Just a Kiss: The Bradfords, Book 5 (8 page)

“There’s something you should probably know about me,” he said.

“Yeah?”

“I’m a Christian.”

Her eyes widened slowly. “You’re a
what
?” Surprise made her voice squeak a little at the end.

“A Christian. Church every Sunday, daily Bible study, the whole thing.”

She stared at him.

“Eight years ago,” he added.

Her eyes were still wide, but her eyebrows pulled together. “You’re a…”

“Christian,” he filled in when she trailed off.

She finally shook her head, clearly stunned. “You’ve got to be frickin’ kidding me.”

He couldn’t help his grin as he turned and started for the front of the restaurant. That was exactly the reaction he’d wanted from her. Shock and awe—two of the best things to see on the face of your ex no matter who you were.

“See ya for our divorce on Friday, Eve,” he said as he pushed through the swinging door.

He resisted whistling or humming—that might be too smug—but he also didn’t think he’d be all that apologetic if she spent a few minutes thinking about what she’d given up all those years ago.

Eve turned slowly to face Monica.

“Did he say he’s a
Christian
?”

“More than once.” Monica was scraping burnt pieces of something into the garbage. Monica never burned stuff. More proof that the world was suddenly upside down.

“Holy crap,” Eve breathed.

“Literally,” Monica said dryly. When she turned back to Eve, she looked concerned. “So that’s…interesting.”

Eve ran a hand through her hair. Kevin Campbell was going to church and it wasn’t part of a ploy to get her to go out for a burger? Her entire life would be different now if he’d only done that fourteen years ago.

Of course, if she’d made some different choices back then, things would be different now too.

Eve tipped her head back, staring at the kitchen’s light fixtures…and beyond. She totally believed the Big Guy had a sense of humor. She just didn’t appreciate it when irony showed up in her own life.

“Yeah, really interesting.”

And a big fricking complication.

“Of course, you do realize how funny this is too, right?” Monica asked, a big grin stretching her mouth when Eve focused on her.

“Funny?” That was so not the right word.

“Sure. He’s the perfect, Bible-reading boy that you always wanted and now you’re the rebel-without-a-church that
he
always wanted.”

Dammit. Eve slumped onto one of the tall stools near the prep table. “Great. The guy he used to be is the one who walked away and
this
one is the one who’s going to be hanging around for six months making me want to kiss him and wash his socks.” She put her arms on the table and dropped her forehead onto them. “Frick.”

“You want to wash his socks?”

Eve could hear the eye-roll even if she couldn’t see it.

“Yeah. I do. Or I did.” She looked up. “When I saw him out front it took about five seconds for me to think
second chance
. I thought maybe we were gonna get a do-over.”

Monica leaned a hip against the counter and crossed her arms. “And now all those feelings are suddenly gone?”

Eve sighed. “You don’t know Kevin like I do. I know he said the whole ‘I’m a Christian’ thing kind of like ‘by the way’, but this is a big deal. It was such an issue between us that he’d never take it lightly. He means it.”

Kevin always meant everything he did. If he wanted to be with a girl, he was fully committed, even if it meant sneaking around for more than a year. If he wanted to stay far away from her after she broke his heart, he partied, slept with other girls and got into trouble with dedicated passion.

“Good.” Monica pushed away from the counter and came to stand in front of Eve. “But are you telling me that you’re going to go ahead with the divorce
because
he’s a Christian?”

Eve lifted her shoulder. It sounded bad like that.

“Eve,” Monica chided, “is he still the guy that makes your skin flush or not?”

Eve’s eyes widened. “You remember that?”

Monica grinned. “Of course.”

Eve hadn’t even known that her throat would flush dark pink when she was aroused until the first time Kevin turned his dark brown eyes on her, hot with desire.

He was the only one who’d ever caused that reaction in her.

“Aren’t
you
still the woman who called me crazy for thinking I might still love him?”

Monica smiled. “Yeah. But I like you hopelessly romantic.”

“That’s because
you’re
in love,” Eve pointed out.

“Maybe.” The smile on Monica’s face said it all. She was head over heels.

Something in Eve said,
I want that
. She covered her eyes with a groan.

“But this
thing
is still here between us. The roles of saint and sinner are switched around now, but this church thing has always been an issue with us. Why can’t Kevin and I get on the same page at the same time?” she asked, kind of rhetorically.

Monica answered anyway. “Maybe it’s not meant to be between you.”

And her answer
sucked.

It had been a really long time since Eve and Kevin had even been in the same room together. But it had been equally as long since a man made her heart pound and her toes tingle like Kevin did. That had to mean something.

They were still married. He was here, practically on her doorstep, and was staying for six months. And he’d been as affected by seeing her as she had by seeing him.
That
had to mean something.

“I think I have to find out what—if anything—is still between us.”

“He wants to meet with the lawyer about the divorce on Friday,” Monica reminded her.

“Then I’d better get to work.”

“How?”

“I’ll offer to help Kevin with Drew.”

Monica’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“I get the impression Kevin is in a little over his head here,” Eve said, her thoughts whirling. “I know Drew and I can be the one to stay with him when Kevin works overnight. I can help ease the transition, and spend time with Kevin in the process. See if there’s anything still there.”

“Are you sure—” Monica started.

“Why not? My schedule fits perfectly with the hours they need. I don’t have any reason
not
to.” Eve felt a surge of excitement. This would be perfect. A win-win.

“Okay,” Monica said with a sigh, “it will be nice to have you around for coffee and rolls after services on Sunday.”

And there they were back on the subject of church.

