Finding Eva (Highland Creek Series) (19 page)

“Found it,” she said and tried not to sound breathless as she held up the photo album. “You look so cute in these pictures, I loved it.” Aaron got a bit red, but he didn’t say anything as his mother looked a bit shocked.

“Glad you liked the pictures,” she said. Eva got the feeling that she was trying desperately not to laugh and she wanted in on the joke.

“What?”

“Nothing, dear.” Susan patted her cheek and laughed before turning around to walk back outside. “Glad you liked his pictures.”

“What did I say?” She looked at Aaron, whose shoulders were shaking with laughter as he put his head on her shoulder.

“You know that photo album that you told my mom we were going through?”

“Yeah …” She looked at the white, nondescript album. “What about it?”

“It’s not my photo album. It has my coin collection.”

“Shit! You have a coin collection?!” She looked, and sure enough all the notebook had were sleeves of coins. Who the hell would have thought?

“Who the hell has a coin collection?”

“I did,” he said, and she could tell he was getting a bit defensive. Who knew there was a little nerd under all that hotness?

“Well, I think it’s hot.” She trailed her finger down his chest before she leaned up and kissed him soundly on the mouth. “Now come on. Let’s put your coin collection back in its place and pretend like your mother doesn’t know that we were in here having sex.”

Eva thought she would be embarrassed going back out with Aaron’s family, especially given the fact that his mother definitely knew they were in her son’s old bedroom, fooling around, but somehow she found a set of steel ones she didn’t know she had. She was happy to see Gwen coming toward her when they got back outside, curious to know what she and Conner had been discussing.

“Where were you guys?” Eva immediately felt her face flame. Clearly she wasn’t as over it as she thought. “Aaron’s mom just came out here laughing saying that you guys would be out in a minute.”

She shook her head quickly. Eva really wasn’t getting into it now. “I will tell you later. It is hardly worth repeating.” Desperate to take the attention off of her prolonged absence, she asked, “What were you and Conner talking about?”

Gwen smiled as she said, “He is a really nice guy, and we talked about the reason why I am here. We are going to just be friends. Let’s be honest, my life is crazy enough as it is without adding new men in the mix. He is really nice though, and I am hoping to have a good friend. Despite how hot he is, I really just need a friend.”

“That’s good. He is a great guy, and I think you will really like him.”

“Me too.” She looked up as Reagan and Addie walked toward them with a gleam in their eyes.

“Hey, girls, we know you were saying that you didn’t think it was a hot tourist spot, but we wanted to show you a good time.” Gwen perked up and Eva knew she had missed their margarita nights.

Eva and Gwen looked at each other, Gwen’s blue eyes pleading. Eva gave a slight shrug, signifying her agreement. Gwen turned back, practically bouncing up and down. “We’re game. What are you thinking?”

Reagan seemed to be the ringleader, because she told her the details. “Well there’s this bar called Boot Scooters. They have pool, alcohol, darts, and tomorrow night there will be a live band.”

“That sounds great,” Gwen readily agreed, smiling broadly.

“Hold up. Did you say you were going to Boot Scooters?” Eva turned to look at Aaron, who butted into their conversation. She noticed Bryan and Conner were right behind him.

“Yeah, why?” Eva didn’t understand the problem, but it must be something for him to interrupt them. She understood she was new here, but she didn’t understand why they couldn’t go.

Aaron was staring at her strangely. “Because you don’t need to go to Boot Scooters. There’ll just be a bunch of crazy rednecks that will be drinking and raising hell all night.” The whole time he was talking, Bryan and Conner stood behind him nodding in agreement. Was he seriously telling her she couldn’t do something? If Aaron thought that would prevent them from going, then clearly he didn’t know his girl.

“What time do you want to go tomorrow?” Eva asked Reagan, ignoring him completely. Reagan gave a shout for joy before giving Addie a high five before they left Eva standing with Aaron.

“You shouldn’t go to Boot Scooters. That place gets really crazy at night.” He tried one more time to change her mind.

She smirked at him. “Maybe you shouldn’t order me around next time and I will think about listening to you. As it stands I am going to go with your sisters and my friend, and we are going to get redneck crazy. Make sure you stay on standby as DD.” She patted his cheek, walking off to join his sisters on the other side of the deck.

“Fucking hell!”

E
va was excited to go to Boot Scooters with Gwen and Aaron’s sisters, especially since they had really hit it off the night before. It would be nice to get away for a while and have girls’ night. She could use it, and sure as shit Gwen could too. She and Gwen had talked it over earlier and they figured with a name like Boot Scooters they shouldn’t expect much.
Good thing we didn’t get our hopes up
, she thought as she found a space in the gravel parking lot and looked up at the sign written in a rope with a lasso at the end.

“Well here goes nothing.” Eva looked at Gwen, who didn’t normally like places like this, but she was looking up curiously at the hole-in-the-wall in the middle of nowhere.

“I always said that I wanted to try something new but I don’t know that this was what I had in mind.” Gwen’s phone chirped, signaling a text message.

“Is that Nick again?” Eva asked. From what Gwen said, he had been constantly calling and texting since she had been in town, and she was annoyed by his obsessive behavior. He was the one who fucked up and needed to just leave her the hell alone. “He didn’t show half of the amount of interest that he has recently, he can’t go crazy now.”

