Chapter 18 – Marcus
MARCUS
Ding.
Adrian: Did you ask her yet?
I groaned, rubbing my eyes. No, I had not asked her yet.
How did you ask the woman you had spent the last couple of months being an ass to on a date?
There was no way she was going to say yes, was she?
Sure, we had that moment in the kitchen a few weeks ago, but could she really see past that to give me a chance?
See past my fear and moronic overprotective behavior when she revealed her double identity and say yes?
Adrian: Man up and DO IT!
Fucking Adrian. That was the problem with knowing someone as well as we knew each other. He knew I was just sitting in my office instead of manning up and asking her.
Adrian: Do it now. Alexander and Sebastian are in the security room with me.
Adrian: She won’t say no.
It was now or never, I guess. I definitely didn’t want an audience of my brothers if she rejected me.
I stood up and smoothed down my tie. I had a few client meetings today, so I was in a suit.
The fabric felt more restrictive than normal as I reached for my office door.
Over the last few weeks since we had returned to the office after the gala, I had taken to working out of my office on the executive floor and not my usual one on the legal floor.
I could say the change of scenery was to be closer to my brothers, but I would be lying. It was to be closer to her.
I paused in the doorway. Evelyn was engrossed in something on her computer, typing furiously.
She had been subdued all day; the rigid set of her shoulders and the careful blankness on her face as she tried to compose herself were clear to us.
Adrian hadn’t shared much about dinner with his mom, except that it had gone well.
But if I had to guess, Melissa’s warm and caring nature brushed up against an old wound that Evelyn had from her parents.
Momma Melissa, as she told us to call her, was a warm, loving woman who was always there for Adrian.
Basically, she was the exact opposite of Evelyn’s parents, based on the stories Evelyn had told us.
Her parents had been neglectful at best and abusive at worst, in my opinion.
Melissa wouldn’t have meant to trigger her, but I could see her unintentionally triggering Evelyn.
And now Evelyn was trying to immerse herself in work to outrun her feelings instead of facing them. I would know. I was a master at it.
Evelyn glanced up at me as I approached. She flashed me a tired smile, but it reached her eyes, causing the gold flecks in them to sparkle. It was a real smile, not a fake one, and for some reason, that gave me more courage than Adrian’s words would ever give.
“I was wondering if you wanted to go out tonight?” I had planned on being smoother than that but just being in her presence had me off kilter.
“Like on a date?” Her fingers paused on the keyboard, and she leaned back in her chair to give me her full attention.
“A little bit like a date.” I tried to play it smooth.
“How much is a little bit?” she shot back, not letting me off the hook.
“Okay, exactly a date,” I conceded. I didn’t want to play games with her. I had already fucked this up enough. I wanted to be her anchor during these stormy times.
“Has ‘someday’ actually arrived?” she said, making air-quotes around the word “someday”.
What had started as a joke in the kitchen after Finch kidnapped me felt like a heavy weight in the air now. She was teasing me, I thought, but I still half expected her to say no. I nodded, and a small smile spread across her face.
“I would love that.”
I fought the urge to pump my fist and instead mirrored her smile with my own. “Great. Pick you up at seven?”
“That’s perfect,” Evelyn said.
The elevator doors dinged, and Sebastian stepped out. I backed away.
“I’ll see you later then.” I turned and walked to my office, acutely aware of Sebastian on my heels.
“What did you mean ‘see you later’? Did you finally man up and ask her on a date?”
“Did Adrian tell everyone?” I grumped, only half-meaning it.
I was behind the curve with Evelyn and needed all the help I could get. And who better than my Evelyn-obsessed brother? Although he wasn’t the only one.
“It was only a matter of time before you did.” Sebastian waved his hand dismissively in the air as he slumped into a chair in front of my desk. “So where are you taking her?”
“I’m not sure yet, actually,” I admitted. “I wasn’t even sure she would say yes.”
Sebastian’s brow furrowed. “Of course she would say yes.”
“I was an ass to her,” I pointed out.
He waved his hand again. “So? You apologized, and you’ve both moved on. Evelyn’s not one for games. She would have told you to take a hike if she hadn’t wanted to go on the date with you.”
Underneath his happy-go-lucky personality, it was easy to forget that Sebastian was probably the most emotionally mature one of all of us.
“If you’re sure,” I said slowly.
