“Those are the best kind,” I smile at her.
“Agreed. Come sit.” She motions to the leather sofa on the opposite side of the room. “Sorry I had to put martinis in these ridiculous glasses. I would have never made it all the way back here without spilling them, otherwise. Don’t tell Evan I did that. He gets upset when a drink is in the wrong kind of glass.” We sit on opposite ends of the sofa. For the first time all night, I slip my shoes off.
“I don’t really care what glass it’s in,” I tell her, sipping on the drink that she handed me. “Not bad.”
She smiles. “Evan’s a good teacher.” Meg pulls her long legs up on the sofa. “I’m sorry they didn’t tell you about the races. Sometimes I wish I didn’t know about them, if you want to know the truth. Sitting here waiting for Evan to call to let me know it’s over is agonizing.”
“I’m sure,” I say. I look down at my phone that I haven’t put down since hanging up on Evan a little while ago.
“The good thing is they are over in a few minutes. It’s the anticipation beforehand that sucks.” She looks down at her phone I didn’t even realize she had with her. “When Jake first asked Evan to race with him, I thought I was going to have to murder one of my closest friends.” I’m actually shocked to hear that it was Jake who got Evan into racing. I would have thought it was the other way around. “Evan seemed so lost when he first came to Tampa, but racing made him happy. It gave him something to look forward to and kept his mind off of Ethan. You should have seen him while Danny and the guys were rebuilding his new car. It was all he could talk about.” She laughs softly, thinking of her cousin. I admire how close they are. “But I think he may be through with racing very soon. He found something else that makes him happier than I’ve ever seen him before.”
Looking up from the hem of my dress that I had been fiddling with, I ask, “What’s that?”
“It’s actually more of a who than a what.” She smiles at me.
The buzzing of my phone causes me to jump. I nod to Meg, answering the unspoken question on her face, and she lets out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness it wasn’t as long as Joe made it sound it would be. “Are you okay?” I ask him right away.
“That depends…” Evan responds cautiously. “Am I allowed to come get you?”
“Yes, please.”
“Then I’m more than okay. Is Meg there?”
“She is,” I say, meeting her gaze again. “Do you want to talk to her?”
“Just for a second.” I lean over to hand her the phone.
“Hey… You’re welcome, but I didn’t come to sit with her for you.” Meg rolls her eyes, but grins. “See you soon.” She hands the phone back to me.
“How long until you get here?” I ask.
“Ten minutes, tops.”
“Be careful,” I say and end the call.
“See. It’s over and they’re fine.” Did she say that for me or for herself?
“Thanks for waiting with me. You made it so much more tolerable.”
“No problem.” We sit there silently for a bit, just appreciating the fact that we aren’t alone at the moment. Meg speaks first. “I really hope things work out between you and Evan. You both deserve to be happy for a change.”
“We all deserve to be happy. Connor hasn’t tried to call you, has he?” I ask, remembering the trouble he caused.
“No.” She diverts her attention to setting her drink down on the table next to the sofa. “He’s an asshole, but I really thought he loved me,” she says sadly.
“Sometimes things happen for a reason, even if we don’t know what it is at first. You shouldn’t settle for an asshole who pretends to love you when there’s a gentleman out there who can’t wait to hold you.”
“Well, he better hurry the hell up because I’m all out of patience,” she replies. Her phone chimes with a text message. “Looks like I’m getting kicked out.” She stands to leave. “Try not to be too hard on Evan.”
“I’ll try, but I’m not making any promises,” I tease. Truthfully, I’m not even upset with him anymore.
“Have a good night. Maybe I’ll see you around this weekend,” Meg says as she exits the office.
