Page 19 of Claimed and Catalogued
Chapter Eleven
Evie
I drag in a deep breath and take a sip of cocoa while I wait for my brother. He’s notoriously late for everything so I try not to panic, though every part of me is panicking. I don’t know what to say or how to say it. I should’ve thought about some of it last night. Instead, I was messing around in the bookstore with the hottest guy in Rugged Mountain. We fell asleep somewhere between the sci-fi and self-help sections. I’m not sure what kind of omen that is, but I’m ignoring it. Thankfully we woke up this morning before Marley came in.
“Hey.” Tess meets me at the side table, her face bright and eyes wide as though she’s in the best mood ever, though when is Tess not in the best mood ever? “How’d last night go? I’m a little disappointed you’re not still tangled with him somewhere.”
“Well, it went pretty good.” I grin wide as though I’ve been filled with actual sunshine.
“Okay,” she slides into the booth opposite me, the bakery box of pies in her hand, “I paid for him. You owe me more than that.”
“Fair,” I say, taking another sip of the hot liquid, “but I’m a lady, and a lady doesn’t talk about those kinds of things.”
Tess’s jaw drops. “Girl… I didnotthink you had it in you! Look at you!” She claps her hands quietly as though she’s proud of my accomplishments.
“Well, turns out… I do have it in me.” I sigh with playful confidence. “I think he might be staying for a while too. We talked about it last night.”
“Oh damn. You’ve got magic pussy.”
“Magic pussy?” I laugh. “Yeah, I guess I do.”
She nods and smiles brightly. “I’m liking this new you. You guys can thank me at your wedding. Right now, I have to get these pies back to the bookstore for a pie tasting contest I’m hosting for the book club.” She slides out from the booth, pie boxes in hand as the scent of cherry and apple surround us.
“I’ll stop by later if I get a chance, but today I might be a little busy with the new man… ya know what I mean?” I grin again, somehow wider than before.
“You’re going to be annoying, aren’t you?”
“Oh, yes,” I grin, “I absolutely am.”
She straightens and twists her hair to the side, her eyes on the door as it rings. “Oh, hey, Cole.”
I narrow my gaze at her change of speech, at the change in her body language.
“What?” She shrugs. “Your brother’s hot.” She says the words low enough that he doesn’t hear them, but I do, and I have no idea what that’s about.
“Enjoy the pie with your super horny book club peeps.”
“Will do.” She grins, though it’s not aimed at me. It’s aimed at Cole.
I wonder how long she’s had a crush on him.
“Hey, little sis.” He slides into the booth in front of me and nods toward the waitress as though telling her he’d like a cup of coffee. It’s funny how everyone communicates in places like this. A nodding head can mean so much, but here, every waitress knows exactly what that means.
“Hey,” I say more somberly than I’d planned, mostly because I don’t know where to go from here or how to have a proper conversation about what I need to say.
“How’s your bodyguard?”
I swallow hard, stirring my spoon in circles, watching the whipped cream melt. “He’s not my bodyguard, Cole. He’s a bou—”
“I know who he is. Mom called, and I put two and two together after that weird encounter yesterday. The guy sticks out like a sore thumb.”
“You do too.”
He laughs under his breath and fidgets with the pack of sugar on the table.
“You should turn yourself in, Cole. I’ll go with you. I’ll explain how this is all my fault, and we can—”
“This isn’t your fault. This was me losing my shit. That’s all. I need to take accountability. I know that. I already talked to the fire chief. I’ve done enough years over there that he’s going to vouch for me.”
