by Lucy Score
“What? You get bangs?”
“Stop talking about my hair!”
Donovan reached for Eva and reeled her in. “I can’t believe you’re related to all these weirdos,” he teased.
“Blood and marriage. You chose to be here. So, who’s the real weirdo?” she grinned.
He leaned down, intent to take her mouth with his own, before remembering that Eva’s father was standing next to him.
“Soooo,” Franklin drawled staring at them. “Anything you want to tell your father, Evangelina?”
Donovan looked at Eva, trying to telegraph his mental panic.
“Dad, Donovan and I are dating,” Eva said, looping her arm through Donovan’s.
Franklin nodded, considering. “I actually found out through that spot of investigative journalism Anthony wrote up in The Weekly Monthly Moon,” he said amicably.
“Sorry, Dad,” Eva grimaced. “I should have told you sooner. It’s been a crazy few days.”
“I’m used to getting the news on Facebook rather than hearing it from the mouths of my daughters. Donovan, you’re a lucky man. Eva, try not to screw this up.”
“Dad!”
It was as much of a blessing as he needed. With a grin, Donovan silenced Eva’s protest with a smoldering kiss.
“Geez, guys. Can you do that somewhere else?” Evan asked. Donovan reluctantly pulled back from Eva’s sweet mouth and caught the kid rolling his eyes.
Niko slapped a hand on Evan’s shoulder. “Not too long from now, Evan, you’re going to be finding things to do somewhere else, too,” he predicted.
Gia appeared out of nowhere and covered Evan’s ears. “Nikolai Vulkov, don’t go putting ideas into his head!”
“Mom, I’m thirteen. The ideas were already there,” Evan argued. “I’m just way more mature about it than all of you.”
“He’s not kidding,” Gia sighed, letting her son wiggle out of her grasp. “He’s so grown up. He’s not going to need me anymore.”
Phoebe put an arm around the lamenting Gia’s shoulders. “Honey, they’ll always need you,” she predicted.
“Mom! How long should the soup simmer?” Beckett called from the porch.
“Mom, did you bring cornbread?” Jax demanded.
“See?” Phoebe said.
Donovan draped an arm over Eva’s shoulder. “I feel like we’re looking at our future,” he predicted.
Wordlessly, she cuddled into his side, resting a hand over his heart, and everything felt just about perfect again.
It got even better ten seconds later when Clementine the goat, cool as a cucumber, ambled by and ducked behind a tree.
“Shouldn’t we—” Eva gestured toward the camouflaged goat.
“Oh no,” Donovan shook his head. “Let’s just let nature take its course.”
The damn goat had the patience of a four-star general and bided her time until Jax was inhaling a slice of cornbread the size of his forearm. He never saw it coming.
“Watch out, Uncle Jax,” Aurora shouted with glee. But it was too late. Clementine head-butted him in the gut, and as he doubled over, she caught him in the face with a toss of her head.
“Ouch! What the fuck!”
Quick as a ninja, Clementine snatched the cornbread out of his hand and trotted over to Joey.
Jax, clutching a hand over one eye, glared at his wife. “You said you’d untrain her!”
“I’ve been busy! We have kids and horses and…”
“Your bodyguard goat just punched me in the face over cornbread!”
Whistling cheerfully, Carter slipped a halter over Clementine’s beady-eyed head.
“And you! You insist on keeping this monster around.” Jax pointed wildly at Carter.
Carter held up his hands. “Man, I can’t help it if she hates you. She likes everyone else.”
“Mom!” Jax yelled.
Phoebe sighed. “A mother’s work is never done.”
Joey, trying to hide her laughter, hustled into the house to get ice for her husband’s face.
“If you’re my friend, Cardona, I want you to shoot that stupid goat right now!
--------
Post-goat attack, the apple butter boil was everything Eva hoped it would be and more. Jax—with his new black eye blooming—orchestrated a football game with the kids, his brothers, and the ever-competitive Emma and Joey. More bottles of wine were opened, more food brought out, and the apples slowly cooked down under the heat into a soupy mixture.
