Beyond Eden (3 page)

Eve cringed internally at the thought of what sort of wine they had, envisioning something with a screw-off cap and said, “I’ll bring the wine.”

“Great.” Danny grinned broadly enough for Eve to be flattered. “Give me your number.”

They exchanged cell numbers and Danny hugged her once more when she made an excuse about melting ice cream. Eve did cave a little then, closing her eyes when his arms wrapped around her. She inhaled the spicy, masculine scent of his expensive cologne and the underlying aroma of Tampa she had smelled before, one he wore effortlessly because it was who he was. His strong arms felt good around her slim frame, comfortable and exciting at the same time. When he released her, Eve realized dinner could be a mistake because she wasn’t sixteen anymore. There was a reason Danny Carlow got laid frequently and often—sex bled from his pores and it was a trait, Eve knew just then, that had ripened with age.

Eve had asked Danny if they could make dinner early, because she wanted to escape the house looking decent and avoid the disapproving glares of her mother’s friends over her choice of wardrobe.

Not wanting to appear too hopeful or needy, Eve opted for a nice pair of jeans and a tight, V-cut black top. She put on her favorite pair of black boots to match and inspected

herself in the mirror. She looked the way she wanted to, slightly bohemian with her heavy eyeliner and deep red lipstick. Her red hair, hanging long and loose, curled at the bottom, enough to look casual and yet sensual at the same time.

Deciding she was acceptable, Eve winced at the thought of facing her mother before she went out the door. She had never been the daughter her mother wanted her to be. As a child, she had pulled out the ribbons her mother had so painstakingly put in her hair every morning the second she had gotten a chance. She hadn’t worn dresses or played with dolls like other little girls. Instead, she fished, played tag football and roughhoused with the boys of the neighborhood until dusk every day and she had very fond memories of all of it. Dolls, even now, seemed like an incredibly boring pastime.

Her mother collected porcelain dolls.

How Eve had come out of her womb was a mystery to both of them. “Where are you going?”

Eve paused on the stairs, staring down at herself. “To the Queen’s ball.”

“Your sarcasm is never as funny as you think it is,” her mother said as she glared at Eve from her spot at the base of the staircase.

Eve stared back at her, seeing herself in the older woman’s features. Her mother was attractive, there was no question of that. Even at sixty, her skin was beautiful, her green eyes bright and stare inducing. Like Eve, she was slim, but still curvy. Though her hair was now bottle red instead of natural, it was still thick and full. Her mother had been prom queen when she’d been in school. Eve had been the editor of the school newspaper, a member of the photographers club and an award-winning artist by the time she had graduated. Not once had her mother complimented her on those achievements, it was only Eve’s failures that were noticed.

“Probably not,” Eve agreed as she hopped down off the bottom stair, her heavy boots making a resounding thud when they hit the hardwood floor. “To answer your earlier question, I’m going out with friends and it would be unwise for you to wait up for me because with any luck I’ll be in very late.”

“Aren’t you going to stay for the women’s meeting?” The sound of hurt and disapproval was thick in her voice.

“Let me think.” Eve looked up toward the ceiling, staring at the chandelier in the foyer as she pretended to ponder the question. “No, I’ll pass.”

“Going out?” Eve’s father asked, coming around the corner as though sensing his wife was about to blow a gasket.

“Yeah, I need a little social outing with friends,” she said, embracing her father because she loved him and pitied him for tying himself to her mother for the past thirty years. “Don’t wait up.”

“Good, good,” he said, giving Eve a broad grin which made his face warm and welcoming. “I’m glad you’re making new friends. You’ve seemed lonely since you got home.”

“I have been lonely. But they aren’t new friends. I’m meeting up with Paul and Danny. I ran into Danny at the store and he invited me to dinner.”

“That’s good news. I always liked them,” her father said brightly, still grinning and ignoring his wife’s huff. “Paul could throw a ball, couldn’t he?”

“He could,” she agreed with a wistful smile. “It’s been ages since I’ve seen them, so don’t wait up.”

“That Danny was a hooligan,” her mother sniped, obviously sensing she was being ignored. “I never liked him.”

