“Yep,” Earl said and leaned in for another kiss. “Your kissing is improving.”
“Ha.” Eva cupped his face and looked into his eyes. “Your beard is annoying. Shave it off. Still looking?”
“Nope, gone.” Earl chuckled. “I'm keeping my beard. It makes me look professorial.”
“Makes you look like someone who doesn't want to shave,” Eva teased.
“Leave my beard alone. So, why are you walking?”
“Don’t know why, but Aresti refused to start.” Eva gazed into her driveway at the aforementioned vehicle. “I’m hot, I’m tired, and my gorgeous girl is home without me.”
“Was she babysitting?”
“She was till the morning, when Elena picked up Rebecca.”
“So the love of your life is home alone, just waiting for you? Bet she had other plans.”
Eva laughed and gently slapped him on the shoulder. “Good thing the love of my life isn't here to hear you. Are you free tonight?”
“Let me check my dancing card.” Earl tapped his bearded chin in thought, much to Eva's amusement. “Why, yes. I am free. Are we going out?”
“No, you're coming to dinner.”
“Are you cooking? I'm fully booked if you're cooking.”
“Oh, funny man.” Eva threaded her arm around his bicep, and they walked the short distance to her house. “No, we need to talk about a boyfriend for Zoe.”
“All right. Why?”
“We’re getting more and more invites to attend functions, and with Zoe’s presence at the gallery, she needs one.”
“How do you feel about it?”
“I would rather pluck out my eyes than see Zoe with a man,” Eva admitted. “Even if that man is a pretend boyfriend.”
“Have you talked about this with Zoe?”
Eva pursed her lips. “I have, and she has resisted.”
“But?”
“As much as I hate this, the work she does at the art gallery will mean she will have to attend functions. You know how those places are. If she doesn’t have an escort, it looks odd.
“Hmm, I know,” Earl replied. “Patrick is in the same boat. He’s going to be moving to the same school as me, and he will need a girlfriend for the many and varied lovely functions we need to attend.”
“I hate this charade,” Eva said in exasperation.
“I know.” Earl put his arm around Eva and kissed the top of her head. “What about Patrick and Zoe?”
Eva smiled despite her frustration at the current predicament she found herself in. “How serious are you about this boy?”
“Very serious.”
“Do you think he will want to be Zoe’s pretend boyfriend?” Eva would have laughed at the stupidity of the situation, but couldn’t shake the unease she felt. The thought that Zoe was going to be kissed by someone other than herself made her stomach churn.
“He will have to be. He needs Zoe too.”
“Alright, boyfriend, bring Patrick over for dinner.”
“It's a date, m'lady.” Earl bowed and tipped his imaginary hat to her. He straightened, gave Eva a quick kiss on the cheek, and walked back to his adjoining house.
“I do love that man, but he must shave off that terrible beard,” Eva mumbled. “I hate beards.”
Eva made her way up the paved walkway to the stairs. She entered to find the house unusually quiet. She put her bag down and took off her hat. She walked down the hallway and into the living room. Her eye caught the telegram on the table. She picked it up and scowled. Come on, Zoe. How many more of these are you going to ignore?
Need you to come to Greece. Urgent matter to clear up Zoe or else the State will own everything.
Zoe’s inheritance. The government’s new laws collided with Zoe’s stubbornness. At the moment Zoe’s legendary stubbornness was winning.
This is going to change. Determined she was going to sort this out today, Eva went looking for Zoe in the kitchen only to find it empty. The back door was open, and she caught sight of Zoe out in the garden.
Zoe got up from where she was kneeling and took off her hat. Placing a mud-covered hand on her back, she straightened from weeding the garden and wiped the sweat from her brow. She was dressed in one of Eva's shirts, which hung long and covered her white shorts.
“She does have a very cute behind,” Eva said and chuckled. Ourania jumped onto the counter and rubbed up against Eva. “Don't you think so, Ourania?” She picked the cat up and gave her a cuddle. “Time for another cuddle.” She put Ourania down on the counter.
