“Yes, I am, and I desperately need y’all’s help.”
Thane chuckled, causing Evangeline to swing her gaze in his direction. “What’s so funny?” she asked.
“Nothing, darlin’. I just get tickled when I hear your adorable Southern accent and how you say ‘y’all,’” he said with a grin.
Her mouth popped open. “Like you have room to talk! Aren’t we supposed to be on each other’s sides as Southern folk trapped together in the big bad city?”
Hatcher and Zander joined in the laughter while Thane held up his arm in a signal of peace.
“Now, darlin’, you know I don’t mean anything by it. I have to admit, you make me homesick every time I listen to you talk.”
His voice dropped an octave and for a moment she truly believed he did get homesick. There was a look in his eyes that made her feel sad.
“That Thanksgiving dinner you cooked reminded me of my mama’s cooking,” Thane went on to explain. “Best damn meal I’ve had since I left home all those years ago.”
“Then clearly I need to invite you over to dinner more often,” Evangeline said firmly. “Southern food is a must and can’t be forgotten once tasted. That’s a sin in anyone’s Bible, I’m sure.”
Zander shot Thane a black look and then shook his head in Hatcher’s direction. “Can you believe Mr. Slick here and how he just managed to finagle regular dinner invitations without so much as breaking a sweat?”
Evangeline notched her chin up in the air and then slid her arm underneath Thane’s. “Y’all would do well to take pointers from a true Southern gentleman,” she said with a sniff. “They know what’s important to a woman’s heart.”
“And a Southern lady knows what’s important to a Southern man’s stomach,” Thane said, his eyes twinkling. “It’s why all the best Southern ladies know how to cook. They do know how to take care of their man,” he said wistfully.
Hatcher and Zander both rolled their eyes in disgust, but Thane eyed them slyly.
“Roll your eyes now. Just wait until I’m having dinner with Evangeline and eating her amazing cooking and you two are out eating tacos or that other takeout shit y’all consume on a regular basis.”
“Tell me, Thane. Where are you from exactly?” Evangeline asked as he handed her into the waiting car.
“M-I-crooked-letter-crooked-letter-I-crooked-letter-crooked-letter-I . . .”
“Humpback-humpback-I,” she finished breathlessly, her eyes sparkling with fun.
“What the hell kind of foreign language are you two spouting now?” Zander grumbled.
“He’s from Mississippi,” Evangeline replied, still grinning. “Just like I am!”
“And you were able to tell that from him chanting about eyes and crooked letters?”
Zander’s expression was baffled, and he looked at them as though they’d both lost their minds. She and Thane both burst into laughter.
“What part of the state are you from, Thane?” Evangeline asked. “I’m from the south. A very small town about thirty miles north of the coast.”
“Jackson area,” Thane said vaguely.
Evangeline got the impression that Thane didn’t talk much about his past, but then none of Drake’s men ever did. They treated their past as though it hadn’t happened, was off-limits or it was simply distasteful. Maybe all three.
“What do you say we grab lunch before our shopping ordeal begins?” Hatcher asked with an indulgent smile in Evangeline’s direction.
“Ooohh, do I get to pick?” she asked.
“That depends,” Zander said, glowering at her.
“Wagyu steak?” she wheedled.
“I’m in,” Thane emphatically announced.
“Hell yeah, I’m in,” Hatcher said immediately.
“You’re outvoted,” Evangeline told Zander smugly.
He snorted. “As if I’m going to turn down Wagyu steak.”
And so it was half an hour later that Evangeline found herself seated at a table in the corner of the restaurant where Justice had first taken her to eat the sumptuous steak.
“Does it make me a horrible person to say I could eat this every single day for the rest of my life and die happy?” she asked, once their orders had been taken.
“Nope,” Zander replied. “It’s good stuff. Why eat shit if you can eat the best?”
She rolled her eyes. “Not all of us are in the position of affording to eat like this once a month, much less every day.”
“I don’t think you have to worry about that anymore,” Thane said. “If it made you happy, Drake would hire the chef away from this restaurant and he’d have him to the apartment every day cooking it for you.”
“Oh good Lord,” she said in disgust. “Not a single one of you better even jokingly suggest such a thing to him. I would die of mortification.”
Zander shook his head and chuckled. “There are worse things a man could do for his woman.”
“I’m going to the ladies’ room to freshen up before our food gets here,” Evangeline announced, rising from her chair.
The men immediately frowned and when Thane would have risen to go with her, Hatcher, who was at the end of the table, slid from his chair.