Not wanting to be alone with my thoughts, I changed my clothes, putting on workout pants and a tight-fitting long-sleeve shirt. I pulled an armband over my shirt and settled my phone in it before lacing up my sneakers. Tuning my Amazon Prime Music to a Top Country station, I popped my earbuds in and stretched.
The minute my feet hit the pavement, I felt all the stress of the morning melt away. My muscles slowly started to warm and with Lauren Alaina pounding in my ears about picking the road less traveled, I picked up the pace. Here, was my little piece of heaven. The wind, the steady thump of my heart, and the burning in my legs.
I had despised working out for as long as I could remember. My mother had passed on her generous curves, yet I had gotten my father’s metabolism. Sweets had been my weakness as a kid; however, I never gained an ounce. I hated the gym; the leering from the men and the gossip of the women. Running had only recently become my best friend, a means to escape the world.
My life had taken some turns in the past year. Ones that I hadn’t seen coming. Physical exertion had become my way to deal with it all. Or hide from it. I guess it all depended on how you looked at it. While my girlfriend and new business partner had been finding love again, I had been losing mine.
My feet churned faster at the thought. Oh, how I had been such a fool. How hadn’t I known what was going on right under my nose? As happy as I was for Avery, I secretly worried about her and Cooper. He was a drummer, with a past full of women. How did she trust him not to stray? I had found a prominent businessman with no skeletons—or so I had thought—and that had blown up in my face.
I stopped, bending over to catch my breath. Seconds later, moving again so I didn’t cramp, I turned and headed back toward my house. I guess the saying was true; you couldn’t judge a book by its cover. Ryan Cobourne had been the perfect man on paper. He came from a well-to-do Boston family, old money, and had earned his MBA from Harvard. Little had I known, he had been hiding a few secrets of his own.
My feet carried me back into my drive on autopilot. Once I got into the house, I stretched and let my mind wander back to my soon-to-be ex-husband. Ryan had been a doting yet hard-working spouse. The long nights didn’t worry me since I had them as well; even the weekends weren’t a huge surprise. Our marriage had been great those first few months, and I had even been considering talking to him about kids. It was a juggle I had been ready for.
Stripping down, I stepped into the shower. The smell of Evan rolled off me despite my earlier one. There was one thing that him and my ex had in common—women. I had flown out to Las Vegas to surprise Ryan on our anniversary and found him pounding into his supposed secretary when the manager of the hotel had kindly let me into his room. What a surprise it was.
Clearing my head of the memories, I put my face under the hot water. With my eyes closed and the steam swirling around me, Evan’s gorgeous one popped into my head. I didn’t want to think about him or the fact that I was probably just another notch in his bedpost. I shook it, trying to dislodge the image, but his blue eyes were burned into my brain. I still remembered the first night I had met him and seen them.
“Come on!” Avery exclaimed, tugging on my hand.
“Honey, we’re only going to go as fast as the line,” I told her with a laugh, trying to keep pace.
“Oh, don’t worry about that.” She giggled.
We moved around the line of people waiting to enter the arena. I gave her a questioning look, but she just smiled and tightened her grip. She led me around the side of the building and I pulled her to a stop when all I could see was a large bearded man. He didn’t look all that happy, and I wasn’t going to be held responsible for anything happening to her.
“Ave,” I whispered.
“It’s fine, Julie,” she assured me. “I promise.”
She resumed her track toward the guy. As soon as we got close enough to talk to him, a grin broke out on his face and his features softened. His arms opened as we took the last few steps, and Avery released me to be engulfed in a bear hug.
“Hello, sweetheart,” the man greeted, dropping a kiss on her head.
“Hi, Mikey,” she returned, squeezing him tightly before leaning back and gesturing to me. “This is Julie.”
“Well hello, beautiful,” he drawled out with a wink, as he shook my hand then brought it to his lips to plant a kiss on the back of it.
“Enough fraternizing, man,” I heard a voice chide with a chuckle. “Coop isn’t going to want drool all over his woman.”
“This one isn’t his,” the bearded man stated with a grin as he released my hand with another wink.
“Ain’t that the truth,” came the reply from the unknown voice.
