Closing Books (21 page)

“May I ask why?”

Dan looked at Kate, uncertain of what she was referring to.

“Why are you still doing this after all that she had put you through?”

“You know how you see old couples on the streets, holding hands and smiling at each other? I can see us doing that. Not exactly see…but this knowing, gut feeling maybe.”

“Aww…”

He didn’t know if he should roll his eyes or smile.
 

“And if she starts freaking out and running away tomorrow?”

“We have a deal.”

“I heard. But…just but.”

 
“I’m not giving up, no matter what happens. I’m not going to allow it,” he said. After last night, after having her in his arms, after the kiss they shared, there was no way he was going to let her go.
 

He couldn’t change her past, but from now on, he’d be there for her.

Since Dan was sending Kate back to work, he reasoned it was a good enough excuse to drop by the office and see Evelyn.
 

He couldn’t stop thinking about her since he sent her home last night. They were both too tired to make it for breakfast at Tyler’s house, and since Evelyn said she needed the car, Dan didn’t send her to work.

They’d been texting each other all morning, but he wanted so badly to see her.
 

Stepping into the office with Kate, everyone looked up at him before returning to their work.
 

“Coffee?” Kate asked.

“No thanks.”

Dan strode over and peered through the glass to Evelyn’s office, making sure that he wasn’t interrupting anything. Even through the glass, he could see the stacks of magazines, files and papers all over her desk.

A large cabinet stood by the wall, and Dan had to bite down on his lips to stop himself from smiling when he thought about the mess within the cabinet’s doors.

The last time he was in her office, he was tempted to open a few of those cabinets and have a look inside, but he’d managed to suppressed his curiosity

Dan knocked softly and inched the door open. Sticking his head in, he winked as Evelyn looked away from her laptop.

Evelyn sat by her desk with the phone pressed against her ear.

Instantly, the frown she was wearing faded. “Dan,” Evelyn said, putting down the phone without saying goodbye.

“You’re done with your call?”

She glanced over at her phone, and her face blanked for a moment. “Just an irritating supplier,” she said, shrugging it off. “I’ll call him back later. What are you doing here?”

Dan laughed and waved the brown bag he was holding. “Kate said you had some work to catch up on, and I was afraid you’d forget to eat.”

“I’m always happy to take a break.”

“Good.” Dan took a glimpse at her table, then around the room. “Is there a pantry?”

Evelyn lightly elbowed Dan in his chest before leading the way to their pantry. “How was lunch?”

“Good,” Dan answered as they stepped into the pantry. There wasn’t anyone around, and since it was all walled up, he closed the door behind him and pulled Evelyn into his arms. “I missed you so much.”

She giggled as she wrapped her arms around his waist. “I missed you, too.”
 

Dan loved her giggles. He loved being the source of the bubbly laughter, light-hearted and untroubled; the way he wanted her to be.

Standing on her tiptoes, she met Dan halfway as he bent down and kissed her.
 

They shouldn’t be doing this in the office. It wouldn’t be appropriate if people came in and saw them kissing, but he couldn’t help himself.

“You know, the glass walls of my office can be frosted. You don’t have to pull me in here to kiss me,” Evelyn said as she broke from the kiss and strode toward the table.

“I’ll remember that.”

He unpacked the food and placed it on the table for her while she made them coffee.
 

“What are you busy with?” Dan asked as she returned to sit beside him.

“I’m looking for a lounge chair, but so far, none have the size that I’m searching for. They’re either too small or too large. I can’t get the material I want as well.”

“I thought you always make it if you can’t find what you want.”

“Only as the last resort, or if the clients specifically want me to do something special for them.”

“Well, I can ask around and see if anyone has what you want.”

Evelyn took a sip of the coffee then looked up at him. “I haven’t asked for help. Thought you wanted me to learn to ask for help.”

“I’m helping myself. By helping you, I’ll get to spend more time with you.”

“Great answer.”

They continued to chat even after they’d finished up the food and coffee, and would have continued if reality hadn’t intercepted. Dan’s phone began ringing non-stop; an indication that someone screwed something up, so he helped clear up the pantry and left after telling Evelyn that he’d see her at the mansion for dinner.

