Page 64 of Back to Square One

By the time the movie ended, Evie’s eyes had drifted closed, and she leaned her head against Rowan’s shoulder. She’d been fighting sleep for the last half hour, Rowan had noticed, but finally gave in at some point, so Rowan let the credits roll and did a little channel surfing. Eventually, Evie stirred and her eyes fluttered open.

“Oh my God, did I fall asleep?” Her embarrassment was clear on her face aa she pushed herself up.

“You did, but so what?” Rowan said with a smile. “You were obviously tired.”

Evie groaned softly. “I hate that I can just drop off like”—she snapped her fingers—”that. I’m sorry.”

“No.” Rowan grasped her forearm. “No apologizing. When you’re tired, you sleep. End of story.”

Their gazes held for a beat before Evie gave one reluctant nod. “Speaking of the end of the story, how was the movie?”

“I actually loved it.”

Evie narrowed her eyes. “You did not.”

“I did. I swear.”

“That’s so weird that you now like something you didn’t like before.”

“Right? I also like spicy food now.”

Evie’s dark eyes went wide. “What? You hate spicy food. You think it’s mean when your food makes you cry.”

Rowan laughed. “I know. It’s so bizarre. My mom and I ordered from an Indian restaurant last month, and she forgot to get her chana masala mild. It was stupidly hot and I loved it, ate almost the whole container. Not gonna lie, she freaked out a little bit.”

They were both laughing now, and Rowan tried not to grab on to how good it felt, how normal and comfortable it was to be sitting there with Evie, eating pizza and watching a movie on the couch under a blanket and laughing over a story about Rowan’s mom. But she wanted to. She wanted to reach out and hold it with both hands as tightly as she could and not let go.

Instead, she pushed to her feet and took their pizza plates into the kitchen. She cleaned them up, wrapped up the leftover pizza, and put it in the fridge. Evie watched her the whole time from the couch; Rowan could feel her eyes on her.

Back in the living room, she asked, “Okay, what else can I do for you before I go?”

Evie held her gaze for a moment, and Rowan was reminded what it felt like to be her focus, to be the one who got all Evie Price’s attention. It was delicious. “Nothing,” Evie said quietly. “I’m good.”

“You’re sure.”

A nod. “I’ll take my time getting to bed. I don’t have to work tomorrow.”

Work. That was something Rowan had wanted to talk to her about, get a handle on. She’d save that for tomorrow. “Okay, so how about lunch tomorrow? I’ll come by?”

Evie’s smile lit up her face. “I’d like that.”

“Great.” Rowan gathered up her things.

“Ro?”

“Mm-hmm?”

“Thank you.” When Rowan looked at her, she said, “This was fun. It was nice to relax and not have to think for a while.”

“Good. Then we’ll do it again.” She took the few steps necessary to get to Evie, then bent and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before heading for the door. “Lock this behind me,” she said, sounding like somebody’s dad.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Walking out into the humid night air was like walking into a wall of cheesecloth, and she took a moment for her body, her skin, to adjust from the cold of Evie’s air-conditioning. She’d always loved her house cold, Rowan remembered that, and she also remembered from all her research that cold could be good for MS. She stood on the porch for a minute or two, just slowly breathing in and out.

The problem with not remembering much about what it was like to live without Evie was that it was super easy to fall right back into how easy it was to be with her. That’s what tonight had felt like. Easy. Familiar. Comfortable. Perfect.

Inside her car, she let out a long, slow breath as she remembered Evie sleeping soundly against her shoulder, how natural it felt, how normal. Something inside her quietly told her that Evie was feeling the same way: familiar, comfortable…