“Enough, boys,” my friend scolded good-naturedly, no bite behind her words.
I turned to see the other guy she was approaching to hug, and my breath caught in my throat. It was obvious that he was part of her fiancé’s band. He wore well-worn jeans with holes at the knees, worn brown cowboy boots, and a dark blue t-shirt that clung to his muscled chest. His baby blue eyes sparkled and seemed to pop out of his face, along with his ear-to-ear smile. My lady parts pulsed when he reached up to adjust his backwards ballcap, causing his biceps to tighten and his tattoos to dance.
“So, this is the famous Julie?” he questioned as he held his hand out for mine.
“Yes,” I let out on a breathy sigh, causing me to cough to try to cover it.
“Nice to finally meet you,” he said, his smile growing with my reaction to him. “I’m Evan.”
I felt my cheeks instantly warm under his gaze, and when his lips touched my hand like Mikey’s had, I jumped. The shock was surprising. Avery had told me all about him, but nothing had prepared me for meeting him in person, or my body’s reaction. He was every woman’s wet dream.
My eyes snapped to my friend’s and I gave her a glare. Avery laughed softly and shrugged her shoulders. Evan’s eyebrows raised at our silent conversation, but he didn’t seem fazed in the least. Moving between us, he threw his arms over our shoulders and started to lead us down the long hall into the venue.
“Let’s go, ladies,” he urged. “It’s time to have some fun, Dark Roads style.”
I’m not sure why I had ever let Avery talk me into going with her that night. Most of it was probably because I hadn’t wanted her to go alone, and neither Jen, her best friend, or Abby, her sister-in-law, could go. I wasn’t normally into the concert scene, but I had needed to keep busy while Ryan was out of town on a business trip, and going had been the perfect fix. I hadn’t taken into consideration that we would hang out with the band so much, since my friend had been newly engaged to the drummer, or that I would have a pair of blue eyes burning holes into me all night.
After lathering myself up with lotion following my shower, I put on leggings, a long sweater, and left my feet bare. I ran a comb through my hair and made my way back to the kitchen. Opening my laptop that was sitting on the island, I turned it on. I took some leftover soup from the prior week and put it in the microwave, then waited for it to heat up. Grabbing a water from the refrigerator, I heard the computer alerting me of new emails. I wasn’t surprised, and moved to check them while the soup was still warming.
“That was quick,” I commented, as I noticed I had one from Avery’s personal email that had been sent mere minutes before with a link in the heading.
Evidently, she had received the link from her wedding photographer and she couldn’t wait to share them, so I clicked on it. Everything was quick to load and before I knew it, I was scanning through pictures, ignoring the sound from my microwave, letting me know lunch was ready. There were some beautiful ones of the newlyweds, some wonderful ones of all of us girls in the wedding party, and some great ones of the band. My hand froze on my mouse when I came to one of Evan and myself.
I was so engrossed with it that I brought my face closer to the screen rather than enlarging it. If I was someone from the outside looking in, I would have thought we were a
couple. I remembered the moment exactly. I had sat down to take a break from dancing at one of the empty tables and was rubbing one of my sore feet. Evan had come over and plopped himself down in a chair in front of me, flashing me that unforgettable smile, and had pulled my foot into his lap to rub it himself. The photographer had caught us smiling at each other, me leaning in a bit to put my hand on his arm. I had been telling him that he didn’t need to do that.
My phone vibrating on my counter caused me to jump, breaking me from my trance. While I reached out blindly to grab it, I clicked my mouse to make the picture larger. Evan’s smile was easy, as it always was, yet there was something in the way he was looking at me. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. My smile was grateful and my eyes…wait, that couldn’t be right. I had the same weird something in my eye that I couldn’t figure out.
I shook my head; I was probably just seeing things. I looked down at my phone and swiped my finger across it to bring my new text to the forefront. It was from an unknown number, but when I read it, I knew immediately who it was from. I guess my running out this morning hadn’t given off the vibe I had hoped.
Since you didn’t stick around this morning, boss lady, you owe me breakfast
The Unknown (The Comeback Series Bonus Book Book 2) Page 2