Page 21 of Cowboy of Convenience
Evelyn worked hard to flatten the smile sneaking across her lips. "It is kind of fun to mess with him, isn't it?"
"He's kind of an easy target, but I'm gonna take it anyway." Grady's eyes shifted, skimming over her face before going back to the sidewalk ahead of them. "How did you end up with a guy like him anyway?"
Evelyn sighed. "I wasn't actually ever with him." She winced internally over explaining her life to Grady. Someone like him probably wouldn't understand where she was coming from and would end up judging her harshly. Maybe rightfully so. "My family pushed me to go out with him. My grandmother thought we would be a great match."
"No offense, but your grandmother sounds like she might be stupid too." The slow drawl of Grady's words made his comment sound even more sarcastic.
And even more hilarious.
Evelyn laughed in spite of the gravity of the situation they were discussing, dropping her head against Grady's shoulder as she wheezed. "I think you might be the first person in the world to ever have enough balls to say something bad about her."
No one fucked with her grandmother. In fact, everyone did their absolute best to stay on her good side, working hard to wedge their heads as far up her skinny ass as they could get them. Which was a real accomplishment considering the size of the stick already occupying that space.
Everyone except her. She toed the line hard. Walking the edge between outright disobedience and sneaky rebellion, hoping it might eventually make her grandmother decide she wasn’t worth the trouble and write her off.
She should have known better.
“In case you haven’t noticed, old ladies don’t scare me.” Grady gave her a smile that threatened to melt the panties right off her body. “Especially one who would try to hook you up with that fuckin’ guy.”
Evelyn shook her head. “She acted shocked when I didn’t like him.”
Shocked and irritated. Her mother had married the first man her grandmother lined up, marching to the altar without question and saying I do on her twentieth birthday. Then she spent the next thirty-five years miserable, stuck in a marriage that wasn’t just loveless, but filled with hate and contempt.
"That’s surprising considering I knew you and Sasha weren't a match within two seconds of meeting him." Grady huffed out a little laugh. "What the fuck was that shirt he was wearing?"
Evelyn rolled her eyes, the smile lingering on her lips. She didn’t have anyone besides Amelie to talk shit with, and her best friend’s availability for shit-talking was slim to none these days. "He spends more on his clothes than I do."
"He spends more on his clothes than all of Moss Creek does." Grady sounded a little disgusted. "That's probably what your grandma thought made you such a good match. She looked at him and saw dollar signs."
The contempt in his tone had Evelyn looking at her feet as she struggled with the shame and guilt she’d fought since she was old enough to understand the way people saw her. "That might have been part of it."
It was absolutely part of it, just not in the way Grady believed. Yes, her grandmother thought Sasha was a good match because of his wealth, but only because she fully expected Evelyn to marry someone of equal value.
But she wasn’t going to tell Grady that. He seemed to be a little disgusted over discovering Sasha came from money. And, while she recognized this thing between them was both fake and fleeting, she didn't want Grady to be disgusted by her. She carried enough disgust for both of them.
"Money isn't everything." Grady’s expression hardened. "I wish I could say it wasn't something, but I do know it's not everything."
She agreed completely. "Moneycanmake some things easier."
It could also make some things harder. Could complicate life in a way no one else understood or honestly cared about. No one had sympathy for the poor rich girl and all her first world problems, and she couldn't blame them. In the scheme of things, she had it made. She didn't have to work. Didn't have to worry about how she would pay her bills.
All she had to do was marry someone her grandmother approved of and carry on her family's legacy while men in suits managed their holdings and continued making them exorbitant amounts of money.
It was the most boring, pointless life she could imagine. Spending money just for the sake of displaying wealth. Making connections only to prove how well-connected she was. None of it mattered. Not to anyone besides everyone else who was doing the same exact thing.
Grady’s mouth flattened. “But it can’t make everything easier. Unfortunately.”
Boy was that the fucking truth.
Grady’s hand suddenly tightened in hers, stopping her pity party in its tracks. “Looks like we’ve got company.”
"Walking off your cheap take out?" Sasha flipped his hair, slinging the perfectly styled front out of his eyes. "I would guess you'll need a few more laps for that to be the case.
Evelyn tried to look bored. "Stalking is illegal, Sasha. And no one around here cares who you are. If you're not careful, you might just end up visiting everyone else currently sitting at the station."
It was an empty threat. There was no way Sasha's family would ever allow him to wind up in a holding cell. They would throw however much money was required to have him back in the comfort of his own home.
Not that his current living situation was even remotely close to the standard he was accustomed to. If she was lucky, he’d end up horrified by the lack of a catering kitchen in his little rental and decide it wasn’t worth the sacrifice.
