Chapter 10
TEN
God,the way Evie makes me insane for absolutely no reason at all. My confession doesn’t make it anything easier. “I want to be whatever you’ll let me be, Evelyn Vaughn. I’m just not sure you’re ready for it.”
What the fuck was I thinking, saying that? I’m lucky that Evie finally trusts me enough to divulge any details of her tragic past. Me telling her I’m into her will only complicate how much information she’s willing to share. I didn’t move Lucy to Bryson City for nothing. I have work to do. This is where I need to be.
Evie stands. Her ass cheeks, bare beneath the cloth of her bikini, stare me in the face. Fuck me. If she were mine, I would drag her down onto my lap and kiss her senseless. Maybe then she would feel my truth, my need, my desire for her.
Instead, I stand, too, following her back down to the water.
“We’re falling behind the others,” she says, sounding breathless.
I would love to know if her lack of breath has anything to do with me, but she picks up her tube and moves to the water so fast, I have trouble keeping up. I stumble over every rock until I’m practically tripping into the water with my tube in hand.
Meanwhile, she’s sitting pretty in her tube, giving me a confused look. “Are you okay?” she asks, sounding amused.
I try to make my belly flop onto my tube more graceful, but that’s nearly impossible as my face lands on the hot rubber before I can reposition myself. “Yup,” I call out anyway. Once I’m finally onboard, I flip my body around until I’m facing the sky. I take a series of slow, deep breaths to calm my heart rate and refocus on the mission at hand.
Then I turn back around and paddle to close the distance to Evie. She’s got her head leaned back as if she’s completely relaxed, her eyes closed as she basks in the sun.
She must sense my presence because she opens one eye. “How does Lucy like Bryson City?”
Her question makes me smile. “She loves it.” I nod, thinking about just how much that statement is true. “She’s even already made a list of friends she wants to invite to her birthday party. The question is where on earth am I going to host ten little kids and their parents?”
Evie laughs. “Your house. Or somewhere like this.”
I don’t want to give Evie all the nitty-gritty details about how I would never celebrate my daughter’s birthday in the woods. “My house would be fine—I just have no clue how to entertain her friends. Are pi?atas still cool? Do I need to come up with a bunch of games? Oh, and do I have to entertain and feed the parents too?”
Evie does that cute head-tilt thing, a signal that she wants to let me know I’m being too hard on myself. “I think whatever you do will be perfect. Focus on Lucy. On what Lucy wants. What will make her happy? The rest will fall into place.”
That’s it. One simple, honest statement, and I already feel better. Perspective is everything when you’re a parent. Just spending time with my little girl has shown me how fragile life can be and how futile it is to sweat the small stuff. Evie’s right. All that matters is that Lucy’s day is filled with love and friendship. Nothing else matters.
I nod. “Maybe I should hire you to help me plan it.”
She smiles. “I’m sure you’ve got this, Lincoln. But you know where to find me if you need me.”
I need you, I want to say. Instead, I keep the focus on my daughter. “I didn’t expect for her to make so many friends in daycare already. Back home, she just stayed with Francine while I worked. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to give her days to strangers, but she’s adapted so well here. I’m afraid…” I falter, questioning how much information is too much.
“You’re afraid of what?”
The inquisitive look Evie gives me launches a rocket of guilt straight into my chest.
“I’m afraid I don’t have what it takes to be a long-term therapist here,” I tell her. “I’ve failed to convince more than half of Jenkins’s patients to give me a chance, and the only new patients booking consultations with me are…” Again, I stop myself.
Evie narrows her eyes. “Why are you hesitating so much? I just poured my guts to you earlier. What are you hiding from me?”
Panic kicks me in the gut. “Nothing. I was just going to say that the only new consultations I’ve been booking are with married women around my age. Mothers. Specifically, Lucy’s friends’ moms.”
Evie looks like she’s trying to hold back a smile. “You’re telling me the married women in town have the hots for the new doctor?” She widens her eyes in mock disbelief. “No.”
I roll my eyes and lean my head back to face the sky again. “Ha ha. I’m glad you find this funny because it’s been causing me some severe anxiety.”
Evie turns over onto her stomach and arranges her tube so she’s floating backward to face me. “Have they made advances toward you? Like, are you certain they’re booking these consultations for reasons that have nothing to do with their mental health?”
I frown. “My consultations are confidential.”
She tilts her head and purses her lips. “I’m not asking you to out any women in particular. I’m just asking, in general, if any of them have come onto you.”
Against my better judgment, I tell her the truth. “Yes.”
Her face darkens a shade, and I swear I see a new emotion on her face. Jealousy? Annoyance? I’m not quite sure, but something dark and devious inside me loves it all the same.
I reach for the handle of her tube to pull hers toward mine. “I’m not interested in any of those women, Evie.”
