The laugh just burst out of her and was so loud that it startled Aiden. He jumped, his little arms and legs flying out, and he started to fuss, so Eve rocked him again. “Dylan’s like a brother to me.”
She winced, though, because the reason she felt that way was because as a teenager, she’d spun so many fantasies about Lawson and her getting married—that was despite Lawson repeatedly telling her that marriage for him was never going to happen. Regina had helped fuel them by making it known that she wanted all of her children to give her grandkids. Eve had given up on the fantasy of marrying Lawson, but that didn’t stop her from filling in the blanks on what he was telling her.
She tossed out there, “Your mother wants me with Dylan and you with Darby.”
Lawson certainly didn’t toss that theory right back at her. Which meant he believed it was true.
Well, Regina was obviously in the Team Darby camp. And Eve had to admit that it made sense. If Regina wanted Lawson to settle down and have a family, then she’d prefer someone like Darby to have her first grandchild. Little did Regina know, though, that she already had a granddaughter.
A granddaughter who Eve would tell both Lawson and her about as soon as Tessie knew the truth about the identity of her father.
Eve had attempted to do just that on the visit to Austin, but she’d failed. When Eve had spotted Tessie on the stairs in the sorority building, her daughter had hurried off, refusing to say anything to Eve other than that she didn’t want to talk to her.
Aiden, however, wasn’t refusing to speak. His fussing got even louder, and he rooted around on the front of her shirt until he located her nipple. Her son apparently didn’t want to wait any longer for his dinner.
“I need to nurse him.” That was all Eve had to say to get Lawson’s forehead to bunch up, and he started toward the front door.
“Lock up after I go out,” he said. “I’ll have a look around the place while I’m waiting for Clay.”
Even though she doubted there was a need for it, she did indeed lock the door behind him, and she lifted her top so she could unhook the cup of her nursing bra. Aiden wasted no time latching on.
While she nursed him, she went back to the window to have her own look around, but she stayed back from the glass so that if Lawson happened to stroll by, he wouldn’t see her with her boob hanging out. As expected, there was no sign of the Swaron warrior.
Since the binoculars were right there on the table, Eve used them to have a better look. Lawson was making his way to the road where he no doubt intended to meet up with Clay once he arrived.
A glint of sunlight on metal caught her eye, and for a moment she thought it might be Clay’s cruiser. But this was coming from Lawson’s house. She groaned, hoping the Swaron hadn’t gone there.
He hadn’t.
When Eve shifted the binoculars in that direction, she saw the woman in Lawson’s doorway. A woman wearing a raincoat.
Darby.
Like Eve, she had a pair of binoculars pressed to her eyes. And Darby seemed to have her attention aimed at Eve.
The wind shifted the side of Darby’s raincoat, and even though Eve didn’t need further proof that this was the very woman who had left the gate open, she got confirmation anyway. Because with that shift of the raincoat, Eve got a glimpse of something.
A hoo-hoo that was no doubt waiting for Lawson to return.
CHAPTER TEN
LAWSON DROPPED DOWN on his bed, wondering if there was anyone else in the entire state of Texas who’d had such a shitty day as his. Running off a dickhead Swaron who had decent escape skills, his own personal lusting after Eve and then turning away a half-naked woman—Darby—who’d been waiting for him after he’d finally made it back home.
He wasn’t sure which of those three things bothered him the most. He hadn’t wanted to hurt Darby, had wanted the Swaron caught and locked up, but the one that would likely give him the most trouble was Eve. And that was the thought running through his mind when he finally fell asleep.
Ironic that with all the lusting, it wasn’t Eve who first came to him in the dream. It was Brett.
Lawson knew he was dreaming, but he couldn’t make it stop. Couldn’t force himself to wake up. So, he had no choice but to relive the bits and pieces he remembered. Things that should have never happened in the first place.
But they had.
And the nightmares reminded him of that way too often.
Just as it had that night, the dream started with laughter and fun at Brett’s house. Brett’s folks were out of town visiting relatives, and Lawson and Brett hadn’t wasted any time putting together a party. Complete with plenty of beer that they’d sweet-talked the convenience-store clerk into selling them.
Lawson had been good at sweet talk in those days.
Eve was there at the party, of course, and he’d seen that look burning in her eyes. He hadn’t hesitated even for a second when she’d kissed him, and he’d felt that kick of pleasure that he always got whenever she was around him.
Brett had laughed when he’d spotted them in the corner and had yelled out get a room. Unlike Eve’s eyes, Brett’s were already glazed over from the “sweet-talked” beer he’d been drinking most of the night. Lawson and Eve had indeed gotten a room. They’d gone to Brett’s bedroom upstairs, where they’d had sex.
While their friend was dying.
Of course, Lawson didn’t remember any of the dying part. He’d crashed shortly after having sex with Eve and didn’t recall anything until he heard the frantic shouts for someone to call an ambulance.
Later, Lawson would learn that Brett’s blood alcohol level was .30 percent. That would have been way too high even if he hadn’t been underage. And it had apparently been high enough for Brett to slip into a coma.
Lawson hadn’t checked on his friend. Because he’d gone to sleep. But Eve had gone downstairs to get a glass of water, and she’d seen Brett passed out on the sofa. Even in the dream, Lawson knew that hindsight was 20/20, that there had been no logical reason for a seventeen-year-old girl to make sure her friend wasn’t so drunk that it was going to kill him.
However, hindsight didn’t give Lawson any peace.
The nightmares still came. The guilt stayed like a meaty fist clamped around his heart. And it wouldn’t go away, no matter how many years he grieved. Because that night, he’d lost a part of himself. And he’d ultimately lost Eve since that was the last time they were together.
Those were the thoughts that were right at the front of his mind when Lawson finally managed to force himself awake. Even after his eyes opened though, he could still see the images. Still hear the sounds the medics made that night as they tried, and failed, to save Brett’s life. But even that hadn’t been the end of it. Brett had lingered for several days before his family had been forced to accept he was brain-dead and pull the plug on his life support.
No way did he want to go back to sleep with those images still so fresh in his mind. The nightmare would just come again.
In that moment, he hated whiskey, hated himself for needing it. It was a familiar feeling, and Lawson knew the outcome.