For a moment, all Nora did was stare at her.
“Say something,” she urged.
“First, I think it’s kind of funny that he’s being all butt-hurt. Like he hasn’t treated women that way in the past?”
“I know! That’s exactly what I thought at first, but then I realized he was being serious!”
“Okay, and that makes me feel like maybe this isn’t just casual for him. I don’t think Slater knows how to not treat things lightly or casually because whenever his feelings get involved, he gets hurt. And that’s just my opinion based on the stories from his childhood. I think it really messed with him and he’s carried it with him for most of his life.”
That just broke her heart.
“I know we need to go, but maybe…don’t be so quick to think of this as temporary. You never know what can happen.”
Sadly, Evie was already pretty damn certain of how this was going to go, but she kept it to herself.
“Come on. Let’s go see if anything of mine survived the tree.” They got to their feet. “And thanks, Nora. I appreciate having you as a friend.”
“Same.” They hugged before making their way down to Evie’s cabin, where Axel, Milo, and Slater were standing with several members of the maintenance crew.
“So? What’s the verdict?” she nervously asked.
“It looks like it’s just the porch and part of the front wall,” Axel told her grimly. “But we need to get an engineer out here before we can let you inside. And obviously, you can’t stay in there. You can use Connor’s cabin, or we can move you into a room up in the lodge…”
“She’s staying with me,” Slater stated, arms crossed, his authoritative tone brooking no arguments.
A tingle of arousal trickled down her spine, and if they were alone, she would be climbing him like a tree right now.
“Will I be able to get my stuff out?” she asked. “I’ll need clothes, my laptop, and as much as I can safely gather.”
“I’ll take you shopping for anything you need,” Slater said in that same tone. “There’s no reason for you to risk getting hurt. We need an engineer's report before anyone can go inside.”
Swallowing hard, she nodded.
All around them, everyone started talking at once, but Nora came up behind her and whispered, “See? Maybe don’t be so quick to think of this as temporary.”
And as much as she didn’t want to get her hopes up, maybe Nora was onto something.
Chapter Ten
It was one thing for Evie to spend the night.
It was totally different having her move in.
And he wasn’t hating it.
That first day had been utter chaos. Between dealing with damage around the property, getting Reece and his team of engineers out to inspect Evie’s cottage, and then helping her get everything she needed—something Nora took her to do courtesy of Slater’s credit card—they had simply collapsed that night in pure exhaustion.
Now, three days later, Slater found himself standing in the middle of the living room, barely recognizing it. Her stuff was everywhere. He tended to be fairly minimalistic, and Evie was the total opposite. There were shoes, books, hair ties, random jackets, a few candles, and a half-finished mug of coffee from this morning scattered around.
The bedroom was more of a mess. Between the tangled sheets and blankets on the bed, the dresser that was overflowing with both of their clothes, and even more of Evie’s stuff on almost every available surface, it looked a little like a tornado had gone through it.
And then there was the bathroom. Her robe was hanging on the hook on the door right next to his, her makeup was on the vanity, and it smelled of her shampoo and perfume.
On instinct, he inhaled deeply and smiled.
The last time he shared a living space with anyone was when he still lived at home with his mother, and that had been a nightmare. It was something he’d avoided ever since. But living with Evie was actually…nice. Coming home at the end of the day and finding her there was something he looked forward to. On some level, he imagined resenting the loss of his privacy and alone time, but that didn’t happen.
Right now, he was supposed to meet Reece and Axel down at the cabin to see if they had stabilized it, but the only thing he wanted to do was go inside and get the rest of her stuff and bring it back to his place. There was no need for her to move back. It wasn’t like he was eager for her to leave; she was going to be doing that soon enough when she went back to Seattle in less than two weeks.
