Page 26 of Unbreak My Heart

Hesitantly, he took hold of it.

Soft skin, manicured nails, but a strong, uncompromising grip helped balance him as he rose to his feet.

She turned and tugged him along behind her. “We’re getting out of here.”

He frowned at her back as he followed. “I’m not a charity case. I don’t need—”

“Hmm.” She didn’t slow down, but spoke over her shoulder. “What youneedis to get out of your head for a while. You’re coming with me.”

A sudden, strange amusement threaded through him, its tiny tendrils threatening to douse his entire body, a stark opposition to the complete and utter devastation that had tried to swallow him whole only minutes ago.

“Coming where?”

A shrug, then she tugged open the door to her fancy dual-cab work ute. “Doesn’t matter. Just away from here.” She faced him and gestured to the car. “In.”

His curiosity grew. He slipped up into the high cab and sat. Eva handed him a tray containing three coffee cups and bumped the door shut with her hip. She hurried around to her side of the ute and placed a cardboard box of cupcakes into a small esky that was sitting on the rear seat next to a child’s car seat. His gutclenched at the sight of it, and he deliberately kept his focus on Eva as she used the sidestep to swing up into the cab and settle in the seat.

He couldn’t help the amusement leaking out onto his face.

She eyed him with suspicion. “What?”

He motioned in her general direction. “You. This car. It’s freakin’ massive, and you, well…”

A well-sculpted eyebrow went upward. “I what?”

Simon dropped his focus to the tray of coffees in his lap. “You’re tiny. You’re almost swallowed up by this thing. I don’t know how you even get into it without needing a ladder.”

To his surprise, loud laughter burst from Eva. He looked up at her, unable to not smile in return.

She tucked her purse into the side pocket of the door, then pressed the start button and sent him a sassy look. “Believe me, it took practice. And I guess I do. Use a ladder, that is. I have to use the sidesteps, otherwise I haven’t a hope in hell.”

He motioned to where she’d placed her purse with his chin. “You might want to rethink that. It could easily fall out.”

True, the pocket was bigger than some he’d seen. But still, it was only meant for a water bottle, not a whole-assed purse.

Eva glanced at it. “Yeah. It’ll be okay. There’s not really anywhere else to put it.”

Rubbing at his tight, itchy face, Simon nodded and breathed the steaming aroma wafting from the cups in his hands.

“So. These …”

Eva sighed in what sounded like sufferance and shook her head. “Yes. One of them is yours.”

Simon leaned back into the comfortable leather seat and twisted each cup until he saw theSmarked in black pen on the side. He sipped as they headed out of town and down the road that led to the highway toward Bialga.

“Thanks,” he murmured and indicated the cup when she glanced at him. He knew she realised he meant for the other stuff as well, but he didn’t really want to revisit that just yet. Relief flooded his veins that she seemed to understand fully.

“You want yours?” he asked and held out the one with a largeEon it. The cloying sweet smell of vanilla and sugar hit his nose, and it crinkled without thought.

Eva took it gratefully. Simon tried not to acknowledge the snap of electricity that tingled his hand when her fingers grazed his. He shouldn’t be responding to her.

Not sexually. Not today.

Not at all, regardless that she ticked every single damned box that he found attractive. He released a deep breath in a long, controlled exhale and focused on his own cup. He frowned as he took a sip. He wasn’t one to believe in superstition or the mystical, but…

He’d run into her in a place he’d never normally go on Valentine’s Day. A place she herself had said she never went to. Then again this morning, on this of all damned days.

Sure, the Crossing was a small town. And sure, she’d gotten them coffees once or twice before.

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