Relaxing my head back and pulling my legs up on the sofa, my eyes close while I try to chase away the thoughts of a horrible last twelve hours. From my mother’s unwelcome visit, to dinner, to fighting with Evan. I just want it all to get the hell out of my head and let me be. Why did I think that coming back to Florida would be a good thing? I try to force myself to stop thinking and just breathe. I sit there with my eyes closed until the door opens. If I was still angry, I wouldn’t be anymore. Just seeing Evan standing there makes all the events of today melt away into a distant memory. He’s wearing perfectly worn jeans and a white, short-sleeved shirt. This is probably the most relaxed I’ve seen him, aside from when he’s sleeping next to me. Why was I angry with him again?
“On a scale of one to ten, just how pissed are you?” Evan asks, carefully coming over to sit down next to me.
“Five thousand, four hundred sixty-three,” I mumble the first number that comes to mind.
He sighs. “I was going to tell you about the races, but I wasn’t sure why Jake didn’t want you to know. I really am sorry. But I’m not sorry for what I did to get you out of there. I will never apologize for making sure you’re safe. If something happened to you there tonight…”
“Evan,” I interrupt, “I’m not mad anymore.”
“You’re not?”
I shake my head. “No. And I might be sorry for being a little difficult. I know you were just looking out for me.”
He shows me his famous sexy smirk. “A little difficult? Sweetheart, I’ve never met anyone as stubborn as you.”
“You never will, either.”
“Probably not.” He reaches over and runs the back of his fingers down my cheek. “I have to meet Chris soon to pick up my money. Do you want to stay here or do you want me to take you home first?” he asks, standing up. I guess he won.
“Why can’t you take me with you?”
“Not a good idea. Anyone from the race could be there. If any of them saw you get out of Sean’s car, they’ll run right back to tell him you’re there.”
“It was dark. No one will recognize me.”
He raises his eyebrows. “Have you looked in the mirror? Trust me, they’ll notice.”
“I’m never wearing this dress again.”
“Maybe not never,” Evan suggests, holding out his hand to help me up to my feet. “Maybe just not when you’re going to be around a shitload of guys. We are a bunch of pigs, you know.”
“Yes, I know,” I say, making him chuckle. “I don’t want to stay here by myself and I really don’t want to go home.”
He sighs, pulling his phone from his pocket, while wrapping one arm around my waist and tucking me up against his chest. “You are really pushing it today,” he whispers into my hair. I’m close enough that I hear someone answer on the other end of the phone. “Yo, I need you to do me a favor,” Evan says. “I’ll be around in a few minutes. Can you meet me out back?” Evan goes quiet, listening. I’m just happy he’s holding me. “Cool. Thanks.” He kisses my head. “Let’s go.” I’ll do whatever he wants, as long as it means he won’t leave me alone.
He takes us out the back exit. I’m grateful I don’t have to walk through the club. When he pushes open the door to the outside, a bright green sports car is parked in the first spot. Being so angry, I didn’t take notice of it at the industrial park. It’s smaller than Jake’s Camaro. My knowledge of cars is very limited, so there’s no way for me to know what it is. “Cute,” I tell him, following behind.
“Did you just call my car cute?” A look of disgust crosses his handsome face. “Forget it. Don’t answer that.” He’s holding the door open for me. When I go to get in, he stops me. “She’s not cute,” he whispers. “Next time you call her that, she won’t let you in.”
“I’ll try to remember that.” I
fake cough to prevent myself from laughing at him.
Evan drives around the back of a small bar a short distance from Skyline. Thankfully, he doesn’t get out of the car when he pulls up to the door. The car doesn’t even come to a complete stop before the door swings open. The guy who was talking to Sean at the race walks up to the window and hands Evan an envelope.
“Thanks. I appreciate you coming out. Let’s make this the last one for a while, okay?” Evan says.
“That was crazy! That guy didn’t mention anything about telling all of those people. We may have to find another location for the fall.”
“We probably should, just to be safe. Tell Sandy I said hi and she owes me a burger.”
Evan goes to shift the car out of park, but the guy leans down to peer into the window “I’m really sorry about what I said to you earlier,” he says to me. “I didn’t mean any disrespect.”
“What the fuck did you say to her?” Evan barks.
