Free Steel and Lace (Lace Series) by Adriane Leigh Page A

air crackled with energy between us and I wondered if he felt it too. I didn't want to let go of his hand. I wanted to run my fingers through his perfectly tousled hair. I wanted to place my other hand along the sharp angle of his jaw and feel the stubble beneath my fingertips. 
    "Hey Eva, are you ready? Everyone who's anyone has come and gone," Cate bounced up to me and then froze in her tracks when she spotted Carter and my hands locked. "Uh… hi, I'm Cate Evans," she stretched her hand out to Carter. His eyes flicked away from mine and he nodded in her direction. 
    "Well Evangeline, despite that fact that you may have ruined my favorite suit, I hope to see you again," Carter flashed me a half smile. “Ms. Evans," he nodded at Cate and then he dropped my hand and with that Carter Morgan was gone. I was left standing dumbstruck, my heart pounding furiously in my chest. 
    "Well, that was intense," Cate turned to follow him with her eyes. 
    "Yeah," the breath I was holding whooshed out of my chest. I felt part relief that he was gone and I could breathe again, and a yearning for him to return and live inside the sparks of energy that bounced between us. 
    "So what did he say?" Cate looked at me. 
    "Nothing," I frowned, trying to discern what had just happened.
    "Nothing?" Cate raised an eyebrow at me as if I were withholding information. 
    "Really, nothing. His name. He said that it was a great view. Really, nothing," my eyes shifted to the path he'd taken in retreat. 
    "Well, he is something isn't he?" Cate said wistfully. 
    "That he is," I shook off the intense energy he seemed to leave behind. "Ready?" I looped my arm in Cate's and we headed for the door and the cool New England night beyond. 

Two

    The next morning I walked to the the local café around the corner from our South End apartment. Cate worked as a fashion designer and was impossibly loud when she was in the midst of one of her creative phases. George Michael bouncing off the walls of our apartment wasn't something I was necessarily opposed to, just when I was trying to get work done.
    I'd only been able to justify taking a week off to move from Amherst where Cate and I had attended UMASS together, so while I was mostly unpacked, I was not settled. Nonetheless my bank account was straining under a tight budget, so I needed to commit some hours today to working. I was good at writing and had a love for fashion, so I counted myself lucky to be working as an editor for a popular fashion website.
    I spotted a quiet table in the corner of the busy coffee shop and bee-lined to drop off my bag before ordering my customary large vanilla soy latte. I was so intent on getting to my little corner of secluded coffee shop heaven that I wasn't paying attention and knocked shoulders with another java patron.
    "Eva! How are you?" Cate's brother Sawyer wrapped me in an awkward, one-armed hug.
    "Hey! I’m good. Had to escape the apartment; Cate's in a creative mood." He gave me a knowing smile. "Are you coming or going? Join me."
    "Sure," Sawyer put down his messenger bag. "Large vanilla soy latte, right?" I nodded with a smile. Sawyer and I had dated through high school and into college. Cate was my best friend growing up in upstate New York and it wasn't until we turned 16 that I noticed Sawyer as something other than Cate's little brother. He was only a year behind us, so he fit in well with our crowd. We were inseparable until Cate and I went to UMASS for college. Sawyer and I tried to make a long distance relationship work, but it became too stressful, and as it turned out, Sawyer had trust issues. I broke it off before I'd even made it through my freshman year. The following year I suspected Sawyer followed us to UMASS to try to rekindle our relationship, but it never worked. Now we were all graduated and living in Boston. Things were still marginally awkward between Sawyer and I, but for Cate's sake we managed to remain friendly.

    Sawyer returned a few