Arms of Promise (15 page)

He craned his head toward the ceiling.
One more shot. Just give me one more shot to keep my promise.
He closed his eyes and released a long breath.
A little grace to make it through tomorrow wouldn’t hurt either
.

Chapter Fifteen

Surrendered

Showered and dressed to hit the studio early, Anna squatted in front of the chair Evan had fallen asleep on. Neck down, arms limp, legs hanging off the side. He really could sleep in any position.

With the slightest nudge to his shoulder, he jerked awake, gun raised.

She teetered backward on her feet. “Whoa, Sarge. Easy.”

His sleep-covered gaze ricocheted off all four corners of the room before his arms so much as twitched. “Sorry.” He hobbled up to his feet and rotated his creaky neck. Knowing him, he probably hadn’t meant to fall asleep at all.

“I hope it’s all right I stayed.”

If he only knew what she was really thinking. “Of course. The couch would’ve been a lot more comfortable, though.”

Flushing, Evan secured his gun and combed his fingers through his messy hair. His rumpled shirt stayed caught above the holster, revealing a sliver of skin beneath his hip.

Wow. What she’d give to wake up to this sight every day, to relive last night again and again. The way he’d held her in his hotel stairwell, told her he was home. She’d never felt more safe, more cherished. Right then, she’d surrendered her heart. The war was pointless, anyway. It always had been.

Maybe it was dangerous to hope his comfort had been more than just his protective nature. She couldn’t prevent the clock from ticking and separating them again, and he belonged in Georgia with his team. But what if he’d be willing to leave his heart here with her? Could she take the risk to find out?

Anna pulled in her bottom lip, words not coming. Maybe if she showed him . . .

As if reading her thoughts, Evan matched her steps, drawing them closer. His eyes traveled over her damp hair and fitted shirt before darting to the kitchen. “We should—” He cleared the raspy inflection in his voice and tried again. “We should get some coffee.”

She didn’t need any help staying awake . . . or hot. Sleeping in the same room with him sparked a live wire down her body all the way to her toes. He had to feel it too, didn’t he?

He blinked from her to the bag by the door. “You, uh, going to the studio?”

Or maybe he didn’t feel anything.

“Yeah. With all that happened, I missed my contemporary class last night. I can’t afford to spend a full day off the floor.”

Evan pinched the back of his neck, still looking disoriented. Poor guy was probably exhausted.

Anna tamed her cravings as best she could. They had other things to think about. “Make sure you grab breakfast. You’re gonna need energy for today.”

He flung a questioning gaze at her.

“My dad’s. It could get . . . interesting.”

The corner of his mouth tipped sideways. “We could always escape to the attic.”

Their childhood secret hideout. She slid him a playful smile. “Not sure you’d fit up there anymore, Mr. Hulk.”

He bounced his pecs but skirted to the kitchen before she could react. “It’s probably covered in dust, anyway.”

“Time has a way of doing that.” Anna swiped a picture frame tucked in the back corner of her bookshelf and joined him by the fridge. “But some things never change.”

He brushed his fingers over a black and white selfie he’d taken of them in the attic during the ninth grade. “Two artists ready to take over the world.”

She grinned. “We were total dorks, weren’t we?”

“Hey, speak for yourself.”

“Yeah, right. Sorry to break it to you, but carrying that antique camera of yours around school every day didn’t exactly land you in the popular crowd.”

“Must be why I could never get a date.” He laughed. “Good thing you took pity on me so I didn’t have to go to dances alone.”

“Please. If you weren’t blind, you would’ve noticed the line of girls pining away for you.” Including herself.

“Whatever. Thought you just said I wasn’t popular.”

“That doesn’t mean you weren’t attractive.” She didn’t really just say that out loud, did she? Blood raced for her cheeks.

“What about you?” His husky voice was all but a whisper.

“What
about
me?”

“You telling me you didn’t carve a few more names in those trusses after high school?”

Chin lifted, she crossed her arms. “I’ve never taken anyone else up there.”

“Never? Why not?”

“Because . . .” She twisted her hair over her shoulder. “It’s our spot.” Fabulous. If there’d been any doubt she was
still
a dork, hanging on to the past like it hadn’t changed, she definitely just obliterated it.

Evan tapped the tip of his shoe against the linoleum. “Not even Jack?”

“Calloway?” She tripped over her ex’s name. If she could even call him that. “Wait. How do you know about him?”

Evan slipped his hands in his pockets and pulled them right back out like he was scrambling to backpedal. “The guy had a crush on you all through school.”

She tried not to snort. “More like he had his eye on someone else.”

“What are you talking about?”

“He works for my dad, Evan. It only took two months into the relationship to see he was working an angle. Get in with the daughter, score with the boss.” It was the same tired song stuck on repeat. “If guys aren’t trying to get in my pants, they’re trying to get in my dad’s pockets. I’m honestly not sure which is worse.”

His fists clenched at his sides. “You’re worth more than that. You’re—”

“The DA’s daughter. I know.”

His brow furrowed. “That’s not all you are.”

She stared at a knot in the cabinet, the one in her throat returning. “But that’s all everyone sees.”

“Not everyone.” The floor creaked under his footsteps.

“C’mon, Evan. You’re the only guy not on my dad’s payroll who’s interested in hanging out with me for me. And even
you
eventually left.” She froze, kicking herself for letting those words escape. That wasn’t fair. He had his reasons for leaving. Even though it killed her, she had to respect that.