Seeing her sisters and father relax and enjoy themselves reinforced Eva’s decision to keep her current woes to herself. She could just imagine what dropping the Mom Bomb would do to their little festive picnic. It would be a disaster, ruining the day they were all enjoying.
She let Donovan distract her, and together they shared a steaming bowl of soup and the easy touches of a couple. He was attentive and sweet and so damn sexy. When he rolled up his sleeves to take a turn stirring the apple concoction with the long wooden paddle, she stared at him over the shoulders of her sisters and friends as she caught up with everyone. She cuddled her niece Lydia and let Meatball the beagle fall asleep with his droopy head in her lap.
When Donovan stretched out in the grass next to her, she fed him pieces of Phoebe’s cornbread while they watched the sun sink lower on the horizon.
“I love it when we’re all together like this,” Eva admitted, leaning back against Donovan.
“How many kids do you think we’ll have?” he asked, twirling a blade of grass between his fingers.
“Donovan! You are ridiculous. I’m still waiting on our first date.”
“I’m only asking because I was an only child. I thought it would be fun to have more kids, like the Pierces.” He nodded toward the brothers who were picking on each other, using the familiar arts of headlocks and name-calling.
“Fine. We can have two then,” Eva laughed, going with the moment.
Donovan stiffened beneath her and then relaxed. “Talk like that is going to get you a ride straight to the justice of the peace, Evangelina,” he warned.
She shivered at the heat in his tone.
“When can we get out of here? To have sex, I mean, not get married,” she corrected herself.
“If you don’t want any apple butter, we can go right fucking now,” Donovan said, already rising to his feet.
Eva giggled and let him pull her off the ground. She felt giddy as if Donovan and the day had pushed away all of the bad that had been closing in on her. The bad that had sent her a note that said simply “Sunday.” It was Agnes’s deadline for Eva to cough up the ten thousand dollars. She didn’t have a plan yet, but she would, and then the woman would be out of her life forever.
“Maybe we could just go find a nice quiet cornfield or a barn,” she suggested, a new need revving her system with anticipation.
“Is this research, or do you really want to have sex in a barn?”
“Everything is research, and yes, I really want to have sex in a barn,” she laughed.
He was dragging her across the drive to the little red barn when a candy apple red pick-up truck eased up the drive.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Donovan breathed, stopping in the middle of the lane.
“Who is it?” Eva asked.
The horn tooted and the driver waved out his window.
“My parents.”
The truck came to a stop and was immediately surrounded by the horde of Pierces.
“Surprise!” the woman in the passenger seat called through the open window.
Whoops and greetings were shouted out as the couple climbed out of the truck.
Donovan had the long-limbed blonde woman in a ball cap in his arms and dangling off the ground half a second after she stepped out of the cab of the truck.
The family resemblance was strong and got even stronger when the silver fox with a tan and well-fitting jeans ambled around the hood.
&nbs
p; For the first time ever in Eva’s experience, Donovan was speechless.
Phoebe was grinning maniacally, and Eva knew she had something to do with the surprise.
Donovan dropped his mother gently to the ground and embraced his father in a one-armed hug.
“What are you two doing here?” he asked, his voice gruff with emotion.
“You think we’d miss a planetary crossing in Blue Moon?” his mom laughed.
“You did not come back here to hold my hand while I do my job,” Donovan said.
“No, you dope,” she grinned up at him. “We came back because we missed you. And we heard the Apple Butter Boil was resurrected.”
Donovan swung around to face Phoebe. “You?” he asked.
She shrugged innocently. “I missed them as much as you did. Plus, I figured you might have someone you’d want to introduce them to,” she said, shooting a pointed look in Eva’s direction.
He wrapped Phoebe in a one-armed hug and kissed her on the top of the head before releasing her.
He reached for Eva’s hand. “Mom, Dad, there is someone I want you to meet.”
