Page 36 of Back to Square One

They sat on the deck, chatting with Sara for a while, and then six of them headed for the dock. Lizzie and Justine, Stevie and Sara, Evie and Rowan. Claire, Jasmine, and Becca decided to stay back, Claire’s dissatisfaction still very apparent.

“What’s the deal with Claire?” Rowan heard Sara whisper to Stevie, who shrugged and said nothing. Rowan was relieved to see that she wasn’t the only one who’d picked up on the weird behavior. Sara had been there for barely two hours, and she’d seen it, too. Rowan shot a glance at Evie, but she was watching her own feet.

Sara sat in the front of the boat, and once Stevie had untied the ropes, she joined her. Lizzie took the driver’s seat with Justine in the matching passenger chair, which left Rowan and Evie in the back together. Rowan took a seat, and rather than sitting across from her, Evie sat next to her.

“You mind?” she asked quietly.

Rowan simply shook her head. Being close to Evie was never something she minded, even though her brain was shrieking at her that maybe she should.

Stevie threw a look Rowan’s way, and when Rowan met her gaze, Stevie simply raised her eyebrows in question. Rowan gave a subtle shrug and looked away because she wasn’t about to analyze what was happening. No. She was going to enjoy it.

Lizzie chugged them away from the dock, and soon they were moving along the water at a relaxed pace. Rowan felt more than saw Evie relax next to her. Their thighs touched on the bench seat, and she could feel her quad relax against hers.

“All good?” she asked.

Evie turned to her with that smile—the one that melted Rowan and could get Evie anything she wanted—and gave her a nod. “All good.” Then Evie took in a big breath of the lake air, her chest rising as her lungs filled, and she let it out slowly.

Rowan watched it all happen as if no time had passed between them—and to her brain, very little had—and she felt her heart squeeze in her chest with missing something she’d only recently realized she’d lost.

The motor made conversation from one end of the boat to the other kind of hard, so Rowan sat quietly instead while snippets of things said by the others drifted over her, and she watched the lake. More specifically, she watched the other people on the lake.

A speedboat zipped past them pulling an inner tube with three life-jacketed riders.

“What do you think the one in the red life jacket is thinking right now?” Evie’s voice was soft, and her lips were very close to Rowan’s ear when she asked the question. Rowan’s body broke out in goose bumps.

She swallowed, found her voice, and said, “She’s wondering if she really likes the guy in the yellow jacket that much because all this bouncing may very possibly make her puke.”

Evie laughed, and it sounded like music, like notes on a piano, just like Rowan remembered it, and the sound wound its way into her head, down through her nervous system, and settled near her heart, the way Evie’s laughter always had. Making her laugh was one of Rowan’s favorite things.

“And what about those two in the kayaks?” Evie asked, pointing off to the left. It was a man and a woman in separate bright blue kayaks, the woman out in front of the man.

“They’re on a date, and the dude was ready to show her a thing or two about how virile he is, but what he didn’t know is that she kayaks four times a week and would kick his ass in the water.”

“And that guy?” Evie pointed to a lone fisherman in a steel gray rowboat closer to shore. His line was in, and he was simply sitting and watching the water.

“He’s thinking about the egg salad sandwich his wife will have waiting for him at home, and he’s hungry, so he’s wondering if he should just give up on the fish and head in.”

“I do love a good egg salad sandwich,” Evie said.

“I know.”

She turned her dark eyes toward Rowan, who couldn’t look away from her beautiful face, her smooth, creamy skin. She looked tired, Rowan noticed that, but no less gorgeous than she’d ever looked. “Think Justine would make me one this week?”

“Have you met Justine? Food is her love language. I think she’d make you whatever you want.”

Their gazes held for a moment—a delicious moment, if Rowan was honest—and then Evie put her hand on Rowan’s thigh. “I’ve missed you.” She said it so quietly, and then turned away, that Rowan wasn’t one hundred percent sure she’d actually heard it, or if Evie meant to say it out loud. It took her a few minutes, but she finally convinced herself she was mistaken, that Evie had said something else.

Except Evie’s hand was still on her thigh.

Lizzie took them chugging all around the lake, clearly giving Sara a tour. She kept the speed low, and the hum of conversation became almost comforting, even though Rowan couldn’t really make out much of it.

She was gazing out toward the shore where a handful of kids played on a floating dock similar to the one at their house, jumping off and climbing back on, screaming in delight, and she smiled as she watched them.

And then she felt a gentle weight on her shoulder.

When she slowly turned to see what it was, Evie had leaned against her, eyes closed. Obviously, Rowan thinking she looked tired was a spot-on assessment because she wasn’t simply resting. Evie had fallen asleep.

Not that Rowan could blame her. The gentle rocking of the boat, the steady hum of the motor, and being slightly removed from the conversation so you didn’t have to focus were all factors in lulling a person to sleep, and if Evie had already been tired, it only made sense.