Josie reeled as Eve’s words registered. Of all the things she might say, Josie had never imagined anything as horrible, as painful, or as personal. She stepped forward, pulling Eve into her arms. “Eve…I am so sorry.”
Eve was stiff against her, as cold as she’d been hot moments before. “The driver was on his way home from a bar where he’d been overserved. He never should have been behind the wheel.”
“No, he shouldn’t,” Josie agreed. “That’s…it’s awful.”
“I don’t talk about it,” Eve said, pulling free to walk to the railing. “It happened a very long time ago.”
“Can’t have beenthatlong,” Josie said gently. Eve was only a few years older than she was. A widow. Jesus Christ. That was tragic. And unexpected. She tried to imagine a young, happily married Eve. What had her life been like then? Had her wife’s death caused her to turn into the icy workaholic that Josie had first met last week, or had she always been this way?
“Long enough,” Eve responded, but her voice cracked just slightly, and it was all Josie could do not to hug her again, to pull her close and never let her go.
“I had no idea.”
“Of course you didn’t,” Eve said, sounding more like herself now. “No one does. And I’d appreciate it if you’d keep it to yourself.”
“Yeah, of course.”
Eve pressed a hand against the small of her back, turning away.An old injury, she’d told Josie.
“You were in the car with her,” she whispered.
“I was.” She glanced at Josie and sighed, as if resigning herself to tell the rest of the story. “I fractured my back, and they had to fuse two of my vertebrae together to stabilize it.”
“Jesus,” Josie whispered.
“It’s fine,” Eve said with a slight shake of her head.
“No, it’s not.”
Eve looked down at her hands. “Lisa was a teacher, but she tended bar part-time too. If you want the truth,that’sthe reason I avoid bars now. They stir up a lot of memories for me, nights when I hung out with Lisa while she worked.”
Eve’s wife was a bartender.
“That makes a lot of sense,” Josie said.
“We were young, and we needed the extra cash. I had insisted she quit, because…” She drew in a deep, shaky breath, turning her face away from Josie.
Josie walked up behind her, leaning into her, offering silent support.
“That night, I had a few beers while Lisa worked, so she drove us home. We were T-boned on the driver’s side. She died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.” Eve spoke in a monotone, her voice gone hoarse.
“I’msosorry. I really thought, well, I don’t know what I thought you were going to tell me, but it wasn’t this. But I really appreciate you trusting me with it, and I’m so sorry for everything you’ve been through.”
Eve kept her back turned. “Now you know.”
“Thank you,” she whispered into the soft depths of Eve’s hair.
She nodded, tension radiating off her like a force field slowly pushing Josie away.
“Hey.” She tugged at Eve’s hand, not liking the wall she felt going up between them after everything they’d shared.
“I need to go home,” Eve said, spinning on her heel and striding toward the door that led downstairs.
“Wait,” Josie called, hurrying after her. “Eve, wait a damn minute.”
She paused at the door, looking over her shoulder at Josie. Her eyes were dry, but Josie saw the raw emotion, the pain still lurking in their dark depths. She closed the distance between them and pulled Eve into her arms, squeezing her tight. Eve softened in her embrace, just for a moment, before pulling away.
“I left the kittens in my apartment,” she said. “I didn’t plan to be out this long.”
