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Everyone knew that he was only trying to sweep his sins under the rug after everything he’d done to her.
Before West had cleaned up from the drugs and drinking, his partying had Momma up most nights worrying about her boy. When she’d started having heart troubles after that, no one was surprised. And now, ironically, West’s constant visits were yet another stress on her.
“It looks like Eva knows what she wants,” Cole said with a hard look at his brother. “Do you?”
“Cole!” His momma’s scandalized voice immediately put him to shame, but only because he was adding to her anxiety over her new houseguests. His father would have his head. “Honey, why don’t you help with all of this luggage while I get to know Eva. ItisEva, correct?”
“Yes!” Eva blushed. Even the tip of her nose went red. Strangely, she was nervous to be formally introduced to their momma. She dug her fingers into her pockets. “West works for my daddy, and uh… well, we’ve gotten to know each other in Nashville, and I-I think the world of him.”
Momma laughed, looking delighted. “So do we! I’m so glad that you see him like we do.”
“Well, Mrs. Slade, ma’am, I like to think so.”
“Please, call me Lily.”
Eva ducked in pleasure like their momma had just granted her West’s hand in marriage. “That’s so pretty,” Eva said. “I’d be honored to call you by your first name. Thank you.”
A smile played over West’s lips as he took Momma’s hands. He ran a soothing thumb over her fragile skin. “Where are we putting her?” It wasn’t even in question that he and Eva would be sharing the same room if they weren’t married. No one wanted Momma’s lecture about not runningthatkind of establishment. “The sunflower room?” West asked.
Of course he wanted the room next to Cole’s. West can forget about making me “babysit” Eva. It isn’t happening!
They’d just freed up a room with Nash and Emily conveniently coming homealreadymarried. “The blue one’s perfect,” Cole suggested.
“Yes, but the sunflower room has a nice view of my rose garden,” Momma said.
Eva clasped her hands together. One of her legs twisted around the other in a nervous way. “Oh, I’d love that.”
“Then that’s where you need to be.” West’s eyes on Cole’s dared him to object. “You mind getting some of these bags?” West was used to a staff—from his household, on his jet, at work—all obeying his edicts. He always thought his brothers could take over the job. Before Cole could object, his mother gave him a warning look.
Squaring his shoulders against further insult, Cole grabbed Eva’s bags, tossing one over his shoulder and throwing the other under his arm.
Wrong choice.
These had to be at least a hundred pounds each, and yet, nothing would get him to stay another minute with West. He grabbed the third and dragged the luggage up the first flight of stairs.
He listened to Eva run up behind him, her bracelets jangling. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “You don’t have to takeallof them!”
Glancing back he saw the dainty gems on her jewelry gleaming from her neck and wrists. They were meant to be subtle, but they only advertised how much money her family had.
“Those are super heavy.” She tried to wriggle around him on the stairwell. “Let me help.”
Her small hands went over his, like she could actually make a difference with that tiny frame of hers—she wrapped her arms around him, blowing his senses away at her surprise attack—that tiny frame with curves!“I can take this,” she said, plucking the bag from his shoulder.
He got a good whiff of her expensive perfume and he smelled… gardenias?
The girl was wearing his momma’s favorite flower. It also happened to be his. He stumbled over the sudden shift of weight and toppled over her like a giant. He practically was to her, and to his horror, he pinned all that beauty to the wall.
Oh great! The silky hair that had mesmerized him only minutes earlier was shoved into his face, and those long legs wound around his as he flattened her on the top stair.
His hands let go of the luggage and he only had her. He let out a breath that echoed hers.
If West saw them now…?
Forget that. Cole had to make sure that she’d survived becoming the brunt of their fall. “You okay?” he asked.
She nodded, wordlessly. Her seafoam blue eyes moved up to his.
Why did he feel like he was losing his mind all of a sudden? “I think that the—the luggage was balancing it—it all out.” What? Now he was stuttering? He tried to clear his thoughts of any trace of her. He had to get a grip on himself. “I’m so sorry. It took us all down.”
