It’s a dream setup and I sigh without realizing it.
“Everything okay?” His dark eyes search my face and I see a flash of concern there.
“Oh, no, it’s great,” I tell him, instantly realizing that I don’t want to hurt his feelings. “It’s just not what I expected, but I really like it. Really. And I’m hungry, I guess.”
He nods. “I heard. Sit.” When he gestures at the sofa, I go and snuggle into the corner, pulling the blanket over me. He locks the front door and then walks into the kitchen without looking back at me. There’s a book perched on the table by the sofa, and I pick it up to flip through it until he gets back.
It hits me that this feels normal and that I feel surprisingly comfortable here, but I force myself to push those thoughts away. The problem is that this isn’t normal, no matter how much I might want it to be. I can pretend all I want that Roque and I are just two people who found each other under ordinary circumstances, but nothing in my life has ever been ordinary.
The microwave in the kitchen beeps and I put the book down without really paying much attention to it. I can smell something delicious and my mouth starts to water as Roque walks back into the living room carrying a tray.
“Leftovers from Ma,” he says, sounding almost apologetic. “I haven’t really had time this weekend to do any shopping or cooking, but she’s a better cook than I am, so you’re really getting the good end of the deal here.”
He hands me the tray and I greedily dig in, burning my mouth on the first bite, but not letting that slow me down. Holy hell, the woman can cook. Moaning, I swipe some bread through the sauce on the plate. I don’t even know what this is, but it doesn’t matter because I’d be willing to eat it every single meal for the rest of my life, my waist be damned.
Roque’s watching me with a half-smile on his face. “What?” I ask him, pausing with bread halfway to my mouth. “Is something wrong?”
He shakes his head. “Not at all. I just like seeing you with an appetite. I know that this weekend has been hard, to say the least.”
At his words, the delicious food turns to a hard lump in my stomach. I nibble a bite of bread and then put it back down. “I need you to know that I’m not going to do anything to hurt you or your family,” I tell him slowly, watching his face to try to gauge his expression. “All I want is to be able to go home and forget that this happened.”
Even as I say it, I know that it’s not entirely true. I don’t miss the flash of hurt on his face, but before I’m sure that I even see it, it’s gone and has been replaced by something harder.
Conviction? No.
Determination. Maybe.
Whatever it is, there isn’t a lot of room in his look for passion. Or compassion. My palms suddenly feel sweaty and I wipe them on my jeans as he watches me.
“The problem, Eva, is that even if I trust you, I can’t guarantee that the family will. And we need to make sure to keep you safe until the issue with our extended family has been taken care of. I don’t want another bullet coming anywhere near you.” His eyes are locked onto mine like he’s searching me for an answer, but I’m not sure what to tell him.
I’m also not sure that I’m going to be able to talk my way out of this. If the two options are make a run for it and die or suck it up and stay here alive, then I know for sure which one I’m going to choose.
“Okay. Then I’ll stay here with you until things settle down, okay? But I still need a job. I have bills to pay. And I want my phone back.”
He smirks, and I know full well that he’s not going to willingly hand my phone back, but at that very moment, it goes off. The sound makes me gasp and I sit up, staring at him. “You have it. Why the hell can’t I have it?”
“You know why.” He pulls my phone from his pocket and glances at the screen as the ringing stopped. “You’ve been missing a hell of a lot of calls from this one guy, Eva. Care to explain who David is?”
My heart drops. Crap. In all of the excitement of everything with Roque, I’d completely forgotten that my ex-husband has been looking for me like his life depends on it. Slowly I shake my head and reach for my phone.
“Give me the phone, Roque.”
He laughs, and the sound almost shakes me from my reverie. “Holy hell, Eva, you don’t think that you get to tell me what to do, do you? No, you’re not getting the phone. Now, should I call this guy back or do you want to tell me who he is?”
There’s no use weighing my options. He and I both know that I don’t want him to call that number back, and I know full well that he’s not afraid to do it. “It’s my ex,” I tell him quickly, watching as his finger hovers over the screen. One little tap and he’ll have David on the other end of the line, and that makes me sick. “He won’t stop looking for me. I thought that I’d shaken him, but he tailed me. He found me. He…he wants me back.”
Roque’s eyes narrow. “He’s been tailing you? How do you know?”
Tears are leaking from my eyes but I do my best to ignore them. “I’ve seen strange men around and they follow me. None of them have ever approached me, but I know.
