CHAPTER 29
Evie
“That’s the last of it.” I collapsed onto my new couch on Sunday afternoon after crushing the last box we’d unpacked. It had taken two days for Greer and me to find a home for everything that had been delivered from my storage unit to my new apartment, which was a fraction of the size of the place I’d moved from.
“You know, there’s a great singles’ bar down the block. I went a few times before I met Ben,” my sister said.
I guzzled the last of a bottle of water. “I have zero interest in dating for a very long time.”
Greer frowned. I’d told her what had gone down between Merrick and me last week. “I know, but that’s usually when you meet someone. I met Ben less than a week after Michael and I broke up, remember?”
Christian and I had been together for years and been engaged, yet I didn’t think it would be nearly as easy to get over Merrick as it had been with him. It made me realize that time together didn’t matter. Some people just work their way deeper into your heart.
I shook my head. “It would be easier to move on if I understood what happened.”
“It sounds to me like he saw that little girl, and it reminded him of what he didn’t want—commitment and a relationship.”
Of course, that was entirely possible, but I didn’t think so. “I don’t know. But I think I’m going to start looking for another job.”
“What? You love your new job.”
“I do. But I reopen a wound every time I see him down the hall or pass by his office. And half of my sessions involve talking about him.” I sighed. “I’m in love with him, Greer.”
She smiled sadly. “I know you are.”
My doorbell rang. “Is that Ben? I thought he was going to pick you up later this evening?”
My sister shrugged. “He is. He went to the office for a few hours.”
It wasn’t my brother-in-law at the door when I opened it. Instead, it was a guy in a uniform holding a clipboard. “I’m here to install the alarm.”
“I think you have the wrong apartment.” I shook my head. “I didn’t order an alarm.”
“Oh, sorry.” He lifted a page on his paperwork. “It’s for an Evie Vaughn. Do you happen to know what floor she lives on? I pushed the only button that wasn’t labeled.”
My face wrinkled. “I’m Evie Vaughn. But I didn’t order an alarm system.”
The guy looked as confused as me. He shuffled through more of his papers. “Well, it says here someone prepaid for installation and a three-year contract.”
Then it hit me. Merrick had been adamant that I have an alarm. He could have ordered it before we broke up. “Can you tell me who ordered it?”
“If it was paid with a credit card. Most orders are placed over the phone, so the office gives me the receipt to give the homeowner when I do the job.”
“Could you tell me the name on the card?”
He scanned more papers before pulling one from his clipboard and holding it out to me. “Looks like it was paid for by a Merrick Crawford.”
I looked down. The amount was shocking. “Forty-three-hundred dollars?”
He shrugged. “He bought all the bells and whistles—window security, doors, even two panic buttons that silently call the police in an emergency.”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I can’t afford this. The person who paid for it… Well, we broke up.”
“Did you break up with him?”
“No.”
He smiled. “Then why not take it as a parting gift?”