“Good thing I don’t care what you think,” Eve snapped back, noticing her mother said nothing about Paul. He was one of those guys parents loved. Danny, not so much, but her father had liked him. He liked everyone. It was probably the reason he had tolerated Eve’s mother for so long. “Bye, Daddy.” She leaned forward to hug her father and place a kiss on his cheek. “I’ll call if anything comes up.”

Eve dashed out of the house, finely skilled in the art of avoiding her mother after so many years of practice. She was just annoyed she had to put those skills to use. At twenty-eight, she shouldn’t have to deal with this level of abuse for a night out.

Eve loved New York because she didn’t need to own a car, but in Tampa, where public transportation sucked, a car was a necessity. Her car was a piece of shit. A 1993 Ford Escort with no air and over two hundred thousand miles on it that she had bought for two hundred bucks the week after she had returned home. The thing was going to die soon but she had decided to drive it into the ground because it got great gas mileage.

She never thought to be ashamed of her car because it did its job, albeit a bit loudly, but she was suddenly wishing she had driven her mother’s Lexus when she pulled into the driveway of the house Danny had directed her to and saw the Mustang Shelby Cobra parked in the yard. It was a pretty car, black, sleek and masculine. It matched Danny perfectly.

The house itself was beautiful, very picturesque, with its all-wooden construction, standing on stilts over a quiet lake. The driveway wasn’t really a driveway but rather a big patch of open land at the end of a long, lonely road. The summer air of Florida was stagnant and muggy. Mosquitoes buzzed around as she got out of the car, the lake making them a bigger nuisance than usual. Swampy and overgrown with trees and exotic flowers, this was the part of Tampa that was still beautiful. Eve liked this setting much better than the rows upon rows of cookie-cutter houses built in neat, perfect subdivisions. As an artist, subdivisions hurt her eyes but older houses like this spoke to her soul.

The house was surrounded on three sides by a wraparound porch. Eve wondered if they had to worry about flooding when it rained too much because most of the house was over the water. This large home, made of well-weathered wood, appeared to have sprung up out of the swampy depths of the lake as if it were meant to be part of the

land. It worked with the landscape, blending in effortlessly and was mystically beautiful because of it.

Fishing poles rested next to deck chairs on the porch, a small boat was hidden in the marshy grass at the shoreline and an overturned red cooler was next to the door. Even from the outside the house reeked of testosterone. It was a place where boys could be boys and fish and drink beer to their hearts’ content.

Eve hadn’t fished in years. She wasn’t sure she remembered how and she felt sort of stupid and awkward being there. As usual, she hadn’t really thought this out. She just wanted to be out of her parents’ house for an evening. Now she had no idea what to say to these men who had once been close friends. She really didn’t revel in the fact that she was going to be seeing them again when her life was in tatters and they were clearly doing well. One didn’t buy a car like that Mustang out there without some sort of financial success to back it up.

Despite her insecurities she walked over and fingered one of the fishing poles affectionately, remembering misspent days of her youth fishing and playing with Danny and Paul. It was nice to see they hadn’t totally grown up.

“Hey, beautiful.”

Eve’s breath caught when she heard his voice, so smooth and lulling it caused a shiver to roll down her spine. She took a deep breath as she turned around, finding Danny grinning at her through the screen door. He had changed and now wore a nicer pair of jeans and a blue button-down shirt that was tucked in. He opened the screen and leaned casually against the doorframe, smirking as his gaze ran over her.

Electricity seemed to spark in the air as if the attraction meter between the two of them had been turned up without her realizing it. She had always been drawn to Danny. She’d have to be blind not to be, but the sparks flying now made the air around them thick with sexual tension.

Eve arched an eyebrow at his blunt appraisal of her. “Is this a date?” He shrugged. “Would it be so bad if it were?”

She studied him thoughtfully. Danny had always been handsome, with a self-confidence that made him easy to be fascinated with, but he had never given an indication the attraction was mutual. Sure, she got to spend time with him. He did things with her he wouldn’t do with his flavors of the week. With Eve, he would spend all day in a little boat, steadily getting drunker and catching fewer and fewer fish while he talked about everything from his latest romantic conquest to the comparisons between live bait and artificial bait. Yet even with all the camaraderie he shared with her she had never deluded herself into thinking he was interested in her sexually.

