Chapter 13 Evan
EVAN
It could always have been better.
There had been a particular drop in sales among healthcare companies, Evan noticed. He sipped his coffee, his mind spinning through potential reasons for the drop. Could they add a new feature, perhaps, or offer a discount on—
A knock on the door disrupted Evan’s train of thought. Annoyed, he called, “Just a minute!” then turned back to his screen, intending to work for much longer than a minute. Whoever it was would give up soon.
“Are you decent?” Mia’s familiar voice called through the door. Evan’s heart skipped when he heard it was her, but he was still too caught up in work.
“Yeah,” he called back as he scrolled again.
Behind him, he heard the door open and smelled Mia’s perfume, a mix of jasmine and something else that always made him remember their night together.
Then he felt a hand on his arm and looked up to see her standing beside him, dressed in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt with her hair pulled into two braids.
“Enough work,” she said. “Come on, we’re going to be late.”
“I have something important to finish,” Evan protested, gesturing at his computer. “After this, I’ll come. I promise.”
“Sorry, but that’s not good enough.” Mia took his hand and tugged gently, grinning. “You agreed to try to enjoy this vacation, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Evan grudgingly allowed himself to be pulled out of the chair, and Mia led him to his suitcase.
“We’re going cycling, so you may want to change.” She glanced at her phone and her eyes widened. “But hurry, because we were supposed to be downstairs five minutes ago.”
“Why did you wait so long to come get me, then?” Evan asked, grabbing a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and heading to the bathroom to change.
“Is that the point you really want to make here?” Mia asked.
He turned and saw her standing with her hands on her hips and her eyebrows raised.
Grinning, he shook his head and closed the door.
He could hear her humming on the other side as he changed.
How was she in such a good mood almost all the time?
Evan emerged a few minutes later, as ready for cycling as he was ever going to be. Still, he cast one more longing look back at his laptop before following Mia out the door.
“If you really must know,” she said as they hurried down the hallway, “I have a tendency to run late for things. I don’t know how it happens, honestly. It just does.”
“I guess that’s something I should know about you,” Evan said. “Although it was my fault this time that we’re late. You probably would have been on time if you hadn’t come to get me.”
“Nah. I have a knack for making myself late, even when everything is stacked in my favor.” She shrugged.
“So, this morning, I saw a drop in Reign’s sales among healthcare companies,” Evan said as they descended the stairs. “Do you have any idea of why that would be?”
“One, I’m sure you have people whose job it is to tell you that,” Mia said, holding up a finger. “And two, we’re on vacation. Even if you’re just thinking about work, it still counts as working. And you’re not supposed to be working.” She wiggled two fingers.
“Fine.”
They emerged from the villa into the bright Tuscan sunshine.
Only a few members of Evan’s family had decided to come on the cycling adventure: his father, Luka, Sarah, one of his aunts on his father’s side, and her three sons, Evan’s younger cousins.
They all looked surprised when Evan grabbed one of the bikes and joined them.
“Are you really coming?” Luka asked, leaning off his bike to punch Evan in the shoulder.
“It looks like it,” Evan said.
“Awesome.” Luka grinned, and Evan remembered the goofy smile from when they were kids. “Let me guess. This is Mia’s doing, isn’t it?”
The brothers glanced over at Mia, who was putting on her helmet and chatting with Sarah, a bike leaning against her hip.
“Yeah.” Evan shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Good.” Luka’s grin widened.
The guide walked through the group, making sure everyone had their seats properly adjusted and their helmets secured, then they set off.
The road began with a gentle descent from the villa, and Evan found that he enjoyed the fresh air and the scenery.
Just in front of them, Mia and Sarah were riding together.
Mia looked happy, as always. She rode easily, her legs effortlessly pushing the pedals, and she made little zigzags across the road until Sarah did the same.
“Hey, slowpokes!” Mia called back as the hill flattened. She glanced over her shoulder, grinning. “Race you to the top of the next hill!”
Evan wanted to protest, but Mia, Luka, and Sarah immediately put on a burst of speed, and he was caught up in the excitement.
They all pushed hard, and soon, Sarah fell back a little.
Luka managed to overtake Evan at first, but then Evan caught up to his brother.
As they neared the top of the hill, it was Evan and Mia battling it out for first place.
The hill was steep, and the sun was strong, but neither of them slowed down.
At the last minute, Mia edged out a victory and pumped her fist in the air.
“Yes!”
“Good job.” They came to a stop to wait for the others, and Evan leaned over to give her a high five. Mia’s eyes were sparkling and her cheeks had turned red from exertion, but she looked lovelier than ever. They were both breathing hard and grinning like kids.
“Hey, that was completely unfair,” Luka protested, pulling up beside Mia and Evan. “You and Sarah were ahead when we started.”
“Ooh, do we have a sore loser here?” Mia teased.
“It’s his doctor’s hubris,” Sarah said as she joined the rest of them. “He has a very competitive side that can’t be extinguished.”
“And you don’t?” Luka asked.
“Nope.” Sarah coasted past them slowly, pushing off with her feet. “I’m much more relaxed.”
“Is that so?”
Sarah edged to the hill. “Yep. And plus, I know that I’m going to win the race to the bottom of this hill!” With that, she pushed off and began to race down, having slowly slipped past them. The other three exchanged glances before pedaling as hard as they could after her.
This was fun. Even Evan could admit that.
Racing each other, stopping to tease and joke before pushing off again — it was fun.
He felt like a kid again, with no cares in the world but winning the next race and enjoying the wind in his face.
His heart was pumping, and his legs quickly began to ache, but it didn’t matter.