Her cheeks flush even darker. “I wasn’t suggesting that you were.”
I bite down on the inside of my cheek. “But you were thinking it.”
Her mouth opens and closes, then she frowns. “I mean, sure. I’ve seen the women in this town. Plenty of them are rich and beautiful. Certainly, you must find at least one of them attractive. I can see why you’re afraid. You might slip.”
Desire roars inside me like a wild beast. “There’s only one woman in this town I find attractive. I think you know that.”
She averts her eyes, doubt cascading over her features. “A bold statement.”
I reach out, cup her chin, and turn her to look me in the eyes. “It is. And it’s true. Why do you think I dragged my family out here today?”
Her eyes widen like she’s taken aback. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” I start slowly, not wanting her to miss a single syllable, “that Kyle mentioned to Francine that he’d invited you here today.” Evie still doesn’t seem to be taking my meaning. “At the bar last night.”
Her eyes flash, telling me my point has finally clicked.
I finished with, “So I made a family day out of it, hoping that you would be here.”
“Oh,” she whispers.
My heart is practically in my throat as I wait for her to say more, but before she can, I hear the roar of the water and look over Evie’s shoulder. “Shit.”
Evie reacts quickly, snapping her head to look behind her then flipping around in her tube so her butt is back in the center. “You’re going to want to get in your tube, Lincoln.”
I scramble to follow her lead, planting my ass in the tube just in time for the first downhill plunge of the trip. Large rocks protrude from the water as the water becomes more turbulent. We’re jerked like Ping-Pong balls from one side of the creek to the other as our tubes take on a mind of their own. Evie shrieks then laughs so hard I can’t help but do the same.
It’s a wild ride for the next several minutes but so worth it once we take the final bend that deposits us into another stream of calm waters.
“Damn, that was intense,” I gasp, still shocked after the unexpected thrill.
Evie is giggling with her head tossed back and sunshine beaming down on her beautiful features. “The look on your face when you saw those rocks.” She laughs even harder, the kind of hilarity that bubbles up straight from the belly.
“It wasn’t that funny,” I say with a glance heavenward.
She’s still got the uncontrollable giggles and begins wiping tears from her eyes. Retaliation is the only thing on my mind when I slide free of my tube and reach for hers. She squeals and starts to flip onto her stomach to begin paddling away, but she slips off her tube instead.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I wrap one arm around her waist and pull her close until she’s right where I want her—inches away from our lips meeting. I can’t fucking wait to kiss this woman.
Her sapphire eyes lock on mine while my heart hums like a hammer drill. All I have to do is lean in.
She sucks in a breath, that quick inhale the admission I need to continue my advances. Her tongue darts out to wet her lips before her teeth drag over them, showing me she wants this just as much as I do. And after what she confessed to me in my office, she might even need this.
My voice is rough when I speak. “Give me one reason I shouldn’t kiss you right now.” There it is—her out, if she chooses to use it.
Small fingers feather over my waist before digging in to grip me just slightly. One side of her mouth curls up. “Is that a threat?”
I resist the urge to growl out my need and instead lean in so my lips glide against her ear. “Yes. It’s only fair, given that you’ve consumed my mind since the moment I met you. Say it’s not just me.”
She shivers in my arms. “It’s not just you, Lincoln.” One of her legs wraps around my waist, then the other leg follows. My hands move to support her ass, adjusting her enough so we fit together, so she can feel how hard I am for her.
My mouth moves to the crook of her neck. She smells sweet like pineapple and cherries, a unique combination I would love to devour. My tongue darts out, desperate for a taste of her, famished for a decent meal after nearly three years of fasting.
It doesn’t help that her heels dig into the backs of my legs while she grinds her center against me, as if my cock is a tree trunk and she’s using it to scratch an itch.
I pull my head up again, my focus on her lips, anticipating what they might feel like against mine. I start to close the gap until I’m right there, lip to lip, just barely grazing the surface, when a voice calls to us from up on the hill near the road.
“Evie! Lincoln!” It’s Kyle. “Where are your tubes?”
Evie scrambles in a mad dash to separate our bodies, then she looks around frantically, on a mission to find her tube and possibly mine. But they’re nowhere to be seen.
“Oops,” I say.
Evie cringes and looks up the hill at Kyle. “Guess they floated away. I can pay you back for them, Kyle.”
He grins and looks between us, definitely onto our little charade. “Don’t sweat it, boss. This one’s on me.” He chuckles while Evie’s cheeks flame red. “You two need a lift back to the picnic area?”
Evie immediately begins to move out of the water. “Yes, thank you, Kyle.”
I follow closely, begrudgingly, behind. That’s the buzzkill needed to ruin a perfectly good first kiss. I guess that just means we’ll need a second chance at it.