Chapter 18
‘That was fun,’ Evan said later as they walked home from the O’Sullivans’. They’d left with a large parcel of leftovers and a bag of paperbacks. Carmel had been delighted to discover that Evan was a big reader and had presented him with the first three books of her Bowfield Brothers series.
‘Thanks for coming with me. I really appreciate it.’
He shrugged. ‘I had a good time.’
‘Honestly? You didn’t mind it?’
‘Of course not. They’re really nice. And dinner was awesome.’
‘You were great with Charlie. Sorry he monopolised so much of your time. I hope it wasn’t a drag for you.’ After the movie, Evan had played Mario Kart with Charlie until it was time for him to go to bed, and then Charlie had begged for Evan to read him his story.
‘He’s such a cute kid.’ Evan’s smile was full of warmth, and it tugged at Mary’s heartstrings.
He was such a natural with children. There’d been none of that stiff awkwardness people who weren’t used to being around children often had.
He’d seemed like he was genuinely having fun playing with Charlie.
‘And Chuckles really liked you.’
‘Ah, well, I knew I had to get on his good side if I didn’t want to be peed on,’ he said with a laugh.
‘I was worried you’d hate every minute of it, and I was regretting being so pushy about making you come.’
‘Well, I’m glad you did.’
It was only nine-thirty when they got in. Mary wasn’t ready to go to bed, but she also didn’t want to crowd Evan. He’d done his bit being sociable, so it was only fair to give him some alone time.
‘Want to watch something?’ he asked, flopping onto the sofa and nodding to the TV.
‘Sure,’ Mary said readily. ‘I mean, if you like,’ she added. ‘You don’t have to. If you’d rather be alone…’
‘No, I’d like you to join me.’ He patted the sofa beside him invitingly.
‘Okay, then. Drink?’
‘Yes, please.’
‘What would you like? I’m going to have Bailey’s, but we’ve got most things.’
‘I’ll have Bailey’s too.’
Mary poured them both big measures, then joined Evan on the sofa, putting the bottle on the coffee table in front of them.
‘Let’s see what’s on.’ He pointed the remote at the TV and brought up the menu.
‘Oh, Sleeping with the Enemy is about to start,’ Mary said. ‘I love that!’
‘You do? Me too.’
‘Perfect.’ She took a sip of Bailey’s and sank back against the sofa cushions as the credits rolled.
They watched in companionable silence apart from murmuring the odd comment to each other, until it came to the scene where Julia Roberts was goofing around in the theatre, trying on a procession of different outfits as ‘Brown-Eyed Girl’ played on the soundtrack.
Suddenly tears were spilling down Mary’s face and there was nothing she could do to stop them.
Where the hell had that come from? She tried to brush them away surreptitiously, but Evan saw.
‘Hey! What’s wrong?’ He put an arm around her and pulled her into a hug. ‘Don’t worry. She’ll find an outfit that works any minute now, just wait and see.’
Mary laughed through a sob and swiped at her eyes.
‘Julia’s a tall, stunningly beautiful woman. There’ll be something that looks good on her, trust me.’
Mary giggled. ‘Stop making me laugh.’
‘Sorry. What happened?’ He frowned in concern.
She shook her head. ‘It’s just this—’ She waved her hand towards the screen. ‘It reminds me of my boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend.’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Seriously? Did he line up the canned goods in a creepy way? Rearrange the towel rail when you least expected it?’
She laughed. ‘No, it’s that song.’
‘“Brown-Eyed Girl”?’
‘Yeah.’ She wiped her tears away. ‘He loved that song. Whenever it came on the radio, he’d light up and want to dance around the room with me. He’d always sing along like the words had special meaning for him. And I knew they did.’ Her voice cracked on a sob.
‘So it was kinda your song?’
She shook her head. ‘That’s the thing. My eyes are blue.’
He nodded. ‘I noticed. Still, you can’t blame the dude for that. So you were his metaphorical brown-eyed girl. It’s not like he wrote it for you. Unless— Wait, was your boyfriend Van Morrison?’
‘No!’
‘I mean, you could do worse.’
‘He’s a bit old for me. And short.’
‘Irish, though. So you’d have that in common.’
‘We’d have lots to talk about definitely.’
‘Tayto crisps. Soda bread. Chocolate Kimberley biscuits.’
She sniffed. ‘It wasn’t our song. It was all about her. His ex.’