Sunlight from the window flickered shadows across a broken expression a foot in front of her.

“You’ll find the right guy, Anna. Someone who deserves you.”

I already have
. Looking down, she rubbed her arms. If she’d pushed Evan away, how could she possibly expect anyone else to stay with her? Not that it mattered. She’d always want the one person who didn’t want her back.

Unless that’d changed.

Last night flooded in again. A mix of hope and fear picked up her pulse. “You don’t know how much I wish you were right.”

“And you don’t know how much I want to prove to you I am.” His soft voice followed another slow step to her.

This close, the unrelenting drive calling her to him roared against the insistent one pleading with her to let him go. Faded scents of soap and pure masculinity wrapped around her until she couldn’t think straight.

His Adam’s apple bobbed and drew her eyes from his mouth to a tendon pulsing on his neck. He didn’t move, but she felt his presence all over. What if it could be real?

A breath stood between them.

“Why does it matter?”

“Because.” He edged in another inch, swallowed. “Bells, I—”

A stark ring pierced the air. With a look of what Anna would’ve sworn was relief, Evan reached for his cell. His face creased at the screen. “It’s my buddy, Hernandez. He can wait.”

“No, take it. Please.” She sidestepped around him. “I need to leave, anyway.” Before that look on his face reminded her any more of the last time she’d messed up and almost kissed him.

“Give me a minute, and I’ll drive you.”

At the door, she steeled herself, pasted on a smile, and turned. “Don’t worry about it. Go home and get cleaned up. I’ll meet you in two hours. I’m taking you somewhere before we go to my dad’s.”

Evan’s brows knit together above a wary stare.

Why did he have to pull off the tousled sexy look so well? Giving in to a grin, Anna ruffled her fingers through the hairs sticking up in three different directions over his forehead. “Relax, Strider. What’s a little spontaneity to a Ranger? You should be used to it.”

He stood in the entryway, looking lost for what to say.

She inched her scarf up her neck, her gaze sloping in the opposite direction. “Thanks for being a good friend to me.” She gave his shoulder a gentle shove. “Now, take some advice from someone returning the favor. Don’t stop anywhere till you hit the shower first.”

His smile curled around her like her favorite sweatshirt. Warm, soothing. It took all her strength to let go of it and turn to the stairs. “See you in two hours. And don’t forget to pack an overnight bag.”

“Anna—”

“I’m taking the green line,” she said before he could insist on driving her. Somehow, she doubted thugs—professional or not—would try anything at eight in the morning. Like orcs, they moved in the shadows of night. Besides, she had more dangerous things to conquer.

Starting with her heart.

Outside, deep clouds shrouding the sky made it feel later than it was. Keeping her headphones on during the train ride failed to tune out the questions she wanted to ignore. A few strides away from the studio door, her cell rang. Reese. Even worse.

Anna’s thumb hovered over the end button but swept to answer instead. “I’ll be on time. And yes, I have a date,” she said, working a light tone into her tension-plagued voice.

“Hello to you, too.”

Anna pinned the phone to her ear with her shoulder while unlocking the door. “Sorry. I’m trying to get a solid rehearsal in before my audition tomorrow.” She strode to the locker room to change.

“Okay, but back up a sec. You have a date?”

“Uh, yeah.” She shucked off her coat. How much could she say without giving it away?

“And . . . ?” Reese prompted.

“And what?”

“Do I have to pull everything out of you? Spill it.”

Anna stared at the mirror as if her reflection would come up with some plausible reply. “He’s . . . ruggedly handsome, resourceful, and capable of handling himself.” And completely off limits.

“And you met him where?”

Memories of building sandcastles with Evan in the sandbox as five-year-olds zipped through her mind. “At the beach, years back.” She unwound her scarf. “Art show.” Sort of.

“Does Mr. Perfect have a name?”

“Um . . .” Anna unzipped her boot.

“You’re making this up, aren’t you?”

“Not exactly.”

“Anna.”

Her shoulders drooped. Probably better to tell her ahead of time, anyway. “I’m bringing Evan, all right? And no, he’s not dating that girl anymore. And yes, we’re just friends.”

Reese’s silence might as well have been a screaming reprimand. “I can’t talk about this right now.”

Good. That made two of them.

They both hung up. Anna leaned against the sink, her chest deflating with a sigh.

She dabbed a finger over the tender scab above her lip. Thanks to Evan’s ice treatment, it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. Maybe no one would notice. Yeah, right. The thought of explaining this to Dad and Reese made her stomach churn.

A weak smile pulled at the edges of her cut. If Mom were here, she’d give Anna props for kneeing that dealer in the groin. She’d probably make some crack about it at the dinner table tonight. The ache of missing her heightened Anna’s already-wired emotions.

Shaking it off, she stretched her neck and ambled out of the locker room. She’d deal with that later. All of it. Right now, she needed to leave her heart where it belonged. On the dance floor.

Mr. Jamison’s expectant smile met her from across the room. “Ready?”

“I hope so.” Her future hinged on it.

Two hours in the studio had worked its therapeutic magic. By the third run through her audition piece, all aggravation dissipated behind the peace of being at home on the floor. The music and choreo, the familiar stretch of her muscles, the lapse in time when everything else faded . . . Too bad the rest of life couldn’t be as uncomplicated.