She washed her hands and picked up a watermelon near the new icebox. She quickly cut into it and scooped it out.
“Zoe!”
Zoe turned and grinned. Eva came down the stairs with the cut up watermelon in a bowl.
“Just in time.” Zoe greeted her with a kiss. “Ooh, watermelon.”
“So, are you going to come inside or wait until you get sun stroke?”
Zoe grinned as she ate the watermelon, the juice flowing down her chin. “Sun stroke sounds nice. Then you’ll have to give me some tender loving care.”
“I'll give you that even if you don't have sun stroke.” Eva put her arms around Zoe.
“I know.” Zoe waggled her eyebrows.
Eva laughed. “Let me go and change. I have to tell you what happened today.”
“Busy?”
“Very busy.”
“I'll finish up here.”
Eva gave Zoe a quick kiss before she turned to go back inside. She nearly stumbled over the water hose and got an idea as she bent down to coil it up. She looked back at Zoe, grinned, and turned on the water. She crept to the kneeling Zoe and put the hose down the back of her shirt.
Zoe yelped in alarm and shot up. “Ugh!”
Eva squealed. She ran for the stairs to escape and tripped on the hose.
Zoe caught her and brought her down on the grass. “You are going to pay for that, Miss Eva.”
“Oh, no. Have mercy on me,” Eva beseeched.
Zoe, dripping wet, laughed, brought the hose closer, and put it under Eva's shirt.
Eva yelped and tried to fend off Zoe's hands and the hose. “I surrender.”
“Okay, you live to fight another day.” Zoe threw the hose into the tomato patch.
“Oh, Zoe, I'm wet.”
Zoe leered at her and then giggled.
They lay on the wet grass, staring up at the blue cloudless sky, their fingers interlocked.
Eva turned and smiled at Zoe, who wore a smile that she could never tire of seeing. “We need to get up and get changed.”
“We do.”
Eva nodded and remained where she was.
“You're going to catch a cold if you don't.”
“You don't catch colds like that.”
“You do.” Zoe sat up and gazed down at Eva. “Come on, remember the last cold you had...”
“That wasn't a cold. It was bronchitis.” Eva sat up and watched Zoe get up from the grass and turned to pick up the hose. Her shorts were transparent from the wet.
“Evy, stop looking at my ass and get up.”
“Why? I like the view from here.”
“You are going to catch a cold sitting on the damp grass and in those clothes.”
Eva took Zoe’s hand and brought her back down on the grass. “Zoe.” Eva hesitated. “You received another telegram.”
“I did. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“We have to.”
“No, I don’t want to talk about it. It’s my inheritance, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Eva sighed. “But—”
“But nothing. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Alright,” Eva said, already resigned to the fact Zoe was not going to change her mind. “There’s something else we need to talk about.”
“What?” Zoe asked a little tersely.
“I asked Earl to come to dinner and bring Patrick with him,” Eva said and steeled herself for the explosion. “Earl and I thought
that Patrick would be a good boy—”
“What?” Zoe angrily asked and stood up.
“You need a boyfriend.” Eva finally said the words she dreaded saying to Zoe, knowing how emotional Zoe was about the issue.
“No.” Zoe shook her head. “There is no way on God's green earth I'm going to have a boyfriend to please people, or God for that matter, who I don’t particular like.”
“Zoe—”
“No,” Zoe replied. “I will not do that.”
Eva sighed. “You know why we have to do it.”
“I know why, but I don't want to. Not now, not ever. I understand why you have to be with Earl, and I fully support that. I just don't like it.” Zoe looked up and met Eva's gaze. “I don't like seeing you kiss Earl, and he acts like you're his trophy.”
“He doesn't act that way, love.”
“I know it's not the real Earl, but that's how it looks. It's like, 'look at my beautiful girlfriend.’ What rot.”
