Chapter Four #2
This was how Eve had grown up. On the outside.
Trying to live a normal life while locals submitted op-eds to the newspaper about the disgraceful strip club on the outskirts of town.
Cat Fight had long been her father’s livelihood.
A place where Eve did her homework and helped program the lights, the music.
It was the establishment that put food on their table.
It was also the establishment that had driven her mother away while Eve was still young, the woman no longer capable of bearing the shame being heaped onto her head on a daily basis.
Unlike Eve, her older sister, Ruth, couldn’t withstand the judgment without a coping mechanism and she’d turned to drugs.
Though it wasn’t until Madden had discovered the children with Eve two weeks prior that he realized how serious Ruth’s addiction
had become.
Knowing better than to be caught watching Eve in a vulnerable moment, lest she lock him out even more, Madden made sure to
be sitting on the couch by the time she got back. She toed off her slides by the door but kept the hoodie on and sat down
across from him on a leather ottoman, tucking her hands between her knees. The red tint on her cheeks gave Madden the urge
to bring up the women at the bus stop. With an effort, he suppressed it, along with the impulse to reach out, grip her knees,
and drag her close until they were nose to nose, breathing each other’s air.
“What did you want to talk to me about?” she asked.
This was it. His opportunity. And he couldn’t help but feel like a farmer trying to block a rabbit from the exit. If she wanted
to find a way out, she would. She’d dart through his legs or run a figure eight and confuse him while she fled.
And if she knew his ultimate plan was to marry her—soon—she’d probably base jump without a parachute from the second-floor
window.
First things first. You can’t rush a miracle.
“A couple of nights ago, Skylar and I had an interesting chat,” he started.
Her back straightened abruptly, her chest moving up and down. “Did you?”
“Oh, I’d say so.”
Eve picked at a string on the hem of her shorts, grew agitated and stopped. “What did you talk about?”
“I’m more than happy to tell you.” Was she holding her breath? She seemed to be, but he couldn’t be positive. Hope could be
playing tricks on him. Hope that she cared for him a lot more than she’d been letting on over the years. “We decided to go
for a drink in town. As friends. But she called the night off in the parking lot, because she incorrectly believed we were
on a date. And she didn’t want to hurt Robbie.”
Robbie Corrigan was Skylar’s new boyfriend.
A hockey player with a past as colorful as his hair.
“You weren’t on a date, though?” Eve asked, shifting.
“No.” Madden shook his head and said it again. “No. We were not.”
Her throat looked to be stuck in the swallow position. “Oh.”
“I was taking her for a pint so we could talk about you, Eve.”
She quickly tucked some hair behind her ear. “Why . . . why me?”
“You know why.” Madden had begun making progress in her direction. Slowly. One step at a time. “I am not and I have never
been interested in Skylar. I think of her as a sister. But when she brought up this notion of us being on a date, I got to
thinking, Eve. Things started occurring to me.”
“Such as?”
“Such as . . . does Skylar think of me as more than a platonic brother type? Prior to meeting Robbie, of course.”
“I don’t know,” Eve blustered, as if she’d never pondered such a possibility.
Madden wasn’t buying it.
“See, I think you do know, love. She’s your best friend.” He was close now. Close enough to see the pink blotches that formed on her neck when she got hot or nervous. “Has Skylar been carrying a torch for me all this time? Answer honestly.”
“If that were true, I w-wouldn’t j-just betray her confidence like th-that,” she sputtered.
“She’s with someone else now. It’s serious.”
“What if it falls through?” she responded, worrying her lip.
Madden thought of the way Robbie, the wild-tempered, brick house hockey player, had reacted to finding out he’d taken Skylar
out on a “date.” Madden was lucky to be standing there with all his teeth. “You didn’t spend your spring break watching them
fall in love the way I did. I don’t reckon it’ll fall through.”
“What if it does?” Eve persisted.
“And then she goes back to liking me. That’s what you’re worried about.” Madden’s chest muscles knitted together and tugged.
Hard. He’d always had a sixth sense when it came to this woman, but he’d missed something important, hadn’t he? Yeah, it seemed
so. “Eve, answer me honestly. Have you been avoiding this thing between you and me, because your best friend had a crush on
me?”
She was already shaking her head. “No. What? No.” Then, she seemed to play back his statement, her expression verging on alarm.
“What thing between you and me?” she whispered.
“Now who’s gaslighting who?”
The tension grew thicker in the small, sunlit living room and he let it, because damn, it felt good. Not tiptoeing around
what he’d always known. What he’d known since the night of that graduation party. They were meant to be a lot more than friends.
“Madden . . .” Eve wet her lips. “I’ve gotten used to not having you.”
Christ, his heart almost screamed out of his chest. There it was.
The closest thing to a confession she would offer.
It might as well have been the keys to heaven.
He could work with that. “Get un-used to it,” he rasped, reeling over the proof he’d been right.
His gut, his head, his chest. All right, all along.
“Why would you put your own wants aside for so long, Eve?”
“Because she’s a better choice,” she said dully, slumping slightly as if something had finally been dislodged from her throat.
Madden’s irritation dropped like a volume knob being twisted to zero. “A better choice? Than you, Eve? I don’t understand.”
“Go to New York, Mad. Please.”
He’d pushed her today more than he ever had before. But he had nothing to lose at this stage and couldn’t fathom another four
years of pining, so he pushed a little more. “Tell me you feel something for me and I’ll go.”
When several seconds passed and Eve said nothing, he started to lose faith that she’d answer him. Then, salvation. “I don’t
remember a time when I didn’t,” she whispered, laying a hand over her eyes. “But I can’t give you what you’re looking for.
I’m not . . . right. For you. For this. We’re friends, Madden.” She dropped her voice to a pleading whisper. “Next time you see me, let’s pretend this never happened, okay?”
“Fuck that.” Madden charged forward, picking her up in his arms and holding her tight.
So tight while her breathing changed. Went from quick and erratic to deep, the side of her face very slowly pressing into the crook of his neck.
He stayed that way, holding Eve with her feet several inches above the ground, dust motes swirling around them, and he could have stayed that way forever.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m a fucking rock and you can’t dig me up.
You’d have to dig forever to find how deep I’ve buried myself when it comes to you, Eve.
I am not going to budge no matter what happens.
” Setting her down and walking away—for now—was the hardest thing he’d ever done, but he’d known Eve long enough to know he’d pressed her enough for one day.
“I’ll be back, love,” he vowed on his way out.
And he would.
He always would.