Page 24 of Unbreak My Heart

Cat turned, one eyebrow raised, a cheeky grin on her lips.

“Two each, just in case Max and Simon decide they like them.”

She’d keep her second in her esky with the ice bricks and take it home to Matty. Cat nodded and filled the cups she’d readied on the bench. Maeve pushed through the swinging doors, another tray of cupcakes in hand, walking them through to the centre stand behind Eva.

“Mornin’, Eva!” she chirped.

“Hi, Maeve.”

Cat set the coffees into a travel tray and carefully grabbed six cupcakes and slipped them into a box with a clear section in the lid.

Eva paid and grabbed her bounty, pushing backward out of the door with her butt. Hurrying back up the Lakewalk, she couldn’t help eyeing off the cupcakes.

They looked delicious. Utterly, unforgivingly delicious.

As she came to her dual-cab work ute—a wonderful perk of the job—the sound of a door slamming shut caught her attention. She glanced up to see Simon walking toward the rear of the car park, seemingly from the back of the shops that lined the mall. His hands were shoved deep in his jean’s pockets, his shoulders hunched. Flicking her gaze ahead of him, she saw hisimmaculate, baby blue, nineteen-fifties ute parked back near the trees.

Goosebumps peppered her skin; the same way it did every time she saw the man.

Stop it, Eva! Just… stop it.

She set the coffees and cupcakes down on the bonnet of her ute and watched as Simon stopped, turned back toward the door he must have come from, then stop dead in the middle of the car park.

What on earth is he doing?

His behaviour was as erratic as they came, looking as if he simply didn’t know where he wanted to go.

Stepping around the back of her ute, Eva called out as she walked toward him, her head tilted to the side. “Simon? You okay?”

His head jerked up, and he stumbled back as if in surprise. Then he frowned, his face like a thundercloud. “Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Eva blinked, taken aback at his tone. He’d never spoken to her like that. Sure, they hadn’t known one another long, but he’d never taken that tone in front of her with anyone other than her ex.

“I, uh …”

He dragged a hand through his hair, hair that looked like it’d had that treatment a lot recently and looked around the car park as if cornered.

What the heck is going on?

She moved closer. Something was definitely wrong. He glanced at her, and she almost gasped out loud. The look in his eyes was that of a cornered animal, not the man she was coming to know.

“Simon?” she questioned gently.

His gaze fell on her again and he stepped backward. “Just leave me alone. Just… go,” he whispered, his face contorting in pain.

There was no way in hell she was leaving him here like this. Not alone.

“Do you need me to call any—”

“No! Okay? Don’t call anyone. Don’t pretend that you care. Don’t—” His voice caught, and he shook his head. “Just don’t.”

Eva fought the sting of rejection his words brought, but looked closer.

The man was hurting. Lashing out.

“What’s wrong? How can I help you?” She kept her voice low, calm, soothing. Like when she had to calm Matty down if he’d worked himself up to fever pitch.

Simon focused on her then. Fully focused. And Eva’s gut twisted at the pain she saw deep in his eyes. The same desolation she’d seen that night in Bialga when they’d first met.

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