Chapter Seven
“C ome on. Up.”
Simon scrubbed his face and glanced up at the command in Eva’s voice. She’d stood up and her hand was thrust out in front of her, right in front of his face.
Hesitantly, he took hold of it.
Soft skin, manicured nails, but a strong, uncompromising grip helped balance him as he rose to his feet.
She turned and tugged him along behind her. “We’re getting out of here.”
He frowned at her back as he followed. “I’m not a charity case. I don’t need—”
“Hmm.” She didn’t slow down, but spoke over her shoulder. “What you need is to get out of your head for a while. You’re coming with me.”
A sudden, strange amusement threaded through him, its tiny tendrils threatening to douse his entire body, a stark opposition to the complete and utter devastation that had tried to swallow him whole only minutes ago.
“Coming where?”
A shrug, then she tugged open the door to her fancy dual-cab work ute. “Doesn’t matter. Just away from here.” She faced him and gestured to the car. “In.”
His curiosity grew. He slipped up into the high cab and sat. Eva handed him a tray containing three coffee cups and bumped the door shut with her hip. She hurried around to her side of the ute and placed a cardboard box of cupcakes into a small esky that was sitting on the rear seat next to a child’s car seat. His gut clenched at the sight of it, and he deliberately kept his focus on Eva as she used the sidestep to swing up into the cab and settle in the seat.
He couldn’t help the amusement leaking out onto his face.
She eyed him with suspicion. “What?”
He motioned in her general direction. “You. This car. It’s freakin’ massive, and you, well…”
A well-sculpted eyebrow went upward. “I what?”
Simon dropped his focus to the tray of coffees in his lap. “You’re tiny. You’re almost swallowed up by this thing. I don’t know how you even get into it without needing a ladder.”
To his surprise, loud laughter burst from Eva. He looked up at her, unable to not smile in return.
She tucked her purse into the side pocket of the door, then pressed the start button and sent him a sassy look. “Believe me, it took practice. And I guess I do. Use a ladder, that is. I have to use the sidesteps, otherwise I haven’t a hope in hell.”
He motioned to where she’d placed her purse with his chin. “You might want to rethink that. It could easily fall out.”
True, the pocket was bigger than some he’d seen. But still, it was only meant for a water bottle, not a whole-assed purse.
Eva glanced at it. “Yeah. It’ll be okay. There’s not really anywhere else to put it.”
Rubbing at his tight, itchy face, Simon nodded and breathed the steaming aroma wafting from the cups in his hands.
“So. These …”
Eva sighed in what sounded like sufferance and shook her head. “Yes. One of them is yours.”
Simon leaned back into the comfortable leather seat and twisted each cup until he saw the S marked in black pen on the side. He sipped as they headed out of town and down the road that led to the highway toward Bialga.
“Thanks,” he murmured and indicated the cup when she glanced at him. He knew she realised he meant for the other stuff as well, but he didn’t really want to revisit that just yet. Relief flooded his veins that she seemed to understand fully.
“You want yours?” he asked and held out the one with a large E on it. The cloying sweet smell of vanilla and sugar hit his nose, and it crinkled without thought.
Eva took it gratefully. Simon tried not to acknowledge the snap of electricity that tingled his hand when her fingers grazed his. He shouldn’t be responding to her.
Not sexually. Not today.
Not at all, regardless that she ticked every single damned box that he found attractive. He released a deep breath in a long, controlled exhale and focused on his own cup. He frowned as he took a sip. He wasn’t one to believe in superstition or the mystical, but…
He’d run into her in a place he’d never normally go on Valentine’s Day. A place she herself had said she never went to. Then again this morning, on this of all damned days.
Sure, the Crossing was a small town. And sure, she’d gotten them coffees once or twice before.
But the timing …
Stop it. You’re seeing things that aren’t there.
“And you can take that snobby look off your face,” she said, concentrating on the road ahead.
He arranged his long legs, appreciating the generous legroom in the footwell. Particularly when compared with his own ute from the fifties, this one was positively enormous. Surprise coloured his voice when he spoke. He was as far as you could get from snobby.
“What look is that?”
“My coffee. You sneered at it.”
That almost made him laugh. “That’s not coffee. It’s lolly water. Hot lolly water.”
Eva took a large, loud slurp then placed it carefully in the cup holder near the air vent. Her point was obvious. And hilarious. He couldn’t help himself, he had to poke.
“Just because you can swallow that doesn’t make it any more drinkable.”
She sent him a startled look, then gripped the steering wheel tighter, heat blazing up her cheeks.
Simon looked closer, narrowing his eyes. What had he said to get that kind of reaction?
