“Evan Jacobs, are you ashamed to be seen with me?” I clutched my chest in mock horror.
He shook his head. “No way. I just want you to myself tonight.” He reached over the console and laced our fingers together.
I let out a long sigh. Evan was too much. If I didn’t know him already, I would swear he was too good to be true. He was always so kind and sincere; I used to wonder why he was best friends with my smartass cousin.
The drive was over an hour long, but it seemed to go by quickly. Evan spent time around my family quite a bit, even sharing some holidays with us, but we never went anywhere alone together. I was surprised to discover how little we really knew about each other.
“I can’t believe you’re a Beatles fan. How did I not know this?” I flipped through the playlists on his iPod as we got to know each other better. He had every single Beatles song and a few awesome covers.
“My mom was a Beatles freak. That’s how I got my middle name.”
“What’s your middle name?”
“Jude. She wanted that as my first name, but my dad said absolutely not.”
“That . . . is adorable. Evan Jude Jacobs.” Evan chuckled as he shook his head.
“And if I was a girl, I would’ve been Lucy.”
“For Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. That’s awesome. I like your Mom. She sounds cool.”
The smile left Evan’s face as he nodded. “She was very cool. The best.”
I couldn’t imagine how terrible it would be to lose your mother at fifteen. After his mother died, Evan’s father had a breakdown. My heart broke for what Evan went through at such a young age, all by himself.
“I’m sorry you lost your Mom.” I had the sudden urge to jump over the console and hug him. How long had he been taking care of everyone except himself?
Evan shrugged. “Thank you. My Dad is another reason why I came back to the Bronx. He’s in an assisted living facility in Yonkers, so he’s not all by himself, but I never liked only being able to see him a couple of times a month.”
After years of drinking, Evan’s father had a stroke that he never fully recovered from. From what Jack told me, all Evan’s father did was yell and scream at him every time Evan went to visit him, but he still went to make sure his father had all he needed.
“Hey, we’re here.” Evan pulled up outside what looked to be a cross between a restaurant and a café. He put the car in park and jetted over to my side to open my door. He was so sweet I was starting to get a little bit of a toothache. I was lucky if Chris waited for me to get out of his car before he started walking away.
“Thank you, kind sir.” I gave him a wink as he took my hand to help me out of his truck.
“Pleasure is all mine.” He brought my hand to his lips and kissed the top of my wrist. I giggled as he led me by the hand to the hostess, who quickly sat us at a table outside. After we sat down, I perused the menu and laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Evan furrowed his brow as he stared at me.
“You took us all the way to Brooklyn for pizza? We have that at home, you know.”
“But it’s really, really good pizza. C’mon, trust me.”
The waitress came over to take our order, and as she sauntered away, I gazed across the table at my date. Evan was my date. It all seemed a little surreal.
I took a deep breath. “Something has been bothering me.”
Evan’s brow furrowed as he sat back in his chair. “Bothering you?”
I nodded. “You said you liked me since we were kids, but I don’t understand why you never told me.”
He folded his hands and gazed down at the table before glancing back up at me.
“I came close to telling you a few times. One day, I think we were about seventeen, you were upset because you heard your boyfriend made out with some girl at a party and everyone was talking about it at school. I think his name was Frankie—”
“Frankie Tucci. Yep, I remember.” I cringed at the memory of one of the first guys I let walk all over me, over and over again. After him, there was Joey Egan, then Marc Christensen in college, and a few in-between losers until Chris came along. My history with men was a constant hot mess that I loathed to think about
“Jack wasn’t there, so you poured your heart out to me. I tried to tell you how you deserved better than him and there were a ton of guys willing to take his place in a heartbeat. I was about to say I was one of them, when good ol’ Frankie showed up with his blue Mustang with the red stripe and the tinted windows—”
“You remember the color of his car?”
“Something that ugly and obnoxious somehow stays with you. Anyway, he pulled up and walked over to you, said it was just a rumor blah blah, and before I knew it, you were piling into his car and driving away. My window of opportunity was closed before I even got to peek through it.” Evan chuckled and shook his head.
Memories from that day started to resurface. We’d gotten as far as the corner when Frankie asked me why I wore my hair like that. A good guy had been right under my nose for years, but I was too stupid to see it. I let out a long sigh. “I’m so sorry, Evan. I wish you had gotten to tell me how you felt.”
“Hey.” Evan reached across the table to take my hand. “Things happen for a reason. Even Frankie Tucci.” I laughed as he held my hand with both of his. “We’re right where we’re supposed to be.”
“Sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
Evan gave me a big smile “Now, about you? Yes, I’m pretty damn sure.”
We spent most of dinner laughing and talking about nothing and everything. The pizza was the best I’d ever had, but I wasn’t ready to admit that yet. I liked knowing a different side of Evan, not just the one I thought I knew all these years. He was warm, funny, and more irresistible by the second.
As we drove back to the Bronx, I got butterflies in my stomach remembering our near kiss at his office yesterday. From the time he picked me up, I’d been antsy about our kiss tonight, too. Knowing how Evan felt about me all those years actually added to the pressure. I didn’t want to disappoint him. Maybe the real Paige wouldn’t be as good as the one he’d built up in his head.
Evan pulled up to my block and shut the engine off.
“C’mon, I’ll walk you up.” Again, he sprinted to open my door, and took my hand to lead me up the outside stairs and into my apartment.
I nervously flicked all the lights on and turned back to Evan. He wasn’t acting as if he planned to stay, not venturing too far from the door or finding a place to sit.
“I think I did pretty well, considering.”
“Yes, I’ll admit, pizza was good, and Williamsburg is a cool place . . .”
“No, that’s not what I meant.” Evan’s eyes darkened as he approached me. He put his hands around my waist and pulled me close.
“I managed to get through the entire night without kissing you. It’s been all I could think about since you left the office yesterday. Fucking Murphy job.” I laughed into his chest. He backed away slightly and put his finger under my chin to make me look up.
Evan rubbed his thumb over my lips, my frozen body unable to move.
“What’s stopping you now?” I whispered against his mouth as I drifted closer.
Evan took my face in his hands and caressed my cheeks with his thumbs. The corner of his mouth turned up in a smirk before his soft lips touched mine. I closed my eyes to savor the initial sweet satisfaction. Our lips pulled apart and I pressed my mouth back to his, darting my tongue out just a little to lick the seam of his lips. Evan groaned and grabbed my waist to pull me closer. He sucked then nibbled on my bottom lip as he pulled away. I grabbed the back of his head and covered his mouth with mine. Our kiss caught fire and went from soft to frenzied in seconds. Evan’s hand tangled in my hair as I fisted the collar of his shirt in an effort to get as close to him as possible. As my tongue explored every inch of his perfect mouth, we melted into each other. I was completely lost in Evan. I didn’t see, hear, or think of anything except the gorgeous man who was finally kissing me; the “harmless nice guy” with the lips of a very bad boy.