Eve had the sinking feeling that the subject of her being involved with Kevin would continue to lead back to the subject of church, whether she liked it or not.

Well, there was no way was she staying for coffee and rolls.

Eve slid off the stool. “Let’s not get crazy.
If
I go to church Sunday, I’ll be hightailing out of there as soon as they say the last amen.” She could happily live her whole life without attending another pancake feed, soup supper or church picnic. Not to mention the Bible studies. She suppressed a shiver.

Monica chuckled. “Five bucks says that you’re the last one to leave the building. Everyone will be so happy to see you again that they’ll surround you, talk your ear off and stuff you full of cinnamon rolls. You wait and see.”

Eve’s stomach hurt and it wasn’t from the idea of being force-fed cinnamon and cream cheese frosting.

If she wanted to see Kevin—and win him over—she was probably going to need to show up at church. It was too early in their reunion for him to find out about
that
major change in her life.

But Monica was right. Her return to church was going to cause a commotion.

In the Bible, there had been a huge party when the prodigal son returned.

That’d be nothing compared to the festivities accompanying Pastor Donnelly’s estranged, sinful daughter returning to his long-time church.

Dammit.

Church really did annoy the hell out of her sometimes.

Chapter Three

“So should we unpack his stuff and make it look like home or let him move it in how he wants to?” Kevin asked the guys.

All of Drew’s stuff had been moved from the tiny house Heather shared with two roommates to the middle of the guest room across from Kevin’s childhood bedroom.

Drew didn’t have a ton of stuff, but in the middle of the room at Janice and Steve’s house it seemed even more limited.

Dooley shrugged. “Tell him you’ll give him a hundred bucks to buy whatever else he wants or needs and he won’t care either way.”

Kevin slid his hands into his back pockets. That wasn’t a bad idea. Was it? Drew was ten. A hundred bucks had to sound like a fortune. He could buy…

Kevin wasn’t sure. When he was ten, ninety-percent of the time he was playing, watching, reading about or thinking about football. The other ten percent of the time it was baseball or basketball.

Drew clearly wasn’t into sports. He had a ton of books, comic books and video games but not a single ball, glove or helmet. Not a poster or trading card in sight.

“What in the world are we going to talk about?”

“You play video games,” Sam pointed out.

“Yeah, football and baseball games.”

“Hell, I can catch you up on most of these,” Dooley said, lifting the box with Drew’s games and the X-Box 360.

Kevin suspected the expensive game system had come from his father’s guilt money. He rolled his eyes at his friend but grinned. “I knew you’d prove useful.”

“Oh, and that’s not even including my knowledge of comic books,” Dooley said, unoffended. “Let’s hook this baby up.”

Kevin knew Dooley really wanted to play—educating Kevin would be a side effect only—but he’d take it. He should go to the grocery store, but thought maybe Drew should go to pick out his favorites too. Or they could go to Eve’s restaurant today instead. Or every day.

It shouldn’t surprise him how easily his thoughts went to her. It had been that way ever since he’d walked into that classroom at Grover High.

He was lost in thought—like how to avoid Eve over the next six months in Grover and if he really
wanted
to avoid her—so didn’t notice the conversation around him until Sam nudged his foot, “She’s the one, right? The one you’re always thinking about?”

Kevin cleared his throat and straightened, then tried to look unaffected. “Um, yeah.”

“And you’re getting the annulment fixed up?” Mac asked.

“Yep. On Friday.” He hoped. He had to call the lawyer before he’d know for sure.

“It’s a long time until Friday.” Sam leaned back with a wide grin, draping an arm across the back of the couch.

Kevin frowned. It really wasn’t. Three days. There wasn’t much chance of anything happening between now and then. Especially if he avoided her like the plague. Which seemed…unlikely.

He didn’t say a word though. With these guys, the best options were staying quiet or duct taping their mouths.

“Hey, Dooley, how long did it take you to get wrapped around Morgan’s finger?” Sam asked.

Dooley looked like he was concentrating hard on the video game, but he answered, “Looking back now? Probably an hour.”

Sam chuckled. “Yeah, it took Danika one night to make me nuts.”

“It was about five minutes for me,” Mac said. “The second Sara climbed on my lap at Sam’s wedding and laid that kiss on me I knew—”

“No one asked you,” Sam said with a frown. He turned to Kevin. “So, three days is like an eternity for her to get under your skin.”

“Not gonna happen.” Kevin tipped his soda can back for a nonchalant drink. “I’m probably not even going to see her until the meeting with the lawyer,” he said after he’d swallowed—also nonchalantly. “And even if I did, it wouldn’t matter.”

Dooley glanced over from his game. “Dude, we were there, remember? We saw how you looked at her. You’re a goner if she so much as smiles within ten feet of you.”

“So I’ll have to stay more than ten feet away from her.” How hard could that be?

“It’s gonna be hard to kiss her from more than ten feet away,” Sam said, watching Dooley maneuver his way through some maze of buildings and cars on screen.

“Kiss her?” Kevin frowned at him. “Why the hell would I kiss her?”

He should go in the other room. He should avoid this conversation entirely. Because deep down he was hoping his buddies could give him a really good reason to do just that.

“Do you remember what underwear she was wearing the first time you went far enough to see it?” Mac asked.

The question seemed out of left field but Kevin knew these guys—Mac was leading up to something. He shouldn’t answer. He should go into the kitchen. Or leave the house entirely. Or kick
their
asses out. He should
not
be thinking about Eve’s underwear.

Instead, he said, “Cotton panties. White with blue flowers.”