How Long Is Forever?

by Erin M. Leaf

  “You sure seem to know what you’re doing,” Eva couldn’t help saying. She idly wondered how many women he’d had sex with, and then mentally slapped herself. You know better than to go there, she thought, annoyed with herself.

  “It’s easy when it’s with you,” he said, but then he frowned.

  “What?” Eva asked as a trickle of unease slipping through her. Don’t make problems where there aren’t any, she told herself, but it didn’t help. Why the hell was he frowning right after they’d done the deed? She glanced down, wishing they weren’t on top of the comforter. Suddenly she wanted to cover up her jiggly stomach. “Is something wrong?”

  Charlie shook his head. “No, nothing. Nothing’s wrong.” He smiled at her again.

  Eva stared at him, but he seemed okay. She didn’t know what that frown had been about, but she took a deep breath and talked herself out of worrying about it. I’ll probably obsess over it later, but right now, I deserve to enjoy the afterglow, she told herself, like a grownup. Because she was an adult woman, and she’d just had sex, and it had been awesome. She wasn’t going to spoil it by acting like a petulant teenager.

  “I’ve got a sudden craving for burgers. And beer,” Charlie said, tucking her head below his chin where she couldn’t see his expression.

  “I have some in the freezer,” Eva suggested, glad she’d done a grocery run that morning. The butterflies in her stomach didn’t quite settle, but they faded a bit.

  “Sounds like a date,” Charlie said, yawning. The arm around her waist grew heavier as his muscles relaxed.

  Well, he can’t be too upset about anything if he’s on the verge of falling asleep. Eva smirked. She’d heard that men tended to conk out after sex, and lo and behold, it seemed to be true. “Nap first, then food,” she told him, closing her eyes, too.

  Charlie murmured incoherently, and the next thing Eva knew, she had two hundred and some pounds of snoring male slumped against her. She didn’t mind.

  She didn’t mind at all.

  Chapter Eight

  The next morning, Charlie drove to work late for the first time since he’d founded his construction company with his cousin. And RJ is sure to tease me about it until I threaten to pound him, he thought, pressing his lips together at the idea of having to explain what he’d done. RJ would probably be elated that Charlie had finally met someone he could fall in love with, but what the hell did he know? The man was divorced. His kids were all grown up. He was happily single, the bastard. He wasn’t in danger of falling for someone over a decade his junior.

  Charlie shook his head, dispelling the negative thoughts. He should be happy. He’d gotten laid for the first time in forever, with a girl he really liked, even if she was too young for him. He’d woken up in Eva’s bed early enough to get to work on time, but her sleepy warmth had distracted him, and they’d made love instead of getting up. When Eva had seen the time, she’d shrieked and dashed out the door, leaving him to lock up. It had been just as well. Saying goodbye would’ve been incredibly awkward, otherwise.

  “I’m going to have to keep things low-key,” he muttered, hoping to God she understood why he couldn’t let himself get too serious with her. Eva had her whole life ahead of her, and she deserved some guy her own age. She deserved to love, and be loved, by someone who wasn’t crusty and old and worn out. He snorted. Okay, so he wasn’t quite worn out at thirty-five, but compared to her? Compared to her, he had one foot in the grave. You shouldn’t have touched her, a voice in the back of his head accused.

  Charlie grimaced, then pulled into the gravel lot that housed Greenwood Construction. He and RJ had started the company as an all-around contracting firm, but after they’d built a tiny home for a guy who lived in upstate New York, they’d ended up specializing in custom tiny homes and campers. He couldn’t say he wasn’t happy about it. He loved building things with his hands, and he loved making unique objects, and it had all sort of spiraled out from there. RJ, his older cousin, had been the guy who’d taught him most of what he knew about wood and metal, and he’d been all for it when Charlie had proposed the company idea to him. RJ’s twin son and daughter worked for them, too, so he supposed it was a family company, of sorts. It wasn’t what he thought he’d ever be doing after he quit the rat race as a financial analyst, but he certainly wasn’t complaining about it.

