AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“She won’t be forever,” Sophie said, startling the hell out of me. Stone, of course, knew she was close by because he had some kind of weird radar where she was concerned. “Not that you wouldn’t deserve forever.”
I looked up at Sophie Worthington, who never had a bad word to say about anyone, and found her glaring at me, betrayal burning in her light brown eyes. “I said I was worried. It just kind of, I don’t know, came out.”
Her shoulders fell in disappointment and I felt like I’d failed some important test. “Right, then. I guess that’s my answer. Enjoy your night, fellas. I’ll see you in the morning, Stone.” Her hand lingered on his shoulder and Stone was frozen in the moment, relaxing only when her fingertips no longer touched him.
“You even pissed Sophie off,” Stone accused. “And that’s pretty much impossible.”
He was right. Sophie was notoriously kind and forgiving, even to the worst gossips Pilgrim had to offer. “Screw this!” There was no way in hell I’d sit around and let the women in town treat me like some kind of leper. I stood and turned toward Eva’s table. If I was going down, it would be in a spectacular blaze of glory. I marched over there, Stone at my side—for the moment, anyway—and stopped at their table. “Excuse me.” I stood right beside Eva’s chair and watched in amazement as she continued to ignore me.
“I’ll trade you the red wine sauce for your spicy marinara,” she said to Sophie, who took a moment to decide, shrugged, and made the swap. “Thanks.” She nibbled the deep-fried mozzarella stick and dipped it in the chunky red sauce. “Perfect.”
“Excuse me,” I said again, this time a little louder to cover up the harsh sound of desire in my tone.
Eva turned a slow, angry gaze at me, just in case I thought she might have forgotten her anger in the past thirty minutes. “What do you want?”
“I didn’t realize you’d get so upset.” It was the shittiest thing to say to start off, but up close, those gray eyes short-circuited my brain.
Eva sucked in an outraged breath and her nostrils flared. “Just go away, Oliver. Please.”
I stared at her for a minute, waiting for the playful smile with the hint of evil or the fun banter that always existed between us, but it wasn’t there, not this time. It was just anger—real anger. Totally justified anger, it seemed. “I’m sorry.”
She laughed, and the sound was bitter and hollow. “You’re not sorry, and you don’t need to be. I always thought you were just cynical and shallow, but now I see it’s more than that. Which means I can stop expecting more of you.”
Ouch. I pushed aside the shallow and cynical part and folded my arms, flashing a smug smile. “Yeah? Do tell, please. Enlighten me.”
Eva stood and her gray eyes stared right through me as she put both hands on her hips, lips fixed into a straight white line. “It’s one thing to hate relationships—plenty of guys do, or at least pretend they do.” A few of the women added their agreement to the chorus, drawing a glare from me. “But to actively work to convince other people to stay away from dating and love and commitment? Well, that’s someone who’s been hurt. Badly. So bad, you decided you were never going to love again, never let someone get close to you enough to hurt you.” Satisfaction flashed in her eyes as she hit her target with impressive accuracy. “Instead of just following the path you laid out for yourself, you decided you needed to take all of mankind along with you. Everyone needs to be miserable like you are, and I’m the wicked bitch standing in their way… no, I’m the fraud trying to steal their money by conning them. That’s what you said, isn’t it?”
I nodded.
Eva nodded back and then shook her head. “So, please, don’t tell me you’re sorry when you named my business and called us a fraud on purpose. So much for that Pilgrim community spirit, right?” Disgusted, she shook her head and walked away.
I stood stock-still, reeling from her words. From her assessment of me. Was that how she saw me? Was that how the people of Pilgrim saw me? I looked around at accusing and judgmental stares, knowing I’d lost this battle and had to make it right. “What can I do?”
Eva stopped in her tracks and took her sweet time turning to face me. When she did, her gaze was blank as she took me in, trying to decide if I was sincere or not. Decision made, she nodded. “Sign up for Time For Love for thirty days. Give it a real, honest-to-goodness shot, and if you don’t find love, you can continue on your merry loveless way.”