“Perhaps I enjoy hot lolly water.”
Glancing out the window, Simon shrugged and hid his smile behind his cup. “All good. You do you.”
“Are you always this ornery?”
A chuckle burst out before he could stop it. “That’s a first. Usually, I get stubborn. Or annoying. I quite like ornery . Has a nice ring to it.”
He could see her mouth twitching as if she wanted to smile. They passed the rest of the miles to Bialga in silence, something he wasn’t used to. His family being the way it was, someone always had something to say, some opinion to share, or simply noise .
It was nice. Silence was… nice.
He placed his now-empty coffee cup back into the cardboard tray at his feet, then looked up in surprise when Eva pulled into a just-vacated parking spot, the red tail-lights of the leaving car ambling up the road to their right.
The Empire Theatre was directly in front of them.
The old place had been renovated sometime in the last few years, the previously dated facade now looking fresh and inviting, as if you had just stepped back into the nineteen-fifties.
Eva hopped out and stood at the bull bar that could just be seen above the bonnet of the car. She tilted her head and motioned toward the cinema.
Simon followed, stepping up onto the pavement. He put the tray with his empty cup and the one that had obviously been destined for Max into the bin to his left, then shoved his hands into his jeans pockets.
“The movies? You’re taking me to the movies?”
A massive grin widened her friendly face. Her dark eyes sparkled in the morning sunlight.
“I sure am!”
He followed her into the ticketing area and glanced around, the intense scent of buttered popcorn swirling in the air all around him, making his stomach grumble in appreciation.
“Are they even open yet?”
He hadn’t been to the movies in years. His normal work schedule as a bartender didn’t allow for much time out at night, and the rest of the time he was usually sleeping off the late night before in preparation for his next shift. The fact that going to the movies meant you had to drive to Bialga and back just added a layer of difficulty that was usually shoved into the too-hard basket.
Eva turned and walked backward, her happiness catching as she kept eye contact with him.
“They sure are! Cheap Tuesday. They open early every Tuesday—eight AM—and show the movies that are finishing that week at a discount.” She reached forward and grabbed his hand, yanking him toward the counter. “There’s one I’ve been itching to see, but haven’t had the time. Or rather, time on my own.”
“And what exactly are you going to make me watch?” he asked, feeling strangely playful.
She winked at him, and his gut free-fell. “I should find out what you hate most and make you sit through that, but no, not even I’m that mean.” She walked up to the counter and quietly requested two tickets, then pointed up at the illuminated board above her head. “The horror one.”
Both his eyebrows flew skyward as she tapped her phone to the machine. “Horror?”
She nodded excitedly. “I haven’t been able to see one at the cinema for years . This one looks fabulous!”
Simon shook his head and chuckled.
A horror.
Certainly not what he’d expected.
“Okay.” He gestured to the tickets in her hand. “Since you got those, what would you like from the candy bar?”
Now it was Eva’s turn to look surprised. “You don’t have—”
“And you didn’t have to get the tickets,” he interrupted. “What’ll it be?”
Happiness lit her eyes. “Popcorn. You have to have popcorn at the movies. And a coke. Happy to share if you want?”
Simon inclined his head and ordered the items, going for the jumbo-sized options. At Eva’s questioning look, he shrugged. “I’m hungry. I don’t wanna eat it all on you.” He pointed to a hanging bag of chocolates as well when the attendant placed the popcorn and drink on the bench. “Those too, thanks.”
They entered the cinema numbered on their tickets and sat, Simon placing the drink and popcorn on the flat area atop the movable armrest between them. He noted her strange silence after her particularly excited beginning out in the foyer.
“Everything okay, Eva?”
She nodded and chewed a nail, then grimaced at it. “Sorry. Shocking habit.”
Simon shrugged, waiting for her to continue talking.
Eva glanced at the food. “I just…” She sighed, the sound seeming to contain years of frustration. “I’m not used to people—guys—sharing costs. I mean, my ex, he…” She frowned, biting her lip. “He is one of those people who refuses to spend a single cent unless he’s forced to. But, boy, could he spend the money I brought home. He never held a job the entire time I knew him. There was always some reason why—he couldn’t find a job in the area he wanted; the boss wouldn’t give him a fair go. That sort of thing. Constantly. He’d apply for jobs he had no hope of getting, just so he had an excuse not to work. Then he’d get angry if things were tight. It got far worse when I fell pregnant. He didn’t like sharing the attention.”
She glanced at him; her face tight. Anger flooded his whole body.
The prick.
“Sorry, Simon. I’m sure you don’t want to hear this.”
