Narrowing my eyes, I grinned and circled my arms around his neck. “Working, probably. Why?”
“I want you to come to the away game with me. Do you think Lara and Grayson can handle the restaurant without you?”
The thought of going away with him excited me, but I hadn’t talked to Grayson about him yet. That was an obstacle I had yet to overcome. I didn’t know what he would think about me moving on to another man. “I don’t know yet,” I told him. “Can I give you a maybe and call it good for now?”
Grinning mischievously, he leaned down and kissed my neck, trailing his lips up to my cheek. “Is there anything I can do to persuade you?”
I giggled and pushed him away. “Yeah, you can let me get to work. I have a busy week ahead of me.”
He opened my door and I tossed my purse onto the passenger seat. “Will you be here tomorrow?”
“Of course,” I replied, but then my smile faded when I realized what day it was. I usually met with Philip on Tuesdays but he’d had to reschedule. “No, wait, I can’t. I have an appointment.”
“With your therapist?” he asked. Embarrassed, I lowered my head, but he tilted up my chin with his finger. “Hey, there’s no need to be ashamed that you needed help. I thought maybe you were moving past it.”
“And I think I have,” I confessed. “This past week has been a whirlwind for me. I told Philip at my last visit that I think I’m approaching the end. He was the only person I could really talk to until…”
“Until what?” he asked softly.
I lifted my gaze to his. “Until you.”
He lowered his lips to mine, holding me with his hand at the back of my head. I didn’t want him to let me go, but unfortunately, he had to. “Then meet me for breakfast before your appointment. I want to see you tomorrow. We can take things slow.”
“Slow, huh? I think I can manage that.”
“And then maybe you could squeeze me in for dinner?”
“Only if you come to the restaurant. I’ll be there until closing every night this week. Now next week, we can probably work something out. I’ll be there during the days and Lara will be there at night.”
A smile lit up his face. “I look forward to it. That means I can take you out on a real date.”
“Won’t this interfere with your bachelor status?” I teased.
“Yeah, but I don’t give a shit about that. If you want me to stay one, I can. I’ll leave it up to you.” He kissed me one last time and shut the door after I got in the car. As I watched him walk away and his words sank into my head, I realized I already knew what I wanted.
Chapter 13
Summer
Evan and I chose to meet at a local café that was just a block from Philip’s office. I was a little early and hungry as hell, so I ordered two blueberry scones and a hot chocolate and had an Asiago cheese bagel packaged up for Philip. As soon as I sat down, Evan walked through the door.
“I’m not late, am I?”
“No, I’m starving. Plus, they only had two scones left and I wanted to get them before someone else did.”
Shaking his head, he smiled and waltzed over to the counter. The woman at the register recognized him and her face brightened. She giggled at everything he said and made sure he didn’t have to wait long for his order. When he walked away, every head in the place turned to watch him take a seat with me.
“Nice choice,” I said, glancing down at his pastries. The apple fritters were my other favorite.
Taking a bite of his fritter, he nodded in satisfaction until the whole thing was gone. He looked down at the to-go bag I had sitting on the table and asked, “What’s in there?”
“A farewell gift, I suppose. It’s a bagel for Philip. I think I’m going to make today my last appointment.”
His eyes went wide. “Are you serious? That’s great. And you think you’re ready for that?”
I shrugged. “Who knows, really? But I think it’s time to try. My nightmares don’t come as often, and for the past couple of weeks I’ve actually been able to sleep more than four hours at a time.”
“That’s all you sleep? Have you ever taken medication?”
“Yeah, but I noticed it made my dreams worse, more vivid. So I figured no sleep was better than that.” Sleep was my enemy. I was terrified to close my eyes for fear of what I’d see. Every day, I prayed for that fear to go away. Evan nodded in agreement, but I could tell he was worried about me by the frown on his face. “What will you be doing in practice today?” I asked.
“Same old shit. Coach wants me with Gavin one-on-one so I can make sure he’s just as good as I am. He wants another record-breaking wide receiver in case something happens to me.”
“Let’s hope that doesn’t happen,” I added. “Do you have a backup plan in case you can’t play football anymore? What did you study in college?”
“Business, actually. I was one of the top students in my class. But to be honest, if something ever happened to me I could see myself coaching.”