Skirt Chaser

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Skirt Chaser Page 13

by Stacey Kennedy


  “Evie.”

  She gasped, startled, spinning around, finding her assistant, Monica, standing by the elevator with a hand on her hip. Her long, black hair framing her round face was perfectly in place as always. The tattoos covering her arms rocking. Even her cute, fifties-style cherry-print dress was normal. The concern on her face was anything but usual.

  “Oh, my God,” Evie said, laughing, pressing a hand to her thumping heart. “You scared the shit out of me.”

  “I said your name four times,” Monica said with a smirk, approaching then and handing Evie a cup of coffee. “Is everything okay? You look frazzled.”

  “I’m fine.” Evie sighed, accepting the cup. “Thanks for the coffee.”

  “No probs.” Monica spun in a slow circle, taking in the open room as Evie had done. “Well, this space is pretty incredible, isn’t it?”

  Evie sipped her coffee and nodded. “I don’t think we’ve ever worked on such a new space before.”

  “We haven’t,” Monica agreed, glancing toward the bank of windows before adding, “Do we have total control of the design?”

  “Total freedom with the elements,” Evie explained, hugging her paper cup with both hands, embracing the warmth. “But they’re pretty strict on wanting a modern design with a retro flare.”

  Monica blinked. “They want modern but retro?”

  “Yes.” Evie laughed.

  “People are so confusing,” Monica muttered, shaking her head.

  “I can’t disagree with you there.” Evie scanned the space again, sipping her coffee, imagining all the modern furniture with a couple of retro accents to give the clients the vibe they wanted. “But I actually think what they want is going to work in this space,” she finished.

  “You’re the expert,” Monica said, then she practically purred, “When do we get to go shopping?”

  “Later today.”

  “Oh, goodie!”

  Evie laughed at the gleam in Monica’s eyes. Sure, Monica was damn good at keeping the schedule organized and the clients happy, but her eyes lit up whenever they started on a new project, all because they got to spend other people’s money. Monica had a full-fledged shopping addiction, and she’d made a career out of it.

  “So,” Monica drawled, shifting from foot to foot. “There’s something else we need to talk about.”

  Evie swallowed the coffee in her mouth. “What’s that?”

  “Greyson Crawford’s…” Instinctively, Evie froze as Monica added, “…firm delivered our final payment before I left the office.” She reached into her purse and handed Evie the check. “Looks like Grey signed it himself.”

  Evie ran her fingers across Grey’s signature. Every check before this one had always been signed by the CFO of his company or someone else in accounting. Why did he sign this check himself?

  Was he thinking about me? Did he want me to know that I had been on his mind? Does that mean something? Or is this just a check that he signed?

  Round and round Evie went. Back and forth her mind returned to him, no matter how many times she told herself to get over it. Her heart squeezed, her soul feeling empty without him. And the power of that admission to herself was simply staggering. She barely knew him. They only had three days and a few hours of an additional night together. What if they had longer, would this need for him get worse or fade away?

  She drew in a deep breath then lifted her head and smiled, handing Monica back the check. “Well, that’s done then.”

  Monica tucked the check away in her purse and then regarded Evie for a long moment. “Is it done, though?” she asked softly. “Because from where I’m sitting, and judging by how sad you’ve been since you came home from your trip, it seems anything but done.”

  Evie hesitated, staring at a woman who’d become her best friend over the last years of working together. She tried to clear her mind of all the messy emotions, making this simple, sticking to the facts. “Do you think it’s weird that I miss him?”

  “Weird, hell no,” Monica said with a laugh. “He’s tattoos, sex, and alpha yumminess. Also, let’s not forget that you said he gave you the best sex of your life. I think anyone would miss that.”

  If only it were that easy. “But it’s not the sex that I miss,” Evie explained, trying to get out what she felt so she could begin to understand it herself. “It’s all of him. It’s the way I felt around him. It’s how comfortable I was with him.” Emotions began to tighten her throat, but she pushed them away, feeling like now that she’d started talking, she couldn’t stop. “I miss how happy I was with him, how content I felt, how easy life seemed when I was with him. Is that normal for me to feel that way?”

