He flinched away with a grimace. “That old thing? It’s hardly worth talking about.”
Nothing was with West lately. He always briskly marched past her with some new scrape or a mysterious swelling hand. It was like he’d taken up a boxing class that she didn’t know about, except… she knew him better than that.
She gnawed on her lower lip, her worries flooding her. Her daddy played hardball with his competitors in the oil business, and worse he was going into politics, but this was something that she wasn’t familiar with at all. Had West somehow gotten involved with a tougher crowd? She’d already talked to her daddy about what she’d noticed, and he’d poo-pooed her concerns as nothing to cry over.
“He’s a big boy, honey. Don’t you worry. I’ll take good care of him. You leave it to me.”
Eva began to think that maybe she shouldn’t. West already had enough personal demons that came between them. He didn’t need more. “Honey,” she breathed. “You know you can come to me if… uh… something’s wrong,” she told him.
“Oh yeah?” he seemed darkly amused, which irritated her. West had come to her before when he’d needed help with his twin brothers. Why couldn’t he do the same thing for himself? “How about you kiss it all better?” he asked with a glint of some emotion that she couldn’t quite identify in those vivid blue eyes of his. “You have the magic touch.”
That was more like it, and yet… she knew he was only distracting her.
Should she let him? Eva took his hand and brushed her lips over the knuckles, noticing that they were also raw.
“Dear hearts!” West’s momma hurried down the stairs, her beautiful rosebud lips pressed together in pain as she came to greet them in her tired, but cheery way. “Oh, you brought her! You brought Eva. Finally!”
West immediately tossed off that grim look that had kept his face hostage all day. “Well, there you are!” he cried out in a voice that he reserved for those he especially cherished. He used it on Eva very rarely. He glanced over at Eva. “You two have been begging to see each other again. I’m glad I could finally arrange it, if only to get theboth of youoff my back.”
Really? Despite the cutting remark, Eva brightened at the thought that West’s momma had asked after her, too. How kind!
Eva was pretty sure that the rest of West’s family wouldn’t care that much if she visited. Their congratulations when West announced that he’d popped the question had been lukewarm at best—Nash’s guarded response had especially surprised her, since they were both such good friends, but… she’d wriggle her way into this family’s heart if it killed her.
Momma led them both into the living room, calling out for Cole to help with their baggage. “No, no,” Eva hurriedly swatted down that nonsense. She wasn’t about to inconvenience West’s youngest brother again. She’d already done enough to invite his wrath.
Even now her cheeks burned at that kiss that she’d made him suffer through. And worse? That kiss had easily outweighed the top ten best ones of her romantic existence—not a good thing to share with the brother of the man who happened to be the love of her life.
She tried to stuff down her guilt by directing a pleasant smile at his momma as she eased into the couch, all while West tried to find out about her latest heart treatments. Noticing that her flannel jacket was much longer than her shorts, she tugged at the ends to appear more daughter-in-law-like.
Why had she been so impulsive with Cole? And did anyone else besides the three of them know about it?
At first she’d thought that she could laugh off that kiss. Oh, how she’d tried.
So what if that kiss had been great. Too great, so great that she had to stuff it out of her mind so that she never replayed it through that disobedient noodle mushed inside her head again.
Thankfully that overhead lighting had been horrible in the hayloft. The world all thought that she’d surprised West in the barn… hopefully his family did too? Her little mistake had gone viral in a matter of hours, and it had more than doubled her followers.
Honestly, now she wished she’d never documented it. The attention that kiss had inspired wasn’t worth it. She’d thought juggling two hundred million followers was hard; try juggling four hundred. And with that fame came haters, proposals, kidnapping and death threats, and—ugh—stalkers!
Yes, definitely stalkers.
Her daddy was already too protective, and more so since he feared what Lacy Lynch would do after she’d helped West destroy his professional life. Already, her infamous oil tycoon father had threatened to cut off all sorts of his daughter’s freedoms by sending his security to be with her. She’d found ways to get around him so far, which was why she couldn’t tell him about even a quarter of the threats that she’d received online.
And forget telling West—he’d go straight to Daddy.
These trolls online were just typing out empty threats anyway, right? They weren’t as dangerous as Lynch.
Hopefully.
The latest threat that she’d gotten didn’t feel like it. It had started only a week ago. Somehow, her private number must’ve been leaked to this creep, but no matter how many times that she’d blocked him, he always found a new number to text her with. She’d have to get a new phone soon.
Such a bother.
That was all this was, right? A bother?
Lily had left them in the living room to pull out snacks from the fridge for her guests. West stood and quickly cut her off at the pass to do it himself. The two played the “I’ll do it” game, while Eva glanced down at the latest message that this horrible creeper had sent to her phone: “Where are you going for Thanksgiving? How about I find you? We could have some fun.”
She shivered at how disturbing that sounded and glanced over at West. Maybe she was a hypocrite for not going to him when she begged for him to confide in her, but if heknewabout thisand didn’t go to her daddy? Well, he’d be blamed if anything happened.