“Show me,” he growled.
Finn was already sketching.
They kept working like that for another forty-five minutes, before Finn’s phone went off with an abrupt alarm.
“Shit, look at the time,” he said. “I have to go get the munchkin from daycare.”
Beth winced. “You stay. I’ll go. I’ll come back with him.”
They were riffing off each other with a contagious energy. Evan didn’t want to break that up, and his primary role in this conversation was providing more bad ideas that sparked their good ideas. They had enough of those to work with now. “I can go pick him up. And I’ll get dinner for us all?”
Beth glanced at Finn, who shrugged. “Sure, if you don’t mind.”
“Mind? It’s a treat.” Evan loved kids. They were funny in the purest of ways. And he wasn’t going to have any, and his brother wasn’t making any noises about kids, either. Beth’s son was the closest he’d probably get to being an uncle. “But I need to take your car. I don’t do sticky fingers in mine.”
Beth’s lips twitched as she tossed him the keys to her minivan. “There is an inappropriate joke there, but since you’re my boss, I’ll save it until you leave the room.”
He laughed out loud. “Please do.”
To get to the daycare, he drove along the lake and into town. He stopped at the bar to order burgers and fries for three and a half people, then headed for the daycare centre, located in the new community centre that had just been unveiled.
The one shining example of how his community had pulled together to get shit done. Well, half of it, anyway. The other half just hadn’t been able to throw up enough roadblocks. Story of his life, in more ways than one.
Some days he wondered why he’d stayed. Why he hadn’t tried to convince Ty they could go somewhere else to start their winery.
And other days—like today, where he got to work hands on with a small team to achieve a really cool project in a short period of time—he loved the freedom he’d found here to build his own business. To be a big fish in a smaller pond, even if that pond was not perfect for his social life.
He was nearly on top of one of Wardham’s three traffic lights when it turned red.
He hit the brakes, grateful he didn’t have Beth’s kid in the car yet.Focus, Evan.And then he swore out loud.
Across the road, just down the block from the new arena, was Jessica Doran. And she wasn’t alone. She was with Lola Rodriguez, deep in conversation.
Jess was right here in Wardham.
He frowned. She hadn’t called him.She doesn’t need to keep you updated on her every move.No, she didn’t. But…she had been.
If Brent was looking for his wife in London, he wouldn’t find her there.
How long was she visiting for?
Evan thought about the way Jess had fit in his lap. He thought about pushing her husband up against the wall and taking his mouth. Then the light turned green, and he stepped on the gas.
As much as he liked her—and he liked her more than he wanted to admit, even to himself—he wouldn’t get between a couple with unfinished business.
He had a kid to pick up, then burgers to collect, and a small empire to manage. And in his free time, a town to secretly take over. The marketing guru who would help him do that had to remain a colleague first and foremost. And then secondly, because he wouldn’t be able to help himself, a friend.
Not someone who would be curling up on his lap any time soon.
9
It was Brent’s own damn fault Jess left him hanging for a day and a night and then half of another day.
He called her four times, and sent her two text messages, doing his best to push through the pain it caused inside him to open the message thread with her and see all the contact attempts she’d made in the past.
He knew he was a piece of shit.
It didn’t change the fact that she was owed many conversations, and he would give them to her. He’d hidden long enough.
