Finding Eva (Highland Creek Series) (26 page)

“I love you too,” she said, rubbing his cheek.

His eyes lit up, excited that she said it. He mentally kicked himself, but couldn’t resist telling her. “You don’t have to say it back if you don’t want to.”

She cocked her head at him and stared at him like he was crazy. “Really, babe? When was the last time I did something that I didn’t want to?” He chuckled, knowing that she had an insane stubborn streak. “I didn’t say it because you said it. I said it because I wanted to. And I will keep on saying it until you believe me.”

He leaned down and kissed her again, his hands teasing the bottom of her shirt before he smelled something burning. He pulled back briefly and turned off the burner before picking her up.

“Let’s eat later.” He carried her into the living room and dumped her on the couch before lying down on top of her and kissing her senseless.

I
t had been a couple of days since Aaron had told her he loved her, and she couldn’t think of a better birthday present than that.

“You got a minute?” Conner asked as Eva was finishing cleaning the kitchen. She had a lot to do; Gwen was coming over that afternoon so they could get tattoos tomorrow to help celebrate her birthday.

“Sure.” She threw the rag down in the sink and turned to go with him. She knew he was really close to being done, he had told her at the beginning of the week that he was doing punch out work, whatever the hell that was, but apparently it meant he was close to being done. “Whatcha need?”

“I need you to come look at something?”

“What?”

“You’ll see,” he answered cryptically. What the hell? He was usually pretty straight forward, so she didn’t know why he was being weird.

“Fine,” she said and followed him upstairs to the bathroom. The bathroom door was shut and suddenly she knew what this was about. “Are you done?” she asked with a smile splitting her face.

“We are. We did everything as your mother asked, with the couple of changes that you asked. Is there anything you need before I open the door?” She was going to kill him if he didn’t open the door, so excited she thought she’d pee her pants. It had been a long process, and some days she thought it would never be clean again, but here she was. He must have sensed her impatience because he threw open the door and gestured inside with his hand. All she could do was stand in the doorway with her hand over her mouth. It was amazing, and she didn’t move until he nudged her forward.

Directly to the left she saw the deep white sink with a light colored marble counter and white cabinets with the mirror above the sink. In something she hadn’t seen before, he put the old-school claw-foot bathtub under the window on the left side of the room, with another mini sink identical to the first one on the other side of it. Because the bathroom was in an L shape, directly in front of her was the vanity where she could see herself getting ready with the toilet in an alcove with its own door. Despite how much she liked the tub, she was in love with the walk-in shower that had jets from different sides so it made you feel like you were standing under a waterfall. She laughed as she saw the sign he hung to the side of the vanity that simply stated “Primping ain’t easy” with a bunch of bobby pins. It was so her and he seemed to take her mother’s dream and hers to make it her own. She was embarrassed at the tears that wanted to come, but she knew that despite what he thought, he had given her back a little piece of her sanity.

“I don’t know how to thank you,” she gushed and giggled when she saw him blushing. He was not one to blush, and it made him look younger than he was.

He disagreed. “You don’t have to thank me. I was just doing my job.”

She was still staring around the room, not quite believing this was really her bathroom. “I think we both know this is more than a job. You truly have a gift; I just don’t have the words.”

He waved her off, grinning when she looked at the room. “As long as you like it. That is all I care about.”

“Well if you ever need anyone to vouch for you, just let me know.”

“Thanks, I try.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, looking everywhere but her, like he didn’t know what to do with her fawning all over him.

She had a feeling that she knew what he wanted to ask, but she didn’t want to rock the boat in regard to his relationship to Gwen.

He seemed to finally find his voice when he said, “Well I am going to get out of here. It is kind of weird though, because I feel like you are so much more than a client and I don’t know what I am going to do without coming to see you every day.”

“You are so sweet.” She hugged him. “And I feel the same way about you. It is going to be really quiet around here for the rest of the summer.”

He laughed and pointed at her. “There was a time when all you wanted was quiet.”

She laughed, remembering those first couple of weeks in town. “Things change. And I can’t wait to try this bathroom out so I can get ready to get my tattoo.”

“I didn’t know you were going to get a tattoo.”

“Yeah, I am going to get one to remember my mom, and with it being my birthday in two days, Gwen is going to come down and go with me.” She mentally cringed when she saw him jerk as though he had been shocked.

“Gwen’s coming?” She noticed his fists were balled up, but she didn’t know how to help either of them.

“Yeah, I guess she didn’t tell you.” He looked at her surprised, so she told him, “She told me you guys still talk.”

“We do. Friends ’til the end.”

She knew that he had a problem with everything that was going on with Gwen, but she didn’t know what to tell him. Gwen was almost fanatical when it came to sticking with her commitment, and Eva didn’t know how to get her out of it.

