her wariness. It made every inch of her trust a reward.
And you almost ruined that by throwing yourself at her. As if you’ve never known a beautiful woman before.
He pushed that thought away, because it was woefully incomplete. Ruth was not just a beautiful woman. She was the woman who’d made him want so badly, and with so little effort, that he’d completely lost control.
“You’ll find out eventually,” Daniel said. Apparently, he took Evan’s silence as a cue to continue.
“Find out what?” Evan asked. He wasn’t remotely interested in anything Daniel had to say, and yet, his upbringing would only allow so much rudeness. He was closely reaching his personal threshold.
“How she is.” Daniel paused to greet a pair of older men in flat caps, his smile wide and genuine. He introduced Evan with grace and charm, and Evan wondered how the man who had been so cruel to Ruth could seem so thoroughly… decent.
They went on, the newsagent in view now, but their pace so meandering that it might take another five minutes to reach.
“We were at school together,” Daniel continued, as if the conversation had never stopped. For someone who didn’t like Ruth, he really liked to talk about Ruth. “I’m older than her, but… she lost all her friends, you know.” Daniel paused. “She destroys relationships.”
Evan pushed down his rising temper. “I don’t think that’s any of my business. Or yours.”
“I’m just warning you. If you want a girl in this town, you won’t get one with Ruth sniffing around. All the women in Ravenswood know what she is.”
“Good thing I don’t want a girl.”
Daniel gave him a sideways, knowing look. “Because you want Ruth, right? I get it. She’s kind of cute, in her own little way. But I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
It was funny, because Evan had been thinking that, too. Not about himself, but about Ruth. He didn’t want to see her get hurt. He’d touched her because he wanted to, in the way his body wanted to draw breath. And then something had changed. Some odd tension had fallen over the room, and she’d stopped him, and he’d been struck with dread at the thought that he might’ve done something wrong. He did not want to see Ruth get hurt.
“You don’t need to worry about me,” he said.
Daniel nodded sympathetically, falling into a silence that lasted until they reached the newsagent. If Evan was watching this interaction from afar, he might think that Daniel really meant well.
He was like a seller at the market, Evan decided, turning bad fruit over so shoppers couldn’t see the mould.
Mrs. Needham, proprietor of Needham’s Newsagent, was one of those who didn’t see the mould. She cooed like a demented dove when Daniel stepped through her door, and Evan’s presence only seemed to magnify her excitement.
The woman bustled out from behind the counter, throwing her hands in the air as if she’d found a long-lost son. “Daniel!” she trilled, reaching up to pat his cheeks. “How are you?”
“I’m very well, thank you, Beverly. Have you met my friend Evan?”
“Oh, yes!” Mrs. Needham turned her watery, blue eyes to Evan. “Our newcomer! I’d never forget a face so handsome!”
Of course, the few times Evan had come in here alone, Mrs. Needham had barely said a word—except to warn him about the shop’s 360 CCTV. But Evan dredged up a smile anyway, as if they really were friendly. He’d never embarrass a lady.
He’d love to embarrass Daniel, though. Every time he saw such an awful man treated like royalty, the injustice of it gnawed at Evan’s gut.
Another old woman appeared in the doorway behind the counter, apparently emerging from the shop’s backroom. She had an armful of Kit Kat boxes, but she set them aside as soon as she set eyes on Daniel.
“Well, good afternoon, darling!” she cried, pulling off her silver spectacles. Brushing her hands on the front of her linen trousers, she shuffled out from behind the counter, too.
Resigned to a long and effusive visit, Evan floated off toward the magazine rack.
There were kids’ magazines lining the bottom shelves; they screamed about Disney Princesses or Charlie and Lola. One featured the face of a disturbing cartoon pig. Evan skimmed past those to the next shelf, which was filled with what appeared to be American gossip magazines.
He stared for a moment, frowning at the incongruous row of paper rags, their front pages splashed with headlines and images more audacious than anything he’d ever seen.