4. Oliver
“What were you thinking, man?” Stone sat beside me, shaking his head, clearly amused at my expense.
I sat in a spot that gave me a perfect view of Eva Vargas and her beautiful, sexy scowl. It was the only thing I was thinking about as I stared at her. She was angry as hell. Even angrier than I had imagined she would be. But I wasn’t sorry about any of it. The woman was absolute gold when she was all riled up the way she was. I couldn’t help but smile.
“I wasn’t thinking anything, honestly. But I didn’t think she’d get quite so hysterical about it.” It was another vote against having a relationship. Women were unpredictable, prone to screaming or crying over every little thing. Who needed that kind of drama in their already uncomplicated lives?
Stone’s brown eyes went as wide as saucers. “Hysterical? You called her entire industry a sham and then you accused her company, by name , of fraud. Did you think she would send you a cookie basket minus the cyanide?” He shook his head, genuinely shocked. “That’s cold, man. Even for you.”
I blinked, surprised by his words and the effect they had on me. “Even for me?” I had my flaws, but I didn’t go out of my way to cause anyone harm. At least, I didn’t think so.
“Sure.” He nodded and leaned back in his seat, gaze drifting over to Sophie every once in a while. Not so that it was noticeable, but if you knew to look for it, you could spot the looks every time. “You do all kinds of things to get a rise out of Eva. We used to think it was because you liked her, in the third-grade kind of way. I mean, she’s gorgeous and curvy, and driven as hell. Of course you like her. But what you did today, well, that makes things pretty damn clear. For everyone.”
Clear? “Well, none of this is clear to me.”
Stone laughed and nodded to the table Eva occupied with her posse of four. “Guys kept their distance because they thought you were… staking your claim. Since that podcast makes it clear you aren’t, it’s open season.”
Open season. On Eva. I looked up and, sure enough, she was flirting with Billy the firefighter. “I thought she came from a cop family. Isn’t her cousin a deputy over in Tulip?”
Stone quirked a brow. “How would I know?”
Good point. I shrugged. “I thought everyone knew, especially you since Sophie’s family basically owns that town.”
He shrugged. “She’s not close with her family, except her cousin Preston. He’s normal, apparently.”
“Can people that rich actually be normal?” I’d yet to meet anyone with even a little bit of money who wasn’t weird as hell.
“Sophie’s normal.”
“Mostly. Turning your back on that kind of money isn’t exactly logical.”
Stone shrugged again. “She’s normal to me.”
“Normal isn’t the word you’re looking for,” I mumbled under my breath and cast another glance toward Eva, now surrounded by about half a dozen firefighters.
“What was that?”
“Nothing,” I said just as Tonya made her way over with a tray neither of us had ordered. “We didn’t order anything.”
“Of course you didn’t, silly. These are from Eva. Sex on the Beach,” she said in her thick Texas drawl. “Overrated, messy, over too soon, and you need a lot of booze just to make it to the end. Much like a night with you, she said.” After delivering Eva’s message, Tonya flashed a cutesy smile and walked away, swinging her hips to let me know there were no hard feelings.
Stone laughed his fool head off. “Damn, she is such a firecracker.”
“Sounds like you’re the one who likes her.”
“Of course I like Eva. What’s not to like?”
Exactly. “Then why aren’t you over there?”
Stone stared at me. “Because I know that you’re just an idiot, and when you come to your senses, I won’t be the guy who stole your girl.” To prove his point, Stone took one of the shots and turned toward the table where the women sat, raising the glass in the air. “Cheers, ladies!”
“Cheers!” They all shouted back in unison, a smile for Stone and a glare for me. Even from Tara.
“Damn, she’s really mad,” Stone said when he caught sight of the hate-filled scowl Eva sent my way.
“She won’t be forever,” Sophie said, startling the hell out of me. Stone, of course, knew she was close by because he had some kind of weird radar where she was concerned. “Not that you wouldn’t deserve forever.”
I looked up at Sophie Worthington, who never had a bad word to say about anyone, and found her glaring at me, betrayal burning in her light brown eyes.
“It just kind of, I don’t know, came out.”
Her shoulders fell in disappointment and I felt like I’d failed some important test. “Right, then. I guess that’s my answer. Enjoy your night, fellas. I’ll see you in the morning, Stone.” Her hand lingered on his shoulder and Stone was frozen in the moment, relaxing only when her fingertips no longer touched him.
