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She couldn’t ask him that. Instead, pausing when she was near his table, she said, “Umm… hi. I saw you waving. Is there something I can help you with?”
“You were here yesterday.”
She briefly thought about denying it, then decided against it when she realized that his words weren’t even a question. That was definitely a statement. “I was.”
“You come here often?” he asked.
“Is that the pick-up line you’re going with?” Evangeline couldn’t keep back her small smirk. All that time she spent obsessing over this man… and the first chance he got, he came at her with the lamest line in the book. Really? “Wow.”
He chuckled under his breath. The rough rasp of his low laugh sent chills running up and down her spine. “Not a pick-up line. Just curious. I’m… I’m new to Grayson. I stopped in for coffee yesterday, liked it so much I came back today. Since I remember seeing you and you’re another regular, I must’ve made the right choice. It’s good stuff. Much better than what I was used to.”
“I like it,” she told him.
“Then we already have something in common.”
Evangeline blinked, but didn’t say anything else. She let her incredulous expression do the talking for her.
Another chuckle. “Don’t worry. I’m still not trying to pick you up. Just trying to be friendly. Promise.” With the heel of his boot, he nudged the chair in front of him away from the table. “If you’ve got the time, why don’t you join me for a second? You seem to have good taste. I’m not all that familiar with the area. Maybe you could tell me where else I should plan on stopping by.”
“Oh, I don’t know—”
“Sit. Please. Unless I make you uncomfortable… if I do, I’m sorry. I mean nothing by it. I just… it’d be nice to have a conversation where people didn’t take one look at me and run the opposite direction.” He gave her a crooked, tight-lipped smile. “Since I came to town, you’re the first person who even tried to look me in the eyes.” Tapping the rim of his pitch-black lens, he shrugged. “It was nice.”
Evangeline felt her heart breaking for this poor stranger. Was she so paranoid now that she saw villains everywhere? He probably had just finished his coffee yesterday when she left and was leisurely exploring the town like she’d been doing the last few months. Look at her, getting herself all worked up, convincing herself that he had meant to follow her.
He seemed like a nice guy.
It couldn’t hurt.
Right?
“Okay,” she said, placing her coffee down across from him. “I guess I can sit with you. For a few minutes anyway.”
A few minutes turned into half an hour before Maddox knew it. He kept the conversation going anyway, starved for her company and eager to keep her close. He was well aware that Evangeline was only sitting and talking with him out of a blend of curiosity and pity.
That was fine with him.
And maybe he was going to rot in hell for plucking on her heartstrings the way he had. Oh, well. Desperation did that to him. He would’ve said anything to get her to sit and stay for just a little longer.
It was easy. Too easy. As soon as the awkwardness of the first few minutes was behind them, they fell into an easy rhythm as Maddox asked her about Grayson, hoping that he might learn something about Evangeline in the process. Not many people had a second chance to have a first date and, no matter what she thought she was doing, Maddox decided this counted.
Whatever he had to do to get Evangeline back, he would do it—even if it meant starting over.
When she mentioned the work she had waiting for her back at home, Maddox
offered to buy her a drink for the road. She hesitated for a few seconds, then agreed when he said he needed another refill himself. Evangeline accepted the coffee graciously but, before she could excuse herself and leave, he quickly asked her about her work.
That was ten minutes ago. Oblivious to the time, Evangeline told him about her job as a copy editor. Her passion made her carefree and she spoke energetically, waving her hands to illustrate some point or another in between taking sips of her iced drink.
Maddox always loved that about her, the way she could lose herself in something that made her so happy.
He made her that happy once. And, he vowed, he would do it again.
She clearly enjoyed her work. Maddox was glad to see that that hadn’t changed, even if she worked from home these days rather than heading into the office. Evangeline spared no details when it came to the publishing house she worked for, or what it was she actually did.
He had a much harder time trying to get her to tell him anything about her personally, but that didn’t surprise him. Evangeline had always been guarded. Maddox knew he met his mate the first time they accidentally bumped into each other more than four years ago, but it took months of convincing before Evangeline would even call him her mate. She didn’t take him home for almost the whole first year. For her to open up as much as she had, he considered that a miracle.
Maddox had spent the entire time trying to work up the nerve to ask if she was free for dinner—while trying not to think about how ludicrous it was to have to ask his wife out on a dinner date in the first place—and recognized that his window of opportunity was quickly shrinking. Because, all too soon, the conversation started to dry up. He was just trying to think of a way to stretch it out when Evangeline’s lips suddenly thinned. Maddox recognized the look of annoyance that flashed across her lovely features.
