Chapter Thirteen
Evie’s mood was a bit darker by the time Wednesday came around. She let Rowan in with a quiet hello, then went back to the couch and flopped down.
“You okay?” Rowan asked.
“Fine.”
Rowan hung her bag on the hook by the door and then took a seat near Evie.
“So, I may have memory loss, but I do remember what that particular tone of ‘fine’ means, and it’s not that you’re fine.
” She wanted to reach out and touch Evie but was trying to be careful about anything physical.
Just an hour ago, she’d told Stevie her intentions were to be helpful, not to rekindle anything with Evie.
She didn’t want to prove herself a liar.
Evie sighed and gazed out the window. “It’s just a bad day.” Her voice was soft and she was clenching and unclenching her right hand. Rowan pointed at it.
“Is your hand bothering you today?”
Evie’s throat moved as she swallowed. “My hand, my leg, my eyes.” She glanced down at her hand, still opening and closing it. “I’ve had grip trouble today. I’ve dropped things three times.” She was clearly annoyed about it.
“Okay. So, it’s a dropsy day.” Rowan pulled out her phone and made a note.
When she finished, she set it on the coffee table and waited until Evie met her gaze.
“I was going to suggest Chinese for dinner, but it sounds like chopsticks or even a fork might be difficult, so how about we just order a pizza? Easy to hold and get to our mouths.” She mimicked picking up a slice and moving it to her mouth where she took a huge, imaginary bite and then sat there, fake chewing nothing.
Evie’s grin appeared slowly, and it wasn’t a full-on smile, but her expression lightened, and that was all Rowan wanted. “Sounds perfect,” Evie said quietly.
With a nod, Rowan grabbed her phone again to order. Once that was done, she leaned back and asked Evie if she’d called her doctor. “Is this a big flare-up or just the usual?”
Evie sighed. “I think just the usual, but if it gets worse, I’ll call. Sometimes he’ll have me come in for steroids. But if it stays like it is now, it’ll be fine. I just need to rest and stay hydrated.”
At that, Rowan noticed the glass of water on the table was almost empty. She refilled it immediately, then squinted at Evie. “Are you in jeans?”
Evie nodded. “I was trying to be a person today.”
Rowan looked down at her own joggers and T-shirt and held out a hand. “Well, let’s help you be a person in some cozier clothes. You can’t rest and relax on a couch under a blanket in stiff denim.” She shrugged. “I’m sorry. I don’t make the rules.”
Evie didn’t hesitate and put her hand in Rowan’s, surprising her. Together, they walked to the other side of the small house and Evie’s bedroom.
Rowan glanced around, trying not to seem like she was looking, but absolutely wanting to look.
The queen-size bed was the same, with its black, wrought iron headboard, and Rowan had a quick flash of hands grabbing the spindles of it in the heat of passion.
She cleared her throat and looked away. Evie was at the dresser, drawer opened, pulling out clothes.
She settled on a pair of joggers and a red T-shirt that was washed soft. It looked vaguely familiar to Rowan.
She cleared her throat and used her thumb over her shoulder to indicate the door as she said, “Well, if you need help, give me a shout.”
Evie’s expression had gone from dark to slightly lighter. “I can handle it.”
“Great. See you out there.” Rowan shut the door behind her and went back to the couch.
“ ‘See you out there’?” she muttered. “Ugh. You have absolutely zero game, Thomas.” She shook her head as she went into the kitchen and got her own glass of water.
When she brought it back to the coffee table, Evie was on her way into the living room, looking infinitely more comfortable than she had just minutes ago.
“Much better,” she said to Rowan. “You were right.”
“Happens once in a great while.” They sat. “So, what’s showing tonight?”
“Good question.” Evie picked up the remote to the TV, and she seemed to have trouble navigating the buttons.
“Here.” Rowan offered to do it, and Evie let her, which was surprising, since Rowan recalled Evie being queen of the remote way back when. She zipped through some movie options. “September is in just a couple days. How about something with a fall vibe?”
“Perfect.”
“Ooh, how about Practical Magic?”
Evie squinted at her.
“What? You don’t like that one?”
“You don’t like that one.”
“I don’t?” Rowan frowned. “Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman? What’s not to like?”
“We watched it together only a few years ago. You were bored.”
“Seriously? With those two?” Evie nodded. “What did you think?”
“I loved it,” Evie said.
“Then let’s watch it.”
The pizza arrived, and before long, they were sitting on the couch, each with a plate.
“Do you have your a/c on the igloo setting?” she asked Evie at one point.
