Finding Eva (Highland Creek Series) (30 page)

Eva knew her time was done the next afternoon when Gwen came by to see her. Eva was hoping for someone to commiserate with her, but of course Gwen had a different idea.

“Tell me the whole story.” Gwen sat there in the living room with a margarita in her hand, waiting patiently for Eva to begin talking. Eva didn’t want to say anything, but once she started talking, she didn’t stop. She went through what she overheard at the party, most of which Gwen already knew, and the whole argument they had when he saw she was packing. Gwen was quiet throughout most of Eva’s story, pausing every once in a while to ask a question or get clarification, but she sat there while Eva purged her soul.

“So I have a couple of things, but let me ask you a couple of questions. Are you sure they were talking about you?” Eva had thought about this during the long drive, when all the doubts about her decision kept running on repeat, so she wasn’t surprised Gwen brought it up as well.

“Gwen, I thought about it, and there is really no other explanation. Who else would he be talking about? You have met his siblings; no one else is having a ‘summer fling.’ The only one who he could have been talking about was his youngest sister, but she has known the guy forever. Besides, why would he be talking about someone else like that?”

“I don’t know,” Gwen answered honestly, “but I just think something isn’t adding up. I mean, you guys were doing so great, I was jealous given my own situation. But it was like an amazing relationship, and from what you said he talked about it like you were nothing.”

“I know what I heard,” Eva said, getting defensive. Was Gwen trying to call her a liar?

“I know that,” Gwen said placating, “but I am just saying that unless you ask him yourself, you may not know the whole story.”

“Why would I ask him? We have nothing to say to each other anymore. Plus, you didn’t see him with Marcia today; she kissed him when they left the café.”

“I have no explanation for that other than I know he has made it very clear he doesn’t want to be with her. All I know that he considers her a crazy stalker and had been complaining to Conner that all he wanted was for her to leave him alone.”

“Well, he wasn’t exactly fighting her off with a stick.” Eva knew she was being whiny, and she hated whiny.

This had been the worst summer of her life; she just wanted to hit rewind and never know about the shit that went down with her mother. She would still be living her boring existence, but at least she wouldn’t hurt like this. Whoever said it was better to have loved and lost had clearly never had their heart broken.

“Oh, honey.” Gwen hugged her. “You have just been through it. Well look…” she changed gears “…you can’t change anything tonight. I still think you should talk to him, but I am going to leave it alone for right now. Sit here and drink your margaritas and let me commiserate with you. We can make decisions about houses and work and men some other time, because if we play our cards right, you will be too damn hung over to care tomorrow.”

They drank and bashed men, something that they hadn’t done in a while. Gwen was true to her word, sticking through until the next day when she went home to do some lesson planning for the next school year. There was one thing Gwen lied about. Eva wasn’t too hung over to care the next day. She lay in her room with the shades drawn to keep the light out, and tried to formulate a plan that would help her get over him. The guy who she didn’t know three months ago had suddenly become too important to let go, and her life stretched out as this bleak existence.

She worked hard over the next week to prepare for school, but thoughts of Aaron snuck in at the weirdest times. When she was cooking she would remember the fun times that they had eating together. When she was showering, she couldn’t help but remember the hot shower sex they had the night after they got together for the first time.

And then there were the phone calls. If he wasn’t calling her, he was texting her, asking her to call him back so he could explain about Marcia. He had no clue that Marcia was the least of his worries; she wanted to know about the summer fling comment. Why work so hard to get back your fling, why couldn’t he just leave her the hell alone? But she was too scared to ask him, scared that she wouldn’t be enough for him, like she wasn’t enough for her mom. About a week after she was home, when the calls came less and less, she decided fuck him, and fuck Highland Creek; she had nothing but problems since she had been to that crazy ass town.

Three Weeks Later

T
he only thing Eva could figure was that she worked on auto pilot for the last three weeks. She had tried to move on after she came back, but she wasn’t eating or sleeping like she knew she should. She told herself it wasn’t a problem, but she couldn’t deny it any longer when she tried on her clothes for school and they were all too big.
Damn
, she thought as she looked in the mirror after trying on another skirt that looked like it was hanging off her,
I got on Gwen for losing all that weight with Nick and now look at me.

“Pot, meet kettle,” she muttered as she took the skirt off angrily. She threw it down on the ground, looking at the clothes that lay scattered around her room and looked like the mess that continued to be her life. Before the summer, she had it good. But all that came crashing down with a couple of hurtful words and misplaced loyalty. Eva didn’t know how to get back what she had before the summer, so she did the best thing she could do by shouldering through the pain. It would be really hard to work the first week of school, when the kids came back excited and ready to start a new year. She felt like the grim reaper at a preschool picnic, all moody bitch in the face of sunshine and roses.
Oh well
, she thought as she frantically searched for something to fit, putting clothes shopping on her list of things to do this weekend.