  “You are so late, Charlie!” RJ said, walking out of the large red barn. He stood the same height and carried the same kind of muscle as Charlie, but his short beard was almost entirely silver, and he was balding enough that he liked to wear a bandana on his head to keep the sun off his scalp. Today’s pick was red. He propped a pair of shades on his head as the morning sunlight slanted across his face. “First time you’ve ever been late to work. You must’ve met a woman.” RJ grinned, clearly joking.

  He’s going to keel over when I tell him it really was a woman, Charlie thought, half embarrassed and half amused. “Hey, RJ,” he called, getting out of his truck. He slammed the door and leaned back against it, aiming for casual nonchalance about his late arrival. “You’re looking particularly decrepit this fine Monday morning. How’s that arthritis? Did you fall out of bed again this morning?”

  “Decrepit? I’m only sixteen years older than you are, you little shit,” RJ said, laughing. His light eyes caught the sunlight, making the hazel color look almost green.

  Charlie rolled his eyes. “Yet, unlike you, I have all my hair. And I’m not exactly little.” He pushed off from the truck and sauntered towards the barn. “How are we doing on the little red house?”

  “Aiden and Sophie are already on the road with it. Delivery should happen late this afternoon,” RJ said, walking with him.

  “I never thought they’d end up working for us and liking it,” Charlie said, heading for the long metal table set at the rear of the barn. He and RJ kept the plans for their work there, along with an old coffee maker. He tilted his head, contemplating a cup of caffeine, but then decided against it. RJ’s coffee making skills were enough to scour the lining from his esophagus, and he wasn’t in the mood for that kind of trauma today.

  “Me neither,” RJ said. “But it’s nice having my kids working here. I like it. They’re good people, which is a minor miracle consider the crazy that is their mother.”

  “I like it, too,” Charlie said, still walking. He did not comment on RJ’s ex. The less said about her the better. He still couldn’t figure out why the man had hooked up with that woman in the first place. He stopped in the center of their barn, taking in the view. The cavernous space was open to the outside now that it was summer, and three different builds of various sizes were ongoing inside. He looked up, sighing as a couple of mourning doves fluttered down and out. They had a nest in the rafters. Seemed a weird sort of omen to him this morning.

  “Those birds are going to shit on the work, you know,” he said sourly, walking back to the work table. It was time to push Eva to the back of his head and get to work. Trouble was, his mind and body weren’t cooperating. Her scent lingered on his shirt. He could still feel her smooth skin on his fingertips. You’ve got it bad, he told himself, rubbing his thumbs against his forefingers.

  “Too bad. I am not shutting the barn doors in the summer,” RJ retorted, following him. “We’d die of heat exhaustion within the hour, and you know it.” He tapped a calloused finger on the latest plans. “Things are looking good. We’re ahead of schedule. Should be good to go for that trip we have planned later this season.”

  Charlie stared down at the paperwork, but all he could think about was Eva. Eva and her delicious ass. Eva and her soft, gorgeous skin. Eva and her wet pussy. Shit. Get a grip, man, he told himself as his cock twitched. He did not need a hard-on at work, at his age.

  “It’s a woman, isn’t it?” RJ asked, crossing his arms as he leaned a hip against the high table. “I’ve never seen you so distracted. Who is she?”

  Charlie scowled as his heart tripped a few beats. How the hell did RJ know? “I don’t kn
ow what you’re talking about,” he said, following the deny-deny-deny philosophy of life.

  “Please. I’ve known you since you were in diapers.” RJ grinned.

  “Ugh. Don’t remind me,” Charlie said, poking a finger at the plans on top of the pile. “Did we start on this one yet?”

  RJ huffed and snatched the sheet out from under Charlie’s hand. “We finished that one last week. That’s the one the twins are out delivering, remember?”

  Charlie frowned. He remembered. Really. He was just a little distracted.

  “What’s her name?” RJ asked as he rearranged the papers on the table.

  “No one,” Charlie said immediately. He had to head this off at the start, or he’d never hear the end of it.

  “That’s a unique name. How do you spell it?” RJ asked, eyes twinkling.

  He’s such a jerk. Charlie gave him a look. RJ stood there, smiling back at him amiably as if he wasn’t needling his cousin for kicks.

  “You realize you have a—” RJ broke off and waved at the side of Charlie’s neck.

