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That wasn’t usually the way these things worked. She’d be an important witness. Cole shifted, feeling weak from loss of blood. Nothing felt right about this.
“Let me at least say goodbye to Cole, Daddy.”
“Keep it quick, honey. You’ll see him again.”
Eva turned to Cole, her eyes almost unreadable as she took him in. He grew even more uneasy at the hint of defeat that he saw there. The turquoise depths glistened with unshed tears.
“Do you want to stay?” he ventured. He’d never let anyone take her if she didn’t want to go.
She gulped. “You… need to go with your brother. Get that taken care of.” She knelt down beside him. Her hands slid around his neck as she held him tightly. “I love you, Cole Slade. Never doubt that.” He wouldn’t, but at the same time he didn’t trust those tears. Her lips found his, and she kissed him with so much passion that he almost forgot—but not quite—that retreating had never been what she wanted to do.
He returned her kisses, but drew back to run his hands through her hair. “I’ll follow you. How about that?”
“No,” she said it, too forcefully.
West’s hands found his shoulders. He tried to help Cole stand. “Momma needs us.”
Cole’s eyes didn’t leave Eva’s. “You sure you don’t want to go in and talk with her, before–before you can’t?”
Another tear slipped down her cheek. “You know I’d love that more than anything.” Her lips quivered. “It just won’t work,” she finished in a whisper.
He’d have to accept her answer… for now. Lynch had ruined a lot of things, including a beautiful farewell between Eva and his momma before she drifted out of their lives, but Cole wouldn’t let the man ruin their future together. “I’ll come for you, Eva,” he said. “Soon.”
“Yes. Yes.” She nodded, though she didn’t seem convinced. Maybe he was just being paranoid. Maybe he was going into shock after bleeding from that fight, but this parting felt a little too final for his liking.
Eva exchanged glances with West. “Take care of him,” she said. And then she left with her daddy.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Eva began to understand West more and more these days.
And she hated it!
She’d lied through her teeth when her daddy asked her if she loved that rancher from Harvest Ranch.“No, no, Daddy. I appreciate everything he’s done, but… we’re just not right for each other. I need a city boy.”
After West had opened her eyes to the way things were, she’d do anything to keep Cole safe from the family business, especially after hearing about the passing of his momma only a week after they’d said goodbye.
“Pass the butter.” The man by her side at their dinner party had a well-groomed beard against a sculpted jaw. Dressed fashionably, he was a paper cutout of every man that she’d ever met in the party scene.
Cole would die if he saw him.
Eva sighed and passed the butter.
No doubt her daddy wanted her to fall madly in love with Mr. Gionet and join their two powerful oil dynasties. A part of her wondered if she should. It would make her forget the freedom and happiness she’d felt with Cole.
Perhaps marrying someone else would be the only way to keep him from contacting her.
Before she’d gotten her new number, she’d called Cole and explained that she thought he was wonderful, but she didn’t think that they’d work; she’d shut off her social media and every possible way he could contact her after that.
Rumor had it that he’d come by the place and got unceremoniously ejected by her daddy’s butler. She hoped that he’d lose interest and move on.
Not that she would ever do that.
It had only been a few weeks, and her heart felt heavy and bruised. She’d never forgive herself for abandoning Cole when he needed her most, but mostly for worming her way into his life in the first place.
Her eyes met West’s across the table. The wickedly handsome Slade brother had a way of drawing her gaze to him, though she was no longer madly in love with him. He’d tried to get her alone more than once, so that they could “talk.”
Forget that! It would never happen. She was already wracked with guilt for being a plague on his family. She certainly hadn’t been able to free West from this shady business. Nothing she could say had convinced her daddy to sever their professional connection.