Evie just laughed and held up one side of the blanket, silently telling Rowan to sit closer.
“Seriously. It’s still August,” Rowan muttered, feigning irritation as she scootched closer to Evie. “Don’t you like to be warm?”
“I like to be chilly and then made warm by a blanket, yes.” Something about Evie’s words rang through Rowan’s head on a wave of familiarity.
“You’ve said that to me before,” she told her.
Evie nodded. “I tell you that all the time. Told, I mean. I told you that all the time.” She erased any awkwardness with a small smile as she gazed at her for a beat. Glancing down at their legs, now touching and covered by the same blanket, she asked, “Better?”
“Much,” Rowan said softly.
“Good.”
They ate pizza and watched the movie, and the entire time, Rowan was acutely aware of the side of her thigh pressed up against Evie’s under the blanket.
Evie’s legs were stretched out on the lounge portion of the couch, while Rowan’s feet were crossed at the ankle on the coffee table, which they’d pulled closer to the couch.
The blanket was just large enough to cover them both.
It was a cozy and familiar setting to Rowan, and rather than rack her brains trying to remember more about other times, she simply let herself enjoy it.
The pizza. The movie. Being close to Evie.
By the time the movie ended, Evie’s eyes had drifted closed, and she leaned her head against Rowan’s shoulder.
She’d been fighting sleep for the last half hour, Rowan had noticed, but finally gave in at some point, so Rowan let the credits roll and did a little channel surfing.
Eventually, Evie stirred and her eyes fluttered open.
“Oh my God, did I fall asleep?” Her embarrassment was clear on her face aa she pushed herself up.
“You did, but so what?” Rowan said with a smile. “You were obviously tired.”
Evie groaned softly. “I hate that I can just drop off like”—she snapped her fingers—”that. I’m sorry.”
“No.” Rowan grasped her forearm. “No apologizing. When you’re tired, you sleep. End of story.”
Their gazes held for a beat before Evie gave one reluctant nod. “Speaking of the end of the story, how was the movie?”
“I actually loved it.”
Evie narrowed her eyes. “You did not.”
“I did. I swear.”
“That’s so weird that you now like something you didn’t like before.”
“Right? I also like spicy food now.”
Evie’s dark eyes went wide. “What? You hate spicy food. You think it’s mean when your food makes you cry.”
Rowan laughed. “I know. It’s so bizarre. My mom and I ordered from an Indian restaurant last month, and she forgot to get her chana masala mild. It was stupidly hot and I loved it, ate almost the whole container. Not gonna lie, she freaked out a little bit.”
They were both laughing now, and Rowan tried not to grab on to how good it felt, how normal and comfortable it was to be sitting there with Evie, eating pizza and watching a movie on the couch under a blanket and laughing over a story about Rowan’s mom.
But she wanted to. She wanted to reach out and hold it with both hands as tightly as she could and not let go.
Instead, she pushed to her feet and took their pizza plates into the kitchen. She cleaned them up, wrapped up the leftover pizza, and put it in the fridge. Evie watched her the whole time from the couch; Rowan could feel her eyes on her.
Back in the living room, she asked, “Okay, what else can I do for you before I go?”
Evie held her gaze for a moment, and Rowan was reminded what it felt like to be her focus, to be the one who got all Evie Price’s attention. It was delicious. “Nothing,” Evie said quietly. “I’m good.”
“You’re sure.”
A nod. “I’ll take my time getting to bed. I don’t have to work tomorrow.”
Work. That was something Rowan had wanted to talk to her about, get a handle on. She’d save that for tomorrow. “Okay, so how about lunch tomorrow? I’ll come by?”
Evie’s smile lit up her face. “I’d like that.”
“Great.” Rowan gathered up her things.
“Ro?”
“Mm-hmm?”
“Thank you.” When Rowan looked at her, she said, “This was fun. It was nice to relax and not have to think for a while.”
“Good. Then we’ll do it again.” She took the few steps necessary to get to Evie, then bent and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before heading for the door. “Lock this behind me,” she said, sounding like somebody’s dad.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Walking out into the humid night air was like walking into a wall of cheesecloth, and she took a moment for her body, her skin, to adjust from the cold of Evie’s air-conditioning.
She’d always loved her house cold, Rowan remembered that, and she also remembered from all her research that cold could be good for MS. She stood on the porch for a minute or two, just slowly breathing in and out.
The problem with not remembering much about what it was like to live without Evie was that it was super easy to fall right back into how easy it was to be with her. That’s what tonight had felt like. Easy. Familiar. Comfortable. Perfect.