Page 77 of Fall Into Temptation
“Holding you to it. And Eva?”
“Yeah?”
“You know if you need me I’m there, right?”
She smiled, felt the truth of his words. “Yeah. I know that. And I love it.”
“I love you, Eva.”
She chewed on her lip. “I’m not sure if I’m ready for non-sexual declarations of love,” she admitted.
“Yeah, well. Get used to it.” He sounded down, and she hated knowing it was her fault. He was the hero type. He considered it his job to clean up messes for the people he cared about, and she wasn’t letting him do that.
“I’m going to go write, but I’ll be thinking about you,” she promised.
“Please be safe, Eva.”
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Eva glared at the blinking cursor and willed the words to come. She’d expected a flood of romance to dance from her fingers after her night with Donovan.
And then her mother had shown up and ruined everything. And letting Donovan down didn’t exactly help those creative juices flow either. She felt like a big, human-shaped pile of shit. And it was all Agnes’s fault.
She’d hoped a simple, stalwart “no” would drive her mother out of her life. Taking the shame and self-doubt with her. But by showing up here, Agnes was threatening everything Eva held dear.
She pushed away from the table, abandoning the blinking cursor, and got up to make coffee. She found the pot was full with hot water. Apparently forgetting that she’d a) made coffee and b) forgotten to actually add the coffee.
“Get a hold of yourself,” Eva cautioned herself. But the worry was clawing at her throat. The woman who had single-handedly inflicted damage on every one of her family members was here and waiting to strike. And this time, she was close enough that she could hurt them all. They were all married and happy, working and living and loving in this tiny town. And Agnes Merill wanted to take that from them.Why?
“Because she’s an empty shell of a human being. And a bitch,” Eva reminded herself.
Her phone rang, and she welcomed the distraction when she saw Eden’s name on the screen.
“Hey, what’s up?” she answered.
“Uh. Hi,” Eden said. She sounded stilted, and Eva heard the sound of a door closing. “Hey, listen. I have a woman here at the B&B who says she’s a friend of yours.”
Eva swallowed hard. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Eden said. “She said her name is Agnes and that you’d be paying for her room?” Eva could hear the edge of unasked questions in Eden’s voice.
Mother fucker.“She did, did she?” Eva asked.
“She was pretty adamant about it,” Eden admitted. “If she’s not a friend like she says, I’d be happy to get rid of her.”
Eva could only imagine the consequences. “No. It’s fine. We’re, uh, distant acquaintances. I’m just helping her out. Temporarily.” Paying for a hotel room was different than shelling out ten grand, she rationalized. “Let me give you my credit card number.”
“Are you sure?” Eden asked.
“Yeah. Yeah. But listen, if you don’t mind, I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone about this. Likeanyoneat all.”
“I’m an innkeeper. I keep everyone’s dirt.”
“Remind me to get you drunk sometime and dig into all that dirt,” Eva joked.
“Ha.”
Eva read off her card information.