Eve realized now where the sparks were coming from. They were flying off him. She had finally flown within his radar and he was homing in. He put off an air of sexuality so dangerous and powerful it set off every female sense she had.

She tired to ignore the attraction. She wasn’t going to be reduced to some giggling, flattered schoolgirl because Danny finally decided to be interested. If she was going to

fall into anyone’s arms, it wouldn’t be his. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized Paul would be there soon. She would be seeing him again after what seemed like a lifetime apart.

Eve thrust the expensive bottle of chardonnay she could not afford against Danny’s chest as she struggled to hide his effect on her, trying to focus her thoughts on Paul instead. “Here’s your wine.”

He grabbed it, appearing completely oblivious to her internal struggle as his head lolled to the side and he studied the bottle. “Nice,” he said appraisingly, his dark eyebrows shooting up. “You got good taste.”

She snorted. “Like you know.”

“You’d be surprised,” he said, still staring at the label. “I’ve been known to wine and dine some real high-society types.”

“Looking for a trophy wife?” she asked cynically.

“Not exactly.” He lifted his dark eyes to Eve, giving her a long, lingering look that sent chills up her spine once more. “Ten years changes a lot. My tastes have evolved too.”

“That sounds ominous.” Eve folded her arms over her chest. “This is the part where you invite me in.”

“Right.” He leaned back against the door and held out his arm. Welcoming her into the house, he said, “
Mi casa es su casa.
”

She rolled her eyes as she walked past Danny. “Did your mother finally teach you Spanish?” she asked for sake of conversation as she glanced around, finding the place Danny and Paul called home clean and homey feeling in a way she hadn’t expected.

He snorted. “Far too late for that. The damage was done in youth. My father was paranoid we’d talk about him behind his back, so she never taught me. Now I’m too old and set in my ways to learn. It’s a shame.”

“That’s sort of dreadful.” Eve pulled a face at him when she realized he was being serious. “Your parents are as screwed up as mine.”

“Not anymore,” he said, looking away for a moment as his voice hitched. “My parents are dead, Evie Girl.”

Eve could physically feel the color drain from her face as images of both of Danny’s parents flashed through her mind. There had never been any love lost between Danny and his father, a tall, blond-haired man, a redneck by Danny’s words, who loved NASCAR and beer. His mother had been gentle and beautiful, with a lulling Cuban accent and a blind love for her only child. Danny’s house had been Eve’s haven as a child when she longed to escape her mother’s oppressive nature. She could clearly remember Danny’s mother standing in the kitchen, cooking something Cuban and wonderful-smelling and urging Eve to eat with the claim that she may waste away as she looked at her with concerned, dark brown eyes—Danny’s eyes.

“Shit,” Eve choked, feeling tears sting her eyes for his mother. She had never cared for his father but his mother she had adored. “I’m sorry.”

Danny shrugged. “S’okay. It was five years ago.” “W-what happened?”

“Car accident,” he said, shaking his head sadly. “He was drinking too much. He plowed into a tree. Killed my mom instantly. He lingered for a few days but died too. Good thing, I might have killed him if he lived.”

“Your mother never learned to drive?”

“No,” he said sadly, looking away once more. “I should have pushed the issue more. I knew that asshole was going to kill her eventually.” Danny turned back to Eve, giving a wide, false smile. “But the good news is I’m independently wealthy before thirty.”

Eve gave him a dark look. “Not funny.”

“Likely not,” he agreed before he studied her again. His eyes became soft and adoring, reminding Eve of his mother so strongly she had to brush at her cheeks when she lost the battle against the tears. “Mom really loved you. She’d be real pleased to know I found you again. She always thought much more of you than she did of any of the girls I dated.”

Eve gave a choked laugh as more tears rolled down her cheeks. “She always had good taste.”

“In some things,” he said quietly. “I didn’t mean to make you cry. Come on, we’ll crack open this bottle and get wasted for old time’s sake.”

Eve jumped forward, unable to hold back for one more moment. She wrapped her arms around Danny’s neck, forcing him to lean down to hug her properly as she squeezed him with all her might, hoping to somehow erase the pain in his eyes. The sparks were still there but she pushed down her reaction to them as she kissed his cheek. “I’m so very sorry.”