“Look, I know that you may have hoped that something would happen between you two…” she laughed, but there was no real humor in it “…but you need to give her time. Gwen is nothing if not loyal, and she is trying to work it out with her husband, even if that is not the best place for her.”

“But you don’t understand, I can’t just sit still while …” He stopped suddenly and looked guilty, as though he had already said too much.

She narrowed her eyes. If something was wrong with Gwen, she needed to know. “Sit still while what?”

“Nothing. Just forget I said anything. I’m glad that you love the bathroom, and I will check back with you later on.”

He stormed out, and didn’t stop when Eva yelled, “Wait!”

What the hell was that about?
she thought when he slammed the door shut, but whatever it was, she had a bad feeling about it.

Not even her gorgeous new bathroom could calm Eva’s concerns over Gwen and the weird way Conner stormed out when they started talking about her. That concern only grew when she opened the door to a much skinner Gwen. One of the things she always loved about Gwen was her curves; she truly did have an amazing body. All the guys gravitated toward her, and Eva was always jealous of the attention she got. This was not the same Gwen. She looked like she had lost about fifteen pounds, and she hated Nick on sight. Despite what Gwen said, she knew that fucker probably had something to do with the new weight loss.

She wasn’t thinking when she blurted out, “What the hell happened to you? How much weight have you lost?”

Gwen was oblivious to her reaction, because she spun and said, “Isn’t it great? I have been trying to lose weight for months and I am finally hitting my stride.”

“Why would you try to lose weight? You looked great before,” she said, hugging her as she ushered her into the house.

“Well, Nick loves it and that’s what I am going for.”

“Who the hell cares about Nick? Are you really that happy with it?”

“Nick is my husband, and it is my job to please him. I think that was part of the problem before. I wasn’t able to please him. He was always a little critical of my weight so he loves this.”

Eva had to count to ten, then count again, before she felt comfortable saying something that would not offend Gwen. She didn’t know what the hell happened to Gwen in the time that she had been home. The girl had only been there about three weeks and she talked about him like he said and did nothing wrong. Did she forget the reason she originally left? The motherfucker cheated on her, something Eva was not going to forgive, regardless of what Gwen thought.

“Whatever. Know that this conversation is not over, because you are really starting to worry me with all the shit you have been saying about pleasing Nick, and how you were the problem in your marriage, and now we have dramatic weight loss. We will definitely be talking tonight, but for right now we need to get to the tattoo place.”

“Fine, but we are not talking about this tonight.” Gwen put her hands on her hips in a gesture that Eva recognized as stubborn Gwen about to come out.

“It’s my birthday tomorrow, and if I want to talk about it, we will.” It was a low blow, especially the way Gwen’s eyes narrowed, but drastic times called for drastic measures. This shit was crazy, and she was done having to put up with it.

“So talk,” Eva said over pizza with Gwen that night.

Gwen had been able to avoid the conversation all throughout getting the tattoos, but time was up. Gwen stared at her tattoo, the infinity symbol with the anchor on one in that said “I refuse to sink” to draw strength from the permanent ink she had put on her wrist.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” She put her head in her hands in defeat. “I have been working really hard to try to make my marriage work, but I don’t think it is going to happen.”

Eva was getting pissed, sounding harsh when she asked her, “Why do you keep spouting off shit that the therapist is saying, which is a very critical toward you?”

Gwen sighed. “Well, she keeps saying that if I say something often enough that it would make it true. She told me that I need to repeat the things that we talk about during therapy to help me internalize them.”

“What the fuck, Gwen? Do you believe what you say?”

“I don’t know.” She pouted and Eva couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. “The problem is that although I don’t believe it all, especially all the stuff about me being mostly to blame, it seems to be helping my marriage. Nick has been more attentive, we have been going on dates, and I am really starting to fall back in love with my husband.”

Was Eva the only one with any sense in this situation? “Can’t that happen without you believing you are the problem?”

She focused on scratching her nail on a spot on the table. “Probably. And Nick has been really weird lately, saying stuff like he is really glad that I have gotten my act together. I didn’t know that my actions were such a problem. He never said anything, so why is it an issue now?”

“I am going to ask you like I asked you before; do you want to make it work?”

She focused on Eva now, nodding her head forcefully. “I do. I took a vow to stand by my man through better or for worse, this just happens to be worse.”

“While I agree with that sentiment, you didn’t sleep with anyone else, Nick did. You can’t, regardless of what your therapist says, take responsibility for that. She is crazy if she says it is your fault. Were there problems in your relationship? Yes. Did you cause them all by yourself? No. You can’t keep running yourself into the ground because your husband ran around on you. And why aren’t you eating?”