Page 84 of First in Line

“Bye, Evie.”

I give his phone back to Jackson and then turn to the air fryer, hoping he didn’t notice the redness of my eyes. He talks with her for a couple more minutes, pacing around in my living room, then hangs up and returns.

Apparently feeling very comfortable in my kitchen, he randomly opens a few cupboards until he finds the one with theglasses. He takes out the two biggest ones he can find, fills them up at the tap, and comes to offer me one. I take a few sips of mine while he empties his, and we then stare at each other from opposite sides of the kitchen, leaning on the counters.

“Are you doing anything this summer?” he casually wonders.

“Yeah. I usually take a couple of weeks off by myself. And all my projects are in between phases right now, so I might even get more than that.”

“What’s your favorite project at the moment?”

“It’s for a friend, actually. She owns a daycare center, and we’ve been working on improving the space for the kids.”

“How is that going?” he wonders with a crooked smirk.

“You’d be surprised at how many precautions have to be taken. Toddlers have a dangerous balance of no survival instinct and chaotic creativity. Keeping one alive is already a challenge, so imagine forty of them…”

“Yet it’s your favorite project.”

“Yeah, I get to hang out there a lot. Kids at that age are adorable.”

“You were always great with children. I remember your babysitting days… All the parents wanted your services.”

“Well, I still got it.”

He chuckles but quickly turns pensive. “You would have made a great mom, Evie.”

Now it’s my smile that dissipates, flooded by a surge of painful memories. The sting in my heart is all too familiar, and having him here with me makes it a little worse, I think. A question burns on the tip of my tongue, one I’ve been holding back since our reunion.

I know I shouldn’t, but I still ask, “Do you ever think about—”

“All the time,” he answers, already knowing exactly what I was going to ask. “Not a single day goes by that she isn’t on my mind, Evie.”

I nod, eyes on the floor between us. “Same for me. Every single day.”

He pushes himself away from the counter and walks up to me. His big, strong hands rise to frame my face, and he gently pulls me up, forcing me to meet his eyes. The pain I’m feeling is right there in his mismatched gaze, laced in the emotions I can read in it.

When he lowers for a kiss, it’s tender, sweet, and soothing. Nothing like the kisses we’ve exchanged so far this evening. My heart feels slightly lighter when he pulls away. Still cradling my face, he brushes his thumbs over my cheekbones.

“Come to Monaco with me,” he murmurs.

Surprise throws me completely out of the tenderness of the moment. “What?”

“Come back with me to Europe. We’ll celebrate your birthday together, I’ll spoil you the whole time, you’ll watch me race… It’ll be like the honeymoon we never got.”

“I’m pretty sure honeymoons become void after a divorce gets filed.”

Though I didn’t mean it in a hurtful manner, he seems to read it as my way of reminding him we’re separated. His hands release me to fall to his sides.

“Then it can just be a friendly trip in Europe, Evie. It doesn’t have to be anything more than that.”

“I know. Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.” He waits for me to say something. To give him an answer. “I can’t go to Europe, Jax.”

“Why?”

“Because I have a life here.”

“It’s one trip, Evie. I’m not asking you to move in with me. I’m only offering you to come and have some quality time with me. On my dime, of course.”