Evan.
The same beautiful boy I’d known, now transformed into a ruggedly handsome twenty-two year old man. The same kindness in his eyes and the inherent goodness he radiated. Time-tested and a bit frayed. But still there. A glut of emotion swamped me. Flashes of memory, shards of sensation. Feeling safe, feeling taken care of, feeling happy…
Evan Salinger stared at me and I stared down at him. Everything we’d had and everything we’d lost sitting right there in the short distance between us. All I had to do was reach through that cloud of time and memory, touch him and it would all come back…
My hand raised on its own, fingers reaching out to his shoulder.
“Evan,” I whispered.
“It’s me, Jo,” he whispered back.
His hand rose to touch mine. Our fingers reached. Then a gale of laughter erupted from a table in Patty’s section. The diner resolved around me. I snatched my hand away and glanced around, the blood racing through my veins.
“What are you doing here?” I said, fighting for breath and calm.
“You called me,” Evan said.
“You… I called you?”
“Can you sit? Have a cup of coffee with me?”
I started to slide into the opposite chair and damn if it didn’t feel like climbing into a lifeboat as the ship sank from underneath me. But before I touched the seat, I remembered where I was. I peeked over my shoulder. Patty was staring at me with that dagger glare. I was more worried about her wagging tongue.
I picked up my notepad and the pen from the floor, nearly whacking my head on the table as I straightened up. “I can’t.” I set my pen to paper. “What can I get you?”
Evan’s blue eyes had followed mine to Patty and back. He nodded and said, “Eggs up, bacon, coffee.”
“Got it.” I jotted the order down, my shaking hand turning my normally neat handwriting to chicken scratch.
“Jo…”
“You shouldn’t be here,” I whispered and hurried away.
I put Evan’s ticket in the window, still feeling Patty’s eyes on me. I inhaled deeply several times, willing my nerves to stop their twitchy jangle. Excitement, terror, hope: I was a fucked-up cocktail of emotions.
I managed to wait on other customers, but I felt a constant pull toward Evan. I wanted to be near him. My eyes sought him out, drinking in the sight of him, unable to believe he wasn’t a ghost that would vanish the moment I looked away.
I took his order to his table and set the plate down slowly. My hands fiddled with the ketchup bottle, moved salt and pepper shakers so they’d be in easy reach. Anything to prolong the moment.
“Why are you here?” I whispered.
“I told you—”
“Don’t mess with me, Evan. I didn’t call you. I don’t have your number. I don’t know where you’ve been or…” A terrible thought dawned on me. “Wait, you were supposed to serve five years. It’s been four. You didn’t…?”
“I got out because you needed me,” Evan said.
I stared. “You mean, you busted out? How did you find me?”
“This isn’t a good place to talk. I see that now. Can we meet somewhere? Somewhere safe?”
“Safe?” I blurted. “There’s no such thing in this town.”
As if to illustrate my point, Warren and Ron walked in. Both guests at last night’s drug-dealing dinner party. They took seats at the counter and Patty came over to serve them. As she poured coffee, her chin jutted in my direction. Warren and Ron turned heads to follow her gaze and give me and Evan a onceover.
Shit. My heart dropped to my stomach and I hurried away to tend to other customers. I forced myself to saunter by the counter and bullshit some small talk with Warren and Ron. Acting calm and steady while my heart hammered in my chest.
I avoided Evan’s table until I had to drop off his check. I wanted to tell him it wasn’t safe here and he needed to get the hell out of town. To leave and not look back…
“I’m off at four,” I muttered out the corner of my mouth.
His sweet smile brightened his face, sucking me backward in time. “Where?”
“Behind Miller’s Inn. You know it?”
“I’ll find it.” Evan pulled out a battered brown leather wallet and laid some bills on the table. “I’ll be there, Jo. And I can’t wait to see you.” He pushed back his chair. He left without a glance back.
“Who was that?” Patty asked the nanosecond he was gone, joining me at his table to watch through the window. Evan walked away, denim jacket in hand.
“Some guy I used to know in high school,” I said, sounding as bored as possible. I gathered up Evan’s breakfast plates. “Haven’t seen him in years. Random.”
“Oh yeah?” Patty said, her dark eyes boring into mine with her stony Medusa glare. “He a good friend of yours?”