Page 35 of Another Round
Nothing to think about. Everything’s already as it should be. “Trouble, you are my future.”
She shakes her head. An indulgent laugh lifting her cheeks. “I’m serious.”
“So am I.” She stares at me like a deer caught in the headlamps. Completely startled but mesmerized all at once, unable to look away. As if she questions my sincerity as well as my sanity. “This is it for me. You’re it for me, Evie.”
“But I have school.”
I shrug. No reason she can’t finish. I sure as hell won’t stop her. “Okay.”
“I mean I have to go home.”
I shrug again. Still not an issue. Doesn’t matter where we live as long as we’re together. “Okay.”
She gives a small laugh that isn’t funny at all. “You hate LA. Remember all the people and smog and—”
“We’re together Evie. We’ll figure out the logistics of it, but we are together.”
“Andy, I…I don’t want to hurt you…it’s just that…”
What I don’t like is her doubt or her hesitation. At all. But she knows me by now. I’ll work harder than I’ve ever worked in my life to prove myself to her. “You can tell me anything.” She opens her sweet mouth, but I hold up my hand. Needing to make sure she’s really honest with me. “None of that ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ bullshit kind of fake excuse. Just tell me the truth.”
The deep breath she sucks in rattles me to the core. Cleansing and strong and not because she can’t talk and run simultaneously. Rather she’s preparing for a battle. Which she is fucking going to get if she thinks I’m letting her give up on us. On me.
“Okay, this is kind of gross but sweet too I guess because I—”
“Stop stalling.” I ignore the defiant eyebrow from my harshness and roll my finger forward. “Just say it.”
“Fine.” She lowers her shoulders creeping up to her ears in irritation and nods. “One time when I was a little kid, I had a bad dream and went into my parents’ room. I could hear my Dad talking in the darkness. Telling my mom how much he loved her. How nothing in his life was better than being with her. How she gave him everything he ever wanted. I’d never forgotten it because one, I walked in on my parents having sex which is just yuck.” She sticks her tongue out and shudders with the thought until her expression softens with a wistful grin. “But also two, because despite how mean and scary my father is to everyone else, he never is to her. I’ve always known how much he loves my mom.”
She’s not wrong. Nick is a straight up arsehole to most people yet always treats his wife like the queen to his mafia king. “Can’t disagree with you about that.”
“I want that for myself.”
Now I’m lost again and quit running much to Gus’s irritation. She slows too from my abrupt stop and circles back. With the damn leash winding around us as the dog attempts to figure out why we’ve ruined his enjoyment. I can’t have this conversation without facing her. Without both of us giving each other our full attention. I rub my hands over her already warm arms and smile down at her. “You’ve got it love. That’s exactly how I feel about you.”
A sad smile answers me back. “You’ve already had that with Madeline. I can’t expect you to forget about her and Aiden to love me.”
Like a punch to the gut. Slaying me that my second chance makes her feel like she’s second choice. “I promise it doesn’t work that way. I won’t forget about them. They’re a part of me. They always will be. Just like you are now.”
“I’m not explaining myself right.”
She shakes her head and frowns. Sighing in frustration at herself.
“You had a family and they passed away. You’ve been alone all this time. Now we’ve been hanging out for a few months, and it’s been great. It really has. But I think when I go home and you’re here, you’ll…”
My hands curl tighter around her biceps pulling her to her tiptoes in an involuntary reaction to her misunderstanding how things work for us. “There is no ‘you at home’ and ‘me here’ I guarantee you that. We’re together. Doesn’t matter where, we’re together.”
The fire I love, that also drives me fucking insane, flashes in her sapphire eyes. Insolent from my demanding tone.
“You just like me because you’re lonely and I’m here.”
Motherfucker. Now we’ve got a fucking inferno exploding between us with her erroneous assumption. At least I finally have the truth. Or what she thinks is the truth. “I’ve fucked other women Evie.”
She turns away from my gaze. Disgust pinching her face as much as the revulsion I feel from those stupid mistakes that meant nothing then and now.
“I don’t need to know that.”
“You do need to know that if you think I’m fucking you because you’re convenient.”
