All I Want For Christmas Is You - Penelope Ward Page 0,26
were driving away that I relaxed.
“It was great of you to pick us up. I never let my phone die when I’m going anywhere, but some stupid app must have been running on it, eating up my battery.”
I shot her quick look. “What happened tonight?”
“Cass broke up with her boyfriend. They’ve been together three years. He took a job in London and Cass didn’t want to move there, so he ended things. Some girls we went to Uni with decided she needed a Christmas night out. They bought her shots and she kept flinging them back. Within an hour she was blootered.” Evan’s tone was angry. “Then the lot of them left me. Said they were going clubbing and I could either put Cass in a cab home and come with them or deal with her.”
“Very nice.”
“Aye, bloody charming.” Evan glanced over her shoulder at Cass. “She’ll be okay. Though it’ll be one helluva hangover in the morning.”
“Why didn’t you just put her in a cab and go with them?” I asked, though I already knew the answer.
“One: she’s my best friend and I’m worried about her. I want to stay with her to make sure she doesn’t choke on her own vomit. And two: the thought of being squished onto a crowded dance floor while strange men try to press up against me isn’t my idea of a good time, believe it or not. I’ve been told on more than one occasion that I’m, and I quote, ‘a boring old fart’.” Her tone was only slightly amused. There was a hint of hurt there.
“Who said that?”
“Friends. A guy I started dating not long after Luca. It didn’t last long. He just wanted to go out on the lash every weekend, preferably without me.”
“You’re not boring just because getting pissed isn’t your idea of fun,” I replied dryly.
Who were these fuckers she was friends with?
“You’re just saying that because you’re thirty-five and past all that.”
I frowned at the reminder of our age difference. “I was never really about that, even at your age. Pat, the lads and I, did our fair share of drinking when we were students, but clubbing was not my thing. We’d go to a pub or hang out at the dorms.”
“How did you pick up girls then?” she asked cheekily.
I threw her a cocky grin. “Before, sometimes during, and after classes. At the student union bar. The library—”
“Okay, okay, okay.” She held up a hand to stop me. “You got laid a lot at uni. Very good.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tease her and ask her if she was jealous. I quelled the instinct.
There was a frown in Evan’s voice when she asked, “Why are we going the wrong way?”
“My place is closer. We can take care of Cass. There’s room for you both to crash there.”
“Won’t we be intruding?”
“Why would you be intruding?”
“Well, I’ve never been to your place before. I assumed it was because you’re so private.”
I was a private man, but not so much I didn’t want Evan to see my space.
Whatever thoughts I had about putting distance between us had flown out the window as soon as I had her in proximity. I wanted to talk with her. Be near her.
It didn’t take too long to pull up to my apartment building in Newhaven. I lived in one of the penthouse apartments and had a fantastic view over the Firth of Forth estuary.
Parked in my private spot, I got out and rounded the car to get Cass. She mumbled in my arms as Evan took my keys and led the way. The reception was closed at this time of night, so all was quiet as we made our way through the lobby and onto the elevator.
“Thanks again for this,” Evan said as the lift climbed upward. She stared up at me with adoring big dark eyes. I wanted to ask her how she planned on repaying me, making it clear by my tone that I’d prefer sexual favors.
I stifled that urge too.
We got Cass into my flat. The main living space was large and open-plan, with a bank of windows that looked out over the water. Together we got Cass onto one end of the over-sized sectional in the middle of the sitting area.
“I’ll get water.” I turned, shrugging out of my jacket and placing it over a bar stool at my island. I collected water for Evan and Cass from my fridge.