Chapter 18 – Marcus #2
“You’ve been practically vibrating with excitement since we walked in here, so yes, I’m sure.”
She grinned, and my heart skipped a beat.
The dark blue jeans she wore hugged her ass as she bent over to examine her options.
I dragged my eyes away before she noticed, then glared at a few frat boys a couple of lanes over.
They were smarter than they looked, because their attention immediately went back to their own lane.
Evelyn chose a smaller axe for her first throw. She stepped up to the yellow line and lifted the axe to behind her ear. Stepping forward, she released the axe, and it sliced through the air before landing at the bottom of the board with a solid thunk.
“I did it!” Evelyn exclaimed, her eyes shining as she turned back to me.
“I never had any doubt,” I assured her, smiling when she blushed.
She retrieved the axe and placed it back on the table. “Your turn.” She gestured to the weapons.
I selected a larger axe and stepped up to the line. It had been quite a few years since I had gone to a place like this. The last time I went was with some military buddies when we were on leave. Hopefully, I wasn’t about to embarrass myself.
I pulled my arm back and released the axe as I stepped forward. I swung it a little harder than I needed to, and the top of the axe hit the bottom of the board and clattered to the floor.
“Damn it,” I cursed quietly.
Evelyn giggled, and I realized then and there that I would miss the board every time if I got to hear her make that sound all night. Evelyn rarely let go, and the last few weeks had been especially rough.
“Want to make it interesting?” she said after we each threw some practice throws.
“What are you proposing?” I raised an eyebrow at her. She wanted to bet?
She bit her lip, thinking for a moment. “How about for every hit to the center of the board, we get to ask the other person a question?”
There were definitely things I wanted to know about her, so I nodded. Plus, I had looked up what to do on a first date earlier today and playing twenty questions was one of the suggestions. Lame? Probably. But I hadn’t been on a date in years, and I didn’t want to screw this one up.
“Agreed.”
She stepped up to the throwing line, sticking with the smaller axe she had been practicing with. Her throw was good but just an inch too far to the left of bullseye. She frowned but stepped aside so I could throw.
Thud.
My axe hit dead center, and her eyebrows flew up. “Holding out on me, Stone, until there was a bet going?”
I chuckled. “Maybe. I’ve got to stay on my toes around you.”
She rolled her eyes but smiled. “What’s your question?” She took a deep breath, her smile faltering and her shoulders tightening, like she was preparing herself.
“What’s your favorite snack?” I asked.
Her brow furrowed as her shoulders relaxed. She must not have expected an easy question. I wanted to know everything about her. Every secret. But I also didn’t want to ruin what we were building. So I was going to try to be patient. Key word there was try.
She blew out a breath. “Hmm, I don’t know if I have a favorite. I like cookies when I’m craving something sweet and trail mix when I’m craving something salty.”
I nodded. “I like pistachios,” I offered. “The little packets you can get on an airplane.”
She cocked her head like she hadn’t expected my answer. I wish I could read her like the others could. I would pay good money to know what she was thinking about our date so far.
“Your turn,” I said.
She stepped back up to the line. This time when she threw the axe, it sliced through the air, hitting almost dead center. She was a quick learner.
“What’s the most lawyerly thing you’ve ever done? Bonus points if someone rolled their eyes,” she asked with a smirk.
I laughed. “Someone, you mean, other than you?”
She placed a hand on her chest and gasped, although the twinkle in her eye meant she wasn’t actually offended. “Me? Roll my eyes? I would never.”
“Maybe not when you were just Miss Harper,” I teased. “Although Sebastian tested that a few times.”
“Only a few?” She arched an eyebrow, and I laughed again.
“Fair point.”
“Answer the question, Counselor.” She picked up her drink and took a sip.
I thought for a moment. “My mother banned us from playing Monopoly ever again after a particularly…spirited game about five years ago during the family holidays.”
Evelyn’s eyes widened. “I need so many more details. Right now.”
I chuckled. “Let’s just say it involved color-coded property folders, rent ledgers, and a closing argument to the banker, aka Alex, about unjust enrichment. You should ask Alex about it sometime. I don’t think he spoke to me for three weeks.”
