She was enraged on my behalf.
My chest tightened with a strange sensation I wasn’t quite sure what to do with.
“He was a flawed man—” I started, trying to sound conflicted and sympathetic.
“He was a deadbeat. And a liar.”
Well, this was certainly an unexpected turn of events.
* * *
Evangelina’s car came to a stop at the end of my driveway. She left the engine running and relaxed against her seat, staring vacantly out the windshield. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, and a sheen of moisture lit up her face, remnants of the short walk to the parking lot from the café.
I wondered if she had any idea how positively edible she looked, even wet with rainwater.
“You have a beautiful home,” she said, eyes still fixed forward.
The sentiment came off as genuine, not made to feed egos or fill an awkward silence, as Evangelina had grown up wealthy and accustomed to luxuries. And, of course, the love of two father figures while I got fists and the ends of cords and sticks.
“Thank you.”
“I’m glad,” she said, finally turning to face me, “that you did so well for yourself, despite what you went through.”
“There’s something to be said about tragedies and how they shape the core of who we are. We either overcome or fall victim to our demons.”
Evangelina’s gaze darkened for the briefest of seconds before she quickly looked away.
And the game had just leveled up—one where we silently took part in who was the better liar and keeper of secrets.
Peeling back the layers of this woman would be merely half the fun. Consuming her entirely would be the ultimate prize.
“Wise words. And you certainly walk the walk.” She leaned across the center console. “But I also can’t help thinking how different things could have been between us.”
She piqued my interest.
“In what way?”
“We could have been close.” A coy smile played on the corners of her lips, and she slipped her hand into mine again. And once again, my skin broke out in tingles. “I just have that feeling. I know it sounds crazy. But we could have grown up like family.”
Family?
If she knew the thoughts running through my mind where she was concerned, she would have been hard-pressed to make such a statement.
I’d never had a family outside of Kai. And possibly my mother, though I don’t remember much of our time together anymore. That part of my life was nothing more than fleeting memories or perhaps dreams. But maybe her love was the anchor, the one thing that had kept me tethered to the last shred of my humanity all these years.
“No sense in dwelling on things we can’t change, Eva. But now, you and I are in control.”
A tendril of black hair fell across her cheek, and I had to stop myself from pushing it behind her ear. Instead, I rubbed circles over her knuckles, and her eyes dropped to our joined hands. Looking up from her lashes, she swept her thumb across the hard surface of my ring and nodded in agreement.
“This is a beautiful piece of jewelry. It’s a signet ring?”
“Yeah.”
She lifted my hand closer to her face, examining the words. “That means blood in Latin.”
“It does.”
Her eyes were on me now. “I forgot to ask. What do you do?”