‘Ah! Let me guess. She had brown eyes?’
Mary nodded. ‘She was from El Salvador. Very dark. Beautiful.’
Evan pointed the remote at the TV to pause the movie.
‘The thing is, he never made me feel like I was “the one”, or even like I was in with a shot. I knew he wasn’t over her. He didn’t even pretend to be. He made it very clear over and over again that he was still hung up on her.’
When he’d heard that Juanita was getting engaged, Greg had even had the gall to come crying to her about it.
She’d been such a chump. She’d actually felt sorry for him and gave him a shoulder to cry on.
But she’d thought that was it, that he was having a cathartic experience and then he’d get over it and move on – with her.
She’d told herself it was closure. But deep down, she’d always known that Greg had never committed fully to their relationship.
He’d always kept one eye on the door, hoping his ex would come back to him. Then she did, and that was that.
‘He sounds like a jerk, if you ask me.’
‘Yeah. He was kind of a jerk.’
‘So what happened?’
‘His ex decided she wanted him back. So she came and got him.’
‘Just like that?’
‘She made this big romantic gesture. She left her fiancé, turned up at Greg’s door and made this speech about how breaking up with him was the worst mistake she’d ever made.
He was the love of her life and she didn’t want to waste another minute not being with him.
’ She huffed a bitter laugh. ‘She didn’t even make it up herself.
It was cobbled together from various romcom movies.
I recognised lines from When Harry Met Sally and Moonstruck.
I’ll never forgive her for that. She ruined some of my favourite movies for me. ’
‘What do you mean you recognised the lines? Your boyfriend relayed the whole speech to you?’ he asked, aghast.
‘No. I was there, in his apartment when she turned up. I heard the whole thing as it happened.’
‘Wow! That sucks.’
‘Tell me about it. There was also actual sucking when they started making out.’
‘They could at least have had the decency to wait until you’d left.’
‘What killed me about it,’ she told Evan, ‘was that it happened so close to Christmas, I thought I’d have no chance of getting home for the holidays. I was gutted that I’d given up Christmas with my family for nothing.’
‘But you managed to get a flight home.’
‘Yeah.’ She gave a bitter little laugh. ‘And look how that turned out. I needn’t have bothered.’ She gasped, realising how rude that sounded. ‘No offence.’
‘None taken. I get that this isn’t your ideal Christmas.’
‘Or yours.’
He shrugged. ‘I’ve had a lot worse.’
‘Anyway, it’s not turning out so bad,’ she said with a small smile, laying her head on his shoulder. ‘I’m glad you’re here.’
‘Me too.’ He pulled her closer. ‘Your hair smells nice,’ he murmured, leaning in and inhaling the scent of her shampoo.
‘Why are you smelling my hair?’ she gasped.
‘You said I could do whatever I wanted, remember? Do I need to put it on the chart?’
‘No, no need for that. Knock yourself out.’ She shivered as she felt his fingers in her hair, his light touch sending tingles across her scalp. Then he pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.
She lifted her head and something shifted between them as their eyes locked.
They were so close Mary could feel Evan’s breath on her face.
His arm was still around her, and she wanted to lean into it, to snuggle into the warmth of his body and rub her face against the stubble of his jaw.
His gaze dropped to her mouth and she knew he was going to kiss her, her heart racing in anticipation. He had such nice lips…
‘Mary?’ His fingers stilled in her hair and he pulled back a little.
‘Mmm?’ she murmured drowsily.
‘You want to watch the rest of the movie?’
‘Oh! Sure.’ She nodded, dazed as he broke eye contact and turned his attention to the screen.
He took his arm from around her shoulders and picked up the remote. ‘I think we both need to see this guy get his comeuppance, right?’
‘Definitely.’ She shifted away from him, sitting upright. ‘Sorry about the meltdown,’ she murmured.
‘No problem.’
The movie resumed playing, but Mary couldn’t concentrate on what was happening on screen.
She was too focused on trying to talk herself out of her gut-wrenching disappointment that Evan hadn’t kissed her.
But it was a good thing nothing had happened, she told herself.
She’d probably misread the whole situation anyway.
She’d had too much Bailey’s and she was feeling wobbly and in need of comfort after rehashing the whole thing with Greg.
It would have been a mistake to go there.
Evan was still heartbroken after his break-up with Olivia, and she did not need to get hung up on another man who was still in love with someone else.