world."

"That would get you some good stories."

"Make some good headlines for me, Everleigh Meadowlark."

"You know you can call me Leigh, right?"

Maverick smiled. "How often is it you meet someone who's name sounds like a fantasy character? I've got to use it as many times as I can before you stop talking to me forever."

Everleigh frowned.

"Your words, not mine." Maverick shivered and walked back in the hotel room, sliding the door closed behind him. He looked back at her. "Come on now, don't cry for me, Everleigh Meadowlark. I'll just be glad I met you in any space you let me."

"That's..." Everleigh trailed off. She didn't like the feeling in her stomach and shook it off. "That was great. You should write songs."

Maverick laughed. "I'll keep that one in mind. Maybe one day."

"I think you'd be good at it."

"You wouldn't listen to it, though, would you?"

Everleigh shook her head. "Tell me your favourite song to write and your most personal one and I'll listen to both."

"What if it's the same one?" Maverick laid back down on the bed, resting his cheek against his fist.

"Is it?"

"No." Maverick smiled. "You know no one's ever asked me about the personal one before."

"I promise not to tell anyone."

"Why would you want the personal one if not to shout to the world that you have all my secrets in the palm of your hand?"

"Because I just told you about all the trauma I had and I wanted a little in return."

"You called me, Everleigh Meadowlark."

"You released the song to the world, Kingston Maverick."

Maverick smiled. "I Liked Us Before The Lyrics Said So and Lost In Translation."

"In that order?" Everleigh asked. "Favourite then personal?"

"You'll have to decide that one for yourself."

"What's your favourite movie?"

"That's..." Maverick snorted. "That's classified information."

Everleigh laughed. "A Sofia Coppola, perhaps?"

Maverick laughed. "You'll never know."

Everleigh wrinkled her nose. "Think I know."

"Nope." Maverick shook his head. "You'll never know."

"You're so good at keeping this a secret."

"I'm a singer, not an actor."

"Clearly."

Maverick laughed. "That's still my answer. Whether you know which is which or not."

"I'll give them a listen." Everleigh looked around for a moment. "I should probably head home."

"Do you feel better?"

"A lot," Everleigh said. "Thank you."

"No problem."

"Did you travel today?"

"I thought you were going back home."

"I was going to prescribe that you go to sleep."

"Doctor Meadowlark, you don't have to worry about me. I promise I'll be crashing soon."

"Not now?"

"While I'm on a call with you? How rude."

Everleigh breathed out a laugh. "Okay, Kingston. Good night."

"Good night, Everleigh Meadowlark."

"Have a good show tomorrow."

"I'll do my best."

"I'm really going to hang up now because I'm freezing."

"Text me when you make it home."

"Thought you were crashing."

"Careful, Everleigh, you stay on here much longer I might get the wrong impression that you enjoy my company."

"Can't have that," Everleigh said. "Goodbye."

Maverick laughed. "Please actually text me when you get home, okay?"

"I will."

"Good night."

"Good night, Kingston."

Everleigh pressed the end call button and looked around as she wiped the snow off the screen of Maverick's phone. She really hadn't travelled that far, which meant she'd get to her parents' house soon enough. Troy would be able to drive her to her flat from there.

Everleigh was stoked to sleep in her own bed.

The walk to her parents' house was freezing, Everleigh's high tops hadn't been the right choice given the snow warning, which meant she legged out the last hundred metres or so and nearly landed her ass on the front lawn, but stuck the landing and made it up the stairs. (The Christmas lights looked nice, Troy had done a good job.)

Troy opened the door as Everleigh stomped her feet on the front porch to shake the snow off. Everleigh jumped, but shook it off when she realized it was only her father.

"You must be freezing." Troy didn't wait for an answer as he wrapped Everleigh in one of his old snow jackets. "Do you need to go inside before we get you home?"

"No, no," Everleigh said as she stuck her arms through the sleeves. "I'm good."

"We'll put the heated seats on."

"Thank you."

"You look..." Troy narrowed his eyes at her for a moment—not accusatory, but questioning all the same. "Suspiciously like you're in... dare I say, a good mood?"

"I'm okay."

"Is it because of a boy?" Troy's tone was teasing, she knew that.

Everleigh rolled her eyes and laughed. "Don't you start. I swear, I'll never visit again."

"Kidding, kidding." Troy held his hands up in surrender before waving in the direction of the vehicle in the driveway. "Get in the car before you freeze to death, Leigh. Don't need you doing that."