by Becca Van
She found herself a little intimidated at having the attention of three such handsome, brawny men. Evana wasn’t used to any attention from males unless it was in a derogatory or pitying way.
“White, no sugar, thanks.”
“Do you get cramps like that often?” Pierson asked as he leaned against the edge of the desk.
“Yes, but they aren’t as bad now as when I was a kid. Shit! I left my boot on the pavement.” She went to get up but again was stopped when a large, warm hand landed on her shoulder.
“It’s on the other desk, honey. Do you want it on?” Quin took a step toward the other desk.
“No. Not right now.”
Gray entered the office with a tray loaded with coffee mugs. After placing it on the desk near her, he handed her a blue mug.
“Thank you,” she sighed and wrapped her grazed palms around it, ignoring the slight sting caused by the heat of the cup.
Gray leaned against the desk next to Pierson, and Quin snagged the back of another chair and brought it closer to her and sat straddling it. Evana took a sip of her coffee for something to do. The three pairs of male eyes scrutinizing her made her feel a little uncomfortable.
“Sorry you had to carry me in here,” she said.
“Don’t worry about that,” Pierson said.
“You don’t weigh a thing,” Quin added.
That might be true for men as big and powerfully built as they were. When they didn’t say anything more, she found herself talking to fill the silence. “Once, when I was a kid, two of my friends had to carry me home from school because the cramps were so bad I couldn’t walk. They made a seat for me out of their hands and carried me all the way home.”
You’re talking too much. But seeing that she had the total attention of her audience, Evana relaxed a little. “My mom had to spend an hour massaging the knots out of my leg that day. You guys got off easy.”
Pierson smiled. “You were lucky to have such good friends.”
Evana felt the warmth of that memory fade away. She wasn’t sure she could count Tim as a friend anymore. “Yeah,” she said weakly.
Tim had changed since he was a kid. Before she left Sheridan, Tim had been pushing her for a relationship. She had liked Tim when they were kids, but he seemed to have changed over the last few years and not in a good way. Before she had left home, she feared seeing him at all. Ever since her mom and Jack had left home to travel to Australia to see some of Jack’s distant relatives, Tim had become a little too aggressive in his pursuit of her and she had become decidedly uncomfortable. As far as she was concerned, their friendship was no more, and in fact she had begun to fear Tim. So she had packed, locked up the house, and here she was.
She looked at the three Badon brothers, who still watched her intently. She wasn’t going to burden these near strangers with her fears about Tim, not when those fears were probably unfounded anyway. She still had no proof it was him sneaking into her room at night while she was sleeping. A shiver raced up her spine, but Quin nudged her arm gently, pulling her mind from such distasteful thoughts.
Quin seemed to be scrutinizing her closely. “Can I ask you a question, Evana?”
Though she felt like she’d talked too much already, she said, “Sure.”
“What happened to your leg?”
Chapter Two
Quin was aware that Pierson and Gray were giving him dirty looks, but he didn’t see any problem with his question. Ignoring his brothers, he studied the petite, good-looking woman sipping her coffee. He wanted to know everything about her. When he had met her earlier that afternoon, he hadn’t wanted to be too forward and scare her off, but now that she was in his office, he wanted to ask her everything. He was attracted to her and knew by the way his brothers were looking at her that they were drawn to her, too.
She wasn’t very tall, standing at around five foot four, but she had a nicely rounded body. Her hips were voluptuous and she had a great chest. Her long hair shimmered even under the fluorescent office light, and he could see gold strands amongst the red. Her skin was a creamy white with a healthy tint of pink on her cheeks. There was a light dusting of freckles across her small, straight nose, which made her look younger than he imagined she was. Her eyes were a light shade of green, but he could see a few gold flecks in her irises.
As beautiful as her eyes were, it was her mouth that kept drawing Quin’s gaze. Her lips were full and had a natural red tint, and all Quin wanted was to see her smile.
Right now she looked hesitant. It dawned on Quin that his question had been a little blunt and that was why Pierson and Grayson were still scowling at him. He tried to rephrase the question a little more tactfully.
“Were you in a car accident, Evana?” Quin questioned.
“No,” she replied and hesitated as she leaned forward and rubbed her calf. “It’s not a very interesting story, though. I don’t want to bore you.”
Quin looked at his brothers and back to her. Why does she think she’s boring?
Before he could say something that would probably be tactless, Pierson said gently, “Quin didn’t ask because we want an exciting story, Evana. We want to make sure you’re okay.”
Evana’s first response was to blush furiously. Quin wondered about that, too. “Well, to cut a long story short, I was born with congenital hip dysplasia.” She gestured down her leg. “My lower leg is bowed more than normal. It’s also about a centimeter shorter than the left, though that’s better than the two and a half centimeters’ difference when I was a kid. The brace and bars help correct that, and the boot gives it some support. Sometimes I wonder if it’s helped, though. I’ve still had a lot of surgery.”
“How many operations have you had?” Gray asked.