Without thinking, Simon reached out and lifted her chin with his finger. “Sometimes you just need to talk about it. He sounds like a right ass.”
Eva sent him a wobbly smile.
“Ass isn’t the word I would use. But, yeah.”
“So, he never took you on a date, or out to the flicks”—he motioned around them—“like this?”
She let out a muffled huff of laughter. “No! Don’t be silly. I’d buy the tickets and the food. Plus whatever meal we had before or after.”
He still hadn’t released her chin, preferring to be able to look in her eyes while they spoke. He knew if he let go, she’d hide her face from him. “Well, then. We’ll just have to fix that, won’t we? Next one is on me.”
Emotional, dark eyes rounded with surprise.
“He used you, Eva. And that’s just not right. You’re an educated woman. How in hell did you end up with a loser like him?”
Humiliation and what looked like fear chased through her eyes. She pulled back from his hand, and he was surprised at the feeling of loss that followed.
She motioned to herself. “How do you think? It’s not like they were lining up to date me. And now? I have a child. A three-year-old son. No one wants to take that on, particularly when I look like this.”
Simon frowned. “I don’t understand. Look like what?”
Even in the dim light of the pre-show cinema he could see that telltale blush rising up her face.
She gestured to her entire body. “Like this . I’ve never been thin. I’m short and that makes every single kilo of extra weight stick out like a sore thumb. My shape has changed since I had Matty, and even though I lost most of the pregnancy weight, I’m still chunky. I always will be. Being bigger up top makes any excess weight even more noticeable.”
She dropped her gaze to her hands. “Sorry to be such a downer. I’m supposed to be cheering you up, not depressing you more with my nonsense.”
Growing fury ate at Simon. Sure, she was curvy. And yes, short. But hell! She was delicious. Had that bastard she’d married made her concerns about her body worse?
He’d place money on it.
He twisted in his chair and leaned over to cup her face properly and force her to look at him. She didn’t meet his gaze but let him hold her in place.
“Let’s just say this now and get it out of the way. I’m not good with fancy words, or even particularly well-educated. I had issues with that and well…” He shrugged. “Let’s just say I finished but didn’t pass high school. Found out too late what the problem was and honestly? Not interested in following up.” He narrowed his eyes and made sure she held his gaze. “But what I’m trying to say is that I think you’re gorgeous.”
He held tight when she rolled her eyes and tried to pull away. “Stop it. You are. It’s true. You’re beautiful. So, you’re short? So what? So, it makes your ass more curvy than another chick’s. Again, so what? What you’re packin’ is damned nice.”
Eva’s brows dipped, her frown as endearing as it was fun. He could almost taste her disbelief. His mouth twisted. She might get pissed with him for his next words, but what the hell. In for a buck and all that.
“Tell me to piss off if I overstep, but hell, Eva! You have curves that don’t stop. There are plenty of guys that happen to like women who are a bit bigger.” He sent her a cheeky grin. “More to play with, yeah?” He’d always had a thing for busty women, and Eva fit that bill nicely. “I happen to be one of them. I think you’re damned nice. And I wish like crazy I hadn’t been so messed up that night we met. That we’d met later …”
He sucked in a deep breath. “I’m not sure I’m coming across the right way. I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable around me, but I thought you should know that there are plenty of guys out there who would think you’re pretty damned sexy.”
He rubbed her bottom lip with his thumb as conflicting emotions flashed over her face so fast he couldn’t decipher them, but shock was in there.
He’d go with that.
She spoke against his thumb, the vibrations of her soft words ricocheting up his arm and making him shiver. “You’re not making me uncomfortable. Not at all. I, uh…” She swallowed and breathed deeply. “I think you’re pretty damned sexy, too.”
Goosebumps erupted all over him. He opened his mouth to speak just as the lights flickered, then dimmed, the loud advertisement blaring from the speakers making them both jump.
Eva pulled away and kept her gaze from him, then gestured at the screen, now rabbiting on about some random advertising company. “The movie’s starting.”
Simon sat back, his heart racing, and nodded at the obvious statement. He hadn’t meant to let things get so intense. But he’d needed to take that sad look from her eyes.
She thought he was sexy.
He rubbed his arms and focused on the trailers of upcoming movies. It shouldn’t surprise him that she did; she’d gone back to his room with him that night, after all.
But damn! Having it out there, spoken out loud like that… It wound a longing down deep within him that didn’t want to shut up.
A longing to be touched. To be held. To feel .
Anything.
Something he hadn’t experienced in a long time. It wasn’t sexual, although he definitely found her sexually attractive. It was simply the need for another beating heart. That connection. The skin-to-skin feel of another, even if just to hold.
