Eve couldn’t remember the last time she had sat in café, just enjoying her time there. She thought it might have been back in college, when she would go to the cafeteria to study. Now, she had gotten back in the habit, and she was loving it. What she loved even more was that it was Lind sitting across from her, sipping black coffee.
Eve didn’t know much about overwhelming, all-consuming feelings. She had heard about them, but she had never experienced them for herself. Until now. She relished the overwhelming, all-consuming qualities of the bubbling joy brought on by simply spending time with a man she was in love with, for a change.
Back when she was trying to nurse her broken heart by attempting to drown it in work that she hated, Eve had dreamed about this kind of ordinary. She had dreamed about the everyday things. She had wanted nothing more than to do something absolutely meaningless with Lind, like hanging out drinking coffee. She had dreamed of building an everyday life with him. They were building it now, slowly but surely, and they were doing it together.
Togetherness was also something Eve wasn’t quite familiar with. She was used to being able to count on herself only. She didn’t think the relationship she’d had in the past could be counted as emotionally mature. She was learning now how to be in one, and she was enjoying this learning curve immensely.
She wasn’t surprised to discover that Lind wasn’t that much more experienced when it came to sharing himself on an emotional level. He had spent his whole life guarding himself against others. Eve had, too, albeit in a different way. The result was that they were both learning, and she liked that they were both out of their element and finding their way together.
“What should we bring tonight?” she asked, her thoughts shifting to that night’s dinner. Everyday life. She loved it.
Lind looked at her as if she had just asked him whether they should go to China. “What do you mean?”
“To your friend’s house,” she clarified. “What should we bring? Do they drink wine?”
Lind shrugged. “I guess. But you really don’t have to bring anything, you know?”
“I want to,” Eve said. “It’s only polite.”
Lind grinned. “Whatever you say, princess,” he teased.
“Jerk,” she said, punching his arm playfully and instantly leaning over to sweeten the blow with a kiss.
Lind kissed her back as passionately as it was decent to do in a public place, and then he finally released her. “Red wine is fine,” he said as an afterthought.
Eve nodded. “Good.”
She felt a pang of nervousness at the thought of the night that awaited them. Alec was finally out of the hospital. Lind had mended his relationship with him, as well as with the rest of the Diamondbacks, so much so that he had admitted to them that he and Eve were now a tentative item. As a result, Alec had invited them over to their house for dinner.
Lind shifted in his seat, and that’s when Eve realized that she may not be the only one to be anxious.
“Are you nervous?” she asked.
Lind grimaced. “A little,” he admitted.
“Should I be nervous?”
“You? Why should you be nervous?”
Eve shrugged. “Well…your friend isn’t exactly the easiest person to get along with.”
Lind laughed. “Don’t mind Alec, sweetheart. It’s all an act. He’s a good guy, really.”
“Oh, that much I noticed when he ran after me to try and prevent me from getting killed despite him not liking me very much,” Eve said with a smile.
She was surprised at how easy the words came to her mouth. For weeks she had been unable to go anywhere near the subject of what had happened with Gary; the whole thing still gave her nightmares. But she knew that, in order for them to move forward, she had to force herself to move past it. So, she had begun to talk about it, and now she even found herself making jokes. She took it as a very good sign.
“Are you worried they might not like you?” Lind asked.
Her eyes widened. She hadn’t even thought about that. “Now I am.”
“Sorry,” Lind offered, grinning. “Don’t worry; they’re going to love you.”
Eve took a long sip from her latte. “I hope so,” she said, frowning worriedly.
Lind gave her a reassuring smile, and she instantly felt calmer.
God, but she was hopeless. She had never been so smitten in her whole life. Everything about Lind drove her crazy. It wasn’t just about his perfect body, or his impossibly blue eyes, or his killer smile—all of which admittedly did not hurt. It was everything about him. It was his character. It was his sensible nature, which he hid so carefully but never carefully enough. It was his hotheaded side. It was his sharp mind and his sense of humor. He had plenty of it, and it was a refreshing kind of humor that never failed to make her laugh. She loved that about him.
Not for the first time, Eve found herself wondering how she ever lived without Lind. She tried to imagine her life without him in it, and she failed. It had only been a few weeks since she had kicked Alan out of her life, but she was already loving the small bits of routine they had managed to establish for themselves. She proud of them both for doing that.
She loved their brunches together. She loved sitting with Lind in small cafés and having long conversations over a cup of caffeine. She loved watching movies with him at night, curled up together on her white couch. She loved it when they slept together without doing anything else; she loved the new intimacy of it. She even loved doing boring things like going grocery shopping with him. With Lind, even that task was never boring.
She loved everything about Lind Addams, and she was never going to let him out of her life ever again. With him, she could be herself. She wasn’t entirely sure who she was, now that her whole life was turned upside down, but Lind was helping her figure it out. And Eve loved him for it.