Page 124 of For Eva

“Wait.” Eric placed his hand on my arm to stop my rambling, and I allowed my gaze to settle on him. “What do you mean you missed your chance?”

“Because of that girl. The girl you were with in that magazine.”

He let his hand fall away and narrowed his eyes. “What girl? What magazine?”

A pit formed in my stomach as the vision of them tangled up in bed flashed in my mind. “The girl you’re dating. But it doesn’t matter because it’s okay. I get it. I waited too long to admit to myself how I feel about you and how you maybeusedto feel about me. And so I missed my chance. But I don’t want to lose you as a friend. I just couldn’t tell you at dinner. It’s all too—”

“Usedto feel about you?”

I nodded, looking down as my eyes began to water. “I knew this was a possibility, but I had to let you know…Wait, what?”

My brows turned inward as I jerked my head up to find him smiling at me.

“You haven’t missed anything, Eva.”

“But the girl…You were hugging her outside Starbucks…You were in Venice Beach. Auburn hair. Tattoos.”

Eric sighed and threw his head back. “Fuck.”

My body tensed. “Why ‘fuck’?”

“Eva. That’s Ruby.”

“Ruby?” The name was familiar, but the only Ruby I could think of was—

I gasped. “You’re dating Keith’s daughter? The one who was born when we were on tour?”

He laughed and shook his head. “No, Eva. I’m actuallynotdating someone who graduated from high school two years ago, but thank you for thinking so highly of me.”

I cupped my hands together over my nose and mouth. “So it wasn’t…She’s not…Oh my God, Eric, I’m so sorry.”

“I’m not dating her, but Iamhelping her band record a demo. The band she plays in with her boyfriend. She’s been down about the possibility of never making it, and I’ve just been trying to encourage her to keep going.”

I let my hands fall away, though I would have preferred to hide until my cheeks ceased turning five hundred shades of red. “I didn’t think…I was already on the plane coming here, and I saw the pictures, and I just…”

“My publicist mentioned some photos, but I wasn’t even paying attention,” he explained. “I don’t think twice about that shit anymore. Regardless, I can assure you Ruby would be horrified if anyone thought for a second she was dating a forty-four-year-old—especially her Uncle Eric. So, maybe I do need to shut that story down.”

I pressed my palm to my heart. “I…I don’t know what to say.”

“I think starting with how you feel about me is good.” He smiled and cupped my cheek in his hand.

Warmth traveled down my body, and I wanted to close my eyes and melt into him. But I took in a deep breath and steadied myself. I had to tell him what I’d come here to say.

“I disappeared all those years ago because I was afraid, Eric,” I said, holding his gaze. “Afraid I was falling in love with you. After what happened with Danny, I thought I was broken, and I needed someone to fix me. And I thought maybe you were broken, too, so how could we ever fix each other? But I was wrong. Because now, I’m standing here wondering how I ever managed to keep my feelings from you because I’m so absolutely, completely in love with you that I—”

Eric pulled me into him, his lips crashing into mine. Bursts of white light exploded behind my lids, his kiss so intense that my knees buckled and I fell into him, his arms the only thing holding me up. I regained my balance as his lips brushed over mine once more before finding their way to my forehead.

“I love you, too, Eva. More than you could ever fucking imagine.” He chuckled softly, his hands smoothing the hair that fluttered against my face in the ocean breeze. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting to say that?”

I nodded, my head still hazy from our kiss. “I think I do.”

“I wrote you a letter once, asking you to come to LA when I finished that first solo tour. I wanted to tell you how I felt in person. But I never heard back, so I thought I’d missedmychance.”

Oh my God. The letter.

“I…I didn’t read it. But I tried to find it and—”

He shook his head and placed his thumb over my lip. “It doesn’t matter, Eva. You’re here now.”

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