“You know Earl needs his school to know he is a man with a girlfriend.”
“I know.”
“People—”
“All those people,” Zoe punctuated the air with her hands at the imaginary people, “can kiss my behind if they think I'm going to kiss some boy because they want me to.”
Eva knew that Zoe was now fully steamed and anything she said was going to get her into trouble, or more to the point, get her into even more trouble than she was in.
“Zoe, Patrick is—”
“I don't believe you are begging me to go kiss a boy.”
“Oh, love.” Eva put her arm around Zoe's shoulders and kissed her cheek. “I'm not trying to do that. I would rather pluck out my eyes than see you with anyone else.”
“Welcome to my life.” Zoe sighed. “Every time Earl kisses you, I just feel like screaming.”
“I don't enjoy it.”
“I know you don't, but I can't help myself.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.” Zoe shook her head. “You don’t know what it’s like. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve wanted to hold you like he does in public. He kisses you, Evy, and that just infuriates me.” She balled her fists. “I’m going inside before I say anything else that will hurt you. I’m going to change since we’re having company.”
“Alright.”
Zoe left Eva sitting on the wet grass and wondering how it all got out of control. Well handled, Eva. Well handled. She looked back at the house and sighed. She would just let Zoe cool down before she went in.
Chapter Thirteen
Eva scowled in the darkness as she sat under the tree in their backyard. She braced her back against the tree trunk, trying to figure out how the conversation with Zoe had gone terribly wrong. She hated fighting, hated the feeling that she had lost control, and what was worse, she had started it. She knew that Zoe despised the idea of what she called cover-up boyfriends. She wasn't thrilled with the idea but she was used to it.
She shook her head. Used to it. What an ugly thing to get used to. Used to lying. Zoe said I couldn't lie very well, but she's wrong. I do it every day. I'm getting quite good at it. She sighed in frustration. Yes, dummy, you tell Zoe that you are used to it. She would really like that.
How did you manage to really make this even worse than it is? Stupid, Eva. Stupid. You know how she feels about it. Yet you blurt out something so stupid...”
Zoe came out of the living room and walked into the kitchen hoping Eva was there, but she wasn't. “Yeah, well, what do you expect? You yell at her and then you run off. Brilliant work, genius.”
She noticed the door to the yard was open and stood at the threshold. She could make out Eva's very distinctive form under the tree.
“I bet I know what she's doing, Ourania,” Zoe said to the cat, who had followed her from the living room and was brushing up against her leg. She stepped out on the veranda and down the steps.
“Would you like some company?” She waited for Eva to acknowledge her.
Eva looked up.
“I'm sorry...,” they said in unison and stopped when they realized they were both apologizing.
Eva beckoned for Zoe to sit with her. Zoe sat in between Eva's legs and leaned back using Eva as a cushion. She closed her eyes when Eva wrapped her arms around her waist.
“You first,” Zoe said and smiled.
“Me first,” Eva quipped, earning herself a gentle tap on the leg. “I'm sorry. I'm a stupid woman. I didn't intend to tell you that way.”
“Is there a way to tell your wife that she should have a boyfriend?”
“I don't know, but I should have been more sensitive, more aware...”
“I still would have blown up like I did. I'm sorry I did that. I hate fighting.”
“Me too.”
“I think we should be mad at the idiot people. They are the ones who want me to have a boyfriend.”
“I don't know.” Eva brushed Zoe's hair away from her neck and kissed her. “I don't know. All I know is I hate fighting.”
“You're not very good at it.”
“I'm good at lying.”
“What?” Zoe half turned to see Eva's face and noticed her unshed tears. “What?” She moved completely around and held Eva's hand. “What did you say?”
“I said I've become good at lying.”
“Who said that?”
“You did.”
“When did I say that?”
“You said that I was convincing in showing people that I loved Earl.”
“Yes, to people that don't know you. You are not a very good liar. Your face gives it away.”
“How?”
