Eva didn’t do that. She was careful. She stood back and watched. Always wary. Afraid to live too hard. To love…at all.
Her mom had loved, and look what it had gotten her. A life spent missing a man who hadn’t loved her back.
She’d died alone.
Eva squeezed her eyes shut, remembering the burned-out shell of their car. The police had investigated the accident because it just hadn’t made sense for Kathryn to have crashed into a tree on an empty stretch of road. Somewhere that she’d had no business being on a clear, dry afternoon.
Feeling like total shit now, she grabbed her coffee and left the office, roaming through the house once more, rearranging shit that was already perfect. She glanced out the front window and waved at Nick, surprised to see her shy neighbor on his knees weeding the stretch between his yard and hers. She hadn’t taken him for a green thumb.
The ringing of her cell interrupted her meandering and she hurried to the kitchen to snag it off a neatly piled stack of pizza flyers. Feeling too much all at once when she saw it was a private number, she swiped her thumb across the screen and slowly brought it to her ear.
“Hello?”
“Ms. Jacobs?”
“This is she.” She tried not to let her chin hit the countertop as she deflated. It was a female voice.
“It’s Natalie Simms. From TarMor, New York.”
Her spine shot straight. “Oh! Hello, Natalie. How are you?”
“Very well, thanks. I apologize for bothering you on a Sunday, but you had to know as soon as possible that you’ve been chosen for the associate business manager position you interviewed for.”
“Oh, my God.”
The woman chuckled at the completely unprofessional response. “Mr. Tarasov will remain at our offices in Seattle for this final week, then commute between there and New York when necessary. You’re still open to relocating, I hope?”
Was she? “Uh, yes. Yes, of course.” Guess she was. “That’s no problem at all.” She cringed at the lie. Being in New York meant leaving home. Leaving Nika again. And Gabriel. Unless he spent more time in New York than Seattle. But if he ran a hotel here, that seemed unlikely.
And was she seriously considering him in this life decision?
“Perfect. You’ll start tomorrow morning. Mr. Tarasov is expecting you at the office by nine. Do you have a pen and paper handy?”
She grabbed the pen next to the toaster and waited with her hand poised over the notepad on the fridge. “Go ahead.”
Natalie rattled off the office’s address and her new boss’s suite number. She’d spend several hours with him before her HR orientation.
“I suppose that’s all for now. I’ll see you soon, Eva.”
“Thank you so much, Natalie. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the opportunity.” Because I don’t know yet myself.
“You’re welcome. Enjoy your success.”
Eva ended the call with a half-smile that was satisfied but not.
And so it began. No more hypothetical situations. No more what-ifs, and what-would-you-do-in-a-case-like-this’s. She was actually going to be working alongside the CEO of a hugely successful company, learning the complex ins and outs as she aided him with day-to-day operations.
Okay. That was exciting.
She dialed Nika’s number, needing to share.
“ ’lo.”
Another thing she hated about Kevin, he always answered Nika’s cell as if it were his own. “Hey, Kevin.” The friendly note she’d been going for missed by a huge mark. “Is Nika around?”
“Eva,” he drawled. “You haven’t come by since you got home. You too good for us now that you got your fancy degree?” He made it sound like they’d gotten along before, which was ridiculous because any time they’d run into each other, he’d never hidden the fact that he didn’t like her.
“I’ve actually only been home a day or so. Is Nika there?”
“’Course she’s here. Where else would she be?”
She frowned at the continued silence. “May I speak with her, please?”
“Very good,” came the condescending murmur. “Hey! Phone!”
Anger burned in her throat. When was Nika going to admit she’d made a horrible mistake and cut her losses?
There was a shifting and a crackle and then a quiet, “Hi.”
“Hey. How’re things?”
“Dandy.”
Maybe now wasn’t the time to share her good news. “Uh, are you guys busy tonight? I thought maybe we could go out for a bit. Maybe coffee? Or a drink?”
“A drink would be great,” Nika said in a lowered voice, surprising Eva because she’d