Free Nyght's Eve by Laurie Roma Page A

settle down.
Hence, the walk.”
    “Mind if I join you?”
    Evie paused, acutely aware that he was still
holding onto her shoulders. She wanted to say she was done and go back to her
house, but something had her agreeing. “Sure.”
    He let go of her slowly, and they began
walking around the pond, enjoying the cool night air now that the heat of the
sun was gone. All four dogs trotted with them, darting ahead happily, then
coming back to join their little group. They walked a few minutes in silence
and Evie was surprised how comfortable she was having him as company despite
the fact he made her a little nervous.
    She tried to stop herself from peeking up at
him, but she just couldn’t help herself. He really was a good-looking man. His
stoic expression made his strong features look even harsher, reminding her of a
warrior of old. It was fitting, since he was a soldier. She quickly glanced
away, but seeing something out of the corner of her eye had her turning back. “Why
do you have a paper towel wrapped around your arm?”
    “What? Oh, I stopped by Ink This today.”
    She wanted to ask him to show her what he’d
gotten done. Since the bandage was around the same area of his barbed wire
tattoo she assumed he had added on to it. Now wanting to pry, she settled on
asking, “Was Niki working today?”
    “Yeah, she’s...something.”
    Chuckling, Evie nodded. “That she is.”
    “Is that where Hammer’s mom and your uncle
live?” Dare asked as they walked toward the small house on the other side of
the pond.
    “Yes. We’ve missed them around here, but my
cousins and I gave them a two week cruise to Alaska for Christmas and we
finally convinced them to take it. They’re flying to Hawaii for a few days
after the cruise before they come home.”
    “Must be nice, being surrounded by family.”
    “It is,” she agreed. “When Uncle Tony and the
others moved here, we decided we all wanted to stay close. It’s nice having
everyone close by, even though we all have pretty different schedules.”
    “I noticed Francesca and Beckett haven’t been
around much.”
    “Beckett works at the animal clinic in town
half the week, and Francesca is in Las Vegas right now. She’s a romance author
and every year she meets up with some of her writer friends she doesn’t get to
see too often.”
    “A group of romance authors in Vegas?” Dare
grinned. “Now why does that sound like trouble?”
    She laughed. “It is. She takes a lot of trips
doing research for her books since she writes a lot of romantic suspense. She’s
the only one of us that got bit with a case of wanderlust.”
    “She goes on these trips alone?”
    “Most of the time. But sometimes she goes
with another author friend of hers who is even more crazy than she is. I don’t
even want to think about the mischief those two can get into.”
    Evie looked toward her house as the outside
lights came on automatically, like beacons of welcome against the coming night.
It wasn’t just her home.
    It was her sanctuary.
    Dare frowned. “Not that I don’t like your new
house, because I do, but why not just stay in the plantation house? Why build a
new home and make that one into a boarding house?”
    Evie couldn’t help but stiffen at his
question. “That place holds some bad memories for me.”
    He seemed to wait to see if she would explain
her cryptic statement, but she didn’t. It wasn’t something she liked talking
about. Ever.
    As if understood, he changed the subject. “So,
what happened today?”
    Evie relaxed a bit, glad to talk about
anything but her past. “It was just a couple of stupid teens. They decided to
ditch school yesterday and went out hiking. We get a lot of hikers in the area.
He thought he’d get laid, but what he ended up with was a broken ankle.”
    “Bummer.”
    Amused, she bumped his side. “I’m sure you
know how that goes.”
    “A guy can hope.”
    That made her smile. “Anyways, he couldn’t
walk and she was too freaked out to