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“What?” My stomach drops for more reasons than one.
First, that immediately means I’ll have to move out of here and possibly go back to my mother’s place. Evan is family, which trumps whatever relationship I have with his sister and brother-in-law. Two, it’s absolutely mortifying that I unpacked all my things and he just shows up here as if I’m the idiot who got it wrong. Not to mention, I’m now standing in a foyer with one very attractive Evan Ashton after he … well, I think he flirted with me at the restaurant, but I can’t be sure. It’s not as if I spent hours obsessing over what he said to me.
But deep down, this demonstrates how much people don’t think about me, even the ones I consider the closest to me. It’s not uncommon for me to get overlooked, or a situation doesn’t pan out in my favor. Oftentimes, people forget I even exist. So it’s just fucking typical that Warren double-booked the place I’m supposed to be staying in, forcing me out.
“Alana is the one who gave Warren the key to give to me,” I point out, as if this makes no sense.
“What the hell? She told me this afternoon that I could use the house because it was empty.” Evan shakes his head. “That baby brain is really throwing her off.”
And landing me in the depths of my own personal hell. Evan Ashton standing in front of me while I wear ratty leggings and an oversized T-shirt that has a hole in one armpit? Yeah, I might die of embarrassment.
As if just realizing we’re both standing in a house with no one else, all alone by ourselves, Evan’s eyes track me from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. I do the same to him, taking in the way his dark jeans mold to his quads. After we’re silent for a beat, he clears his throat, and I start to panic.
“Um, I can go, then. She probably meant to give this place to you, anyway. It’ll take me a day or so to move my stuff back out, so?—”
Evan holds up a palm, calluses, scars, and healing scabs marking the flesh there. “No, no. You don’t have to do that. You’re already unpacked, clearly comfortable …”
He points to my attire, and I curse myself for not hanging out in more sexy loungewear. Then again, I have no need for that. But hey, a girl can fantasize, and that would have come in handy right about now.
“I insist. It’s your family’s place, I have another place I could stay.” My voice cracks as I add the last part.
Even unconsciously, my body is physically fighting against going back to my childhood home.
Blue eyes trace over my face, and I shift under his scrutiny. Evan seems to process a hundred things at once, and there is a tension brewing between us that I don’t want to label. I’m here for one reason only, and addressing something as complicated as my unrequited crush on Evan Ashton is the stupidest thing I could do.
“Let’s just … it’s so late, and we’re both exhausted. I’m about to crash on this floor if it means I can sleep. Can we just sleep it off and figure this out in the morning?” Evan rubs the back of his neck like he might doze off while standing in front of me.
“Uh, yeah … I guess that’s the smart thing.” Even though I’m bound to get no sleep when I know he’s in the bed across the hall from me.
Can’t say he’s as concerned about me being in the same position though, because he looks utterly bored by this whole interaction.
“Great. So …” He points upstairs like I’m delaying us or something.
I hop to it, clambering for the stairs as I make my way up without a look back. “Right. I took the guest room, so the master is all yours. There are sheets on that bed so?—”
“Cool.” He cuts me off as we get to the top, walking in the direction of his room for the night. “I’ll see you in the morning. Thanks, August.”
And without another word, he walks into Alana’s old room and closes the door with a snick of the handle. I’m baffled, flabbergasted, at the events of the past ten minutes. One moment, I was putting away my clothes and looking forward to a peaceful night alone. The next, I was being forced into a sleepover, albeit separately, with my teenage crush, who apparently, didn’t find this situation weird or complicated whatsoever.
If I was feeling confused before about being back in Hope Crest, seeing Evan, and having to handle a lot of responsibilities I don’t want, this is a whole new wrench thrown into my bewilderment.
As predicted, I can barely shut my eyes the rest of the night, knowing that the man who played a starring role in my early sexual fantasies is sleeping just down the hall.
6
EVAN
Unfortunately, not living with my parents and their escapades doesn’t mean I’m still not up at the crack of dawn.
There are too many ideas floating around in my dreams, paired with the quiet morning kitchen time I get if I go into the restaurant early, to keep me sleeping past about five a.m. But at least I’m waking up to silence and not high jinks.
Although, I’m not exactly alone. The thought of August curled up in a bed just down the hall, her lithe curves wrapped in the covers with that blond hair spilling everywhere? Yeah, doesn’t do much to lessen the hardness of my morning wood as I flop onto my back, the mattress groaning.
Walking in to her almost beating me with her curling iron was not on my bingo card for last night. After getting off a particularly grueling dinner shift with a table who requested me to jump through so many cooking hoops, I almost told the staff to ask them to leave; I was dead tired—sleeping on my feet. The only thing I wanted to do was face-plant into a pillow and not wake up until the sun rose.
So, to get an eyeful of the gorgeous woman I flirted with just hours earlier? Yeah, it threw me the fuck off. She was so adorable and understatedly sexy in her lounge clothes, not to mention she was definitely not wearing a bra. The image of the imprint of her nipples in that threadbare tee is still tattooed on my brain.
And the way those hazel eyes filled with disappointment and something else, almost like a resigned bitterness, when I told her that Alana had promised me her old house made something inside my chest flip. There is a lot more to August Percy than she shows to the world, and I think it would probably take a crowbar and some axes to get that box open.
