Bringing Home the Bad Boy (Second Chance #1)(93)

Darian gasped. “Don’t you talk to me like that. Whore.”

Oh no she didn’t.

Charlie advanced, her eyes on the other woman. “Get off my lawn.” Evan’s hand wrapped around her upper arm, but there was no need for him to stop her. She wasn’t about to fight Darian Hartman. “Before I sue you and Russy for trespassing.”

“You two deserve each other,” Russell said with a finger-point, still managing to play the holier-than-thou card with blood pouring from cuts on his face.

He walked around the house, his sobbing wife behind him, cooing, “Are you okay, sweetie?”

“I’m okay, darling.” He wrapped an arm around his wife’s shoulders. “Let Evan sort out his trash.”

At that comment, Evan tore off after Russell. Charlie lost her balance as he pushed past her and fell into the sand with a soft oof! Evan stopped, spun around, and dropped to his knees in front of her.

“Shit, Ace. You okay?”

“I’m fine.” But she wasn’t fine. She was the trash Russell had referred to. He’d also pointed out she’d been selfish. And that she was attempting to take the place of her best friend.

Russell never had her best interests in mind, but he was also one of the few people who knew Charlie through and through. Who knew Evan and Lyon. Who’d known Rae. In a way, that made him more qualified to assess this situation than anyone else.

“Ace, honey.” Evan’s hands ran over her arms, brushed the sand from her clothes. “Let me help you up. Are you hurt?”

She ignored his fussing.

Evan Downey.

Her best friend’s husband.

Much as she hated to concede, Russell was right. She had stood next to Rae at the wedding. Stood there and witnessed her best friend bind herself for life to Evan Downey.

Her best friend had died tragically, and what had Charlie done? Fallen in love with Evan.

Why? Why him, the least convenient person in the world to fall in love with?

Since he’d moved to Evergreen Cove, she’d been moving in on their lives. As if she had any right to them. As if they’d accept her as a replacement for Rae Lynn. She’d been fooling herself. They’d all been fooling themselves.

Her stomach rolled. She was going to be sick.

“Talk to me, Ace. That * hurt you?”

“I’m fine,” she repeated, finally allowing him to help her to her feet.

“Did I hurt you?” The blood had begun to dry between his nose and lip. His turquoise eyes darkened with concern.

She shook her head. Tears she’d been attempting to dam throughout this entire episode finally spilled over. “No, Evan. You didn’t hurt me.”

She’d hurt him. She’d hurt him and Lyon by confusing her role as Lyon’s aunt and Evan’s friend with a role she didn’t deserve to play. The role of mother and wife. Rae’s role.

Family was grown, not encroached upon. And a family like the Downeys was family in its most pure form. There was no abandoning father, no destroyed sibling relationships. Everyone had a clear part and they played it.

Evan’s mother had passed away a few years ago. From what he said, his father was contentedly single. Charlie knew why. Because there was no replacement for Kathy Downey.

Like there was no replacement for Lyon’s mother.

At seven, Lyon might not see it now, but what about when he was thirteen? Or eighteen? Or twenty-four with a bride of his own? Soon, he’d see Evan’s and Charlie’s relationship for what it really was.

Friends with benefits. Convenient due to geography and attraction. Both things they had pretended were real reasons and let get out of hand.

“Ace.” Evan’s face invaded her line of vision, his eyebrows drawn. “Talk to me.”

“You should clean yourself up.” She shook off his palm and walked away from him. “At your house.”

He followed her up her porch steps and latched on to her arm again.

She shook free. “I’ve been manhandled enough for one afternoon, thanks.”

Dropping his hand, he narrowed his eyes, his face pure fury. “Sorry?”

She shook her head, hand wrapped around the handle of the sliding glass door to her kitchen. “No, Evan. Like I’ve been telling you from the start. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for one insane second for allowing any of this. I crossed a line with you.”

“You crossed a line?” The color flashing in his eyes reminding her of the sky when a storm rolled in over the lake. “I came for you, Ace. Repeatedly.”

“You’re Rae’s husband!” she shouted in his face.

He didn’t back off but closed in on her. She pressed her back against the door. Lowering his face over hers, he said in a voice that was pure steel. “Rae’s dead.”

“I won’t be a convenient replacement,” she whispered.

He drew back like she’d slapped him. Russell wasn’t the only one who could deliver a sharp insult. Evan’s reeling away from her was proof she’d hit her mark.

“You wanna say that again.” It wasn’t a question, but it was. She watched a muscle in his cheek jump as he wedged his teeth together and dared her to speak.

So, she did.

“Admit it. I’m the easy choice. You know me. I love your kid. I’ve had a crush on you since I was fifteen years old, and my best friend won you.”