Time couldn’t go fast enough for Dan. Even after solving his problem at work, and almost killing one of his men, there were still hours until dinner.

Instead of being distracted and scrutinized by his workers for his strange behavior, he thought he’d end work earlier and get the recipes he needed for the dinner he had to cook.

When he got to the mansion, it was empty. So he sat outside for a while, wondering where Marianne and Ryan had gone. Thirty minutes into his wait, he saw Marianne and Mr. Sawyer strolling back hand-in-hand. They were so engrossed in their own world that they hadn’t noticed Dan or his car.

He wanted to make himself scarce, but there wasn’t anywhere he could hide, and even if he could, his car wasn’t going anywhere.

While he was still wondering if he should pretend to be doing something on his phone, Marianne saw him staring and immediately let go of Mr. Sawyer’s hand.
 

“Dan? What are you doing here so early? I haven’t started cooking yet,” Marianne said as she came hurrying back into the house. “How long have you been sitting outside?”

“How long have you been out?”
 

Marianne turned to glare at him, so he bit down on his lips to remove the smile from his face.
 

He shouldn’t tease her when he still needed her help, but after all this time of Marianne nagging him about Evelyn, he couldn’t help himself. “I just wanted to get some recipes from you. I lost a bet to Evelyn. Why isn’t there anyone in the house?”

She opened the door and stepped in. “You can’t even fry an egg, and you think somehow the recipes will help you cook?” She stepped aside for Mr. Sawyer to enter. “Joe drove Ryan to the hospital for his checkup.”

“It’s just following instructions; how difficult can that be?”

Smirking when she heard the words, Marianne nodded. “All right, what recipes do you need?”

Dan handed her the email he’d printed out. “Pick three of the easiest.”

Marianne took the paper from him and strolled into the house. “Oh, what I’d give to watch you try cooking any of this.”

Evelyn stepped out of the car and headed into the grocery store with Dan. He grabbed one of the grocery carts and opened the list of ingredients that Marianne had written for him.
 

“Shouldn’t you have done this
before
picking me up?” Evelyn asked.

Dan looked over toward her. “All my meals are settled outside; thought it’s better to come with someone more experience.”

Chuckling, Evelyn shook her head as she wondered how the day would turn out. “Before Marianne, I had Kate. Haven’t you noticed that my kitchen is the cleanest part of my house?”

“I’m sure we can figure it out. Let’s start with the vegetables.” The vegetables weren’t difficult to find, but once they hit the mushroom section, they were stumped. “What’s the difference between white button mushrooms and this mushroom?”

“What mushroom did Marianne say to get?”

“Mushrooms.”

She shook her head again. The dinner would be disastrous.

Dan stood and examined the mushrooms in detail while she went to check out the various types of mushrooms on display. “This looks like the one Kate used to buy,” Evelyn said, picking up one of the organic mushrooms. “Let’s just take this.”

“Will they taste different?”

She stared at Dan; how was she supposed to know? “Maybe we should just order takeout. I don’t mind. Or we can go out for dinner.”

“I promised I’d cook.”

“If it turns out horribly, can I order takeout then?”

“Come on, show some faith.”

“I heard you can’t even fry an egg.”

“Marianne told you that?”

Her lips disappeared into a thin line. “Not exactly.”

“
Kate
told you?”

She grinned and said, “Oh, well, I appreciate that you’re trying.”

When Kate told her about Dan’s cooking skills, she was sure he would come up with some excuse to get out of cooking. Then, when Dan told her that they were going to get groceries, she’d thought that, maybe, Marianne was comparing Dan’s skills to hers, which would of course be horrible.
 

Now, Evelyn was sure the dinner was doomed.

Still, despite thinking that nothing good could result from a dinner prepared by someone who only entered the kitchen to eat, it was sweet of Dan to try.