“There’s a lot of someones,” his father said, scanning the crowd. “I’m only recognizing about fifty percent.”
“Well, start here,” Donovan said. “This is Eva, my girlfriend. Eva, these are my parents, Michael and Hazel.”
Hazel’s eyes widened marginally, but it was the woman’s only outward sign of surprise that showed. She still had cop written all over her in her straight-as-a-lance posture, and the way she took in everything without reacting to it.
“It’s great to meet you,” Eva said.
“Real nice to meet you, Eva,” Hazel said, offering a firm shake.
“Well, hello,” Michael said, all wolfish charm.
“Dad,” Donovan said warningly.
Hazel punched her husband in the shoulder. “Don’t pick yet. Let her get to know you before she has to deal with your flirtations.”
“Anything you say, my bride,” Michael said, winking in his wife’s direction.
Hazel opened her arms to Phoebe. “It’s about damn time I see your face again,” she said.
“It’s about damn time you came back from the west coast,” Phoebe countered, wrapping her friend in a bear hug.
“You got any wine around here? Where’s Elvira?” The two women linked arms and wandered off.
“It’s good to see you, Dad,” Donovan said.
Michael slapped a hand on his son’s back. “It’s mighty good to see you, son. We’re staying with you by the way. Hope you have clean sheets.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The banter between the Cardonas fascinated Eva. They had their own language interspersed with call codes and memories of Blue Moon past. She liked seeing him with his family, seeing how he’d become the man he had.
But it also gave her a little tickle of doubt. Donovan came from solid stock. A sheriff and a fire chief, heroes by profession and good citizens by practice. While Eva’s father was above reproach and just about as perfect a human being as one could get, points were lost on her mother. A child-abandoning drug addict who repeatedly bilked her youngest daughter for money? That could be reason enough to make Donovan and his parents think twice about welcoming her with open arms.
She left them to their conversation, each taking turns at the kettle paddle, and wandered over to where Joey was drumming her fingers on the picnic table and staring at the front door.
Eva sat down next to her. “You look like you’ve got something on the brain.”
“Don’t try to mine me for novel plotlines,” Joey said, without taking her eyes off the front door. “Reva’s in there getting ready for Homecoming. Emma’s doing her hair.”
“And why are you out here?”
“She said my pacing was making her nervous.”
Eva grinned. “Are you nervous?”
Joey gave a sullen, one-shouldered shrug. “This is the first big thing for her since she moved in with us. I want it to be great, perfect even.”
“What’s there to worry about?”
Joey shot her a look. “How long has it been since you were a teenager? Or did you block out those years?”
“Right. I forgot. Unpopularity, parents who just don’t get you, sweaty boys with roaming hands…”
“Exactly. Reev’s had enough shit in her life. She deserves the good stuff now.”
“Donovan said the P.I. tracked down Sheila,” Eva prompted.
“Yeah, and you know what that fucking shitbag of a douche mother did?” Joey said.
Eva blinked. “I’m guessing it wasn’t good.”
“She said she’d sign the papers for twenty grand.”
“Jesus.” Eva blew out a breath. The situation hit just a little too close to home for her.
“I mean, can you imagine a mother extorting her kids for money?”
Eva shook her head. “No.” Yes. She could and without trying too hard either.
“Anyway, Jax was reaching for his checkbook—I love that man. He’d do anything for anyone. But Cardona stepped in. He said if we pay her off this once, she’ll just keep coming back. Even if she makes promises or signs papers. It won’t be the last time. She’d always be in our life or worse, in theirs.” She nodded toward where Caleb and Aurora were chasing Waffles the tireless dog around a tree. “He says the only thing that’s going to work is a no.”
Damn it all to hell. Where had Donovan been the first time she’d scraped out the last forty bucks in her meager checking account in college so her mother could fill her tank to drive to Philadelphia? Agnes had come back every time, always needing more. And every damn time Eva had caved. Until now. Now was the time to finally clean up this mess. She just didn’t know how.