“Your eyebrow twitches,” Zoe said. “You have a very expressive face.”
“My eyebrow twitches?”
“Yes.” Zoe traced the dark eyebrow. They gazed at each other, and Zoe leaned in for a kiss. “You are not a good liar. You have never been a good liar. I have no idea how you could fool anyone who truly knew you.”
“Fooled you in Larissa.”
“No, you didn’t. I saw past that cold bitch routine even back then. Trust me, if I had known what I know now, there is no way you would have fooled me even for a second.”
“So I'm a lousy liar but good at convincing people.”
“Not even that. Earl does a better job at convincing people you two are together. He's the one that initiates all the touching and the kissing.” Eva blinked in surprise, much to Zoe's amusement. “I pay attention. You are just following Earl's lead. That's what I realized when I was thinking about our fight. You don't initiate. You follow.”
“I never thought about it.”
“You don't think about that. Remember how you told me that you were used to it?”
Eva rolled her eyes. “Yes.”
“You are used to it. You are used to the lie you have to live, but that doesn't mean you are good at it. I wouldn't care if I told the world how I feel about you, but I would like to tell the world to go to hell.”
“You have told the world to go to hell.” Eva smiled. “You rode Mabel because it wasn't a ladylike thing to do. You enjoy shocking people like that lady in the department store when you were shopping last Christmas.”
Zoe giggled at the memory of when she played with the saleslady. “I did enjoy that.”
“There's the difference. I don't do that. You do.”
“You tell the world to go to hell by surviving what they did to you,” Zoe said, quietly. “Every day you are alive, you tell them to go to hell.”
“That’s a lot of telling off,” Eva joked, which made Zoe smile.
Zoe turned to sit on Eva's lap and rested her head on Eva's shoulder. “Larissa.”
“Hm,” Eva said and waited.
“There isn’t much I can do. I’m here and they are over there.”
“Yes, but you can go over there.”
“Really?” Zoe gave Eva a dubious glance. “How do you think that could happen?”
“It’s easy e
nough to do, love. There are ships,” Eva teased.
“Right.”
“Zoe, seriously now, you can’t let your inheritance just disappear.”
“It doesn’t matter to me.” Zoe shrugged.
“You really don’t want to go and claim what’s yours?”
“No.”
Eva sighed. “Why don’t you want to go?”
“I won’t go without you.”
“Who said you would be going alone?”
“I said it.”
“I’ll be with you.”
“No.” Zoe shook her head. “I’m not going to drag you to Greece for some bricks and some dirt.”
“You can’t drag me,” Eva teased, earning herself a very irate look. “Come on now, Zoe...”
Zoe took Eva’s hand and held it for a moment before she looked up. “It will tear you apart to go back to that place. It will tear me apart to know that I did that to you.”
“It won’t tear me apart.”
Zoe grunted. “Larissa nearly killed you.”
“You were also in the warzone,” Eva gently reminded her.
“I lived there.”
Eva sat quietly for a moment. “I fell in love and was reborn there. It’s not all horrible memories. It's not my favorite place, but I can bear it for a few days.”
Zoe frowned. “You would endure it for a few days?”
“Yes. I endured it for three years. I think I can manage three days. I also think falling in love trumps getting shot.” Eva kissed Zoe.
Zoe remained stone-faced. “Evy, I don’t—”
“Zoe, this is your inheritance. You can’t disrespect your family’s memory this way. Not because you can't leave me or you think I can't bear it for a few days. Your family will always be important whether they are alive or dead.”
Zoe cupped Eva’s face in her hands and gazed at her. “You are my family. They are no longer around, but you are right here.”
“They will always be around. Always. Your parents, your brothers; they will always be in your heart and in your mind.” Eva sighed. “I’m alive. You see me every day, but they are not. What’s left is their gift to you. You can’t disrespect their memory. It’s not right.”
Hidden Truths (Intertwined Souls Series Book 3) Page 8