“It’s fine. Just go,” I say.
“No. I want to know what he said.”
“She was in the car with that Sean guy. I didn’t know she was with you,” he tries to defend himself.
“What the fuck did you say, Chris?”
“Evan,” I touch his arm, “I’ve already had a really bad day. Please don’t make it any worse.”
“I sort of said she needed to be put on a leash, then hinted she was probably pretty crazy in bed,” he admits. “But I swear, if I would have known she was with you, I would have never said a word.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Evan slams his hand on the steering wheel and goes to get out of the car. I’m so not dealing with this shit! I grab onto his shirt, causing him to stop and look at me. “No one is going to talk about you like that, Kacie.”
“If you want to do something for me, get me out of here! I’ve seriously had enough for one damn day!” I holler.
“Fine,” he surrenders, but turns back to Chris. “I’m not done with you.” Then he takes off from behind the bar and out of the parking lot. He drives for a few miles before he speaks again. “Am I taking you home now?”
“I really don’t want to go home. People know they can find me there.”
He says nothing else the rest of the ride. I suppose I’m not the only one who’s had a bad night. After a while, I finally realize where we are as Evan drives into Meg’s neighborhood. The huge homes are hard to forget. His truck is parked next to the garage door, which is raising as we get closer. “We have to switch to the truck,” he informs me. “Sorry to bring you all the way out here, but I can’t leave her in my parking lot.” Evan pulls into the garage and we open our doors. He’s standing behind the back of the car, extending his hand out to me. When I take it, he asks, “Do you want to spend the night at my place?”
“If you don’t mind.”
“Why the hell would I mind?”
On the way to Evan’s, he asks me to tell him what happened at dinner tonight. Now that I’ve relived the events all over again, my anger and annoyance have resurfaced. Will this day ever end? He feels bad about getting me all worked up over my parents again, but he’s also fuming because of how they treated me. Once we are inside his condo, I notice how much neater it is than the last time he brought me here. We were only here long enough for him to grab some clothes, but it was hard to miss the mess.
“I see you’ve straightened up a bit,” I tease him as he goes into the kitchen.
“I figured I’d better, just in case you came back. I saw your face the last time you were here,” he laughs. “I’m not the best housekeeper. It doesn’t help that I’m usually only here to sleep and shower. I can’t even tell you the last time I ate a meal here.”
“I didn’t make a face,” I say. “I just took in the view.”
Evan comes back into the living room with two beers and some shot glasses. He gives me one of the beers, sets the glasses and his beer down on the coffee table, then goes back into the kitchen. “You made a face.”
“Did not,” I mumble, but he hears me anyway.
“Did, too,” echoes from the other room.
I ignore him and slip my shoes off just as he walks in carrying a bunch of different sized bottles. “I refuse to put those bitches on one more time today.”
He laughs. “But they look so damn hot on you.”
“You noticed my shoes?” What guy notices shoes?
“I didn’t even know you were wearing shoes,” he responds to my apparently ridiculous question. “With you wearing that dress, no one noticed your shoes, Kacie.” He falls onto the sofa next to me. He opens the bottles and begins pouring the different alcohols into the shot glasses. It takes a minute, but I recognize the shot he’s making. Using a spoon, he pours the grenadine over the back of it to make the top layer of alcohol seep into the bottom one just where he wants it to. “Brain hemorrhage?” he offers when it’s ready.
“Why not? It’s already made.”
After an unknown number more of them, Evan has accomplished what he set out to do. I feel better. It’s as if today…or yesterday, I guess it is now…never happened. We are laughing and carrying on, probably pissing off his neighbors on either side of him who are trying to sleep. He even gets me to promise to go fishing with him over the weekend. I hate fishing. I hate anything related to fish, but I tell him how much fun it will be anyway. I’ve had enough to drink that he could get me to say yes to anything.
