I had to ensure we didn’t break.
At twelve forty-five,I was sitting on Evie’s front porch, holding a small bag of clothing. Hope had put together an enormous charcuterie board and a plate of sea salt and caramel brownies.
My heart pounded in my chest, and I chuckled at my nerves. This was Evie. I knew her inside and out, but I was still nervous as a kid talking to a pretty girl.
Evie was far more than a pretty girl, and when Hope pulled around and dropped her off, and Evie slid out of the car, my mouth went dry.
She smiled, her entire face lighting up when she spotted me, and I couldn’t stand up for a few seconds. The way she looked at me sometimes knocked the wind out of me.
Evie turned and waved to Hope. My Omega sent me a telling wink before pulling away.
Then it was just me and Evie.
Her smile widened when she saw the food. “I’m starving!” She handed me her keys and picked the board and brownies up, peeking inside to see what goodies I’d brought.
With shaking fingers, I unlocked the door and held it open. Evie’s scent hit me in the face. Her place smelled like flowers and growing things, and when she breezed past me, she left the scent of peonies and roses in her wake.
Every muscle in my body went taut.
Maybe this was a bad idea.
“Brownies!” Evie squawked. “Who made these?”
I shut the door behind us, her scent enveloping me. “Hope.” To my relief, my voice wasn’t strangled.
She went straight to the kitchen and brought down two plates. “I’m assuming you want some.”
“A bear never turns down food.”
She sent me an impish grin and turned away to fix our plates.
I poured us both a glass of the blueberry green tea she kept in her fridge and brought them to the living room. Evie came in with plates piled high. “Give me a minute?” she asked. “I want to get out of my work clothes.”
“Of course.”
She hurried to the back. I let out a heavy exhale and tried to get my head on straight. We were friends. That was all she was ready for now, no matter what I smelled when she looked at me.
Evie would have to come to me.
She came back out wearing loose joggers and a blue off-shoulder sweater that looked like cashmere. I was still crap at identifying fabrics, but it looked soft, and my fingers itched to touch it to find out if I was right. Her hair was tied up in a high ponytail, and she’d removed her makeup, leaving her face soft and bare.
Holy. Mortal. Hell.
I’d never seen her look this peaceful or innocent, and it was doing terrible things to my emotional state of mind, not to mention my physical state.
Evie set down her e-reader and spotted my still full plate. “You didn’t have to wait!”
“My mother would have smacked my hand if I started eating without you.”
She smiled and curled up next to me on the couch. Her feet were bare, and her toenails were unpolished. No jewelry that I could see, except the pendant she rarely took off. The sweater’sstyle showed off the damaged tattoo she had yet to fix. The sight of it roused anger within me for how she’d sustained that wound.
If she hadn’t put Lugh away in a place he couldn’t escape from, I would have put him in the ground. The urge to hunt him down anyway made my eyes glow.
Evie’s brows snapped together. “Rowan? Everything alright?”
I offered what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “Yes. Sorry. I was distracted by something else.”
Evie nudged me with her bare foot. “Get distracted by all the yummy prosciutto on your plate before I steal it.”
