Hoping for Love Read Free Page B

Grace alone in the corner waiting for him. “Well, here goes nothing.”
    “Best of luck, my intrepid friend.”
    “Bite me.” Evan shouldered his guitar, finished his beer in one big swallow and steeled himself to deal with a devastated woman he barely knew and a calculating woman he knew all too well.
     
    By the time Evan finally made his way over to her, Grace had begun to shiver in the cool breeze blowing in from the Salt Pond. Along with everything else she’d brought on their trip, Trey had taken her jacket, too.
    “Ready?” Evan asked when he reached her table.
    Grace’s stomach knotted with nerves, but since her options were limited, she nodded and stood. “Thank you for the drinks and snack.”
    “No problem. Are you up for a short walk up a long hill?”
    “Sure, that’s fine.”
    “So how did someone nice like you end up with a guy who’d ditch you on an island without any of your stuff?”
    “That is a very long story.”
    “We’ve got nothing but time. First boat off the island isn’t for about eight hours.”
    Sighing, she glanced up at a sky polluted with stars. “It all began in fourth grade when he moved into my neighborhood. I’ve basically been in love with him ever since—or I thought I was until I saw his true colors. Tonight was our tenth date, and in all the time I spent with him, I never knew…”
    “What didn’t you know?”
    “That he was an
asshole
. I nursed a crush on him for
decades
, and I had no idea that he was an
asshole
. How did I miss that?”
    Evan smiled at her. “I’m shocked to hear that language coming from such a sweet face,” he said with mock dismay.
    Damn if that didn’t make her blush. “I’m sorry. Swearing is one of my character flaws.”
    “Is that so. What’re some of the others?”
    “Inappropriate laughter.”
    “Seriously? Give me an example.”
    “At my aunt’s wake, my holy-roller cousin gets up and acts like a priest, leading us all in prayer. My other cousin, who is truly evil, makes a face at me, and the next thing I know, I’m bent in half, sweating from the effort to contain the laughter.”
    “I’d like to see that,” he said, seeming delighted by her confession.
    “Weddings, funerals, bat mitzvahs. You name it, I’ve had a laughter incident. I’m sort of known for it in my family.”
    “Well, it’s better than being known as a drunk or a drug addict or something like that.”
    “I suppose that’s true, but drunks and addicts can go off on benders by themselves, and the whole family doesn’t have to witness their misbehavior.”
Nothing like being the fat girl with a laughter problem
, she thought but didn’t say.
    “There is that.”
    “What are some of your character flaws?”
    He seemed taken aback by the question. “Who says I have any?”
    She rolled her eyes at him. “Get real.”
    “Gee, let’s see. It’s actually a rather long list.”
    “The first boat doesn’t leave until eight,” she reminded him.
    Laughing, he turned around to walk backward in front of her as they made their way up the hill. “First, there’s ambition. I’m told I have too much of it.”
    “That’s not always a
bad
thing.”
    “See? That’s what I think, too. But I’ve been told, by
people
, that my ambition tends to run my life.”
    “Well, since you’ve got a CD coming out from an actual record company, it looks like all that ambition is finally paying off.”
    “Yes, it is,” he said, seeming pleased by what she’d said. “I’ve been rather single-minded the last few years. That’s why it’s good to be home for a while. I’ve got nothing to do but wait until late November when my disk drops. Since I’ll be touring all next summer, I won’t get back here for a while, so I’m trying to enjoy it while I can.”
    “Under normal circumstances, that include having clothes, money and a place to stay, I’d imagine this is a rather lovely place to be stuck for a while.”
    He nodded in agreement. “My brothers