Page 32 of Now Until Forever
“Everyone I know gets to do that. They get to choose, and they jump at the chance to put themselves in danger. Just because I think twice means I should go home?” She picked up her cup and stood.
“Lia.”
She didn’t look at him.
“You’re right that we should let them know what’s happening, but we also need concrete information about the Reverence Sisters. Files we can send them. Which means we need my laptop.” He drained the last of his coffee and stood as well. “My place? We could order pizza.”
Her eyes narrowed, and he knew then that she was curious about his life.
Curious enough to agree? With the way her family was, he wasn’t going to make the mistake of falling for her. If hewaslooking for a relationship, Eliana happened to be the one person in his world who understood his life better than anyone. He’d thought about her in that way over the years, sure. After a girl declares her undying love, of course you think about it. He’d just never had the chance to do anything about it because she’d stayed away.
“Okay.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and grabbed that tiny backpack she carried. “I’m hungry enough to agree, and I want to go over what we have.”
Carlos followed her to the door.
Sure, Eliana was a gorgeous woman. But the problem with her knowing everything about his life was that she knew too much. There was way too much water under the bridge for him to let go and be comfortable with her knowing what she did about him. He could also argue that he knew too much about her as well.
Then again, was inferring she only thought about herself just a way to project his guilt onto her, somehow making what he’d said to her in high school less terrible?
He wasn’t trying to sweet-talk her into forgiving him. If he thought that pizza was powerful enough to do that job, he’d have shown up with one long before now.
Chapter Twelve
“Here.” Carlos handed her a mug.
Eliana tucked her feet under her on the couch and leaned back, holding the tea between her hands. Empty pizza box on the table between them. “This couch is amazing. I feel like I’m getting sucked into it.” The dark fabric wanted to envelop her.
“I think that just means it’s old and sagging.”
“Or you’ve just about got it broken in.”
He smiled, settling beside her on the other side of the couch. Acting like they were almost friends. Certainly not family members who only saw each other twice a year, at the holidays, and didn’t speak the rest of the time. He might not have found any needle marks, but maybe something injected into him the day before had made him nicer.
She should confront him about how he was acting, going from pointing out her supposed deception at the Shrine to inviting her over to his place for pizza. She should confront him about their ugly history. Tell him he had to apologize for shredding her heart to pieces, as if there wasn’t this giant gaping thing between them that they never mentioned.
Eliana looked around the small living room, which had a door. The square single-story house had to be old, maybe even historical. Out in front, there was a huge shade tree that shed its leaves on the roof, and the exterior had been painted a dark red. The bathroom down the hall had a legit clawfoot tub with a shower curtain in it, along with a cracked sink. Meanwhile, out here the floors looked new and everything was neat and clean.
“You know,” he began, “when I was at your place, I didn’t make it obvious that I was looking around.”
“I’m not being judgy. I’m actually intrigued.” She didn’t want to say “impressed” because this wasn’t about him needing to meet a certain standard. “How long have you lived here?”
“I moved in six weeks ago.”
She sipped her tea. “Why didn’t you call me when you got to Chicago?”
He didn’t answer right away. He was drinking yet another cup of coffee, which made her wonder if he drank anything else. “Nearly did a few times.” He looked at the TV unit, above which hung his ginormous flat-screen TV. “Thought about coming by the museum.”
“How did you know I worked there?” She followed that up with, “I mean, I know I don’t keep much from anyone in our family. I’m surprised Maizie didn’t know you were in Chicago, even without GPS on our phones.”
He looked at her, confusion tugging his brows together.
“You knew where I was, though.”
He set his mug down on the old-timey trunk that he used as a coffee table. “I knew you were in Chicago. Your mom told me about the job.”
“I know they don’t want me to know aboutDominatus.” She winced over the mug. “I refused to talk about it. I packed up my life and came here because I can’t pass up the chance to have my questions answered by someone other than them.”
There was a fine line between protection and control. Between strong boundaries and taking away someone’s freedom. The more she’d thought about it, the more her life chafed against the way they’d wanted to raise her, the more she edged toward something other than appreciating what they’d done for her. Rather than think how they told her to think, she wanted to learn and grow in her own right. Make her own choices. Basically, the opposite of how Carlos had lived his life.
