“Is this going to be a relationship?” he asked, keeping his voice soft.
“Do you want it to be?” Eve asked.
Her expression was open, and it showed a vulnerability he’d hadn’t seen before. He sensed that opening herself to something with him frightened her. Considering how she’d been hurt, Darius understood that. Too well. Kayn had mentioned how businesslike she’d been on the Irish trip, totally focused on the job. She hadn’t been like that here. Was it because of her history with Darius? He needed to let himself be vulnerable too.
“I do want it to be,” he said.
“Me too, but you need to understand that I was a little in love with you in high school.” When he took an involuntary step closer, Eve put up a hand to stop him. “But that was a long time ago. I might have loved the boy, but I need to get to know the man. They aren’t necessarily the same person.”
“Then let’s talk.” He tried to pull her toward the living room, but she resisted.
“Like I said before, I want to be perfectly honest.” Eve met his gaze. “Spending time with you is bringing back a lot of old feelings, but it’s a moot point if our goal isn’t the same.”
“And like you said, it’s still early.” Darius ran a finger down her cheek. “I’m going to be perfectly honest too. What I felt for you in high school was so strong that it scared me.”
“Is that why you dropped me as a friend?”
“I told you last night I didn’t drop you as a friend,” he said with a groan. “Please come into the living room and let’s talk. I promise I’ll be a perfect gentleman.”
Eve let him draw her toward the couch, but she shifted at the last minute and sat in a chair.
“Don’t you trust me?” Darius asked.
“I don’t trustme, and this is important to do right. Sit down and tell me why you threw away our friendship because of that stupid kiss.”
“All right.” He sat on the couch and leaned back, stretching out his legs so his foot touched hers. “I’d been into you for a good year when that happened, but I was afraid to give away how I felt because I didn’t want to lose our friendship. I’ve never had many female friends, and your friendship in particular was important to me. I didn’t plan on kissing you.”
“You still haven’t answered the question.” Eve tossed her hands in the air in frustration. “If my friendship was so important to you, why did you avoid me for the nexttwelveyears?”
“I kept trying to work out how to put things back the way they’d been.” Darius leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped before him. “I kept vacillating back and forth on what to say, but I couldn’t decide. I promised myself I was going to make it worse by saying the wrong thing. Before I knew it, we were graduating. I thought I’d see you sometime during the summer, and I’d have it figured out by then. My grandfather died a couple weeks before school started, and we spent the rest of the summer closing down his house. By the time we got back, you’d already left for school, and by Christmas, you had a boyfriend.”
Eve studied him. “If we had seen each other that summer, had you figured out what to say?”
“No, because what my brain said I should do didn’t match what was here.” He pointed to his chest.
“Did you never meet someone else?”
“Yes, during my senior year of college, and I fell hard.”
“Are you divorced?” Eve’s gaze was piercing.
“No.” Darius rubbed the bridge of his nose so he wouldn’t have to look at her. “It didn’t work out.” He still didn’t know what, if anything, he should say to her about his engagement. Lying to her wasn’t a good option, but he wasn’t free to tell her the truth either. All he could do was hope that she wouldn’t hear about it before he figured out how to explain it.
“Mine either.”
“Was he the same guy that you met your first semester?” Darius asked.
“No. He only lasted a couple of months. I wish you’d said something, but maybe it’s just as well.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because maybe we both needed to grow up before we could consider something real between us.” Eve tilted her head. “Is that a shared goal that we have? Are we both looking for something real between us?”
Real. Darius liked the sound of that.
“Real is exactly what I’m looking for.” He stood and held out a hand to her. She took it and let him pull her to her feet.
“I’m scared,” she whispered.
