Page 28 of Psycho

“Because Chaos would make me replace them, and I don’t want the headache.”

“What did they fuck up?”

I stare pointedly at my brother. “I had a date, and because of them, it was cut short.”

His brows nearly hit his hairline in shock. “A d-date?” he stutters out.

“That’s what I said,” I mutter as I walk by him, needing a beer.

“A date with Evie?”

“Yes.”

“A real date with a real Evie?”

I round on him, holding myself back from getting in his face.

“What’s so hard for you to understand about it?”

Raising his hands, he mumbles, “Nothing,” and backs up.

Tonight didn’t go as I’d planned, but I won’t give up. I’ll know Evie Hemingway as well as I know myself soon enough.

Inside, I grab a beer from behind the bar and sit at the corner table, choosing to be alone. Digging out my phone, I text my sister to call me when she can.

My head is swimming with paranoia, believing Evie’s now at home, hoping I never darken her doorstep again.

I answer my phone on the first ring.

“What’s wrong? You never ask me to call you.”

“I need you to check in with Evie.”

I relay everything that happened this evening, and she whistles down the line.

“I did try to warn you, she’s not like the women we know. She’s so focused on getting her son home, it’s understandable she doesn’t want trouble around her.”

“I wouldn’t be trouble for her.”

“Come on, big brother, you’re well aware that trouble has a habit of following you around.”

“Which I can control.”

She sighs. “She doesn’t know that, though, does she?”

My sister’s making sense, for once. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, I listen.

“I can’t stop thinking about her,” I admit.

“You’re going to have to let her get to know you. The side you never show anyone that I know is there deep down.”

Everyone thinks I have one side to me, and for the most part, that’s all I show the world. But with Evie, I’d be different.

“Pick her up after she finishes work tomorrow and talk. It won’t kill you.”

I could take her to dinner. There’ll be nothing else to do but talk, and I can show her I’m not all bad.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com