Page 29 of Happily Evan After

“For fuck’s sake,” he mutters. “Look, I don’t know what kind of scheme you’re cooking up, but I’m here to make sure my brother is safe from your clutches.”

“My clutches?”

“Exactly.” He taps the stack of papers on the countertop. “Thus these.”

“Which are?”

“Contracts protecting my brother.”

“From my clutches?” I repeat.

“Exactly.”

“We could make this really simple, though, and I can just pay you a lump sum to disappear from his life,” Abel says.

“Oh, now that’s interesting,” I say. I’m simultaneously amused by this situation and indignant on Evan’s behalf. It’s one thing for this man to think so poorly of me, a woman he does not know, but to believe your brother is too stupid to take care of himself. Has he even met Evan, because he’s the most capable man I’ve ever met?

Just yesterday, he cleaned out all of the window boxes of the plant carcasses I killed. He assured me he’d plant new things that would be a little heartier, but it would have to wait for spring. This time of year in Texas is far too hot to plant new things.

It suddenly occurs to me that in that moment, Evan had been telling me something. Making a promise that initially had gone unnoticed. He was going to be here, beside me, past the rest of summer, fall, winter, and into spring.

More than anything else he said to me, those words, that simple promise about flowers, reveal the depth of his sincerity. Of his steadfastness.

“How much?” I ask his brother, just for entertainment purposes.

“One million,” he says.

I half expect him to put his pinkie finger up against his lips. I try not to snicker when I say, “Oh, I’m sure a big star such as you can do better than that.”

“Five million. My final offer. Five million to stay away from my brother, and you have to sign a contract agreeing to never ask him for future financial resources for the kid.”

“What in the actual fuck is going on here?” Evan’s voice comes from the door. He gives me a gentle look. “Hey, Dimples. Can you excuse me and my rat bastard of a brother for a few? I believe I need to teach him some lessons.”

“Oh, could you do it here? I’d rather not go outside in this heat, and I really want to watch this,” I say.

“Evan, calm down,” Abel says while holding his hands up as if that one movement reveals the purity of his motives. “I did this for your own good.”

“I don’t even know what the fuck you did,” Evan says, his tone thick with anger. “Except offer my girl money to leave me alone.” He takes more steps to close the distance between him and his brother. “Brother or not—twin or not—what the fuck gives you the right to make an offer on my behalf? Do you have any idea what I would have done to you on the odd chance she agreed to your asinine offer?”

Abel takes a step backward.

“I would have murdered you. In the special way they only teach Army medics in special forces. No one would be able to identify your body when I was done.”

“Calm the fuck down, Evan. I am just trying to protect you.”

“From what?” He points at me. “The woman I love and the baby we created together?”

My eyes cloud with tears as his words hit home. Does he love me? Truly? Can it happen that fast?

You already love him, a voice reminds me. I come out from around the counter so I can get closer to him. To Evan. My baby’s father, and the man I’m in love with. It feels so right to acknowledge that, I kinda want to run outside and scream it at the top of my lungs. Except for the fact that it feels like the surface of the sun out there.

“Is that what you’re doing?” Evan continues. “She is not Cassandra. Not every woman is Cassandra. In fact, if you’d get out of Hollywood more often. Maybe talk to some people who don’t know what the fuck a colonic is, you might realize that most of us are decent, hard-working people.”

“There are plenty of decent people in Hollywood,” Abel says.

Evan scoffs.

I take the opportunity to grab his hand. “Do you really love me?” I ask.