“I know, babe,” Nora cooed before grinning at Evie. “I’m sorry if we upset you. We really just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
Some of the tension eased from her shoulders. “I’m fine. Really. This wasn’t something either of us planned and…” Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Slater was sprawled out on the sofa, watching her warily. At first she didn’t know why, but then she remembered how she barreled out there and pushed him aside. Offering him a weak smile, she was surprised when he didn’t smile back.
“Okay, if we’re all done talking about our feelings,” Axel interrupted with a huff, “we have actual work to do!”
With his eyes still on hers, Slater stood and slowly walked over to the door. His gaze held hers for a moment longer before turning to his friends.
“I understand that there’s work to do, Axel, but this is why we hired a very competent staff,” he said evenly. “Now, I don’t mind walking the property and helping evaluate the damage the storm left, but you need to relax and let the people we’re paying do their jobs.”
Evie looked between the two of them and could tell that Axel was ready to argue.
“I hate to say it, but Slater’s right,” Milo said. “We can give everyone direction on where to start and what to do, but they’re the ones more qualified to do the hands-on work.”
“So no one wants to work, is that it?” Axel demanded. “This resort belongs to all of us, and sometimes that means getting our hands dirty. And in case everyone’s forgotten, Evie’s cabin—my former cabin—has a tree on top of it!”
“What? When did this happen?” Turning to Slater, she felt ready to scream. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Evie, I found out ten seconds before you came out and shoved me aside. And then you were doing all the talking, so…”
“Oh.” Then it hit her that all of her things were in that cabin. “I need to go and see it. Everything I brought with me other than the clothes on my…”
Right now, the only thing she had on was Slater’s robe.
“All my stuff is in that cabin!” she cried. “How bad is it?”
Nora stepped forward and quietly ushered her back into the cabin. “Let’s get you dressed, and then we’ll go down there. It looks like it’s the whole front porch, but we didn’t look closer because we were worried about you.”
“Thanks. I’ll be out in a minute.” Walking into the bedroom, Evie closed the door and quickly realized all her clothes were in a heap back in the living room where she’d stripped them off last night. “Shoot. Now what…”
Just then, Slater joined her, shutting the door behind him and holding out her wrinkled clothes to her. “They’re stiff and muddy. You can borrow something of mine or maybe see if Nora has something for you because these are just a mess.”
Dammit. He was right.
“You’re a foot taller than me, Slater. Anything of yours will be too big.” Sitting down on the edge of the bed, she let out a weary breath. “I can’t believe that it’s barely six in the morning and so much has happened already.”
Sitting beside her with a nod, he took one of her hands in his. “Yeah. Sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. You don’t control the weather, right?” She playfully nudged his shoulder, but he wasn’t smiling. “What’s going on? You look super serious right now.”
“I know it’s not the right time; Nora’s waiting for you, the guys are waiting for me, but…” Now it was his turn to huff out a breath. “It bothered me the way you talked about us. Like I was just a way to soothe your ego after that dick hurt your feelings back home.”
For a moment she thought he surely must be joking. This was a man who talked a lot about how he never took anything seriously in the relationship department, and she’d heard more than she ever wanted to about how he had simply hooked up with women just because he could. They were all nothing to him, and he never really remembered their names or even faces.
But when she saw the somber expression on his face, she knew he wasn’t lying.
“You’re right. Now’s not the time.” She got to her feet, gently pulling her hand from his. “I need to see what happened to my cabin and if my stuff got damaged.”
“Evie…”
She was pacing like she was looking for something, and yet she didn’t know what. When she turned around, Slater was on his feet, studying her.
“Why is it okay for you to hook up with nameless, faceless women time and time again, huh? Don’t you think their feelings may have gotten hurt? Or that they were bothered by the way you callously treated them?”
His eyes went wide, but he didn’t utter a word.
“For what it’s worth, I didn’t decide to sleep with you because of what happened with Tucker. I slept with you because I wanted to,” she clarified. “Did it make me feel a little better about myself? Hell yes! I’ve never had a man make me feel the way you do, and you know what? I like it and I’m not going to apologize for it. But we both know that this is temporary. Even though we keep extending the end date, we both know there is one.”
He at least had the decency to look a bit chagrined.
