Page 83 of The Wrong Side Of Us

If I had a daughter, my number one mission would be to keep boys away from her, at least until she was eighty.

Distracted with a new painting, Evie soon kissed my cheek and walked over to it while I went over to the office where I knew I would find Jessica. Sure enough, she sat behind the desk with a frustrated expression.

“Bad day?” I asked her, taking a seat across from her.

“I hate numbers, Nathan. Can you do the math here?”

She handed me the paperwork she was looking at. There were numbers scribbled on the side, and I just didn’t understand why she was making this complicated. “Jesse, you know we have a calculator, right?”

“Natey, you do know that I don’t like using it, right?”

I chuckled, setting the paperwork down. “Go get your lunch. I’ll figure it out.”

She sighed. “I brought my lunch today.” Jesse took out her lunch bag, but by the crease still on her forehead, I could tell there was still something on her mind. I waited; she never kept things to herself too long. “Are you busy tonight?”

“No, not really. I’m just going home after closing. Why?”

“Do you think we can have dinner? I need to talk to you.”

Her request was hesitant, and hesitating was something Jessica never did. “Is everything okay?”

“No. If you can’t, it’s okay, I understand.”

I shook my head. Whatever it was that she wanted to talk about had clearly bothered her. “I’ll let Evie know. Just text me the time and place.”

“Thank you. You should get out there now. I’ll eat and be there in a bit.”

When I went back out to the gallery, Evie spoke to a couple. Whatever the man said was clearly getting her attention, so I decided not to interrupt. I heard her laugh and then the couple followed, amused with Evelyn’s reaction to whatever they were talking about.

I took a minute to admire how different everything was from even a year ago.

If I hadn’t made the decision to come to New York, Evelyn and I wouldn’t be together. I wouldn’t have the gallery, and we wouldn’t be expecting a baby. Timing is everything.

Despite the rough patches that Evie and I had faced, I had the security that we would get through everything and anything else life could throw at us.

***

“Will you be back tonight?” Evie asked, playing with the collar of my shirt. I’d gone home to shower and change to something less business-like to meet with Jessica.

Though Evelyn didn’t say that my outing bothered her, innocent questions, like the one she was asking, told me she wasn’t all too happy with it.

“I’ll be back in an hour,” I replied, taking her wrist in my hand. She glanced up at me through her eyelashes, a coy smile playing on her lips. “If you keep looking at me like that, I’m going to have to cancel on Jessica and teach you a lesson on making me late,” I muttered, tilting her chin up.

“You can teach me when you come back.” She didn’t even know when she did it, but her voice turned seductive to the point that I was seriously considering cancelling. She nuzzled my neck, and I felt her tongue playing with my earlobe before Evie pulled back with a small smirk.

I leaned down, taking her plump lips with mine. She moaned, taken aback by the abrupt nature of it, but her arms wrapped around my neck eagerly, pulling me close to her. I suppressed a grin, knowing good and well that this was her not so subtle way of letting me know that I was hers.

My hand tangled in her hair, and I broke off the kiss, taking in the sight of her eyes glazed with lust and her lips, swollen and red. Her chest was heaving, and she swallowed, dazed from the intensity.

“Hurry,” she breathed.

I nodded, kissing her softly this time. My hands went underneath the robe she wore, feeling her soft skin. “I love you, Evelyn.”

“I love you too,” she whispered.

“I’ll be back in a bit.” I pecked her lips. I didn’t want to leave her.

“Get going then.”

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