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There’s a niggling feeling in my gut. One that’s telling me that everything is about to go wrong.
ChapterThirteen
Jasper
I’ve been busy with the contractor at the old house, but that hasn’t stopped me from noticing that Evangeline seems to be pulling back from me, from this relationship.
At first, I figured that it was just her worried or busy with the new business and her mom, but it’s been a few days now and she’s still doing it.
It’s starting to drive me crazy.
I have my doctor appointment tomorrow and I’m feeling good about it. With the house finally torn down and them getting started on building the new one, it feels like things are finally starting to fall into place.
Now I just need to find out what’s going on with Evangeline.
I know that she’s still at work, so I head over to The Garden Goddess. It’s almost closing time and I’m hoping that I can catch her before she heads home.
There’s only one other car in the lot when I pull up out front and they look to be loading up, so I assume that they’re leaving.
I park my Jeep next to Evangeline’s truck and hop out. She’s starting to haul in some of the planters by the front door and I step over to help her.
“Hey,” she says, sounding surprised to see me there.
“Hey, how’s it going?”
“Good, pretty good.”
She seems nervous and I wonder what I did to make her react that way.
“Is everything okay?” I ask.
“Yeah,” she says too quickly.
“Evangeline, what’s going on?” I ask as I set the planter down inside the shop.
She won’t look at me, just keeps shifting from foot to foot and my stomach drops. What the hell could I have done to get her to act like this.
“Hey, you have to tell me what I did wrong so that I can fix it,” I tell her gently, cupping her face in my hands.
“I… I need to talk to you about something.”
“Anything,” I say right away.
“I’m never leaving Rosewood.”
“Okay—” I start, wondering where this is coming from but she cuts me off.
“My mom is here and I just started this place,” she says, her hands waving around the nursery as tears start to form in her eyes.
“I know that.”
“I… I just, I understand if you want to leave. I know that you need to figure out what you want to do with your life and where you want to live and that you might want to be closer to your brother or...” she rambles on and I blink, wondering what brought all of this on.
“I told you that I hadn’t made any decisions yet on what I wanted to do with the future. Where is all of this coming from?”
She looks away, brushing at the tears that have escaped and are sliding down her cheeks.
“I need to protect myself. I need to protect my heart,” she says quietly.
