Loving Evangeline Read online

  A prudent woman would immediately see a doctor about birth control, and Evie was a prudent woman. She could protect herself in that way, at least.

  Chapter Six

  Evie slid two food-filled plates onto the table, one in front of Rebecca and the other in front of her own seat, then refilled their coffee cups. “Thanks.” Rebecca sighed, picking up her fork. Her eyes were dark-circled after the long, sleepless night spent with Jason in the hospital.

  Evie sat down. After making a doctor’s appointment for the next day, she had called the hospital to check on Jason. He was fine, but Rebecca had some definitely frayed edges. Not only had she been awake all night to keep watch on him and wake him regularly, evidently Jason had become as fractious and ill-tempered as he’d been as a baby whenever he was ill. He had complained about everything, griping about being woken every hour, even though both the doctor and Rebecca had explained the reason for it. In short, his mother’s wrath was about to come down hard on his sore head.

  So Evie had gone up to the hospital to take care of the myriad details involved in releasing Jason. Then she’d followed them home, helped get the restless teenager settled, pushed Rebecca into a chair and set about making breakfast for them all. She knew her way around Rebecca’s kitchen as well as she did her own, so the work went smoothly, and in no time at all they were digging into scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. Jason was enthroned on the couch with a tray on his lap and the television blaring.

  The coffee revived Rebecca enough that her big-sister instincts kicked in. She gave Evie a shrewd look over the rim of her cup. “Where did you have dinner last night?”

  “At the marina. Sandwiches,” Evie clarified.

  Rebecca sat back, looking disguntled. “He said he would take you out to dinner, then make sure you got home okay.”

  “I didn’t want to go out.”

  “Really,” Rebecca grumbled, “I’d thought the man was made of stronger stuff than that.”

  If he’d been any stronger, Evie thought wryly, she would have slept in his bed last night. “I was too tired to go out, so he brought sandwiches there. It was kind of him to do everything he did yesterday.”

  “Especially hauling both you and my brat out of the river,” Rebecca said judiciously as she demolished a slice of bacon. “I need to thank him again for you. I’m reserving judgment on the wisdom of saving Jason.”

  Evie chuckled at Rebecca’s sardonic statement. A sharp turn of phrase was a family trait that she shared with her sister, and even Paige had been exhibiting it for some time now.

  “However,” Rebecca continued in the same tone, “I know a man on the hunt when I see one, so don’t try to throw me off the subject by telling me how kind he was. Kindness was the last thing on his mind.”

  Evie looked down at her eggs. “I know.”

  “Are you going to give him a chance, or are you going to look straight through him, like all the others?”

  “What others?” Evie asked, puzzled.

  “See what I mean? They were invisible to you. You’ve never even noticed all the guys who would have liked to go out with you.”

  “No one’s ever asked me out.”

  “Why would they, when you never notice them? But I’ll bet Robert asked you out, didn’t he?”

  “No.” He’d told her that she was going out to dinner with him, and he had told her that he intended to make love to her, but he’d never actually asked her out.

  Rebecca looked disbelieving. “You’re pulling my leg.”

  “I am not. But he’ll probably ask the next time he comes to the marina, if that’s any consolation to you.”

  “The real question,” her sister said shrewdly, “is if you’ll go with him.”

  “I don’t know.” Evie propped her elbows on the table, the coffee cup cradled in her palms as she sipped the hot liquid. “He excites me, Becky, but he scares me, too. I don’t want to get involved with anyone, and I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to stop myself with him.”

  “This is bad?” asked her sister with some exasperation. “Honey, it’s been twelve years. Maybe it’s time you became interested in men again.”

  “Maybe,” Evie said in qualified agreement, though privately she didn’t think so at all. “But Robert Cannon isn’t the safest choice I could make, not by a long shot. There’s something about him…I don’t know. I just get the feeling that he’s coming on to me for another reason besides the obvious. There’s a hidden agenda there somewhere. And he puts up a good front, but he’s not a gentleman.”

  “Good. A gentleman would probably take you at your word and never bother you again, after a hundred or so refusals. I have to admit, though, he struck me as being both gentle and protective.”

  “Possessive,” Evie corrected. “And ruthless.” No, he wasn’t a gentleman. That cold force of will in his green diamond eyes was the look of an adventurer with a predator’s heart. A hollow look of fear entered her own eyes.

  Rebecca leaned forward and touched Evie’s arm. “I know,” she said gently. And she did, because Rebecca had been there and seen it all. “I don’t want to push you into doing something you’ll regret, but you never know what’s going to happen. If Robert Cannon is someone you could love, can you afford to pass up that chance?”

  Evie sighed. Rebecca’s arguments to the contrary, could she afford to take that chance? And was she going to have the choice?

  To her relief, Robert wasn’t at the marina when she arrived to relieve Craig. Huge, black-bellied clouds were threatening overhead, and a brisk, cool wind began to blow, signaling one of the tempestuous thunderstorms so common during summer. Both pleasure-boaters and fishermen began coming in off the lake, and for an hour she didn’t have a moment’s rest. Lightning forked downward over the mountains, a slash of white against the purplish black background. Thunder boomed, echoing over the water, and the storm broke with blinding sheets of rain blowing across the lake.

  With all of the fishermen who had put in at the marina safely off the water and the other boats snugly in their slips, Evie gladly retreated to the office where she could watch the storm from behind the protection of the thick, Plexiglass windows. She hadn’t quite escaped all the rain, though, and she shivered as she rubbed a towel over her bare arms. The temperature had dropped twenty degrees in about ten minutes; the break from the heat was welcome, but the abrupt contrast was always chilling.

  She loved the energy and drama of thunderstorms, and settled contentedly into her rocking chair to watch this one play out against the background of lake and mountains. Listening to the rain was unutterably soothing. Inevitably she became drowsy and got up to turn on the small television she kept to entertain Paige and Jason. A small logo at the bottom of the television screen announced “T’storm watch.”

  “I’m watching, I’m watching,” she told the television, and returned to the rocking chair.

  Eventually the violence of the storm dissipated, but the welcome rain continued, settling down to a steady soaker, the kind farmers loved. The marina was deserted, except for the mechanic, Burt Mardis, who was contentedly working on an outboard motor in the big metal building where he did all the repairs. She could see him occasionally through the open door as he moved back and forth. There wouldn’t be any more business until the weather cleared, which it showed no signs of doing. At the top of the hour the local television meteorologist broke in on the normal programming to show the progression of the line of thunderstorms that were marching across the state, as well as the solid area of rain they had left behind, stretching all the way back into Mississippi. Rain was predicted well into the night, tapering off shortly before midnight.

  It looked like a long, lazy afternoon ahead of her. She always kept a book there for such times and pulled it out now, but so much time had lapsed since she had started the thing that she didn’t remember much about it, so she had to start over. Actually, this was the third time she had started over; she would have to carry it home if she ever hoped to finish it