AllFreeNovel
Share Us
''Yeah, it was so much fun. Jake let me sit with the big boys, and his daddy bought me some candy. Oh, and there was an army tank there. Can you believe that? A tank!" Charlie prattled as he toed off his sneakers and left them in the middle of her soft shag rug.
Jake pushed in, and instead of looking sheepish and apologetic, he looked fierce. On one hand it was sexy as hell; on the other, it gave her reservations about her earlier bitchiness.
"Hey," she said to Jake, watching Charlie as he pulled off his T-shirt. The kid didn't like being dressed, preferring to wear only the Transformer boxers she'd bought him-reminding her just how little she knew about little boys.
"Hey," Jake replied, parking his fists on his hips, broadening his shoulders.
"Charlie seems to have had fun tonight."
"Yeah, he did," Jake said.
"I shouldn’t have yelled at you," she said, wishing instantly she'd kept quiet. Better to have ignored her whole outburst. Panicking was so not like her. Eva was even-keeled, dependable, emotionless.
"No, but I should have remembered to text you," Jake conceded.
Charlie looked up from the floor. He'd plopped down and was in the process of pulling off his jeans. "You were mad, Eva? Why?"
"I'm not mad, but I will be if you don't pick up your clothes and place them in the laundry hamper in the bathroom. Remember what we talked about?"
"Yeah, yeah." Charlie sighed. He sounded much beleaguered for a six-year-old. “I’ll feed the hamper."
"Oh, and your toothbrush is waiting. No running water over it."
"I know, I know," her brother said, his shoulders slumping. "You sure know how to turn fun upside down."
Eva tried not to smile, but her lips tugged themselves upward. Dang, Charlie was cute. Not so much at two o'clock in the morning when he was covered in urine and crying for Claren, but at that moment her heart played patty-cake.
"What do you say to Jake?" she called.
Charlie turned. "Thank you, Jake."
"No problem, buddy. It was a great night."
"It sure was," Charlie said, giving Jake a wave and heading into the recesses of the hallway.
Eva turned back to Jake. "Thank you."
"Why were you so scared? You're never scared."
"Sometimes I am. I'm just good at hiding it." Un-charted territory again. She didn't talk to Jake about feelings. They talked about baseball, the sales at Maggio's Market, and the funny things Hilda did in her new job as Chamber of Commerce president. They never talked about being scared… being lonely… being vulnerable.
Jake dropped his defensive stance, moving closer to her."I'm not an imbecile. I can take care of a kid for a few hours. Surely you trust me to do that?"
"Of course. I wouldn't have left him with you otherwise."
"So why were you so pissed?"
Eva didn't want to analyze her rampaging feelings. PMS had to be playing footsie with her or something. She'd nearly cried on Monday, and now she felt as if she was drowning in emotion. Her life was unraveling at an alarming rate. She needed to get traction. "I don't know why."
"Look, Eva, I don't like the way things have been between us. It's just not cool."
"I know."
They studied each other, a few seconds ticking by.
"How do we fix this?" he asked finally.
"I don't know. Maybe stop thinking s0 much about… you know."