  “A what?” Charlie asked, annoyed. He put his hand on his neck. Ah, hell, he thought, feeling his cheeks heat up. He hadn’t considered that Eva might give him a love bite. He hadn’t thought about much of anything except sinking into her tight heat. Neither of them had been thinking this morning, damn it.

  RJ smirked. “You really want me to say it out loud?”

  “For Christ’s sake, RJ—” Charlie began, but his cousin cut him off.

  “A hickey. A love bite. A big, whopping, giant—”

  Charlie flushed. “All right. I get the picture.” Shit. I must have missed it when I showered, not that I could’ve done anything anyway, he thought. It wasn’t like he was going to put on a turtleneck in the middle of the summer. His hands twitched, but he refused to poke at his neck anymore. There wasn’t anything to feel, anyway.

  “Who’s the girl?” RJ asked, folding his arms across his chest again. He leaned a hip against the table insouciantly. “And don’t try to lie to me. I could read you when you were a kid, and I can read you now.”

  If he starts whistling, I’ll have to punch him, Charlie thought, disgusted. They stared at each other for a moment, but then Charlie caved. If he didn’t, they’d be here all damn day. RJ was like a dog with a bone when he sensed something juicy. “Her name is Eva,” he muttered, wondering if RJ remembered her. He leaned back against the table, too, so he wouldn’t have to look his cousin in the eye. Damned family. Can’t live with them; can’t live without them.

  “Eva?” RJ stood up, eyebrows rising. “Little Eva Ruston? Phil’s little girl? You’re shitting me, right? Isn’t she, like, twelve?”

  Fuck. I guess he remembers her. Charlie scowled. “No, she’s not twelve. She’s a grown woman, you asshole,” he told RJ, thinking again of Eva’s amazing curves. She had a waist that was made for his hands. Tits that were made for his lips. And, lest he forget, she was also fourteen years younger than he was. I am so screwed it isn’t even funny.

  “She is?” RJ scratched at the stubble on his chin. “Huh. I guess you’re right. She’s living in that house all alone now, isn’t she? Poor girl. I suppose she’s technically a grownup, though,” he said, looking thoughtful for a moment, and Charlie really thought he was going to be cool about it, but then the man had to ruin it. He grinned at Charlie. “She’s a baby adult. You’re about a thousand years older than she is, aren’t you?”

  Charlie pushed off from the table and strode to the newest build so he wouldn’t strangle his cousin. “It’s nothing serious.” It couldn’t be, after all. He was too old for her. She needed someone young. Someone who wouldn’t keel over dead on her when she hit middle age. And, too, he wasn’t really the commitment type. He’d been happily single his whole life. One little blip on the radar wasn’t going to change that.

  “Uh huh. Not serious.” RJ trailed Charlie, then watched him strap on a utility belt. “Because you always get this defensive when it’s ‘not serious’.” He used air quotes to emphasize the words. “You’re funny when you’re all riled up, Charlie.”

  Charlie tossed him a disgusted look.

  RJ backed up a step, hands raised. “Just saying.”

  “She’s too young for me,” Charlie told him, picking up a sanding block. He started in on one of the cabinets he’d glued together last week. “She says she doesn’t care about the age difference, but she’s too young to know what it means. She doesn’t understand the consequences.”

  “And did you tell her that?”

  Charlie nodded. “Yeah. Of course.”

  RJ’s eyebrows flew up. “You’re crazy, Charlie. You don’t tell a woman that she doesn’t understand something. That’s just asking for trouble.” RJ laughed. “Damn. She must have been pissed.” He picked up another sanding block and helped Charlie smooth out the side of the cabinet.

  Charlie shrugged. “She wasn’t pissed when I left this morning.” Even though he knew he should keep his mouth shut, he had to brag just a little bit. He hadn’t had a girlfriend in years. He hadn’t felt like this in, well, ever.

  RJ hooted. “You dog!”

  Charlie scowled, angry with himself. “It’s not like that,” he told his cousin. He cursed himself internally for being an ass. Eva deserved better from him. He wasn’t going to be her one and only forever guy, but the least he could do was not be a disrespectful jerk. Luckily, he knew RJ was only teasing. His cousin was a nice guy. One of the nicest guys he knew, actually.

  “You seem awfully confused about what, exactly, it is,” RJ pointed out, sanding steadily.

