Protecting Her Heart (Seals Security Book 3) (19 page)

“I am quite sure that he would change his mind if he knew it meant losing you,” Eric said in a tight tone. Evie felt a blush stain her cheeks and she wanted to sink into the floor.
Did Eric know about them sleeping together?
Dear lord, she certainly hoped that wasn’t what he’d meant. She glanced at him, her body shifting as she tilted her head looking at him.

“We don’t like losing excellent employees,” Eric added, almost making Evie let out a sigh of relief. It wasn’t that he knew about her and Luke, but that he didn’t want them to lose a good employee.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Luke was quite adamant that he didn’t want me to work in the accounting department. I don’t think after that I would feel comfortable working there,” Evie said, hoping he wouldn’t push her on that because she didn’t know what she’d say. She couldn’t very well tell him that it would break her heart if she saw Luke with another woman.

“I still think it’s a mistake for you to leave. I know that Luke didn’t mean it the way you think he did. It was likely the fact that you straightened out his office life after he had a horrid time replacing Maria. Not what happened with your father’s embezzlement,” Eric informed her.

Evie stared at the floor for a moment before she looked up at Eric again, surprised to find that the usual embarrassment that statement caused didn’t come. Her father’s crimes weren’t her fault and she knew it. The support she’d discovered here had allowed her to realize that only petty people would try to punish her for something that wasn’t her fault and she wasn’t going to let those people get to her anymore. She couldn’t tell Eric all that or he’d press for a reason she was leaving and she didn’t want to give one. Eric eyed her with a frown, his look slightly thoughtful. She felt a little uncomfortable and her eyes darted around the room as she tried to get her bearings.

“I don’t know but I feel leaving is the right choice for me,” Evie finally managed to say, her voice firm, which surprised her because her insides were quivering so much she didn’t know how to handle it.

“Are you sure there isn’t something else going on, Evie. If you feel uncomfortable or—if you are frightened…” Eric was saying but she cut him off.

“No, it’s not anything like that. I love working here, it’s just that I feel I need to move on and find something in my field. That’s all it is.” Evie didn’t want anyone to think this was Luke’s fault because it wasn’t. It was hers because if she hadn’t fallen in love with him, it wouldn’t be an issue.

“If you’re sure. Can I ask why you aren’t giving this to Laney or Luke?” Eric said, holding up the letter of resignation she’d given him.

“I don’t want them to talk me out of it when I know it’s the right choice for me,” Evie said, her look pained. She didn’t want to go into details and she hoped he wouldn’t ask.

“I see,” he said, his brow shooting up and he seemed to consider her for a long moment before he spoke again. “I assume you will train your replacement?”

“Of course.”

“Very well then. I will hire someone and you can train them to make sure the transition is smooth,” Eric said and Evie felt relief flood her because he wasn’t going to try to convince her to stay or press her to explain. She had a feeling he suspected the real issue wasn’t her wanting to work as an accountant but was instead that she wanted to get away from Luke. Thankfully, he didn’t say anything and she was glad.

Rory lay the box down on the counter with a loud huff, making Evie glance at her. She was sitting on the floor unloading a box of pots into the cabinet. Her last day at Seals Security had been yesterday and they’d been moving their stuff over to the new apartment for a week. Evie was glad they’d been able to do it in stages instead of all in a single day like last time. They’d brought most of their stuff over in small loads over the past week leaving the kitchen and their beds to be carried over today.

“That’s the last one,” Rory huffed, wiping her brow.

“Okay, when I finish this one we will put up the beds we brought up so we can sleep tonight,” Evie said smiling.

“Sounds good. You are better with the kitchen stuff so I am not even going to offer to unload any of these,” Rory said, indicating the boxes stacked around the room on the counters and floor. Evie rolled her eyes because Rory had always given her hell for her overly organized kitchen but when they moved in together she’d realized she liked it.

“Fine, you could hand me things from the boxes to make it faster,” she suggested.

“Nah, I brought up the last of the boxes so you get to do all the work unloading them,” Rory said, a huge grin on her face. Evie stuck her tongue out at her and received an eye roll in return.

“Brat.”

“Yep. Want a water?” Rory asked, standing near the refrigerator with the door open.

“No,” Evie said, putting the last three pots into the cabinet. “Where did we put the box with the food? I’m starving and was thinking a few crackers would tide me over till dinner time.”

“I brought it up but I have no idea where I set it,” Rory said, glancing around the kitchen looking for the box they’d emptied the food into this morning as they packed up the last of the kitchen stuff and loaded it into the car.