  “Frankly, I think you’re asking the wrong person if you want to know about normal relationships,” Monica said, shifting the straps of her purse higher on her shoulder. “Greg and I had a shotgun wedding after a month of dating when I was nineteen.”

  “But you’re still together and happy, so I think that makes you entirely qualified to answer that question.”

  Monica gave a lopsided smile. “Maybe.” She drew in a deep breath before speaking again. “If I know anything about love, it’s that it’s hard to find that special someone who makes you light up inside. If Greyson Crawford made that happen for you, then I say go and tell him and see where it goes.”

  “Easier said than done,” Evie said aloud this time, dropping down onto the floor to sit cross-legged. “If he wanted something more,” she stated, as Monica sat down across from her, “he could have said: ‘I want to give this a real shot.’ But he didn’t.”

  “Okay, that’s a valid point,” Monica agreed, setting the skirt of her dress over her knees. “Though maybe this is all as complicated for him as it is for you.”

  “You could be totally right about that,” Evie agreed with a soft nod, placing her coffee mug between her crossed legs. “But I’ve been hurt enough. It was scary to start dating again after Seth. The thought of opening my heart to a guy like Grey outright terrifies me.”

  Monica paused then nodded. “Love is risky. Scary as fuck, really.” Her head tilted, her eyes narrowed in concentration. “However, what if he’s really never found that one, and that’s why he’s been so closed up. I mean, it sounded like you two had something incredible. Magic like that only happens once.”

  Evie glanced down at her coffee cup and sighed heavily, thinking that’s exactly what Violet had told her, too.

  “For as long as I’ve known you,” Monica added softly, breaking into the silence. “You’ve never been the type to sit around and mope. So, what are you going to do?”

  She smiled and offered, “Drink to get over him?”

  “Oh, hell yes, it is Friday night, after all.” Monica slapped Evie’s leg, her eyes twinkling with ideas for the adventure ahead of them. “Let’s get this shit done here so we can get shit-faced.”

  “Deal,” Evie said with a laugh.

  Tomorrow would come, and the next day, and hopefully each day that passed, she’d miss him less until she forgot the name: Greyson Crawford.

  Chapter 13

  The following afternoon, with laughter gliding through the air, Grey moved to the cooler next to the grill. Earlier in the morning, he’d received a call inviting him to join Maddox and his wife, Joss, for a backyard party at the house on Lake Washington that Maddox inherited after his father passed. The company alone would have brought him here, but the chance to drink sounded all too good right then.

  Every year, Maddox held this event to welcome the new rookies into his division at the Seattle Police Department in the west precinct. Now that Maddox was the captain in the east precinct and had been for the last year, his party was still for the rookies, but it had grown in size since he invited the entire department now. Sure, Grey wasn’t a cop and therefore a total outsider here, but he never missed a party, and no one ever seemed to mind that he came. Though even if they did have a problem with him being there, no one would dare question Maddox.

&
nbsp; When Grey finally reached the cooler, he grabbed a cold beer. His body ached from his head to his toes. Exhaustion weighed heavily on him, slowly swallowing him up, and not even a run this morning or jerking his cock in the shower after had done anything to get his head right.

  I still miss her.

  Every hour only deepened the void of Evie’s absence.

  Each minute seemed longer than the last.

  A small breeze picked up, bringing the greasy scent of the hamburgers on the grill when he cracked open the beer. He tossed the cap into the beer case next to the cooler then scanned the crowd, his gaze falling on Joss. Back in the day, he couldn’t imagine Maddox loving any woman hard enough to marry her. Now, he couldn’t imagine seeing his friend without Joss next to him.

  Her long, chocolate-brown hair rested on her shoulder, while she held onto the hands of her little girl, Sofia, who wobbled her way forward, having just begun to walk. Thoughts of Evie passed through his mind. She’d look so pretty holding a sweet baby like that…

  He grunted, shook his head, and took a big gulp of his beer. Fuck, what the hell was wrong with him?

