Page 31 of Unbreak My Heart

Simon climbed in and clicked his seatbelt in as the engine rumbled in the background. He nodded at Eva and tried to smile. He knew it came out all weird and twisted. She was telling the truth. The radio hadn’t been on at all the whole way to Bialga.

That song—and band—had been Amy’s favourite. The song she defaulted to at parties, in her car, in the house…

Eva reversed out onto the street, concentrating on the traffic as he stared out the window. A strange serenity washed over him, and he settled into the comfortable seat.

“Okay, Amy. I hear you,” he whispered. “I hear you.”

Chapter Eight

Eva pressed theaccept callbutton on her steering wheel when the AI interface spoke the well-known number aloud.

“Mum? Everything okay?”

“Honey, I’m sure it’s fine, but Matty just brought up his morning tea. I’m not sure if he just had too much to eat, or if it was because he was running around like a mad thing just before eating, but I thought I’d tell you.”

Eva forced the immediate worry down and nodded to herself. “Okay. Does he have a temperature or anything like that?”

She indicated to turn left, changing direction to head towards her parents’ home instead of downtown.

“No. No temp. He’s not clammy or anything. He’s as bright as always.”

She bit her lip and glanced at Simon. He sent her a carefully schooled look and shrugged.

Eva let out her held breath. It didn’t seem like it would bother Simon if she went to check on Matty. “I might just pop past and check, myself. I’m in town at the moment. Just in case I need to take him down to the doctor or something.”

“Oh! All right. Sure. I’ll see you soon, then.”

Her mother hung up and Eva glanced at Simon again as she turned another corner. “Do you mind if we stop by for a moment?”

His beautiful blue-grey eyes softened. “Of course not. He’s your kid. You gotta check. I’m sure it’s nothing to be worried about. Finn’s gagging on crap all the time. The amount of stuff that kid tries to shove into his mouth is insane.”

Despite herself, Eva laughed. “They do take things to the extreme. Honestly, I swear Matty hides things on purpose just so he can chow down on them when my back’s turned. I even found a wizened-up old piece of fairy bread in the base of his spin-garden. Who knows how long it had been there.”

At Simon’s confused look, she expanded. “It’s this musical tray thing that sits in a stand and has a catchment under the tray so the blocks they stack on top have somewhere to go if they fall, or when you pack it up. These round bits that you stack the blocks on spin in time to this crazy wild music. There’s three separate spinning bits that all go at a different rate, and he gets the biggest kick out of trying to stack them as high as possible, then they all come crashing down in a heck of a racket. He spends ages playing with it.”

A slow smile widened Simon’s mouth, sending shivers scooting down her back to pool in her belly.

Such a glorious smile.

“I thinkI’dlike to play with that,” he countered.

Eva’s laughter echoed in the cabin. “It certainly is fun.”

She pulled into her parents’ driveway and killed the engine. As she hopped out, she looked up at Simon. “Would you like to come in? So you don’t have to sit in the car?”

Simon shrugged, an indecipherable expression on his face. “Sure. Why not? Beats sitting in the sun.”

Waves of nervousness flooded Eva.

Calm down, girl. You’re not taking the guy home to meet the parents. It’s literally a puke pit stop.

She almost laughed at her own nonsense. As much as she’d love to, she’d never be taking Simon to meet her family. Not like that. Even though he’d admitted he found her attractive.

She bit her bottom lip to contain the thrill that shimmered up her spine with that thought.

He thought she was attractive.

No, Eva. He’d said gorgeous.

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