Evie stood up and looked around too with a little sigh. She’d never find it in this mess, she realized glancing around the kitchen. Although they’d been moving things into the new apartment for the past week they hadn’t done much unpacking yet. Only the living room was unpacked and that was more because the stuff was too large for boxes than them actually unpacking it and setting it up.

She was glad they had nice neighbors because two guys who lived above them had helped them carry the furniture in the other night when they’d been struggling with the couch as they unloaded it from the moving trailer they’d rented. Tom and Rex were twins and they’d been returning from taking their girlfriends dinner at the bar they worked at. Seeing them nearly drop the couch while trying to get it over the curb, they’d offered to assist them. Evie had been grateful they happened along because her back had been screaming after loading all the stuff up.

She’d started on the kitchen first today because she knew they would need somewhere to make meals. They couldn’t eat out often or their savings would be eaten away while she looked for a job. Evie had enough for four months of rent and bills before she would be in trouble and by then she hoped to have found a job.

“Damn, I am really hungry and it’s only three fifteen,” Evie said, glancing at her watch.

“I’m hungry too. We could order Chinese food so we don’t have to finish the kitchen tonight,” Rory said, hopping up to sit on the counter, her legs swinging as she drank the water she’d pulled out of the fridge.

“I could go for some eggrolls,” Evie said, and her stomach chose that moment to rumble. Laughing, Rory pulled a menu from her back pocket and Evie raised a brow.

“How do you just happen to have a menu in your pocket?” she asked, watching as Rory grinned.

“I might have run down the street to the Chinese place a few minutes ago for a menu,” Rory said as she pulled her phone out.

“You brat. You planned to go get it even if I didn’t agree, didn’t you?”

“Hey, look, I just had a huge windfall and I deserve to celebrate even if I had to do it alone,” Rory muttered as she dialed.

“Rory, you’re a meany butt. You would have eaten that food right in front of me when I’m starving if I hadn’t agreed, wouldn’t you?” Evie shook her head at the smile she received from her friend.

“Yep,” Rory told her.

“Evil hussy. Order me three egg rolls and moo goo with rice and make sure they give us lots of soy sauce.”  Evie went back to unloading boxes as Rory placed their order.

When the food arrived they sat in the living room at the coffee table to eat it. After eating two of her egg rolls and half her moo goo, Evie leaned back into the couch, her head resting on the cushions. She stared up at the ceiling, her mind on the fact that yesterday had been the last day she would work for Seals and it saddened her. Laney and Tina had tried to convince her to stay but she’d refused.

Luke on the other hand hadn’t even seemed to care, which hurt her greatly. Evie had even allowed him to convince her to go home with him several times during the last two weeks she’d worked. That was why she had at least expected him to ask her to stay, but he had acted as if nothing was amiss. She ended up crying about it almost every night this week.

Two nights ago she’d left his place so upset she barely made it down to her almost empty apartment before falling onto her bed in a heap of sorrow. She’d cried for two hours because she’d known the minute she stepped out of the elevator after a long kiss goodbye that she wasn’t going to be able to handle another night with him. Not if she wanted to keep her sanity, because letting him go was the hardest thing she’d ever done.

Training her replacement the past two weeks had been bad enough. Thankfully Nancy, a middle-aged woman with a good head on her shoulders, had picked up the routine she had set up for Luke rather quickly. Evie was glad she wasn’t leaving him in a bind like he’d been in when she’d first taken the job. She wanted him to be happy and if his office wasn’t running smoothly he definitely wouldn’t be.

Evie stared at the little swirly pattern on the ceiling wondering why she cared so much about Luke’s happiness. He hadn’t cared about hers. Hell, he hadn’t even asked where she was working. Despite that, she would miss him but she knew leaving was the right choice for her. Rubbing her fully belly, she let out a little moan.

“I ate way too much,” she groaned, earning a snort from Rory who was still eating her noodles and chicken from the carton. She glanced at Rory and saw that she was rolling her eyes.
Brat, not everyone could eat like her. She was like a bottomless pit.

Evie went back to thinking, unwilling to start the food argument they always ended up in after she told Rory it was unfair she could eat like she did and not gain a pound. Mentally counting to ten, she remembered the happy grin Laney had given her when she’d told her that she could still go to girl’s night once a month. Monica had clapped and shouted
tequila shots here we come
and Rory was excited that their monthly outing with the ladies from Seals was still on.

Evie smiled a little at the memory of Rory’s happy dance when she’d told her. They’d both become close to the girls and were glad to know they could still be friends. Evie was happy about it for several reasons, the first of which was she would still be able to check on Luke. It was sad that she was so in love with him she’d take even that small bit of contact with him.