  Charlie dropped his block on the table. “What it is, is a disaster. I’m an idiot, RJ. I should never have touched her.” He raked his hands through his hair. “She told me that she had never been kissed. Never been on a date, and then she asked me to kiss her. To show her what it was like.” He pinched his nose between his thumb and forefinger, frustrated that his body still found that hot as hell. He’d loved being Eva’s first guy. He’d love being the one to show her how good it could be. “And then one thing led to another. I knew better, but I went ahead and did it anyway.” Charlie stared at the cabinet. His hands were covered with sawdust. He couldn’t bring himself to meet his cousin’s gaze. “I’m so screwed, RJ. I don’t want to hurt her, but she’s so damned young. She needs someone her own age.”

  RJ stopped sanding and looked at him. “If I remember right, Eva lost both her mother and her father in a few short years. And she managed to finish college anyway, and now she supports herself. She sounds like the kind of woman who knows exactly what she wants, and if that person is you, maybe you should grab on to her with both hands and thank your lucky stars instead of pretending that you aren’t falling hard.” He gave Charlie a hard look. “Maybe you’re the one who isn’t grown up enough.”

  Charlie sighed. “She’s young, RJ. Really young.”

  “And you’re, what? Thirty-four? Thirty-five? And you think that’s old?” RJ made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. “I’m fifty-one, Charlie, and I’ve seen some shit. You know that. My ex was some kind of crazy. I raised two kids by myself.” He shook his head. “And your Eva has seen some shit, too, and come out the other side intact. She’s not a girl, not at her age, and certainly not after what she’s been through. She’s a grown woman, and that’s a fact, no matter that I enjoyed busting your balls over the age difference.” He snorted. “And here you are, trying to talk yourself into being an asshole. Don’t do it. I might just have to smack you upside the head if you keep it up. I’m not too old to kick your ass, you know.”

  “I just want what’s best for her,” Charlie said, irritated. He wasn’t an asshole. He wasn’t trying to become one, either. He was simply trying to protect Eva from things she didn’t know. From him. “I want her to be happy.”

  RJ started sanding again. “And you think that you making the decision about a relationship for her will do that? Huh. Interesting. Because it always works out so
well when a man tries to make a woman’s mind up for her.” He started whistling.

  Charlie scowled, but got to work, and fortunately RJ didn’t say anything more.

  ****

  Eva waited until the elevator doors at her office opened before allowing herself a tiny, little, indulgent freak-out. She was late for work, but that wasn’t what had her heart pounding in her chest. It was the memory of Charlie sliding his gorgeous cock inside her this morning, and the look in his eyes as he did it that had her overwhelmed and excited. And Kyra is going to see it all over me the moment I step through these doors, she thought, watching them open.

  Sure enough, the moment she sat down at her cubicle, Kyra sped over, all bright eyed and bushy tailed. “So? How did the date go?”

  Date? What? Eva thought, confused for a moment, and then she remembered the guy who’d run screaming from her in the restaurant. Eva swiveled around in her chair to face Kyra and scowled. “Your guy took one look at me and booked it out of the cafe. Thanks for nothing, Kyra,” she said, in full attack mode. Maybe if she was aggressive enough, Kyra wouldn’t notice her happy sex flush.

  “He did what?” Kyra’s eyebrows rose. “Seriously? But what about—” She pursed her lips and pointed to Eva’s neck.

  Eva stared at her, confused. “What?” She put a hand on her neck, but didn’t feel anything. What did that terrible date have to do with her neck?

  “You have a hickey,” Kyra said, laughing. She snorted as Eva flushed, and then, out of nowhere, Kyra sneezed all over her.

  “Oh, ugh!” Eva wiped her face. Kyra had impeccable aim. “That’s it. You are not my friend any longer. Gross.” She grabbed a tissue from her desk and thrust it at Kyra. “Wipe your nose.”

  “I’m sorry! I’m sorry. It’s just my allergies,” Kyra said, clutching the tissue. “Anyway, that’s not nearly as interesting as your hickey. Who, what, where, when, how?” she asked, eyes bright. “If the guy my mom set me up with ditched you, which, by the way, was a serious asshole move, how on Earth did you get a hickey?”