She collected the folders sorrowfully.
He knuckled the table. “We’ll reconvene in three days.”
Evie nodded, smiled, and thanked everyone as they walked by her to leave.
Then she ran out of the room, slammed the folders on her desk, and darted into the bathroom out in the hall. Her escape was the bathroom stalls, where she locked herself in and cried hysterically. She absolutely fell apart. She had been working tirelessly on those designs, and it wasn’t enough. The mascara trickled down her rosy cheeks in an onyx river of despair, and she choked on her sobs while leaning against the door.
The phone buzzed again.
Please, let this be good and happy news.
Boy was…it…ever.
Caleb reacted to her last text with a shocked face emoji. The series of texts read, “Why did you have to text me that while driving and on the job? I’m not going to be able to get away for at least another five hours! I would love that. I would love to feel that beautiful body in my arms where you belong. But you should know…”
She waited anxiously.
He hadoriginallytexted, “My cock got insanely hard reading that text. You deserve it in return. That night, I wanted to lick, suckle and obsess over every inch of you. I wanna hold your legs open against my arms and lick you until you don’t even know your own name. I don’t want to make you cum just once, I want to wake you with it, give it to you constantly throughout the day. I’d get on my knees and worship every inch with my hands and mouth, and you only fall asleep because I’ve exhausted you with pleasure. And even as you slept, I would continue it. You don’t know how fucking crazy you make me.”
But he too, deleted it before he sent it. He needed to get his act together and not be so aggressive with her. Evie was something to be treasured and appreciated, not objectified. He knew she had had enough of that in her life already.
He actually wrote, “I enjoy spending time with you. I’ve always loved how open and honest you are on your Facebook page and how giving you are to the community even when they don’t deserve it, and I can’t thank you enough for letting me help you. I get so sick of this ‘tough independent woman’ thing going around. I get there’s a time and a place for that, but if a woman doesn’t need me for anything, I’m not gonna stick around.”
Her heart pounded, and her muscles clenched. A breathless gasp came from her lips, and she sat on the floor in the larger stall and cried happily.
It went on, “You do something to me that I’ve never felt before in my whole life. I can’t explain it, but you do. It’s gotta be either you or the bottle tonight, Evie. I feel happy when I’m around you.”
That was enough for her. He was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to her. Then a thought came. Caleb was a military man, and even though he was pouring his heart out to her, she knew there was going to be some rigidity in him, and she was going to have to learn to contain her emotions a bit not to seem overly emotional or too sensitive. She wiped her eyes and smiled with a sigh of finally being through the crying fest and composed herself.
She wrote back, “I’m sorry you haven’t felt like that in a long time. But this couldn’t have come at a better time. I don’t think I could be an ‘independent woman’ if I tried. I’ve never felt safe on my own. But I want you to know, that ever since I’ve known you and have seen how you push through life through, I’m assuming PTSD, and handling two kids and a divorce, not to mention taking care of all of the land you own, and having two jobs? You inspire me to be a better woman.”
Now the phone buzzed in his jeans. He walked away from his workers for a moment. When he saw it, he loved her message and wrote back, “You wanna hear one more thing?”
She felt stable in everything. Calmness filled her heart and soul with a tender touch. This was what it was like speaking to a man like an equalwoman. “Yes, please.” Her heart thumped in her neck as she shifted a bit on her rear.
He smirked. It was a bit out of his nature to write was he was going to write, but he wanted to make her happy. He combed his memory of all the times he’d seen her post about the way men had treated her, and how she longed to be treated right. He wrote, “I know you’ve been fucked around with. So, I wanna take you on a date first. Is that cool? We can go someplace outside of town where no one really knows us.”
Absolute euphoria.
Evie had never been on a date in her whole life. Not once. Leaning back against the wall, she refrained from crying again. It was like Caleb had used those calloused hands to lasso every emotion she had built up within her tender heart and ripped them straight from her chest. To taste the whiskey on his lips again. To feel those rough and strong hands around her petal-soft neck. Once again, he was left on read and he put a knuckle to his mouth, waiting for her response.
And Evie was taken back in time with Pawpaw when he said, “That man is nothing but trouble.”
But here he had helped her through a panic attack, stayed with her, kissed her passionately, respected his children, sent her messages to check on her, helped her get medicine on the top shelf, aired up her tires, offered to take care of her grass.
I don’t understand how a man who does such kind things…could be bad.
It was such a mystery to her. And then the women at the salon. What the hell was that all about? And what did he do to Ashley that was apparently so bad?
Well, she wasn’t Ashley, so it didn’t matter. Caleb had a clean slate in her heart.
But here was therealtest. One of the reasons why Evie had never been on a date was because every time she tried to pursue a man online or whatever, there were so many beige flags that she never even got to the date. Men would say, “I don’t care. You pick.” It was absolutely frustrating and exhausting trying to plan everything. She wrote happily in a quick test, “I would absolutely LOVE that! Is there a place in mind that you’d like to go?”
He grinned and wrote, “I really love O’Malley’s up in Freeton. Have you been there?”
“A few times, I actually adore that place!”
He wrote a smiley emoji and said, “I’ll pick you up at five.”