Then through my clouded, drunken eyes, I see it. The look he gets before he kisses me. All of a sudden, nothing’s funny anymore. We stop laughing. We stop talking. We just stop. Evan’s eyes take me in, overwhelming me. His hand comes up to caress the side of my face. It’s the same way he always does it, only it feels different this time. The way his fingers trail down my face ignites my entire body. My eyelids lower as I try to gain control over myself. Is it the liquor? Or is it just him doing this to me? I keep telling myself I can conquer the desire he’s making me feel. Then his fingers leave my face. They travel down my neck, to the top of the dress where they follow the material to my shoulder, and then back the way they came. This time, his hand goes into my hair so he can direct me to him. Softly, his lips touch mine and I know I’ve lost all chance at ever gaining an ounce of control. Screw control! I need him to finish what he’s been starting over and over again since I first met him. It no longer matters what I’ve heard. That once he’s been with someone, he’s done with them. I don’t care. I have no doubt that it will be totally worth it.
Without removing my mouth from his, I twist around to make it easier to climb onto his lap. Once I’m straddling him, he does exactly what I had hoped he would. He deepens the kiss, frantically running his hands down my back to the tops of my thighs. My fingers twist in his hair. He lets go of my legs to grab onto the sides of my face, then he pulls back. He doesn’t move. We just sit there, breathing heavily.
“Kacie,” he says, squeezing his eyes shut and swallowing hard. “Go to my room, get any shirt you want out of my dresser to change into, and go to bed. I’ll come check on you in a little bit, but if you need anything, I’ll be here on the sofa all night.”
“What?” I ask, irritated that he’s dismissing me. Can I be any more obvious about what I want?
“Please go. Right now.” He still hasn’t moved a muscle or opened his eyes.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“No, I’m not.”
“You’re going to let me go to bed alone?”
“Yes.” He finally looks at me with a sorrowful expression.
“Fuck you!” I scramble to get off of him and jam my feet into the shoes I swore I wasn’t putting back on. The anger I feel now is nothing like what I felt earlier. It doesn’t help that it’s also mixed with embarrassment at not being wanted, and regret. Nasty combination.
“What are you doing?” he asks, concerned.
“I’m leaving.”
“No, you aren’t. It’s the middle of the night.”
“I�
��d rather walk home than be here with you!” I shout.
“Kacie, go to sleep,” he orders, getting to his feet.
“I get that I’m nothing like those tramps you bring home from the club, but you could have told me you didn’t want me before this.”
“You’re right!” he hollers back at me. “You’re nothing like them! And this has nothing to do with me not wanting you!”
“Really? You could have fooled me!” I stomp over and grab my purse off of the table that I had dropped it on when we came in.
“I’m not having sex with you because you’re drunk,” he says, trying to keep some type of composure.
For some reason, I find that funny. The kind of funny where you start laughing so hard, you can’t stop. He’s watching me as if I’ve lost my mind. Maybe I have at this point. “Right, because you’ve never had sex with someone you got drunk before.”
“This is different!”
“How, Evan? How the hell is this any different?” He doesn’t answer me. He’s standing there, staring at me. Well, fuck him. I turn and head for the door. It’s a long walk to my house, but whatever. It beats staying where I’m not wanted.
As I turn the doorknob, his hand reaches over top of my shoulder, holding the door closed. My body freezes at his closeness. Stupid betraying body! His other hand slides over my other hip while he brings his mouth next to my ear.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you upset. You have to know that I’ve never wanted anyone as much as I want you, but I just can’t,” he whispers, desperate for me to stay.
“Why not?” I need to know. My eyes fill with tears. Evan hesitates, unsure of whether or not he should tell me what is on the tip of his tongue. “If you don’t tell me, I’m leaving.”
He exhales sharply. I must have convinced him that he doesn’t have a choice except to tell me. He takes his hand off of the door and spins me around to look at him. A tear runs down my face. He wipes at the path it left. “I’m afraid,” he says.
Left Behind: Left Behind Series #1 Page 25