“Um.” She paused and looked like she was searching her memory. “About ten. I spent nearly five months in plaster from just below my ribs to my ankles with my legs out wide like a frog’s. My mom said the cast was called a hip spica. And the second lot of plaster was from the top of my thighs to my ankles with a stick between my thighs just above my knees to keep them apart. Apparently that was so my hip socket had a chance to grow a little more, but it wasn’t enough. The surgeon eventually had to do more surgery to make me one.
“That was major surgery and I ended up in bed in traction for six weeks and in a wheelchair for a while. I couldn’t go to school for a whole semester.”
“Shit, that must have been rough for a kid,” Quin said.
“No, the operations I could handle fine. Thanks to my orthopedic surgeon, I may be able to keep my own hip joint for the next twenty years or more, though nothing’s ever certain. I wouldn’t even be able to walk if it wasn’t for my surgeon.”
“Why not?” Quin asked.
“I didn’t have a formed hip socket. My surgeon made me a hip socket and put my femur back into place.”
Quin was still curious, but Eva looked down at her coffee mug and said, “I’ve talked so much about myself.”
“Not at all, sugar,” Gray said.
“But we still have so many questions,” Pierson said in a teasing tone.
Quin stood, realizing that they probably had asked her more than enough. He didn’t want her to feel overwhelmed by them, but he didn’t want her to go just yet. “We’ve finished for the day. Why don’t you let us drive you to wherever you’re staying?”
“Oh, thanks, but it’s not that far.”
“Are you staying at the motel, sugar?” Grayson asked.
“Yes. I plan on being in Slick Rock about two weeks.” Evana leaned over to pull the tape from her lower leg.
“Let me do that, honey. I don’t want it to start hurting you again.” Quin began to peel the tape off her smooth skin. “We can’t let you walk back to the motel by yourself, Evana. It’ll be dark before you make it back.”
“Oh!” She turned toward the window behind her. “I hadn’t realized how late it was. Could you please hand me my boot?”
Quin walked over to the other
desk, picked up her leg brace, and then handed Evana the boot and brace. He watched as she pulled her sock on and then her boot with the metal bars connected just before the heel. She opened the Velcro, placed the cuff below her knee, and secured it into place.
“What is the brace designed to do?” Pierson queried.
“Um, well, as I said, my right lower leg is too bowed. So the caliper helps keep it straighter and support and strengthen my muscles, and the boot is supposed to help keep my right foot from turning in.”
“It always amazes me what specialists can do,” Gray stated as he collected the empty mugs and placed them on the tray.
Quin knew that there was a lot more to it than Evana had explained, but she had given them the basics. He wondered how such a little thing had endured so much pain, but even as he thought that, he thought about all the other kids suffering in hospitals from life-threatening illnesses. At least Evana’s condition had been corrected as she grew. A lot of other kids didn’t have that kind of chance.
“Are you hungry, Evana?” Quin inquired as he led the way out of the workshop.
“Yes. It feels like I haven’t eaten for hours.”
“Come to the diner and have dinner with us,” he suggested and guided her outside. He watched her nibble on her lip as she decided what she wanted to do and then she looked up at him with a small smile.
“I’ll have dinner with you all on one condition.”
“What’s that, sugar?” Gray asked after pulling down the large roller doors to the shop and locking them.
“You let me pay. I want to thank you all for looking after me and helping me when I was in pain.”
Quin looked at his brothers and gave them a wink when Evana looked away. If she wanted to pay for their meal, then he would let her. He didn’t think she would accept their offer to dine with them if they refused.
“Okay, but the next meal is on us,” Quin replied.
“Thank you.”
Quin noticed that she didn’t question the idea of there being a next meal. That seemed like a promising sign.
He took Evana’s elbow and guided her toward his truck, and then he gripped her waist and lifted her up into the front before closing the door and skirting around to the driver’s seat. She was buckling her seat belt as he got in. Gray and Pierson got in the back.
“What are you going to do while you’re here, Evana?” Pierson queried as Quin started the engine and backed out of the lot.
“Please call me Eva. Most everybody does.”
“Eva,” Grayson repeated. “That’s a lovely name.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Quin saw her duck her head at the compliment. “I want to take a river tour, and I also want to sample the day spa. Other than that I have no firm plans.”
“We could show you some of the sights if you’d like,” Gray suggested, and Quin held his breath while he awaited her reply.
“You’ve already done so much for me. I wouldn’t want to be a nuisance.”
“You could never be that, honey.” Quin glanced her way before turning his eyes back to the road. “Besides, we haven’t been in town long ourselves and we want to explore more of the attractions.”
“When had you planned to do the river cruise, Eva?” Pierson turned toward her.
“Um, on the weekend.” She twisted in her seat to look at Pierson. “I wanted to have the experience when there were more people about. There is nothing worse than going somewhere touristy and being one of only a few people exploring. I love watching other people’s reactions, too.”
“We’ve been meaning to take that river cruise,” Quin said as he pulled the truck into a parking space near the diner. “If you would like, we would love to come with you.”
Quin switched off the ignition and turned to face her. She was raking her top teeth over her lower lip, and the urge to take her face between his hands and soothe her sensitive flesh with his tongue was nearly overwhelming. She looked adorable in her uncertainty, and he hoped she would take him up on his offer. He had never been drawn to a woman the way he was to Eva. It didn’t matter to him that she wore a leg brace or had a slight limp. She was the sexiest woman he had ever seen.
