Until the Tequila (The Killers #3.5)(25)

* * *



Mary

Two months later.





Evan and I have settled into our new normal. I’ve officially moved into his condo and let my crappy apartment go. Something that couldn’t have come at a better time with cracked ribs and a broken wrist.

My grandparents’ estate was just settled last week. I’ve been spending all my extra time looking through photos, getting to know the family I didn’t know I had. Besides names and dates, there is very little to learn. I did find out that I have extended family scattered around the south, but I haven’t had the nerve to reach out to them yet. Evan told me there’s no hurry and, when or if I felt like it, he’ll be by my side.

I don’t question that. He hasn’t budged an inch from my side and I couldn’t be happier about it.

I spent my life itching to turn eighteen so I could be on my own and, since then, have lived in the moment. I haven’t thought about the future in years but, in the last few weeks, I’ve allowed myself to … dream.

Not plan. Don’t get crazy, I’m not to that level of adulting yet. Maybe someday, but not today.

But the more I allow myself to dream, the further those dreams wander. They’ve gone as far as a wedding, a home, a family…

It’s still hard for me to make plans for the future but one thing in those dreams is a constant—Evan is in every single one of them. It’s settling into my soul that he’s a reality.

“Mom.” Evan sighs as he plays with the ends of my hair, his arm resting on the back of my chair. “Give it a rest with the questions.”

I reach with my hand and give his thigh a squeeze and realize how good it feels to do that. I got the cast off my arm last week. “It’s okay.”

“See, sweetheart? She said it’s fine.” Nina raises a brow at her son before looking back at me with a kind smile. “We want to know everything about you.”

Evan gives my hair a tug. “She’s in girlfriend heaven. I can’t stop her.”

I settle into the crook of his arm and finally relax. This is my first time meeting Evan’s parents and to say I was nervous is an understatement. They’ve been home from Europe for two weeks and Evan dragged his feet until I got the cast off my arm. I wanted to start my new life off fresh, no reminders of anything that had to do with my father. Evan gave me that.

He also must have prepared his parents for all that is me because so far Nina Hargrove has asked me a million questions but not one of them has had to do with my family, childhood, or basically anything prior to my eighteenth birthday. As we sit on their massive patio next to the outdoor wood-burning fireplace that’s crackling away to cut the autumn chill while we have dinner, I’ve answered questions about my career in cosmetology, my short-lived time in college, and my friendship with Addy Wentworth.

Evan Charles Hargrove Jr. and his wife are kind and genuine. Even though I can’t say I know any multi-gazillionaires, they aren’t what I expected. Evan is very much like them yet, still, he couldn’t be more different. On the outside, his parents look like they belong at Churchill Downs but they don’t act like it. I do secretly wonder how many hats his mother owns. It’s plain to see they love Evan and, even though theirs isn’t a big family, it’s the same love I felt every time I visited the Maysons when I grew up with July and her sisters.

I return Nina’s smile. “It’s really okay.”

Evan’s dad finishes off his dessert and wipes his mouth before clearing his throat. “Nina’s just excited. We’ve never seen our son like this before. From all he’s said and now seeing the two of you together, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d walk through fire and take on the world for you.”

I look at their son, who I’ve fallen completely and madly in love with, to find his eyes burning into me. The same eyes that hold not only my heart, but all my secrets.

I’m pretty sure my heart skips a beat like it always does when Evan looks at me like this. He doesn’t have to say it, although he does multiple times every day.

He loves me.

And, yes, his dad is right. But he’s also wrong. Evan doesn’t need to take on the world for me.

He already has.

And he won. There’s nothing left to do but for me to try to love him back—to try to give him a fraction of what he gives me.

I’m not sure what kind of prize I am. Besides seeing Asher Mayson love on his wife, November, I didn’t grow up around healthy relationships. My dad selling my mom for sex while keeping her strung out isn’t exactly goal-worthy.

To this day, I wonder what I did to deserve Evan. I’ll probably never stop wondering, even though a couple weeks ago I told him I loved him and I’ve never loved anyone in my life.

I already knew he loved me. He whispered it into my ear on the way to the hospital that night while he was begging me to open my eyes. It was the best way to regain consciousness.

Evan leans in and puts his lips to my now fully-healed temple. “She’s worth it.”

I’d argue or chastise him for kissing me in front of his parents when I already warned him on the way here not to, but I don’t get a chance to do either because I hear a sniffle from across the table as Nina breaks into the moment.

When we look at her, she’s dabbing her eyes and Evan groans. “Mom.”