Evelyn laughed, bright and genuine, her smile wide enough to steal the breath from my lungs. “That’s both unbelievable and totally believable at the same time, knowing you three.”
I grinned. “Believe it. Mom burned it in the fireplace and has refused to let another copy into the house since.”
It was my turn, and I threw my axe to land just inside of the bullseye.
“What’s your favorite board game?” I asked.
I wanted to know everything about her, but I also wanted to stay on lighter topics, so I didn’t ruin the date.
She tapped her chin as she thought. “Hmm, I haven’t actually played a ton of them,” she confessed.
“My family wasn’t really a board game family growing up, and then after everything, I never had time.
I enjoyed playing Twister with Sebastian, though.
” Her cheeks darkened with a rosy blush, and I bit back my grin.
Sebastian hadn’t said anything, but he’d walked around on air after that day, so I didn’t have to guess how the game ended.
“That’s a good game,” I said solemnly. “We’ll have to introduce you to some of our favorite games.”
“With whatever spare time we have,” she quipped, but her tone was tight. I knew she was frustrated with this weird holding pattern we’d found ourselves in with the FIA in town, but it was keeping her safe, and there wasn’t a lot I wouldn’t do to keep her safe.
“It’ll get better,” I promised, my voice low so no one could overhear. “They won’t be in town forever.”
She played with the edges of the menu, sighing heavily. “I know. And I don’t mean to keep bringing it up and bringing everyone’s mood down. It’s just hard to go from always being on the go to not being able to do anything.”
“You’re still doing a lot,” I comforted. “You just aren’t out in the field as much as you’re used to.”
“It’s not just that,” she confessed. “It’s that we’ve had to scale back our operations so much. I know there are people out there desperate and with nowhere else to turn. The Archers were already their last resort, and now we’re not able to help them either because of the eyes on us.”
“They won’t be in town forever, though,” I said. “And we’ll help you pick up the slack once they’re gone.”
“Mr. Black-and-White Lawyer is going to play on the dark side with us?” She arched an eyebrow. Her tone was teasing, but I could hear the uncertainty in it.
I knew my next words could either nurture the relationship we were slowly building or destroy it, so I picked them carefully.
“When we talked in the kitchen, I told you about my past and why lying is such a trigger for me.”
She nodded. Opening up to her about what happened in the military and the men I had lost was one of the hardest things I’d ever done, but it was necessary.
“After the military, Alex was still building SDS, and I was…floundering. I didn’t have an anchor, and I was still so angry at what my commanding officers had done.
It was Sebastian’s idea, actually, for me to go to law school.
And the law…it just made sense. It provided the order and structure that the military had, but I could use it to help people, not just hurt them.
It was like a life raft during that stormy part of my life, and I clung to it. ”
I swallowed roughly and stared at the grain of the table.
“I threw myself into it and didn’t resurface.
Not until we hired you.” Her breath hitched when I met her gaze.
“You didn’t even notice the effect that you had on the three of us when you were hired.
The four of us once Adrian joined SDS,” I corrected.
“You brought me back to life—brought us back to life—and you had no idea.”
She bit her bottom lip, and I held in a groan.
“I was trying so hard in the early days to impress you,” she confessed.
“At first it was just a job and a part I played, but I fell in love with the job, with…” She trailed off.
“I enjoyed the work, and the code of honor you four had was, well, refreshing, to say the least. I hated that part of it was a lie, but…” She looked down at her hands. “It wasn’t all a lie.”
I took a risk and reached across the table, covering her hands with one of my own and squeezing gently.
She flipped her hand up and interlaced our fingers when I went to pull away.
We didn’t say anything for a moment, but there was one question I had on my mind.
I hoped it wasn’t too much. I wanted to know the answer to help me better understand this amazing woman in front of me.
“Did you ever think the Archers would become this large organization working throughout the city?” I asked hesitantly.
Had she always wanted to do this? Did she want to keep doing it in the future?
She snorted. “No, I didn’t.”
We were interrupted by the arrival of our food, and I reluctantly let go of her hand as our server put the plates down between us. We had decided to share several appetizers, and the food smelled delicious. She waited until he was gone before answering.