“Is that it? Hmm? That’s all you have to say?”
“I’m not really sure what to say. I disagree that you need to save The Sanctuary in order to prove that you’ve accomplished something, but I can’t change the way you feel about yourself. If this is what you want, go for it.” He took a sip of his coffee. “I still think it’s a lost cause.”
“Bry—”
“But.” He held up his free hand. “If you want to give it a try, I’m here to support you.”
Gratitude expanded in her chest until it felt as if she would burst with it. She reached across the table and covered his hand.
“Thank you,” Evie said.
He looked down at her hand, then focused his eyes on hers. Evie knew she should release him, but she didn’t want to. Instead, she brushed her thumb back and forth over his hand as they continued to stare at each other across the table.
Finally, she pulled away.
“So, you’ll help me?” she asked unnecessarily. He’d just said he would.
“Yes,” he answered, just as unnecessarily.
She used her napkin to dab at the corners of her mouth, even though she hadn’t taken a bite of their dessert yet. This pent-up adrenaline needed an outlet.
“I should warn you that I’m about to go all-in on this. Now that Doc has laid out just how serious the situation is, I plan to eat, sleep, and breathe Operation Rescue the Rescue.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” Bryson said, the corner of his mouth hitching up in a smile.
“I appreciate any time you can lend to the effort, but I know that you’re in a different situation than I am with the move and the new job. So, you know, no pressure.”
He stared at her from across the table, his fingers toying with the rim of his mug. After several lengthy moments passed, he finally spoke.
“What if I want pressure?”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Awareness and heat hovered in the air around them. It pressed against Evie’s skin like the humidity that usually blanketed this city.
Bryson’s words caused a cluster of sensations to stir deep within her belly, but it was the tone in which he’d spoken them that truly got to her. His deep, resonant voice set off sensations in a lower, more sensitive region.
“I—” Evie started, but words escaped her.
Bryson settled his elbows on the table again and clasped his hands together, agitatedly tapping his folded hands against his lips.
“I told myself I wasn’t going to do this, that I needed to give you space. But fuck it. I can’t pretend I don’t want more from you, Ev. I can’t keep pretending that I only want to be friends. I’m not that good of an actor.”
“Bryson, please don’t do this. I can’t…” Evie massagedthe left side of her forehead, where an ache had immediately settled. “I can’t do this right now,” she finished.
“Just hear me out. When you came to my office and proposed working together for the sake of The Sanctuary, you said you wanted to leave the past in the past. You were talking about the way things ended that summer, right?”
She nodded.
“What about the rest of it, Ev? What about what happenedbeforethings ended? We spent an entire summer falling in—”
She cut him off. “It was just a little lighthearted flirting.”
“Bullshit,” Bryson said. “You were falling for me back then. I don’t care how much you try to deny it, Evie. I know you were.”
Should she continue to deny it?
Maybe while she was at it she could try to convince him that the sky was red and the ocean was orange. She had as much of a chance of doing the former as she did the latter.
