Rachel
Avanillalatteisdelivered to my hotel room with a note that says…
To aid in regaining the support of your taste buds. -E
Why do I feel like I’ve just been passed a note in the middle of seventh-grade class? The kind where ‘check yes or no’ is scrawled in pencil by a boy who makes your heart do weird little flips? I can feel how wide my smile is as I take a long sip of the sugary beverage.
Evan Michaels isn’t the man I thought he was.
He’s so much more.
And I have questions. A lot of them.
Okay, really just one that’s growing louder by the minute…
What about his parents?
Last night, he said he came from nothing. That hewasnothing.
And that’s not nothing. That’s a big, heavy, can’t-just-ignore-it kind of something.
Because I’ve seen how he is with Lily. The way he protects her, provides for her, carries the weight of her world like it’s his own.
Like he’s not just her brother. Like he’s all the family she’s got.
Which means…Delilah isn’t the only one who left him, and I can’t blame him for being closed off, for not giving someone an opportunity to walk away from him again.
But he said he wasletting me in.
And I really need to think about what that means, not just for Evan, but for me.
Because if Evan is letting me in, that means I’m going to have to let him see the things I hide, too. Just because I’d rather smile, doesn’t mean that I don’t have my own storms. Being happy and hurt can coexist.
But last night.
Last. Night.
The way he looked at me, it made me believe that maybe, just maybe, someone would want to ride a storm out with me. That he knew a little more about the thunder that sometimes vibrates from deep within, reminding you of what had been, of what had carved itself into your marrow in ways that only you knew.
And then, he’d gotten so close to me that we were more breath than body, a hot, heavy desire growing thick between us that still managed to create goosebumps on my bare skin.
I swear he was going to kiss me, that hewantedto kiss me. And then, when I mouthed those two words and his eyes had grown bright as the elevator doors closed, I knew he had.
I’m falling for Evan Michaels. Actually, I think I’ve already fallen.
He let me flip through a few of his pages, and I don’t want to put this book down.
No, he’s a book that may keep me up all day and all night.
Chapter 32
Evan
I’vebeenstaringatmy phone all day long, wondering if Rachel got the latte delivered to her room. Wondering if she smiled. If she was still in her pajamas with her hair down, or if she is a morning person and had already left and my latte had gone unnoticed and cold.
“This stop should be pretty straightforward,” Melanie says.
She’s detailing out the next protocol at the next bookstore for a book signing. It’s all the same. Book tours aren’t just about sold-out events but visiting places with my cardboard cutouts twinning me, and lines of people hoping I’ll offer them a smile along with my signature. A selfie occasionally is requested, which makes me even more glad they can’t tag me on social media.