“You even pissed Sophie off,” Stone accused. “And that’s pretty much impossible.”
He was right. Sophie was notoriously kind and forgiving, even to the worst gossips Pilgrim had to offer. “Screw this!” There was no way in hell I’d sit around and let the women in town treat me like some kind of leper. I stood and turned toward Eva’s table. If I was going down, it would be in a spectacular blaze of glory. I marched over there, Stone at my side—for the moment, anyway—and stopped at their table. “Excuse me.” I stood right beside Eva’s chair and watched in amazement as she continued to ignore me.
“I’ll trade you the red wine sauce for your spicy marinara,” she said to Sophie, who took a moment to decide, shrugged, and made the swap. “Thanks.” She nibbled the deep-fried mozzarella stick and dipped it in the chunky red sauce. “Perfect.”
“Excuse me,” I said again, this time a little louder to cover up the harsh sound of desire in my tone.
Eva turned a slow, angry gaze at me, just in case I thought she might have forgotten her anger in the past thirty minutes. “What do you want?”
“I didn’t realize you’d get so upset.” It was the shittiest thing to say to start off, but up close, those gray eyes short-circuited my brain.
Eva sucked in an outraged breath and her nostrils flared. “Just go away, Oliver. Please.”
I stared at her for a minute, waiting for the playful smile with the hint of evil or the fun banter that always existed between us, but it wasn’t there, not this time. It was just anger—real anger. Totally justified anger, it seemed. “I’m sorry.”
She laughed, and the sound was bitter and hollow. “You’re not sorry, and you don’t need to be. I always thought you were just cynical and shallow, but now I see it’s more than that. Which means I can stop expecting more of you.”
Ouch. I pushed aside the shallow and cynical part and folded my arms, flashing a smug smile. “Yeah? Do tell, please. Enlighten me.”
Eva stood and her grey eyes stared right through me as she put both hands on her hips, lips fixed into a straight line. “It’s one thing to hate relationships—plenty of guys do, or at least pretend they do.” A few of the women added their agreement to the chorus, drawing a glare from me. “But to actively work to convince other people to stay away from dating and love and commitment? Well, that’s someone who’s been hurt. Badly. So bad, you decided you were never going to love again, never let someone get close to you enough to hurt you.” Satisfaction flashed in her eyes as she hit her target with impressive accuracy. “Instead of just following the path you laid out for yourself, you decided you needed to take all of mankind along with you. Everyone needs to be miserable like you are, and I’m the wicked bitch standing in their way… no, I’m the fraud trying to steal their money by conning them. That’s what you said, isn’t it?”
I nodded.
Eva nodded back and then shook her head. “So, please, don’t tell me you’re sorry when you named my business and called us a fraud on purpose. So much for that Pilgrim community spirit, right?” Disgusted, she shook her head and walked away.
I stood stock-still, reeling from her words. From her assessment of me. Was that how she saw me? Was that how the people of Pilgrim saw me? I looked around at accusing and judgmental stares, knowing I’d lost this battle and had to make it right.
“What can I do?”
Eva stopped in her tracks and took her sweet time turning to face me. When she did, her gaze was blank as she took me in, trying to decide if I was sincere or not. Decision made, she nodded. “Sign up for Time For Love for thirty days. Give it a real, honest-to-goodness shot, and if you don’t find love, you can continue on your merry, loveless way.”
“And if I do?”
She smiled. “ When you do find love, all I want you to do is write one article for Your Best Bachelor, giving your readers tips on how to romance a woman.”
I scoffed at the bet. At the terms. At Eva’s certainty. “That’s all?”
Eva nodded. “It’ll be more than plenty, I’m sure.”
“If you’re so sure, then you won’t mind upping the stakes a bit.”
“Not at all.”
Perfect. “I want you to be my personal concierge or whatever, to walk me through the matchmaking process. Personally. To make sure I’m giving it the old college try.”
“Fine.”
“And when I don’t find love, you’ll write an article telling your readers and mine about the benefits of singlehood.” That might be a bridge too far, but it might also get me out of this crazy bet.
“Done,” she said easily—so easily I started to worry. “See you Monday afternoon. One o’clock sharp.” Then, with a satisfied smile, as if that was what she’d wanted all along, Eva sauntered off.
Victoriously.
* * *