Page 168 of When Wrecked Meets Ruined
“Your twenty-fourth birthday.”
My twenty-fourth birthday? I tried to remember what I’d been doing. Then it hit me. “Oh shit. I lost my phone. Or, at least, I thought I did. I met this girl at a club….” I caught myself before I relayed the details. Evie didn’t need to hear about some random girl. “Let’s just say she was crazy. Stalker level crazy. She knew everything about me or what she could dig up by googling me. I couldn’t get rid of her. I finally had to get a restraining order on her.”
“For real?” Evie asked with a laugh.
“Yeah. The scary part was that she seemed normal, but then it was like a switch flipped, and boom, she was a psycho stalker. That night at the club, she went through my phone. She deleted all the messages from females, including my aunt Kate, Shiloh, Lila, and everyone. My password was too easy. I used my jersey number and birthdate. Lesson learned.” I shuddered at the memory.
“And I never tried to call you again,” Evie said. “I just figured you didn’t want to hear from me.”
Our entire relationship had been a case of bad timing and miscommunication. Right girl, wrong time. And if I let her go again, I would spend the rest of my life regretting it. Not happening.
“What if I told you that it’s been you all along?” I slid my hands down her arms and clasped her hands in mine. “What if I told you that I’ve always loved you and nothing had ever changed that? Not when you left me. Not when I left you in California. Not the years in between. Not the time or the distance. It hasalwaysbeen you, Evie.”
“How can you say that?” She lifted her eyes to mine. “I hurt you. I left you and didn’t contact you foryears. I… I asked you to do something for me in California that was so unfair to you.” Tears welled in her eyes.
“None of that matters anymore.”
“But what if all the times we’ve missed each other… what if it was a sign that we weren’t meant to be together?”
“I don’t buy that. The way I see it, we just had to get to the same place at the same time, and that time is now.”
“Our relationship was so short. Just a few months. A drop in the ocean. How could you possibly know that you still love me?”
I studied her face framed by black waves of hair. Her eyeliner was smudged, and there was probably something wrong with me for thinking how sexy that was. But here we were. I’d just spilled my truths, and now she was questioning how I could still love her.
“Because I know. It’s just the way it’s always been for me.” I lifted her hands and pressed the palms against my chest, covering them with my own. My heart was beating under her right hand. “When I was eighteen, I thought, this is the girl. The one who will bring me to my knees. The one who I will put above all others. I don’t love you because it’s easy. I love you for all your complicated parts. I love all of you.”
Evie blinked away her tears. “God, Ridge. What am I supposed to say to that?”
“Keep it simple. Just tell me that you love me and that you never stopped.”
“I love you, and I never stopped loving you. But—”
I pressed my fingers against her lips. “No buts. That’s all I need to know. It’s theonlything that matters.”
“It’s only been two weeks.”
Was she insane? “It’s been ten fucking years. What are you talking about, woman?”
She rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t hide her smile. “High school doesn’t count.”
“It counts. That was all foreplay. Speaking of foreplay….” I pulled her against me.
Evie gave me a little shove and marched into the kitchen, where she opened the refrigerator and assessed the contents. It was fully stocked with beer and food for the barbecue. I had plenty of liquor and mixers on the counter. Snacks in the pantry and a freezer full of ice. What more did we need?
“You have about a million guests coming, and we haven’t done anything for this party yet.”
I waved off her concerns. “They can fend for themselves. I’ve got a chef coming. Declan can take care of the food.” I pulled her against me again, and my lips coasted down the side of her neck. “We’ve still got plenty of time. Let’s christen my kitchen counter.”
The doorbell rang, effectively ending my attempts to seduce her.
Evie smirked as she pulled away from me. “Saved by the bell.”
“Are you saying you don’t want to have sex?”
“No. But I don’t think we should jump into anything so fast. We should take our time and get to know each other again. Let’s just take it slow. There’s still so much we need to discuss….”
How much more talking did we need to do? I’d said everything I needed to. Not to mention that I didn’t have a slow setting, and she should know that by now.