“So, what did you do?” Eva asked, focusing on Joey.
Joey grinned. “Told her to fuck off and threatened her with prison for child neglect and abandonment. Papers were signed and are being overnighted. We told Reva today, and she got pretty choked up. In the good way… I think. We’re going to look at colleges next weekend.”
Eva grabbed Joey in a hard hug. “You, my friend, are a mom.”
Joey shook her head slowly. “I know. I can’t fucking believe it. And my daughter is in there getting ready for her first big thing, and I’m so nervous for her I might puke.”
Eva slid down the bench putting a few inches between her and Joey. “You just give me fair warning if that happens.”
Summer and Carter’s front door opened, and Reva appeared on the porch. She did a slow turn in her midnight blue dress to the whistles and the applause of the crowd in the yard. The sequined bodice caught the sunlight, and the flirty tulle lifted as she spun. Her hair, that lovely doeskin brown, was swirled up in a sassy updo courtesy of Emma’s competent fingers. Summer had outdone herself on Reva’s makeup. It was perfection. Light and bright and highlighting her youth and natural glow.
Joey was damn near chewing through her lip to keep from crying. “Shit. Why does it feel like my chest is caving in?” she muttered.
Eva patted her friend on the back. “I think it’s just love.”
Jax, on the other hand, was having an entirely different reaction.
He stormed up to the foot of the porch steps. “No. Oh, hell no. You’re not going anywhere like that!”
For a moment, Eva thought he was joking. But one look at his panicked face, and she knew he was dead serious.
“Jackson,” Joey said, standing up from the table. “Chill out. She’s practically an adult.”
“I can see that. The whole world can see that in that dress,” Jax argued, pointing accusingly at Reva’s dress. “It doesn’t even have straps! You’re not leaving this house dressed like that.”
Two months ago, Eva thought, Reva would have hung her head and shuffled back into the house. But her time with Jax and Joey had rubbed off on her. She put her slim hands on her hips and stared Jax d
own. “Yes, I am,” she said calmly.
Jax blinked at his daughter and then turned his rage on Joey. “You see this? This is your fault! She sounds just like you!”
“Me? You’re the one acting like a fucking moron. Sorry, Cale,” she said, tossing an apology at Reva’s little brother.
“That’s okay,” he said, waving amicably at Joey.
“I’m not acting like a fucking moron. Do you have any idea what 17-year-old boys are like?”
“If you’ll recall, I remember perfectly what they’re like,” Joey said, drilling a finger into his chest. “And from where I’m standing, late twenty-somethings aren’t much better!”
“Reva, you look lovely,” Phoebe said, stepping in to smooth it over. Caleb skipped over to her to get away from his shouting parents.
“Thanks, Gram. Joey helped me pick the dress,” Reva said, smoothing her hands over the skirt.
“You put her in that?” Jax shouted at his wife.
“Excuse me, but last time I checked, you didn’t want to go dress shopping because it was a ‘chick thing.’ So, if you don’t like this gorgeous dress that our gorgeous daughter picked out, you can just shut your damn eyes and your mouth and give the rest of us a break.”
Eva wasn’t sure if anyone else had caught the “our daughter” remark. Their family was so new that they were all still trying to get used to the relationships. On the steps, Reva was standing open-mouthed, watching the argument unfold, a pretty flush on her cheeks. Eva wondered what it must feel like for the girl. Going from being discarded by her own mother to being welcomed into—and maybe a little smothered by—a new family as if she’d belonged there the whole time.
It made her eyes just a little glassy with happiness for the girl who was loved. It’s what the Pierces and Blue Moon did. They welcomed people into the fold, blood or no blood, and made a place for them. They’d made a place for her, too, and in that place, she’d found Donovan.
And for the first time in her adult life, the pieces of a child’s broken heart were starting to mend themselves.
Donovan appeared at Eva’s side and sighed heavily.