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“Agreed.” Bear covers his pie in ice cream, then sprays a mountain of whipped cream on it. “About the snakes anyway.”
“Careful, Bear,” I say, joining in with the teasing Evie started. “Sounds like we’ve got a feminist on our hands.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Evie goes on the defensive, which is the last thing I want.
“Nothing.” I’vegotto work on my tone, so people know when I’m joking. SoEvieknows I’m joking. “I consider myself a feminist.”
“Really.” She narrows her eyes and tips her head to the side, looking me up and down.
Sebastian answers before I can. “He was the only boy in high school willing to wrestle the one girl on another team in our division.” He lifts his fork to me in a salute or toast or something. Whatever it is, I’ll take it.
“How does that make you a feminist?” Evie asks.
I shrug. “She’d worked hard to learn the skills. If she was willing to get in the ring, she was willing to get hurt. Why should I go easy on her or forfeit just because she was a girl?”
“Did you beat her?” Evie’s eyes bore into me, looking darker than ever.
I shake my head. “She was really good.”
“That’s the answer he gave every time.” Sebastian says through a mouth full of pie. “He got a lot of crap about it, too.”
“Everyone shut up when she came in second in state.”
Evie’s eyes move over my face, warming every part of me. The pie is good, but the way she’s looking at me is delicious.
“Okay. I’ll allow it.” The corner of her mouth tips up and takes my breath with it.
I can’t hold back my smile. “Allow what?”
“You to call yourself a feminist.” She scrapes the pie off her plate, then licks the remaining cream off the back of the fork.
And it’s not her eyes that have my attention anymore. It’s her rounded mouth and the tip of her tongue as she runs it along her top lip.
Forget the pie. There is nothing more tempting to me right now than Evie’s mouth and the idea of pressing mine to it.
Chapter 19
Evie
My apple pie is fine. Maybe even good. But the rest of the night is delicious. Scrumptious even. After we finish the pie, Adam invites me to stay and listen to them play.
Yes, please.His version ofAin’t No Sunshinestill rings in my head. I would listen to him sing my College Stats textbook if given the chance. Which is why I take a seat at a table front and center, even though every synapse in my brain is firing warning signals. I’ve been able to keep my physical attraction to Adam in check, thanks to his baditude. But all bets are off now that I’ve seen him smile.
It. Was. Glorious.
Like every pink-gold sunrise I’ve seen since arriving in Paradise. His smile lit up the entire room brighter than the sun after a week of rainy days.
I liked it very much. Almost as much as I like the way he growls when he sings.
The moment Adam snarls the words toRing of Fire, I’m glued to my seat. I’m not going anywhere. Especially my eyes. I can’t take them off him.
Luckily, he presses his eyes closed as he taps his foot to the beat of Bear’s drums and Sebastian’s bass guitar. When he opens them, his focus is on his hands, and my gaze is drawn there too. His long fingers move up and down the fret with a grace and accuracy juxtaposed against the concentration on his face. Even in his intense focus, Adam’s movements are effortless, and he seems more at peace than I’ve seen him before. I don’t mean to watch him as closely as I do, but there are so many layers to Adam that the only way to discover what lies beneath the surface is through intense study. He’s a different person on stage than he is off. Maybe because he has somewhere to channel his feelings. Instead of keeping them at a low boil beneath the surface, he pours them into music.
There’s a lesson somewhere in there for me.
In the middle of his song, he raises his eyes and catches mine. I don’t have time to look away, but I try. My face is on fire when I dare to look back at him. He’s looking at his guitar, but his lips curve into a pleased grin. There’s no smugness in it, just…
Happiness?
