Page 76 of Holding on to Chaos
“That was a lot of inspiration,” he admitted amicably. “Enough to warrant a good strong cup of coffee this morning.”
She couldn’t tell if he was making a statement or outright asking, but the bottom line was Niko and Jax had sold her out.
“Let me guess, Jax and Niko blabbed to you.”
“Eva.” It was all the confirmation she needed before mentally adding their names to the running list of secondary characters to torture in future books. She frowned at the way Donovan said her name, oozing with patience. “Don’t use your sheriff voice on me,” she warned him.
“Jax and Niko said they ran into you outside the coffee shop.”
“And invited me to the apple butter boil, whatever that is, on Saturday. Did they tell you that, too?”
“They mentioned it looked like you were having a confrontation.” He was tenacious, sticking to the point with a stubbornness that was putting her in a tough spot.
“Did they now?”
“Eva. What happened?”
Frustrated, she blew out a breath. “I need to ask you a favor.”
“Anything,” he promised.
“I need space to handle somethingbeforeI can talk to you about it. I need you to trust me to handle it on my own, and I promise you, once it’s fixed I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
He was silent, and she could hear his wheels turning. She was using his own goodness against him, but there was no way she was going to dump this mess on his lap. If she hadn’t gone to her own family for help, she certainly wasn’t going to drag her shiny new boyfriend into it. No, this was her journey. Her responsibility. She’d enabled her mother for her entire adult life. It stopped now, and it stopped with her.
“Please, Donovan? I need to do this on my own.” He’d give her anything she’d ask for within reason. And he only had to debate whether this was within reason.
He swore. “I don’t like this Eva.”
“I swear to you it’s nothing to be worried about. It’s just an old mess that I’m finally cleaning up. I know it’s a lot to ask given your perpetual town-wide caregiver state, but I need to do this for me. I can’t have someone else fix it for me.”
“You’ll tell me once it’s done?”
“I’ll tell you everything,” she promised. “But there’s one more thing.”
“Eva,” he rasped.
“You can’t say anything to my family. They don’t need to know about this.”
“How can I say anything when you’re not trusting me to tell me what’s going on?”
“Donovan, I trust you. This is just something I need to do myself. Please understand. Please?”
He sighed, and she knew she’d won. But the victory wasn’t sweet. She felt like she was letting him down.
“I know I’m asking you to take a leap of faith here. But I promise I’ll make it up to you.”
“You’re not doing anything illegal?” he demanded.
“No. Nothing you’d have to arrest me for,” she promised.
“That woman. You weren’t married to her or something, and she’s refusing to divorce you because you adopted five kids together?”
Eva laughed and felt the weight lift off her just a bit. “No, and where did you get that idea?”
“This cosmic bullshit that’s happening right now makes anything possible.”
“I promise to make this up to you as soon as the cosmic bullshit is over.”
