The gravel crunches, and I turn too late.
Something hard hits my shoulder. Evie stalks toward me, brown eyes blazing. She stands, shoulders shaking, chest heaving. Her gaze drops to the item that hit me and fell to the ground, and I follow it with my own.
My journal sits open, pages down, gravel dusted over the cover.
I forgot about the old book. It’s been months since I wrote in it. Before Evie arrived, I penned the last entry. The ones in there cover the last three years or so.
“Where is he?” she growls. Her finger points at me and eventually lands over my heart as she closes the space between us.
I glance at the journal.
He?
“Where is the man in this journal?” She glares at me.
“He—I?—”
“The kind, smart, generous man in these pages. What the hell did you do with him, Callum?”
Fuck me.
I can only stare at her. Her fire is stunning. Brown eyes lit up with more life than most people could ever wish to hold. It’s all I can do to think of what Evie would be like if she opened up. Really walked into her light instead of cowering in the shadows like she’s been doing since she got here. Since who knows how long.
She’s so close. “Answer. Me.”
My body vibrates at her proximity. Blood having well and truly left my brain, every drop is holed up south. My cock achesrelentlessly. So I do what any man who’s stupid crazy over a girl would do. I wrap my palms around her face and crash my mouth over hers.
She jerks backward, hand flying up and pressing over her mouth.
I don’t move from the spot. Couldn’t if I wanted to.
Which I damn well don’t.
I wait as she processes the line we just crossed.
Her hand drops away from her face and she steps up to me, sucking in a breath. “What was that for?”
“Because I felt like it.”
A beat passes before she responds, “Wrong answer.”
Evie’s eyes burn into mine as she invades my senses. Her closeness. Her scent, all flowers and spice. The tension that hangs between us like party lights swinging in the breeze as a storm rolls in to drench the unsuspecting guests. The glass bulbs, our fragile hearts. The cord, the choices we made that brought us right here in this moment.
She raises to her tiptoes and inches closer, her breath hitting my face. My palms burn to claim hers.
Her gaze drops to my mouth.
Each breath that cycles through me singes a little more than the last.
She raises her hand, fingertips brushing over my jaw. My eyes shutter closed.
“Callum?”
Eleven
EVIE
Hell will freeze over before I find myself in another relationship. At least, that’s how I’ve seen my life for the last five years. My fingers sweep over his short beard. The tips hover over his mustache. I’m like a little girl exploring her father’s face for the first time after a long time.