“No. I’m going to get it right, you’ll see.” Picking up his phone, he called Marianne and asked about the mushrooms. “Yes, yes, but you didn’t state the exact type of mushrooms…do you know how many types of mushrooms there are?” He stepped away from her, seemingly getting a lecture from Marianne.

“Everything all right?” she asked when he returned.

“Yes. But I think from now on, I should just call Kate.”

She laughed, hooking her arm around his. “Next on the list?”

They shopped around for nearly an hour, looking at everything, joking at all the stuff they’d never seen before. Their laughter attracted several unkind glares, but they couldn’t care less. They were having fun, and that was enough for them.
 

Having enjoyed herself so much from the grocery shopping, she didn’t care if the dinner was a success. She was already having a terrific time anyway.

Dan, on the other hand, seemed terribly excited about the cooking; perhaps he was just determined to prove everyone wrong. When they got to his house, he didn’t allow her to help, so she sat in his living room, scanning through the channels on the television until she got bored and turned to online shopping.

In the middle of deciding between two pairs of boots, she heard several loud clangs and curses.

She rushed toward the kitchen and saw Dan on all fours, wiping up what seemed to be linguine on the floor. She knelt across from him, intending to help in the cleaning up, when she noticed some sauce smeared on the bottom half of his shirt. “Did you spill it on yourself?”

His hand grabbed the edge of the shirt, and he flicked it a few times, allowing some air to go in. “It’s nothing; leave this to me,” Dan said, reaching over to stop Evelyn’s hand.

But she wasn’t moving to clean up the mess on the floor. She pulled her hand from his and reached over to his shirt, lifting it to see if he’d scalded himself. Though there weren’t any serious blisters, his skin was bright red. “Dan, forget about the mess; put some cream on that.”

“It’ll be fine after a while.”

“Either you let me put some cream on you or I’m leaving—now.”

He stared at her for a moment, seemingly trying to gauge how serious she was.

“Now, Dan.”

Dan stood, pulling her up along with him. “All right.” He looked at the mess again and turned back to her. “I’m sorry. There’s so much multi-tasking to do, I couldn’t focus on everything.”

“Then you should’ve asked me to help. I can’t do much, but we can always mess it up together,” she said, dragging Dan out to the living room.
 

“I’m fine. I’ll just splash some water on it.”

Evelyn wasn’t interested in standing around and debating with him on the right course of action to get rid of the redness. “Sit, and no cooking until I’m done with you. Where’s the first-aid kit?”
 

His thumb jerked upwards. “Bathroom.”

Dan was scanning through the sports channel when Evelyn returned with the first aid box. She frowned when she saw the scalded area, and the line between her brows etched deeper as she applied the cream on him.

He laughed when he saw her expression.

“What’s so funny about getting scalded?”

“Nothing. I never thought I’d see you so worried about me. Kind of like it.”

Immediately, her gaze fell to the ground.
 

He cringed. “That came out wrong. I just meant that it’s nice to see your concern for me.”

“I’ve always been concerned about you.”

He grinned when he heard those words. “I’m glad it’s not just me,” he said, taking the cream away and tossing it back into the first-aid kit. Gently, he ran his finger down the side of her face.
 

Suddenly, Evelyn’s head swiveled to the side and she sniffed at the air.
 

He frowned, and was about to ask her what was wrong when the smell hit him. “Damn! The food!”

He got up and sprinted toward the kitchen, switching off the fire at the stove. “I think ordering takeout sounds like a good idea,” Dan said, looking at the charred salmon on the pan.
 

“And I think you’ll need to throw that pan away.” Evelyn wrapped her arm around his waist, careful to avoid the scalded area. “I’m sorry it didn’t turn out well, but I can still tell Marianne that it did.”

“She’ll never believe it,” he said and laughed. “You should’ve seen her look when I told her that it was just following instructions.” Pulling open the top drawer, he took out a few menus and handed it to Evelyn.

“Oh well, we can just have our meals at Kate’s place for the rest of our lives.”
 

He turned away to hide his smile from her. In the past, she was always so careful with the words she used. She never spoke of anything that happened in the past and never mentioned any future, not even for herself.