  When he lowered his brew, he found Joss watching him, her light green eyes piercing into his as usual. He gave her a soft smile, which she returned, even if her brows furrowed a little—a look she’d been giving him since he came back from Punta Cana. An expression that told him he appeared even worse than he thought. Great.

  “Better be careful, people might start believing you’re actually boring.”

  Grey snorted and glanced over his shoulder, finding Maddox. He cupped his friend’s shoulder, asking with a smirk, “Am I not being social enough for your liking?”

  “A ghost would be friendlier.” Maddox gestured toward the pathway next to the patio bar surrounded by big evergreens. “Let’s get away for a minute.”

  The look on Joss’s face a moment ago, matched with the tension in Maddox’s expression now told Grey all he needed to know. “Let me guess, Joss thinks you need to talk to me?”

  “Yes,” Maddox said, his look one of exasperation. “She thinks you’re depressed and in dire need of help. So, being the good friend I am, we’re going to have a talk that neither of us wants to have so that I look like the most fabulous husband—which I also am.”

  “Well, in that case”—Grey chuckled dryly and waved out toward the pathway—“lead the way.”

  Maddox grinned and gave Joss a firm nod, clearly telling her he had Grey handled.

  Grey snorted and followed behind, passing by the partygoers standing near the patio bar with the dark wooden stools. Soon, he stepped into the thick forest, and he stayed on Maddox’s heels. He followed behind on the thin trail that finally stopped at a bench, offering a stunning view of Lake Washington, with his mother’s mansion far off in the distance on the right side.

  Maddox took a seat first, then Grey dropped down next to him, stretching out his legs, crossing one ankle over the other, gazing out at the quiet water. A few boats were out on the lake, some people swimming on the other side of the shore.

  “Joss thinks I should be worried about you,” Maddox eventually said, breaking the silence. Elbows on his knees, he glanced sideways at Grey, clear concern in his expression. “Should I be?”

  “Worried?” Grey pondered then shook his head. “No.”

  Maddox snorted. “You neither look nor sound convincing.”

  Grey tossed back another big gulp of his beer, savoring the citrusy hints. “Evie, she’s…” He paused, voice thick, so he cleared his throat before continuing. “She’s gotten right in here.” He tapped his temple.

  One brow arched, Maddox asked, “And why exactly is that a bad thing?”

  “Because she ended it.”

  “When?”

  “I flew home from the Dominican without her.” Grey paused, trying to sort through all the shit in his head.

  “I’m confused. When we talked, things seemed good,” Maddox said. “What happened?”

  “The wedding we went there for fell apart, and I think that rattled her.” There were too many details to share about Evie’s past with Holly and Seth, and they weren’t his details to share. “Evie…she’s been through a lot…too much.”

  Maddox regarded Grey, sipping his beer, then said, “So then unrattle her.”

  “Again, seems simple,” Grey said, admitting a truth that had been circling around in his head. “But I can’t risk hurting her by accident. I can’t be responsible for seeing a woman that is entirely good, so fucking sweet, hurt again.”

  A gleam formed in Maddox’s eyes, and the side of his mouth arched. “You’re worried about fucking this up, and I’ve never seen you concerned about that before with anyone. You’ve actually cultivated your life so there’s no chance you will fuck up with women because they always know the score. And yet here you are. I think that says a lot, don’t you?”

  “I know exactly what it says and what it means,” Grey said, not doubting how special Evie was. That was undeniable, and it was a truth in his mind he could no longer run from. “But I’m not thinking about myself in all this, I’m thinking about her. She’s good in ways I didn’t know a person could be. She loves unconditionally. She’s warm to those who don’t deserve it, and yet she’s strong in front of them.” He tapped his temple again. “So as much as she’s in here, I can’t chase her again when she left wanting nothing more to do with me.”

