After We Fall (Take the Fall, #3)(42)

With a groan, I wait for his reply.

Hunter: Great bar. Safe place. Ask for Patricia and tell her Hunter sent you.

Me: Patricia, huh? Should I be jealous?

Hunter: Only if jealousy makes you horny.

I can’t help but laugh. This is nothing like the conversations, text or otherwise, I ever had with Penn during our marriage or while we secretly dated. Everything I said or texted was carefully worded in order to provoke him the least.

Me: Very funny.

Hunter: Is that a yes or no?

Me: Really?

Hunter: It’s really important and could save a life, specifically my sex life.

Me: -.-

Hunter: Is that your horny face? Very cute.

Evangeline: Omigosh. No! Stop.

Hunter: Only teasing. I like your O-face much better.

The reminder that he has in fact seen my face as I orgasm multiple times makes me blush and wince. I feel silly, happy, and…nothing else. While I will date Hunter and even sleep with him, my heart belongs strictly to me.

Me: Talk to you later.

Hunter: Count on it. Have fun.

—

On the way home, I take a chance and call my sister, Zoe. I figure with all these new steps I’m taking to shed my past, I should attempt to make my family a part of my future.

My palms grow slick as I wait for her to pick up the phone.

“Eva?”

I almost want to cry at the sound of her voice. “It’s me, your favorite baby sister.”

“I’m so happy to hear from you,” she says, her tone genuinely filled with happiness.

“Me, too.” I swipe at the corner of my eye. “How are things?”

“The usual. Super busy with writing books and chasing after your nieces and nephew,” she says cheerfully.

“I saw the pictures you posted on Facebook. They are getting so big, even Miss C.” My heart aches to hold them, to receive sticky kisses and hand-drawn pictures. “They probably won’t recognize me by the time I’m able to get home.”

“Oh, please. They know exactly who you are.”

“I’m in Forrestville, north of Charlotte, not out west like I told Momma,” I blurt.

“Omigosh, Eva. Are you okay?”

“Yes. I’ve…I’m finally fine.”

“Can we come see you?” my sister asks.

I want to say yes. I’m dying to say yes, but I can’t force myself to say the word.

“It’s okay if you’re still getting settled. That can take awhile.”

This is exactly why I love my sister. She’s genuinely kind and caring, and doesn’t insist on things her way. Well, not until you’ve made her mad, or snoop through her stuff. “Thanks. I promise that once things get settled, I’ll come clean and yell surprise. Think Momma and Daddy will go for that?”

“Uh, I don’t see why you couldn’t try that approach.”

“But I shouldn’t hold my breath, huh?”

Zoe laughs. “Something like that.”

“I’m in a much better place now.” I don’t know why I have to let her know this, but apparently my mouth is in gear and my brain won’t stop it. “For a while, I was depressed and—ashamed of what happened. With the divorce and all.”

“Don’t be ashamed, Eva. You can’t force someone to get better or change.”

I let her words wash over me, soothing old wounds that have refused to heal…until now. “You don’t know how much that means to hear you say that.”

“And you don’t know how much it means to hear your voice.”

I glance out the window, tears falling down my cheeks. “Do you have some time to talk?”

“Hang on,” she says. I hear her say something to my brother-in-law. “I’m back. Christian said he would take the kids with him so we can have all the time you need.”

“Thank you.”

“What else are big sisters for?”

—

Bohannon’s is a lot more crowded than I expect it to be on a Thursday night. Or maybe I haven’t been in a bar in so long that I don’t know what or if any night is ever slow for one.

I like it, though, because it seems more like a place to hang out and eat than a place to get shit-faced and go home with the wrong person.

Saylor grins at me over her glass of cherry Coke. She had the bartender shove half a jar of real cherries in before she was satisfied. The guy took it in good stride, but honestly, who couldn’t be nice to a woman wearing a tight-fitting, glittery Spaceballs T-shirt with a rather raunchy quote from the movie printed on the front. The fact that she’s got big boobs doesn’t hurt things, either.

“How are thing in Hunterland?” Saylor asks.

“Peachy.”

“Are y’all an item now?”

I squirm a little on the barstool. “Yes.”

“Why do you look so embarrassed about it?”

“Why do you ask so many questions?” I return.

Saylor rolls her eyes, her glasses sliding down her nose. “Because you say nothing.”

“I say plenty.”

“Plenty’s not enough for me. I need more girl talk.”

Saylor looks so sincere that I want to share everything with her, including my time with— “I know this is none of my business as your boss, but as your friend…and no judgment, but when I interviewed you, you mentioned a husband. So…um, you and Hunter?”