Not that it should have mattered, but she knew the reason why she was more upset today was the phone call she received yesterday from Mary telling her all her funds were clear and should be deposited into her bank account within the next ten business days. She no longer viewed the money as a half-assed apology from her mother, but she couldn’t deny that after she had the money she would have no more reason to have anything to do with Aaron.
Aaron
, she thought, rubbing her chest above her heart as she had been prone to do when she thought of him, as though she could wish away the seemingly physical pain from her broken heart. After the first week he stopped calling and texting several times a day, and the last text she got from him was last night when he asked if she spoke to Mary. She ignored him, she always did, but she was feeling less righteous about her decision as time went on.

Maybe she should have asked him about the conversation as Gwen suggested, but she didn’t want to open herself up to more heartache and rejection if he told her she was right. It was better to let sleeping dogs lie despite the pain that she felt through her pores. Every day was a struggle, and her only comfort was the fact that it couldn’t get any worse than it was now. So she found a dress, something she had stashed in the back of her closet from years past, pasted a smile on her face, and ventured out for her first day of the new school year.

“… and make sure you read pages 1-15 tonight. You may get a quiz tomorrow,” Eva yelled above the bustle of movement as the kids left for the day. She smiled as she heard grumblings of “can you believe this,” and “I can’t believe we have homework on the first day” figuring her job was done for the day. She knew Gwen was going to be coming in any minute inviting her to dinner. It was a tradition that they always went out for drinks on the first day of school, and something that she wasn’t going to be able to back out of even if she didn’t feel like seeing people.

“You coming?” Gwen popped her head in the door looking her over. She knew Gwen was worried about her, she had told her repeatedly over the last two weeks, and it was getting on her nerves. She tried to give Gwen space when she was going through all her stuff with Nick, was it too much to ask for the same consideration?

“Of course.” Eva smiled. “How was your first day?” she asked as she gathered up her purse to walk out with Gwen.

“Same old, same old. They don’t want to learn math, I have to teach them, so we are adversaries from the beginning. That’s ok, though, I will get them,” she spoke with authority. She was right. Gwen always had a way of making her students love her and like math by the time it was all said and done. Eva didn’t know how she did it, but sometimes she called her the math whisperer.

“I’m sure you’ll get ’em. I, on the other hand, earned my well-deserved reputation by giving reading on the first night.”

“Militant Matthews strikes again!” Eva laughed at the nickname one of the students gave her years ago that stuck, despite her best effort to get rid of it. It wasn’t her fault that she demanded excellence, but they needed to learn English and she made no apologies about it. It was that same take no prisoners attitude that prompted her to go to her mother’s house despite her original misgivings, get into a relationship with Aaron, and end it just as quickly when she felt as though she needed to.

“Whatever, let’s just go eat.”

By nature, teachers tended to be a loud bunch, add in a bunch of alcohol and a first day high and they were especially loud.

“So then the asshole asks me if he can call me Mommy,” Sarah, one of the younger teachers well-known for her sexual escapades was saying. “I was like, what the fuck is this, Oedipus?!” The table laughed when she continued, “Then he told me Oedipus was his hero. I got my naked ass out of his bed and told him I don’t do threesomes. He comes running after me, dick waving like a flag, asking who was in the bed with us.”

“What did you say?” Eva was fascinated. Sarah always found herself in the weirdest sexual relationships.

“Your mama.” Best. Decision. Ever. If you needed a pick me up, Sarah always had a crazy sex story. “So needless to say, there will be no repeat performance from him. His dick was so small I had to fake it the first time. I have vibrators that come with more than he was packing.”

“You’re crazy as hell.” Mark hugged her neck, kissing her on the forehead. “But that is why we ask you to come.”

“I have my uses.”

“Did you do anything else this summer? Besides avoid weird mommy sex?” This was from Mark, who tended to be the unofficial conversation filler of the group.

“Just the cruise. Seven days of fun in the sun with my siblings and parents. We made it through without killing one another, which is a real accomplishment if you ask me.” Sarah’s family was a bit crazy, part of the reason why she was the way she was, so Eva had no doubt that a cruise with them was a true exercise in patience. “What about you, Marky Mark?”

“Staycation with the kids. Can’t beat it. Sometimes the best thing you can do is nothing, and the kids really needed the recharge.”

They turned to Eva and Gwen, but neither really wanted to share their thrilling summer vacation. Eva finally decided to speak, hoping to cover the awkward silence that had fallen during the conversation.

“Well, you know I had to go down and settle all that stuff with my mom’s estate …”

“How was that?” Sarah asked curiously, “Your guard dog here…” she gestured to Gwen “…wouldn’t let anyone near you.”

“It was good. I was able to find out her reasoning, which I really don’t want to get into now.” Eva tried to stop the questions she read in their eyes. “But just know all is well that ends well.”

“Well, what’s going on with the hottie you texted me about?” Damn it. She forgot that she had texted Sarah weeks ago about Aaron when she texted to see how everything was going. It was so brief an exchange, five texts at the most, which she had forgotten about it.

“I met him, we had hot sex for weeks, and then it was over.”

“Wham, bam, thank you, Ma’am?”

“Not quite. It was more of a summer fling. Burned hot for weeks but died down toward the end.”

“Gotcha.” She nodded and Eva felt like the biggest damn liar.

She was saved from having to say anything else when Gwen interjected, “I think I am going to let Nick move back in.”