The best part was seeing how much fun Mia was having.
She was a natural leader, stepping up to organize different kinds of races.
“Who can go the longest without pedaling at all?” she asked, or “Who can reach that tree up there the slowest without putting their feet on the ground?” and generally keeping everyone entertained.
Evan’s cousins, who were all in their young twenties, joined in, too.
The first stop came as they were starting to tire. The guide led them into a vineyard, where they sat beneath an arch of vines at long wooden tables and snacked on grapes, cheese, bread with fresh butter, and wine.
“So, Mia,” Evan asked, holding up his glass, “what do you think of this one?”
“Come on.” She punched him lightly on the arm, grinning broadly. “You know that I have no idea. All of you have to stop asking me. Anyway, I’m not having any wine today. I need to focus on my cycling if I’m going to win.”
“Uh-oh, the competition is on,” Evan joked.
“I have to win at cycling since I’ll never win at wine tasting,” Mia replied with a wink.
“I promise I’ll stop asking soon. I’m doing it to remind myself that you have some weaknesses,” Evan told her. “Otherwise, you seem too perfect to be real.”
Mia blushed pink, and Evan tried to ignore how nice it felt to make her blush like that. He was putting on a show for his family, particularly Luka and Sarah, who were sitting across from them, but he meant what he said, too. She really was almost too perfect to be real.
“Oh, wow,” Sarah said from across the table. “Luka, you need to step it up on the romance game. Take notes from your brother.”
“Hey!” Luka protested. “We’ve been together for three years, not a few months, like these two. Plus, who says I’m the one who needs to step it up? You could be the romantic in the family.”
“Nah.” Sarah popped a grape into her mouth and winked at Luka. “I’ll leave that to you.” Then she turned to Mia and Evan. “How long have you been together, anyway?”
“Eight months,” Mia said, at the same time as Evan said, “Almost a year.” They exchanged a glance, and Evan’s stomach flipped, but Luka and Sarah didn’t seem to notice.
“Cute.” Sarah reached for a cube of cheese.
“And Mia, tell me, how do you put up with Evan here?” Luka asked, grinning.
“It’s a struggle sometimes,” Mia joked. “But seriously, he’s a great guy. He makes me laugh. He’s smart, but not in a way that makes anyone else feel stupid. And he’s always ready to help people, whether that’s me or even a stranger he just met.”
Evan’s chest clenched at her words. Of course, she was putting on a show, too, but it felt nice to hear himself described like that.
Usually, the news mentioned him as a business-oriented and sometimes distant or even ruthless CEO.
His family thought of him as a distant workaholic.
He liked that Mia saw another side of him, even if she was saying it because of their fake-dating plan.
“Wow.” Luka looked back and forth between Mia and Evan, his eyebrows raised. “What about his love of work, though?”
“Maybe you haven’t given him the right motivation to step away from work,” Mia said with a wink. Sarah and Luka crowed, and she blushed. “I mean, by reminding him that other things can be fun!” They crowed again, and Mia shook her head, putting up her hands. “You know what I mean.”
“And how exactly do you put up with Luka?” Evan asked Sarah, hoping to steer the conversation away from his and Mia’s “relationship.”
“That’s easy,” Sarah said. “I avoid challenging him to any games or competitions, and things are pretty smooth.”
“I’m not that competitive,” Luka protested.
“Yesterday, I saw you argue for almost ten minutes that your tomato sauce was the best one,” Mia pointed out.
“And when we were kids, you would throw the Uno cards if you lost,” Evan added.
“Once, he tried to start an argument with me over who was the better kisser,” Sarah confided.
Luka threw up his hands, shaking his head, and the conversation moved on to general teasing and chatting.
Every few moments, Evan found himself looking at Mia.
She fit in so well with his family, easily teasing Luka and joking with Sarah.
And it really was impressive that, because of her, he hadn’t thought about work since they’d left the villa.
On the next riding segment, Evan and Mia ended up riding together near the back of the group. The hills stretched out as far as the eye could see, and the blue sky above was so expansive it was almost hard to believe. The fragrance of fresh, growing things permeated the air around them.
“So,” Mia said, “feedback time. How are my fake-girlfriend skills?”
“Excellent,” Evan told her honestly. “My family completely believes that we’re dating, although I think they feel you’re a little out of my league.”
“I’m not going to argue with that,” Mia said with a wink.
“I’m offended, but I can’t argue, either. And how are my fake-boyfriend skills?” Evan asked.
“Pretty good,” Mia said. “I’d rate your skills as my fake boyfriend as eight out of ten. But I’d rate your skills as Reign’s boyfriend as ten out of ten.”
Evan winced. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine; I’m teasing you. It isn’t like we’re really dating.” Mia smiled, though there was a flicker of something real behind her eyes.
Her words struck Evan. He’d been enjoying pretending that Mia was his girlfriend today, but this was a reminder that they could never have a real relationship.
Mia would expect him to completely put aside his work, because that was what all girlfriends and wives expected.
Evan had seen Tyler reduce his hours, and Luka do the same after they got serious relationships, and their work had suffered.
Even now, when he and Mia weren’t really dating, she’d successfully pulled him away from work more than once.
Rule One. No serious relationships.
“Right.” Evan turned his head away. “Come on. Let’s have another race.”
“Now you’re talking!” Mia stood on her pedals, putting on a burst of speed. “Let’s go!”
As Evan raced off after her, he couldn’t quite get the heavy feeling out of his heart. It wasn’t like he wanted a real relationship with Mia, not really, but some part of him did wish that it were at least possible.