An ache deep, deep inside of me stirs at her words. I’m not even sure what she means — what exactly she’s talking about — but those four words seem to capture everything about her. And that everything — that rare, bewitching, brilliant everything — has been rejected.
The way she isis the reason my life may not be a total waste after all. Maybe. Just maybe. If I can make her happy.
Then again, Evie’s always happy. I love that about her. So I guess my life won’t be a total waste if she can be happy with me.
My arms are still around her, and I rub down her spine and bring a hand to the back of her neck so she feels me.
“The way you are,” I stress the words so they capture the whole of her, “is what I’d die to protect.”
I feel a shock run through her.“Drew.”Her hands raise to my face. She’s frowning at me. Startled. Confused. She licks her lips and shakes her head, her eyes shining. “How am I supposed to go to work now?”
I give the back of her neck a little squeeze. “Knowing that your worry — and whatever is behind the worry — could never apply to me.” If I wouldn’t come off sounding like more of a lovesick fool than I already do, I’d tell her now that loving her is the ladder that lets me climb out of hell. And who she is is the water that stops the burning. “I’m not your parents, or your sister — thank God—“
This earns me a snicker, and Evie brushes her sweet lips against mine. I keep going. Just like I did yesterday. Because this is something I can give her.
“Their mistake, as good and loveable as they might be, is that they don’t see how the way you are makes everything better.” Her eyes go wide, and she opens her mouth to say something, but I’m not finished. “I’ll make my own mistakes, Evie. Plenty of them. But I won’t make that one.”
Her bottom lip trembles before she bites down on it. In fact, her whole body is trembling. I feel it, so I tighten my hold on her.
“That’s… Drew, that’s the nicest—“ Evie shakes her head and seems to scold herself. “No, nice is so dumb. It doesn’t come anywhere close… It’s the most precious thing anyone’s ever told me. I’ll never, never forget it.”
Triumph leaves me weightless. Her lips touch mine again, but this time she’s demanding more than a gentle caress. I give her what she wants.
I will always give her what she wants.
We kiss until the sound of scattering gravel reaches our ears, and we break apart to see a car pulling into the space beside us.
Evie eyes me sheepishly. “That’s one of my students.”
I glance over my shoulder, hoping like hell it isn’t that asshole Drake. But to my relief, an older woman with white hair and glasses gives Evie an amused look.
“Mrs. Guillory is going to have a field day with this,” she says dryly. I turn back to her and run my eyes along her body.
“I think you can take Mrs. Guillory.”
Evie’s laughter fills the cab of Grandma Q’s Buick. She reaches into the footwell and grabs her bag.
“I’ll pick you up at four.”
She nods, her eyes on me. Evie seems to take me in. “I love you.”
God, I’m the luckiest ex-con alive.
“I love you, Guppy.”
She opens the door and climbs out, but as soon as she does, she ducks her head back in. “Would you do me a favor?” she asks, looking only a little timid.
“Name it.”
One side of her mouth quirks up, but she seems to hesitate for a moment.
“Name it, Guppy. It won’t annoy me.”
The other side lifts up. “When you’re on South College, could you keep your eyes open for that little dog the car in front of us almost hit? If you see him, I’ll ask Janine if I can borrow her car this afternoon and try to find him,” she says as though she’s already worked out a plan in her mind. “He’d have a much better chance in a shelter than beside a four-lane road.”
It hits me then that this is what she was talking about. This is what annoys her parents. That her heart is so big and boundless, that she’s still fretting over a stray dog she saw on the street.
I swear to God, I’ll never want to change the way she is.
