Page 62 of The Moment You Know

“Why not? Is it one of those smutty ones that are all the rage these days?”

“What do you know about smutty books that are all the rage?”

He shrugged. “I have a sister. She reads them.”

“Well, it’s not one of those.” Paige paused before giving him a rueful smile. “It’s about being molested as a child, actually.”

“You were … holy shit,” he murmured, his easygoing expression wiped off his face by what she’d just said. “You were molested?”

She nodded. “By my uncle. My mother’s twin brother.”

“Jesus.” His dark brown eyes roamed over her face. “So, this pedophile … is he spending the rest of his life in prison with a roommate named Big Daddy? Maybe getting his ass ripped open twice a day?”

“Unfortunately, no. He’s dead.”

Evan glanced around before discreetly asking, “Did you kill him?”

At the unexpected question—and the utterly hopeful way he asked it—Paige actually laughed out loud. “No. He killed himself, actually. He blew his brains out.”

“Really? Well, that calls for a celebratory shot,” Evan said, then added with a wink that he totally pulled off, “Pun intended.”

She shook her head in amusement as he began making their shots. “Good one.”

“Thanks. But that was pretty low hanging fruit.”

A minute later, he set two shot glasses down on the bar, filled with four distinct striped layers of colored liquid: dark brown, tan, cream, and clear.

“Because Jules isn’t here to order for you, I’m circumventing one of your rules with a loophole,” he said. “But I think she’ll approve, because this is a Screaming Orgasm, so it falls within the drink ‘theme’ you two have going.”

“Very clever.”

He proceeded to name each layer as he pointed to them, starting at the bottom and moving up. “Coffee liqueur. Amaretto. Irish cream. Vodka.”

“It looks almost too pretty to drink.” Then, as something occurred to her, she gave him a curious look. “Can you drink on the job?”

“I actually own one third of this place, so I can do what I want. Well, within reason. I can’t, you know, embezzle or anything. And apparently I can’t sexually harass any of my employees. That’s frowned upon.”

Evan picked up his shot glass and Paige followed. “To one less pedophile in the world,” he toasted.

“To one less pedophile in the world,” she repeated and carefully clinked her glass to his before they both tossed them back.

When they were done, he gathered up the two dirty glasses and put them in the sink, then grabbed a clean one, rimmed it with sugar, and set it on a small plate. While Paige watched, he prepared another drink in silence, with only two ingredients this time: vodka and Frangelico hazelnut liqueur. As a finishing touch, he laid a sugar crusted lemon slice on the plate, next to the shot glass.

“This is for your birthday,” Evan said, sliding the plate toward her. “And since I don’t have any cake or candles, this will have to do. It’s called ‘Chocolate Cake’, even though there’s no chocolate in it and we’ll have to keep this one a secret. Not only is Jules not ordering it, but it also falls outside of the theme loophole.”

Paige mimed zipping her lip.

“So, first you pick up the lemon,” Evan told her and waited for her to pick it up before continuing. “To your …” he looked at her questioningly. “How old are you?”

“I’m thirty-five.”

“To your 35th birthday!” he called out enthusiastically. “Now make a wish, then suck on the lemon, and throw back the shot like the tiara-wearing boss that you are.”

She did everything as instructed—even down to the wish—and when she was done, her eyes widened with complete delight. She didn’t know how, but it legitimately tasted like a slice of chocolate cake. “That was delicious,” she told him, her eyes watering a little from the alcohol burn.

“Thank you. I do this for a living,” Evan teased, before asking, “So what was your birthday wish? And remember, it’s bad luck to lie to bartenders.”

For a moment, Paige was transported back to the night she’d met David, when she’d asked him that very same question, but she pushed it away before it dragged her down. “I can’t tell you. If I do, my wish won’t come true. And I really want it to come true.”

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