Damn, she was pathetic.

“What are you so pensive about?” Rory asked, making Evie glance at her with a raised brow. “Oh, right. It sucks that he didn’t even ask where you were going or if you’d stay in touch so the two of you could keep bumping uglies.”

“Really, Rory? That’s just wrong,” Evie said, rolling her eyes at her friend’s childish remark. Rory had been telling her all week that she should just tell the man she wanted to keep having sex. Rory told her he seemed to like it and that she should at least ask. Evie knew that she wouldn’t be able to handle it. Their last night together she’d almost told him she was in love with him while they lay in bed after two rounds of blissfully satisfying sex.

“Ugh, what else should I call it? Giving you the hot beef? The horizontal mambo? Boffing? Hiding the salami? Doing the nasty? Or how about banging or slipping you the meat sausage? Or—”

“Stop, just stop. How many slang terms do you know for sex anyway?” Evie couldn’t take anymore and she threw a fortune cookie at her head. It hit Rory square between the eyes before bouncing off and hitting the table. Evie watched it skid across the table onto the floor with amazement.
Wow, that hadn’t really been what she’d planned.

“Aw,” Rory said, rubbing her forehead

Evie couldn’t help the little snort of laughter that escaped her. Rory was glaring at her with a frown pulling at the corners of her mouth. She rubbed for a second longer before she spoke again.

“You didn’t have to throw things at me you know. Besides when you grow up like I did with very little supervision because your mother is passed out drunk in the bathroom, you learn a lot of unsavory things. I can’t help I was actually raised by hookers and drug dealers. I’m damned lucky I managed to become something other than a junkie or a street walker.” Rory made a face. Evie felt like a bitch for making Rory feel bad about her childhood. She’d been through a lot in her twenty-six years.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s not really something I am ashamed of or sad about. I struggled, sure, but it made me stronger and I know I’ll make it through anything. It’s who I am,” Rory said with a shrug as she got up to dump the empty cartons in the trash bag nearby. Since they hadn’t finished unpacking everything they had bags of newspaper everywhere.

“I still shouldn’t remind you about how much you went through. Next time one analogy will be enough or we could call it what it was.” Evie picked up the fallen cookie opening it.

“Okay, you have me curious, what would you have me call it?” Rory asked, her brow raising to her hairline.

“A two-month long sex fiesta,” Evie replied as she pulled out the fortune from the cookie before plopping a piece into her mouth.

“And that’s better than any of mine because?” Rory asked with a snicker.

“Because it sounds less perverse, that’s why,” Evie said, sticking her tongue out at Rory as she looked at her fortune.

Ha, yeah right!

Her dreams wouldn’t be coming true anytime soon, that was for damned sure, she thought as she tossed the offending fortune down on the table in disgust. If they were, she’d be in Luke’s bed with a diamond on her finger as they discussed wedding plans. She let out a high-pitched giggle at the thought, earning a raised brow and a questioning look from Rory.

“Stop looking at me like I’ve gone nuts, I was just thinking about the saying on the fortune and it struck me as funny.” Evie waved at it before standing up to stretch. “I need to get back to it or we’ll never get this place put together.”

“How is:
Your dreams are within your
reach
funny?” Rory asked her back as she headed to the kitchen. Evie just shrugged and ignored her as she went back to unpacking boxes and organizing the kitchen.

“Wow, I had no idea you were a natural blonde under all that red you were covering your hair with,” Rory teased, her eyes glowing with mischief.

“Ha ha, very funny. You’re the one who helped me dye it the last three times, you little brat,” Evie said as she toweled dry the hair she’d just stripped the red from. It had turned back to its natural shade of dirty blonde except for a few minor highlights.

“Yes but I never thought I would see the day when Evie Dalton stopped hiding from the world,” Rory uttered in a more serious tone.

“I know. That’s one good thing Luke showed me at least. I don’t have to be afraid of what my father did. Anyone who is going to hold it against me isn’t worth me getting upset over. It’s been years and I didn’t have anything to do with what that bastard did so I refuse to be a victim of people’s perceptions anymore,” Evie said firmly as she tossed the towel on the bed.

“I’ve been telling you that for years and still you didn’t get it but you sleep with your hot boss and all the sudden it’s an epiphany.” Rory rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at her.

“Maybe you weren’t saying it right.”

“Really? Telling you that people were assholes and you shouldn’t let them run your life wasn’t clear enough?” Rory asked, a dark glower on her face. She rolled onto her back after holding the glare another minute, kicking her feet up in the air.