“Can I pour some for you?” Evelyn asked.
“Sure. Thanks.” Haven leaned against the kitchen counter to drink her tea, so Evelyn took a seat.
“You live in Dallas?”
“Yes. For now.”
“What do you do there?”
“I’m in broadcasting.”
Evelyn smiled. “What a fun career.”
“Sometimes it can be. Other times it’s a nightmare. Depends on the day and what I’m covering.”
“You do the news?”
“Sports,” Haven said with a grin, the pride evident on her face.
“Wow. Tough field for a woman.”
“It can be. Right now I’ve got a line on a national gig, so keep your fingers crossed for me.”
“Congratulations. I hope it works out for you.”
“Thank you. I’m really excited about it.”
“I’m learning a lot about auto racing, and sports in general, from being around Gray.”
Haven’s gaze tracked outside. “Gray’s a fantastic guy. He was always so nice to my parents, and to me.” She returned her gaze to Evelyn. “And you work with Gray’s father, the senator?”
“Yes.”
“I’m surprised Gray has anything to do with you. He wasn’t too fond of his dad back in his college days. I guess that’s changed.”
She appreciated Haven’s blunt honesty. “I think they’re still working on it.
Sometimes it takes a while.”
Haven sipped her tea. “I guess it does.”
Speaking of things that took a while to process . . . she sensed Haven needed someone to talk to. Maybe that’s why she was lingering in the kitchen with Evelyn.
Something she couldn’t unload on her mother, maybe?
“I might be speaking out of turn, and please tell me to mind my own business, Haven, but I sensed some friction between you and Trevor?”
Haven looked down at her worn canvas shoes for a few seconds before dragging her gaze back to Evelyn. “Oh. That. Yeah. He and I had a few go-rounds in college.”
Evelyn arched a brow, but didn’t say anything. If Haven didn’t want to talk about it, she wouldn’t ask again.
“He was so . . . prickly,” Haven finally continued. “So supremely, arrogantly confident. And I had the worst crush on him. I was gangly and shy and I wore glasses. And these—” She pointed to her breasts. “I hid them. I was awkward enough without having boobs to deal with. I had no idea what to do with a boy. And Trevor was this hot and sexy athlete, and God, I was so tongue-tied around him.”
“A first crush kind of thing?”
Haven sighed. “In the worst way. Trevor, being the hot stud that he is, he knew it.
And he played me, using his sweet talk and batting those long dark lashes at me to get me to do anything he wanted.”
Warily, Evelyn asked, “And just what did he want?”
With a laugh, Haven said, “Tutoring. He needed to pass all his classes, so what better way than to get the brainy girl to help him.”
“You didn’t want to?”
“It was exactly the opposite. I’d have done anything for him if he crooked a finger in my direction. He didn’t have to play me. I studied with him and cajoled him into working harder than he ever wanted to work. The problem was, he didn’t want to do the work. What he really wanted was to find a way to cheat the tests.”
Evelyn leaned back in the chair and took a sip of tea. “No shit.”
“No shit. Life always came easy for Trevor. Sports? Piece of cake. Getting a girl into bed? Please. All he had to do was give them that wicked smile of his and panties came off faster than a dress on prom night. Academics, though? Not so much. That he had to work at, and when he struggled, he tried to figure out an angle.”
“There is no angle with academics. It’s pass or fail.”
“Exactly. I tried to tell him that, while he whispered sweet talk in my ear about how easy it would be for me to do his homework for him and cheat the tests. I refused, so he tried to get me into bed. I know he figured he was doing the poor dorky girl a favor.”
Evelyn crossed her arms, irritated on Haven’s behalf. “And?”
“I might have been gawky and had an Oklahoma-sized crush on the boy, but I wasn’t stupid. I had my own academic career to think of. No way was I going to risk it. I said no.”
“Good for you.”
“I made him learn. And oh, was he ever upset with me. Girls didn’t turn him down much, you know. If ever. I told him he was going to have to learn using his head.”
She pointed to her temple and laughed. “This one, not the one in his pants.”
Evelyn laughed. “Good for you. So what happened?”
“He finally realized he was going to have to open a book. He struggled with it, but he did it.”
“So you pushed him, he passed his classes, and then what?”
“Then he went on his way, of course,” Haven said with a laugh. “I was glad to get rid of him. He was an annoyance I could do without.”