Every now and then their hands connected while fishing out some popcorn, or they went to grab the drink at the same time. Each time, Simon’s heart threatened to lodge in the base of his throat, sending excited little shivers chasing all over his body.
The longer the movie went on, the more scared Eva seemed to become.
A jump here.
A squeak there.
Grabbing his hand when the monster came out to play.
Simon kept his grin to himself. If he was honest, he’d jumped more than a few times, too.
Sounds crashed. The monster roared. Eva squealed and grabbed his bicep and shoved her face into it to hide away from the creature on the screen.
Unable to help himself, Simon leaned down and whispered in her ear. “A bit louder, shortcake. I don’t think he heard you.”
That earned him an incredulous glare. “Shortcake? Excuse me?”
She still had a death grip on his arm as he grinned down at her. “You heard me.”
One of the women the creature was chasing screamed on screen, and Eva planted her face into his arm again, making him chuckle out loud.
Extracting his arm from her stranglehold, Simon relented and lifted the flat tray between their seats and placed his arm around her shoulders, hauling her closer. She responded by snuggling into his shoulder, her hand gripping his shirt tightly.
He fought the surge of satisfaction that wound deep at the feel of her against him, then sighed, closing his eyes.
Touch . Simply… touch. He needed this as much as she needed to hide from the monster on the screen in front of them.
“Why do you watch this stuff if it scares you so much?” he murmured between on-screen screams.
“’Cos I like it.”
Simon shook his head and leaned back in the chair, tossing some now-cold popcorn into his mouth. “Fair enough.”
“Don’t judge me!”
“I’m not,” he replied with obvious humour in his voice. “It means I get a hug, so…” He shrugged. “All good on this end.”
Eva kept peeking at the screen every few moments but didn’t let him go. He couldn’t help the little shivers that kept peppering his body each time she moved. By the time the end credits rolled, he was chill enough he could easily have fallen asleep, a far cry from his state of mind when they’d first left for Bialga.
Eva pulled back, letting his now wrinkled shirt go, and sat up, pushing at the hair that had escaped her loose bun. Simon fought the instant instinct to keep a hold of her. She sent him a self-conscious smile and straightened her shirt.
“Enjoy the movie?” he asked, popping the last of the popcorn into his mouth.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Yes.”
“That’s good.”
Her gaze narrowed further. “Are you trolling me?”
Simon’s laughter rang out in the rapidly emptying room. “No. Just making sure, that’s all.” He sat up and stretched, his arms high above his head, noticing Eva’s stare as his shirt pulled tight across his chest. “How ’bout we blow this popsicle stand?”
She avoided his gaze, stood quickly and nodded, grabbing the empty cup and popcorn bucket. She dumped them in the bin on the way out and side-eyed him. “I can’t believe you said that.”
Simon’s smile only increased. He shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a man of the nineties.”
They stepped out into the mid-morning sun and blinked at the bright light as they headed toward Eva’s ute.
“I think you’re out by a few decades there, Simon.”
He chuckled and breathed deeply as the door unlocked and glanced around him, his gaze falling and resting on Eva as she climbed into her beast of a vehicle. She was right, but hey, what did it matter?
Affection bubbled up within him. She was the reason he wasn’t alone and a complete mess somewhere. Her compassion for someone she hadn’t known for long humbled him.
Eva Adams was a hell of a woman by anyone’s measure, and he was damned glad she was with him today.
She pressed the start button and both the radio and engine roared to life, startling them. It hadn’t been on when they’d stopped.
The distinct vocals of Richard Gower sent chills chasing down Simon’s spine as “Lay Your Love on Me” blared at them from the speakers. He stopped dead as he was about to step up into the ute and stared at Eva.
She slapped at the stereo and stared back at him, eyes wide. “I’m so sorry! I don’t know how that happened. I never have the radio on.” She waved a flustered hand at the offending device. “I usually only use it to Bluetooth audiobooks, or kids’ songs when Matty’s in the car. And never that loud.”
Simon climbed in and clicked his seatbelt in as the engine rumbled in the background. He nodded at Eva and tried to smile. He knew it came out all weird and twisted. She was telling the truth. The radio hadn’t been on at all the whole way to Bialga.
That song—and band—had been Amy’s favourite. The song she defaulted to at parties, in her car, in the house…
Eva reversed out onto the street, concentrating on the traffic as he stared out the window. A strange serenity washed over him, and he settled into the comfortable seat.
“Okay, Amy. I hear you,” he whispered. “I hear you.”