Three Men and a Woman: Evangeline (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) by Rachel Billings

“Let’s walk.”
     
    * * * *
     
    Gio had started to remember Kaitlyn a little better. Realizing her relationship with Evvie had put her in context. She’d been kind a waif, and he recalled now that Evvie had taken her under her wing.
    That was entirely like her. She’d grown up acutely observant and aware of what those around her were feeling—her safety sometimes depended upon it—and she had a soft spot for the lonely. She wouldn’t hesitate to take in a sad heart. Like the rest of them, she’d learned that from Shep. And, better than the rest of them, she would put herself out in those circumstances.
    Or maybe it wasn’t a learned behavior. Maybe that was who Evvie was at heart. She had this glow about her, even when she was just a kid.
    It hadn’t been all due to Shep’s influence that the guys had agreed to take her into their group. None of them had ever seen her before, except in that distant way, through binoculars when she was perched forlornly on her front step, or as child too young to matter sitting by herself on the bus.
    But from the first moment Shep had pulled her up into the tree house, when she’d sat in the middle of it, looking around that goofy nest of boyhood, she’d become their center. Their heart.
    She shared that glow them, like a lamp whose light fell indiscriminately on all.
    As the four friends had grown up together, Shep had been their acknowledged leader, their compass. In Gio’s mind, that had been a narrative they all lived with most easily. But to his observation, it had been Evvie who brought them to their best. He knew even Shep had realized it, had seen Shep watching her, basking in that essence of her at the same time he suffered at least a small, human resentment about it.
    She had a depth to her, a soul that was all grace and a natural, calm acceptance. It felt good to be with her, to be in her presence.
    Of course, it didn’t hurt that she out and out adored them. The blessing of her love was no small thing for them—though you’d have to have them by the short hairs to get them to admit a thing like that back in the day.
    Evvie would have done anything for them, given anything. Like she’d given her body on that night of loss.
    He got her down to the beach and happily went to his knees to unfasten those stupid hot girl shoes she wore. It was a little embarrassing to be turned by just that—nudging her ankle as he loosened the strap, brushing the arch of her foot and then her sexy polished toes as he slipped the sandals off. She balanced herself with a hand on his shoulder, and he liked that, too. So did his dick.
    He sent a suppressive message there, took her hand, and walked her toward the sunset. Ontario had been a working lake and still was a reasonably active shipway. A lot of it had been built up, with function in mind rather than beauty. But it was pretty here, the narrow, sandy beach clean and the water blue and clear.
    “I’m sorry about the night of Shep’s funeral, Ev. I’ve always regretted that. Not coming to you, I don’t mean—” He looked over and held that deep, open gaze of hers. “But not going back. Not making sure you were okay.
    “Coming to you was …it was sweet.” Important, he wanted to say. “Something I’ve never forgotten.”
    There was more truth to that than he’d realized until he said it.
    Gio liked women, and they seemed to like him back. Even in high school, he’d gotten a lot of experience. And it wasn’t just girls. Plenty of the women in the community found him attractive.
    When he and his buddies Briggs and Chase bragged about their sexual conquests, he was the one who wasn’t lying.
    He’d never boasted about the night he’d gone to Evvie, though. Never would have, even if they hadn’t been past comparing notches on their bedposts by that point. Mostly.
    That time with Evvie—brief, silent, shadowed in grief and need—had been something different. Something that, surprisingly, stirred him now. Called to