Loving Evangeline Read online

  She had never felt so violently attracted to a man before.

  With Matt…they had grown up together, they’d been in the same class in school, from first grade through graduation. She had known Matt as well as she knew herself; they’d been like two halves of a whole. The love had grown gradually between them, pure and steady, like a candle flame. Robert…Robert was an inferno, and the heat between them could leave her in ashes.

  Robert and Virgil had been gone for over an hour when Landon Mercer strolled into the marina. “Hi, doll,” he said jovially. “How’s the prettiest woman in this part of the state?”

  Evie’s expression was impassive as she glanced at him. Unfortunately, business had slowed down and she was there alone. She always preferred to have company around when she had to deal with him. Of course, being alone meant that she would have the opportunity to follow him again. Her thoughts began to hum. “Hello, Mr. Mercer.”

  “Landon,” he said, as he always did. He leaned against the counter in a negligent pose, one designed to show off his physique. Mercer was a good-looking man, she admitted, but he left her cold.

  “Do you want to rent a boat today?” she asked, turning to check which ones were available, though she knew without looking. She had quickly discovered that the best way to deflect his attention was to appear oblivious to it.

  “Sure do. It’s been a while since I’ve done any fishing, so I decided to play hooky from work this afternoon.” He laughed at his own pun.

  Evie managed a polite smile. He had brought in a small tackle box and one rod and reel, the same rig he always carried. The same lure was tied to the line.

  “Do you want any particular boat?”

  “No, any of them will do.” He leaned closer. “When I get back, why don’t we go out to dinner tonight? Not anywhere here. We’ll go someplace nice, maybe in Birmingham.”

  “Thanks, but I’m busy tonight,” she replied, her tone conveying no interest at all. Unfortunately, he was so taken with his own charm that he was oblivious to her lack of response to him.

  “Tomorrow night, then. It’s Saturday night. We can even go to Atlanta for some real fun, since we wouldn’t have to be back for work.”

  “The marina’s open seven days a week.”

  “Oh. Okay, we’ll go to Birmingham.”

  “No, thank you, Mr. Mercer. I’m busy tomorrow night, too.”

  “C’mon, how busy can you be? Whatever it is, you can put it off.”

  Her teeth were on edge. She barely managed to be polite as she said, “I have a date tomorrow night.”

  “Now I’m jealous. Who’s the lucky man?”

  “No one you know.” She took an ignition key from the pegboard and slid it across the counter to him. “There you go. Number five, the one at the end of the dock.”

  He took out his wallet and extracted a couple of twenties. “I’ll have it back in two hours.” He picked up the ignition key.

  “Fine.” She mustered a smile. “Have a good time. Hope you catch a lot.”

  “I never do, but it’s fun to try,” he said breezily as he picked up his tackle and went out the door.

  Evie put the money into the cash drawer and locked it, all the while eyeing Mercer as he walked down the dock. He was looking around, studying the parking lot and the traffic on the street out front, as well as on the bisecting causeway.

  Swiftly she picked up the phone and buzzed Burt in the maintenance building. He picked up just as Mercer was getting into the boat.

  “Burt, I’m taking the boat out for a while,” Evie said swiftly. “I’m locking the store, but keep an eye on the gas pumps while I’m gone.”

  “Sure,” he said, as unquestioning as ever. Burt Mardis didn’t have a curious bone in his body.

  Mercer was idling away from the dock. Evie jammed a ball cap on her head, grabbed her sunglasses and hurried from the building. She locked the door behind her, then sprinted for her own boat.

  He was beyond the wave breakers by the time she reached her boat, and she heard the roar as he opened up the throttle. She all but threw herself into the boat and turned the key in the ignition. The motor coughed to life with a satisfying roar. Her boat was faster than any of the rentals, but on the water, and at speed, it was difficult to distinguish one vessel from another.

  She had to idle away from the marina, because a fast takeoff would make waves large enough to violently rock the boats in their slips, possibly damaging them. Swearing at every lost second, she waited until she was past the wave breakers before pushing the throttle forward. The motor roared, and the front end of the boat lifted in the air as the vessel shot forward. It planed off almost immediately, the nose dropping into the running position.

  She scanned the water for Mercer; unfortunately, he had gained enough distance that she couldn’t positively identify him, and there were three boats speeding away from her, small specks that bobbed slightly as they cut through the waves. Which one was Mercer?

  The sun wasn’t far past its apex, and the glare turned the lake into a mirror. Hot air hit her, pulling tendrils of hair loose around her face. The scent of the river filled her head and lungs, and a quiet exultation spread through her. This was a part of her life that she loved—the wind in her face, the sense of speed, the feel of the boat as it glided over calm water and bumped over waves. Though there were other boats on the lake, and houses visible all along the shoreline, when she was speeding across the water it was like being alone with God. She would have been perfectly content, if only she knew what Mercer was up to.

  After a minute one boat slowed and turned toward another marina. As she neared, she could tell that it held two passengers.

  That left two. The throttle was full forward, and she was gaining on one, while the other, probably a speedy bass boat, was pulling away. Since her boat was faster than the rental, the one she was overtaking had to be Mercer. Cautiously she throttled back, enough to stay at a pace with him but not so close that he would see and identify her. Just about everyone on the water would be wearing a ball cap and sunglasses, and her hair was pulled back in a braid rather than flying loose, so she felt fairly confident that he wouldn’t recognize her.

  He was heading toward the same area, where there were a lot of small islands dotting the lake. She wouldn’t be able to get very close, because once he cut his speed he would be able to hear other boats. Her best bet, she thought, was to stop some distance away and pretend to be fishing.

  The boat ahead slowed and cut between two islands. Evie kept her speed steady and cruised on past. There was a distance of over two hundred yards between them, but she could tell that now he was idling closer to the bank of the island on the right.

  She turned in the opposite direction, away from him. A barge was coming downriver, heavily loaded and settled deep into the water, pushing out a wave as it plowed forward. If she let the barge come between her and Mercer, it would block his activities for almost half a minute, plenty long enough for her to lose him. But if she moved inside the barge’s path, it would put her closer to him than she wanted to be.

  There was no help for it. She tucked her long braid inside her shirt to hide that identifying detail and turned the boat to angle back across the river ahead of the barge.

  “Guntersville Lake’s easy to learn,” Virgil stated. “’Course, I was fishin’ the river back before the TVA built the dam, so I knowed the lay of the land before the water backed up and covered it. Not many of us around now remembers the way it used to be. River used to flood a lot. So Roosevelt’s boys decided we needed us a dam, so there wouldn’t be no more floods. Well, hell, ’course there ain’t, ’cause now the land that flooded ever now an’ then is permanently under water. The government calls it flood control. They throwed around words like eminent domain, but what they did is take people’s land, turn them off their farms, and put a lot of good land under water.”

  “The TVA brought electricity to the Tennessee River Valley, didn’t it?” Robert asked. He was holding