  “I do understand that,” Maddox said softly, and the trees standing tall behind him rustled with the breeze, “but you’re fucking miserable, so how is this the right solution either?”

  “Thus my current problem.” Grey hesitated, then he allowed the emotion to fill his expression and his voice. “I went after her in the first place for my own selfish reasons. I won’t do that again. She left, I never stopped her. End of story.”

  Maddox’s expression softened, obviously now understanding the weight of all this. He glanced out at the water for a few minutes, sipping his beer. “Perhaps you’re looking at this all wrong,” he finally said, turning to Grey again, awareness in his eyes. “She’s fearful of getting close to the Greyson Crawford she knew before—the love ’em and leave ’em guy. You proved her right by not demanding she stay. But you’re no longer that guy. Have you told her that?”

  Grey frowned. “No, but it’s too late to take that back. The damage has already been done.”

  “It’s never too late.” Maddox drew in a long, deep breath, leaning back against the bench before explaining, “Even I can see that your perspective has changed. Believe me, I understand that outlook because I’ve experienced it myself. But it’s Evie that’s caused this shift in your life, made you doubt things you’ve never questioned before. With her, things are right. Without her, things are wrong. It truly is that simple.”

  “I understand that she’s the reason I feel unsteady,” Grey admitted. “But—”

  Maddox cupped Grey’s shoulder, giving a measured look. “Here’s some unsolicited advice from a friend. If she’s got you this caught up, I’d say you know all you need to. From where I’m sitting, it’s simple: go and get her. If she left, it was because she was protecting herself. Be the man she wants you to be.”

  Be the man she wants you to be…

  Grey pondered that, and from where Maddox sat, that would be the logical answer. Grey knew it wouldn’t be enough. “But I talked her into agreeing to something she never should have before—”

  “Well, this time, don’t talk her into it,” Maddox said, eyes bright. “Ask her.”

  * * *

  I’m off to find my happy nook. I’ll reach out soon.

  Evie lowered down onto her porch swing at her two-story house in the Squire Park neighborhood, with its light gray siding and cherry-red front door, and smiled at the text from Holly. With her cell phone in her hand, and her landline against her ear, she said to Allison Richards, her mother, “Holly just texted me. Has she gone somewhere or something?”

  If anyone had the tow
n gossip, it was her mother. “From what I heard,” Allison replied in her soft, soothing voice, “she’s taking a sabbatical to rediscover herself and traveling Europe for the next six months, or at least that’s what Pam”—Holly’s mother—“told me.”

  “Wow, good for her,” Evie said, putting her cell to sleep and placing it on the white floorboards beneath her bare feet. “I remember all during high school, Holly wanted to do that. I’m happy for her,” she finished, truly meaning that.

  Whatever peace she and Holly needed to come to, they got that in the tropics. Maybe it’d been the long talk they had the night before the wedding, or possibly because Holly didn’t marry Seth, but the healing had started between them. Her friendship with Holly would never be what it once was, though Evie wasn’t ready to give up on it entirely either. History between people meant something.

  “Truthfully,” Allison said dryly. “I think you might be the only one who feels happy for Holly. Seth’s family is furious. And Holly’s parents aren’t thrilled either. But they’ll recover, and in the end, it seems that Holly’s wanted to get out of Grand Rapids for a long time. A broken heart was just the push she needed to find herself.”

  “And how about Seth?” Evie asked, considering his feelings, too. Holly wasn’t the only one that Evie could forgive. But Seth and she didn’t have the closeness that Evie had with Holly, a special friendship that came from someone who truly knew you. “Do you think he’ll be okay?”

  “I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Allison quipped. “Men are resilient. One second, Evie.” She hesitated, and that’s when Evie heard beeping in the background telling her that her mom was working at the hospital today.

  “Yes. Yes,” Allison said to someone obviously in the room with her. “Yes, that’s fine. Give me another few minutes, and I’ll be there.” When she spoke again, her professional voice vanished, and her soft voice filled the phone line. “And you, my darling, how are you? I can’t imagine any of this has been easy on you.”

 

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