Gwen looked taken aback by her vehemence. “Eva, that was Addie saying they already had a table. And what the fuck was that about? Nick hasn’t texted me in a couple days since I told him I needed space. I need to know that you have my back in this situation, regardless of what happens.”

“I do, I am just a bit sick of his treatment of you, and I am not just talking about the cheating. I just kinda freaked out a bit, and that’s not fair to you. I guess I am more nervous about tonight than I thought.”

“If this is just a summer thing, then why are you so worried about what his sisters think? We are just supposed to be having a fun night out.”
Damn, Gwen.

“It is. I know that nothing is going to come of this after July, but I still want to make a good impression.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” Gwen got out of the car as Eva followed, going into what looked like a glorified trailer, and began to look for the girls.

Eva couldn’t help but take in the ambiance and knew that she was standing in the middle of a redneck’s dream. There were two long bars against the wall and tables that were set apart from the bars and around the dance floor. They found Reagan and Addie at a high-top table near the dance floor, the girls already deep in conversation with a couple of hot guys as they walked up, mindful of the looks they seemed to be getting from both the men and women. It seemed as though the bar stopped, everyone looking up from the game of pool or darts they were playing or the drink they were ordering. The men looked like they wanted to have sex with them; the women looked like they wanted them gone.

Addie looked up and waved them over with a smile on her face and quickly made introductions to the two guys, Mark and Jacob. Turns out they went to school with Aaron and Bryan, and they had just stopped in to say hello. They weren’t too bad on the eyes, Mark with his shaggy brown hair and chocolate eyes and Jacob with his bald head and light brown eyes, and they seemed to be dressed like true country boys with jeans, cowboy boots, and a flannel T-shirts. Never one to miss an opportunity to drink, Gwen and Eva quickly welcomed the boys’ offer for a beer.

“Is it just me, or do these girls look like they want to throw the darts at us?”

“It’s not you.” Addie laughed. “It’s the small town rumor mill working at full blast. They know that you two came with us, and since you were spotted having dinner with Aaron, they pretty much know you are with him.”

“I don’t know if I like that.”

Reagan smiled and shook her head. “Like it or not, that is what it is. Your car was spotted at Aaron’s early the other morning, so they know that you guys are together. Being with us just adds fuel to the fire because we are really picky about who we hang out with. We don’t like a lot of the girls that our brothers date.”

“Oh really?” Eva took a sip of the beer that the boys had dropped off before going to play pool.

Reagan nodded her head toward a table of beautiful girls in the standard tank top, shorts, and cowgirl boots outfits. “See that girl over there with the black hair?”

“Yeah.” She was hard to miss. With the curly dark hair and eyes that seemed to burn holes through Eva, she knew she was dealing with an ex-girlfriend.

“That’s Marcia. She was completely in love with Aaron, and she was able to get her claws in him for about three months before he started to notice that she was a bit crazy. Now if he had asked us…” Reagan gestured between herself and Addie “…we would have told her she was crazy.”

“Does Aaron still want her?”

“He hasn’t said anything about her since about a month before you got her. She is always sniffing around though, so watch out for her.”

“Got it.” Eva drank deeply and desperately wished for a change in subject.

Gwen, always the friend, asked, “So what is it like living here?”

“It’s all I really wanted,” Addie said, “even going away to college at North Carolina State, I always knew that I wanted to come back here to work in the bank.”

“You’re a financial advisor, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, and I love it. I have to be a bit of a ballbuster because it can be a bit of a man’s world, but I am really good at what I do so my clients love me,” she finished with a smile, picking up her beer.

“My husband is a financial advisor, and I know that he is always talking about how it is a lot of work and complains about the hours.”

Addie finished her drink, setting it down with a nod. “It is a lot of work, don’t get me wrong, but I like the fact that I am in control of my time. I have always tried to have a good balance between work and play because it can suck you in.”

Gwen smiled sadly. “I think that’s what happened to him. We all know why I’m here, but I am starting to wonder if part of this is the pressure cooker of his job.”

Addie gestured to the waitress for another beer before responding, “Don’t get me wrong, the job can be stressful because you are making deals with other people’s money, but it is not any more stressful than anything else. You guys teach and I know that is stressful. Give me numbers and I am good, but give me students and I will run screaming.” She shuddered, picturing a class full of screaming children.

Gwen laughed at her, knowing exactly what she was talking about. “Trust me, there are some days when it is all you can do to hold on and not run screaming out of your classroom. But I think Eva will agree with me when I say that we are at a really good school and I really like my principal.”

“That’s really good, and not to change the subject, but inquiring minds want to know. What is going to happen with you and Aaron in July?” Addie directed her question at Eva, so she knew they were fishing for information on her and Aaron. She didn’t mind though, because it came with the territory when there was a new girl sniffing around your brother. She understood because she was the same way when it came to Brad.

Although she understood their concern, she wasn’t sure how much information Aaron wanted her to share. Eva considered the question, wondering how best to answer it. In the end she decided just to be as honest as possible. “I don’t know to be completely honest with you. We have discussed it and we are going to try and make it work, despite being so far apart. I mean, I really like him, which is kind of unusual for me, but I am willing to try.” Addie and Reagan shared a look, making Eva uncomfortable. “What?” She squirmed, not quite knowing what their deal was.