Page 40 of Close Match
He gives me a narrow-eyed glare. “But until I get to know Linnie a little bit better, I feel like she needs to get to know me and not the me who’s ill.” He pops a piece of calamari into his mouth, chewing silently, something I’ve always appreciated since the sound of people eating drives me up a wall. I do the same.
“I’m just going on record as I think you’re not giving her enough credit,” I state firmly before I pop my bite into my mouth.
Ev swallows before dabbing his lips with his napkin. “So noted.” Reaching across the table, he places a firm hand on mine. “Monty, I get you’re pissed, but understand it’s my decision. I have time, and I’ve been given a huge gift. Maybe one day you’ll realize the importance of this, but I don’t want that woman to look back and think any part of her time with me was a mistake.”
I open my mouth and immediately close it because I can see where he’d feel that way. This isn’t a stranger the system matched him with that he can coolly negotiate a deal with; this is a life that he helped to create. And despite not knowing it before fate and circumstance forced the issue, he’s already beginning to feel something deep inside for her.
“It’s your decision, Ev,” I concede. “But soon, you’re going to have to answer her questions that you’re avoiding. All the questions about the medical health on your side of the family. It is why she reached out after all.”
“I know.” His eyes remain steady on mine. “I just want some time.”
I shore up on the inside, adding the weight of this additional burden to the others I carry. I don’t think it’s the right decision, but as Ev’s already declared, it’s not mine to make. “Then let’s toast to the fact you’re back in a chronic state.” Lifting my glass, I paste a smile on my face and clink my glass against his.
A broad smile spreads across Ev’s face, causing a dimple to appear. Absently, I note it’s a dimple he shares with his daughter. I don’t point it out because this is the kind of discovery he should realize for himself.
Over time.
Time that he now has to get to know her.
Twenty-Four
Evangeline
“You’re heading down to DC again?” Bristol flops back on my bed as I pack my weekender again.
My shoulders droop slightly. “Yes. I have the next few days off, so I’m going to meet Ev in Alexandria. I figure this way we can do a few touristy things.” I don’t add onAnd we have something to talk about, but I don’t need to. Bristol knows my lunch with my biological father was pretty much an unmitigated disaster.
With his family around to help ease the conversation burden, Everett Parrish is warm, if a little bit quiet. Without them, he’s nervous, anxious, and it was left up to me to find topics of conversation to cover our lunch together at Coastal Oaks. It was a good thing they had these fantastic little rolls that tasted more like donuts that I could stuff in my mouth otherwise I’m pretty confident I’d have run out of topics by the time our meal was over.
But by the time I got back to New York, there was another warm email from him. I realized quickly, Ev’s just an introvert. With a little snort, it makes me wonder if he’d had a few to drink when he approached my mother all those years ago because I can’t imagine the man he is now would have caught the eye of Brielle Brogan. It isn’t that my father isn’t attractive, even now in his early sixties. He’s sporting the Richard Gere style about him. But if he couldn’t deal with my mother’s known outrageousness, I’m surprised they ever made it into bed to, well, create me.
“What’s that laugh for?” Bristol rubs her hands over a slightly protruding stomach. Distracted, I sit, laying my hand on top of hers.
“Next week we get to see another picture,” I murmur. Our fingers tangle on top of her little son or daughter resting inside.
“I know. I hope he or she cooperates when it’s time so I can make plans.”
I roll my eyes at that. “You know there’s a chance they could get the sex wrong,” I remind her.
“If the baby is as…blessed… as Simon is, there’s no chance of that.”
Immediately, I start making vomiting noises over the side of the bed. Bristol starts laughing before she says anxiously, “You promise no matter what you’ll be back for that, right?”
“I swear to you, Bris, I’ll be here for every moment of your pregnancy you want me to be,” I vow.
Calmer, she relaxes back against my pillows. “So, what’s in Alexandria? I’ve been to DC, but I’ve never been there.”
“Honestly, when Ev suggested it, I had to look it up myself,” I admit. We both start giggling. “It’s on the waterfront, has a ton of shopping and restaurants, but looks like something out of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.”
Thoughtful, Bristol says, “I wonder if Simon would like it for a quick babymoon.”
“What the hell is a babymoon?” I demand.
“Oh, it’s a last-minute trip you take before the bundle of joy arrives.”
“Sounds like an opportunity for the father to get some before his wife starts ignoring him,” I laugh.
“It’s that too,” she agrees.
