Page 40 of Home Sweet Home

She stood up and smoothed the front of her dress. “It’s late.”

“Let me walk you,” he said, springing up.

Evie glanced toward her back door. “You mean the ten steps from here to my house?”

Crickets chirped, and the trees rustled with every breeze. When West looked at her, it was familiar, the same cryptic look from when they were teenagers, the one that had made her wonder if he felt the same as she did.

“You’ve got some flour,” he said, his gaze dropping to her chest, and she’d barely heard the words when he trailed his fingers over her collarbone, brushing it away. Goose bumps, too many of them, instantly rose on her skin, like they had been at the ready all along, waiting for him.

Evie opened her mouth, begging her brain to think of words, even just one word, the spot where he’d touched her still burning.

“See you tomorrow?” he asked.

Evie nodded, rebooting. “See you tomorrow.”

CHAPTERTHIRTEEN

At the dinerthe next morning, Evie was on autopilot. Her feet shuffled her in the proper direction, her hands carried the right orders to the right tables, and though she couldn’t remember what she’d said, she must have talked to customers, because their orders arrived at their tables and no one complained. But she wasn’t at the diner, not really. She was in West’s backyard, the stars in the sky, his hand brushing her collarbone.

If she could rewind time, she would have gone back to the bathroom during the tornado. She would have lied, because it would have been so much easier to cling to the belief that there was nothing between them, that there never could be.

Now she had more questions than answers, about the shift on his face when she asked about his dad’s plaque, why he was working so hard to get back a job that he hated, and why he was starting a garden when he wouldn’t be sticking around long enough to see it grow.

Her stomach sank when she remembered how it felt when he touched her.

“Earth to Evie.” Kayla waved her hands frantically in front of Evie’s face.

They sat at the counter, empty ketchup bottles lined up in neat rows in front of them, but Evie couldn’t remember sitting down or when all the customers had left. It was like she’d been sleepwalking. “Huh?”

“You stared at the coffeemaker for a solid five minutes without blinking. Have you been possessed? Do I need to call for an exorcism?”

Evie yawned. “I didn’t sleep very well.”

No remedy had worked, not opening a window or removing her comforter and sleeping only with a sheet. It hadn’t worked because it wasn’t the heat keeping her awake. It was her brain, which refused to power down.

Because when she’d placed her hand over his, she’d known for sure. The feelings she’d once had for him were still there.

“Well, Zombie Evie, I have some news.” Kayla squeezed ketchup into a bottle. “I’m opening the salon next week.”

For the first time all day, Evie was awake and present. She gave Kayla’s shoulders a squeeze. “You must be so excited.”

Kayla paused at the next bottle for a second before continuing, ketchup oozing into the empty canister. “I told Joe this morning.”

“I’ll miss you.” Dread knotted in Evie’s stomach. It was the part she’d known was coming the second Kayla showed her the abandoned building, but had been pretending wasn’t going to happen to preserve her sanity. Evie had worked alongside Kayla every day for almost five years. The diner wouldn’t be the same without her.

Kayla slung an arm around Evie. “Oh, come on. I’m not dead.” Evie nodded and bit her cheek, not wanting to think about what work would be like without Kayla to make it better. Combined with the overwhelming feelings for West that she could no longer ignore, it all felt like too much too fast.

“What’s wrong?” Kayla asked. “You’ve been weird all morning. Dinner not go well?”

The best thing to do was hold in all those feelings that had been cropping up the last few weeks. Giving them air would only encourage them to grow, and she wasn’t sure she could handle much more. Evie felt like a glass of water, completely full, one drip from sloshing over the rim.

So she told Kayla everything. It rushed out of her like a river after a released dam, and Kayla kept stopping her because she was talking so fast.

“So you were upset because you thought he didn’t like you,” Kayla repeated.

“Yes. No. I think I was upset at myself too. For misreading.”

“But hedidlike you. And he’s obviously flirting with you now.”

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