If anyone knew what Evelyn was feeling, it was probably Sebastian. If he could plant a bug inside her brain, he probably would have already. I had no doubt he had her apartment wired.
“I am.” Coming from Sebastian, Evelyn’s obsessive stalker, his reassurance carried a lot of weight. Maybe I hadn’t fucked this up as badly as I thought.
“Okay,” I said. “Any ideas for where I should take her? I was thinking about something with an activity instead of just dinner.”
He leaned back in his chair, his face serious as he thought.
“Preferably somewhere with sharp objects so if you piss Evie off, she has a weapon. Not that she probably isn’t already armed.
” Sebastian’s eyes glazed over like he was thinking about Evelyn drawing a knife on him. He was probably getting off to it.
“Whose side are you on?” I joked, drawing him out of his thoughts.
“Evie’s, obviously. Always hers.”
I really hadn’t expected a different answer. And to be honest, mine was the same. I just needed to show Evelyn that. An idea sparked in my brain, and I sat up straighter in my chair.
“Okay, out,” I directed Sebastian. “I have a date to plan.”
“I knew you would figure it out.” Sebastian grinned as he rose from the chair. “I won’t wait up.”
I shook my head at him, a smile on my face as I pulled up the internet browser on my computer. I had the perfect idea.
Fuck, was this a good idea? I held my breath as I pulled into the parking lot, eyeing Evelyn out of the corner of my eye as we parked. Her eyes lit up when she saw the sign and the symbols below it.
“Axe throwing?” She breathed out. “Really?”
“Really,” I confirmed. “I thought you might enjoy it.”
“I’ve always wanted to try it,” she confessed, “but I never had the time.”
“Well, I have a lane reserved for us for the next two hours,” I said. “And this place is supposed to have really good food as well.”
“This is perfect.” Her words warmed something inside of me, and when she tucked her fingers in my elbow, my heart picked up pace like I’d started running a marathon. Okay, this was good. I just hoped I didn’t fuck it up.
I guided her into the building. The check-in counter was right in front of us.
Behind it, on the right wall, a long bar ran at least half the length of the building.
It smelled like beer and fried food, and servers bustled back and forth.
The axe-throwing lanes were against the left wall.
The lanes were about twenty feet long with the target boards on the left wall and half walls stretching about ten feet from the wall for safety as well as to divide the lanes.
Evelyn’s eyes were wide and shining as she took it all in.
“Hi,” I greeted the teenage boy at the check-in counter. “I have a reservation under Marcus Stone.”
He checked the screen. “For the platinum package, right?” I nodded. “Gotcha down. Just need you both to sign these waivers.”
We accepted the waiver, and I read through it thoroughly. Evelyn waited patiently until I signed mine, and then she signed hers. I caught her twinkling eyes. “You can take the lawyer out of work, but you can’t take the lawyer out of the man,” she teased.
I laughed and handed the waivers back to the kid. “Just wanted to make sure you weren’t signing your soul away.”
“Frank will be out here shortly, and he’ll escort you to your lane,” the kid told us, and we stepped aside so the people behind us could check in.
A middle-aged man with a beer belly and a blue baseball cap pulled over his white bushy hair walked up to us. “Stone party?” he asked.
I nodded. “That’s us.”
“Right this way.” He gestured. “Got you set up in the back.”
He led us deeper into the building, past most of the lanes to a roped off, quieter section in the back. Only a few lanes of the ten back here were filled.
“Is this like the VIP section?” Evelyn asked curiously.
“Kind of,” Frank answered. “Our platinum package includes more than just axes, and we found it easier to set up this separate section, so the other lanes don’t try to take the knives.”
“We get to throw knives?” Evelyn bounced on the balls of her feet as Frank stopped in front of an empty lane.
“And throwing stars,” Frank said. “Now, let’s walk you folks through the safety brief, and then I’ll let you get to throwing.”
He ran through the safety brief, which was basically summed up by: Don’t get drunk and throw things at people.
Always throw from in front of the yellow line at the entrance to your lane.
Anyone not throwing had to stay behind the yellow lane.
Basically, use some common sense. It was clear from the examples he gave that not everyone did that.
He showed us where the food and drink menus were and walked us through the online ordering system, then he left us to get started.
We quickly placed our order for food and some mocktails.
“Why don’t you go first?” I said to Evelyn, gesturing towards the throwing lane.
“Are you sure?” she asked.