She seemed like such a sweet, caring person, and although she looked uncertain and a little shy at times, he thought maybe deep down inside she could be feisty and passionate. The way she had insisted on paying for dinner for them helping her in her time of need showed him she wasn’t selfish and she would probably be one of the first people to show up if called on in a crisis.
“Um, are you sure you want to do that with me?”
“Why wouldn’t we want to, sugar?” Gray asked from the backseat.
“Well, most people don’t want to be seen near me, let alone go out with me.”
Quin bit back a curse. Eva looked so unsure and vulnerable. He wanted to rage at the people who had battered her self-confidence, but there was nothing he could do about her past.
But maybe he and his brothers could bolster her ego a little by spending as much time as they could with her over the next two weeks.
“We aren’t most people, honey. We would love to escort you around and show you the sights. Why don’t you think about it over dinner? Come on, let’s go inside. I’ll bet you’re hungry.”
Quin got out of the truck and waited for Eva on the pavement. Gray lifted her down, and Quin took her hand to lead her inside. He spotted a few of his friends and waved but didn’t want to get into a conversation with them. He wanted some privacy while he got to know Evana Woodridge.
After seating her in the booth, he slid in on one side while Gray moved in from the other. She smiled at them all and picked up the plastic menu.
“All right, boys, what will you have?” The cheeky, shy smile on her face seemed to light her up from the inside. Evana practically glowed with life and vitality, which made her eyes sparkle. He could nearly imagine what she would look like in the throes of passion.
Quin shifted in his seat, pushing his lascivious thoughts aside, and concentrated on the woman next to him. A light, citrusy fragrance with a hint of vanilla assailed his nostrils. She smelled so nice, he wanted to lean down, place his nose against the skin of her neck, and inhale deeply.
“I’ll just have the special, sugar,” Gray ordered.
“What is the special?”
A waitress was just coming to their table for their order and heard Evana’s question. “Today’s special is meatloaf and gravy with vegetables.”
“Make those two specials,” Eva said.
After they’d given their orders and the waitress left, Quin sat back against the seat and studied Eva. From what he had seen so far, she was a complex woman, shy but sassy, with moments of bravado that couldn’t hide her true vulnerability. Eva was the sweetest woman he had ever met.
“Where are you from, Eva?” Pierson questioned.
“Sheridan, Wyoming.”
“That’s quite a distance. You didn’t drive all that way in one day, did you?” Quin questioned.
“No,” she sighed. “I thought about it but knew it would be too much of a strain, so I did it in two days. But it didn’t seem to make much difference.”
“What do you mean, sugar?” Grayson picked up the glass of soda the waitress had placed on the table moments before.
“I have to be careful with the amount of time I spend inactive. I thought if I drove here in two days rather than one, I wouldn’t suffer any cramping.” Eva shrugged.
“What do you do for a living, darlin’?” Pierson leaned forward to see her around Gray.
“I’m a stockbroker. Or I was.”
“Was?” Quin raised an eyebrow curiously.
“Yeah, I’ve just been retrenched.”
“Shit, the economy is really struggling worldwide. So many people are suffering because the governments of their countries didn’t make the right choices.”
“Yes, it’s pretty bad. I’m one of the lucky ones. I don’t have a family to support.”
<
br /> “I’m sure you’ll get a job with another stockbrokerage if that’s what you want, Eva.”
“That’s another issue.” Eva ran her finger over the rim of her glass. “I’m not sure I want to do that anymore. I didn’t realize how stressed out I was until I was forced to take a sabbatical. Handling other people’s money and trying to do the best for them in the market in this economic climate is just too much to deal with.” She sighed. “But I’m not really sure what I want to do. I think I want something simpler and less stressful. Plus, I want to find a place of my own. My mom just remarried, and even though she and her new husband, Jack, are currently traveling, I want to give them time alone.”
“I’m betting your mom loves having you around,” Quin said with a smile.
“Yes, she does, but it’s time I moved out on my own. I’ve depended on her long enough. She’s worked hard her whole life, taking on two jobs to pay medical expenses and keeping a roof over our heads. It’s more than time that I learned to stand on my own two feet.”
“Are you going to live near your mother, Eva?”
“No!” Eva almost shouted her answer, and then her cheeks turned pink and she lowered her eyes.
Quin was taken aback at her reply. He had thought he’d almost seen fear in her eyes before she lowered them to the table. Opening his mouth, about to ask her what she was scared of, he closed it again when the waitress appeared with their meals. Once she left again, Eva looked at him and then his brothers.
“Sorry. I don’t know what got into me.”
Quin didn’t believe her. The whole time she’d been talking to them, she seemed slightly evasive. He thought she was telling the truth about coming from Sheridan and looking for a chance to start over. What he doubted was the reason why.
What are you hiding, Eva?
He met her eyes for an instant, and then Eva looked away. Quin kept gazing at her, but it seemed like the subject was closed.
