“I’m in,” Bryson said. “Of course I am.”
Sure, he had a thousand things on his plate, but in what world could he say no to Evie? He’d made that mistake once. And paid for it.
“Doc is going to be so relieved,” he said. He picked up his cell phone. “I’ll call him and let him know what’s going on?”
“Not yet.” Evie reached across the desk and covered his hand.
Bryson stilled. The impulse to lift her hand to his mouth and press a kiss to it nearly overwhelmed him. No, the inside of her wrist. He wanted to brush a kiss over the delicate skin there, to feel the pulse point beating against his lips.
Stop it!
Evie pulled her hand away and sat back in her chair, oblivious to the chaos she’d wreaked within him. He was in fucking shambles from a simple touch.
“There’s something we need to discuss first,” she said.
“Okay,” Bryson said, his blood chilling at the seriousness in her tone. The tension in the room had increased tenfold in a matter of seconds.
“If we’re going to work together on this effort to save The Sanctuary, I can’t spend the entire time feeling as if I’m going to jump out of my skin whenever we’re in the same room.”
His brows spiked. “Is that how you’ve been feeling around me?”
“You know things have been awkward, Bryson,” she said.
“It’s been years since we’ve seen each other, Ev. Things are bound to be awkward.”
Especially after the way things ended between them.
“Time has nothing to do with it,” she said. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “I think the easiest way to go about this is to leave the past in the past.”
Bryson jerked his head back. That wasn’t what he was expecting to hear.
He’d spent so many hours contemplating just how to explain his actions from eight years ago to Evie, if ever giventhe chance. The one thing he had never contemplated was for her to not want to hear an explanation.
“This doesn’t have to be weird or uncomfortable if we make a decision right now that it won’t be,” Evie continued. “Our focus should be on saving The Sanctuary, not on our feelings.”
Bryson rested his fingers against his lips.
Could they simply close the door on that part of their past and just move on? Pretend none of it happened?
Did hewantthat?
If they ignored the bad way it ended, that meant they had to ignore the good parts too. He wasn’t sure he was onboard with that.
Evie glanced down at her phone.
“I need to get going. Waffles isn’t officially on the roster at Barkingham Palace yet, and I need pick him up before the afternoon clients get there.” She looked at him. “Are we good here?”
Bryson nodded. “Go pick up your dog.”
He started to stand when she did, but she held up her hand. “Don’t. I’m fine. I can see myself out. Why don’t you call Doc and let him know what we discussed.”
“I can do that,” he said.
She graced him with one of those smiles he could easily lose himself in before she said, “Thanks for not making this too difficult. I’ll be in touch.”
Bryson waited until she closed the door before settling back against the headrest and closing his eyes tight.
Had he just agreed to ignore that, at one point, he had been completely in love with Evie?
