A Hard Man to Love Read Online Free Page B

her.
     
    ****
     
    “So what are you going to do?”
    Back at her apartment, Eva sat in the cushiony armchair positioned across from the sofa where her best friend and roommate sat. Kallie tucked a lock of brunette hair behind her ear and screwed up her face into a concerned frown. Kallie’s first roommate had moved in with her boyfriend, paving the way for her and Eva to move in together to save money after Eva lost her full-time job.
    After Derrick left, Eva worked a six-hour shift with Ms. Elsie, automatically performing her duties of putting up the sales displays, ringing up customers, and folding and refolding clothes on the tables. The monotony of the tasks provided the type of familiarity she needed to get her through the day, but she had left the store in a semi-dazed state.
    “I don’t know,” Eva said wearily. “I can’t believe I got myself into such a mess.”
    Kallie folded her feet under her on the sofa. “You didn’t get pregnant on your own. It takes two.”
    “I know, but still . . .”
    “It could be worse.”
    She looked at her roommate. “How could it possibly be worse?”
    “He could be completely uninterested in your child, which is what you originally thought. Now we know the truth. Or, he could be some loser who has nothing to offer. Derrick has money, and he wants to take care of this baby.” She shrugged.
    “He doesn’t just want to take care of her, Kal. He wants to take her from me if I don’t agree to marry him.” She rubbed her hand across her brow. “I didn’t see this coming. He’s not going to budge, either. You should have seen him.”
    Kallie leaned forward. “Before you ended the relationship, you said you had fallen in love with him. What if you could make a go of it? You know, have a real marriage.”
    Eva laughed shortly. “Yeah, right. I romanticized the situation, trying to make our . . . relationship . . . into something it wasn’t.”
    She’d willingly accepted the terms of an open relationship even though she had reservations about it. She didn’t see the harm, especially when they first started seeing each other. Too late, she learned she wasn’t the type of woman who could handle it. In fact, she should have known right from the start, because she fell for him almost immediately, and the night they met remained burned in her memory . . .
     
    ****
     
    Eva and her three girlfriends were having their annual New Year’s Day dinner at their favorite restaurant on the waterfront. Every year they met and shared their goals for the new year and talked each other out of feeling sad about bad decisions from the year before.
    Halfway through the meal, the waitress came over and said, “Ladies, the gentleman over there sent you this bottle of champagne with a wish for you to have a happy new year.”
    They all turned toward the bar, to the man sitting smoking a cigar. He smiled in their general direction, but Eva noticed his eyes lingered on her a fraction longer than the others. Feeling her cheeks get hot, she quickly looked away.
    The waitress started pouring the expensive sparkling wine into glasses. “Let him know we said thank you,” cooed one of her friends, Bev.
    “He’s hot,” Kallie murmured. “Maybe we should invite him over.”
    Their animated conversation changed to whispered speculation about the man at the bar. A few minutes later, the waitress returned.
    “He said he would love it if you come thank him yourself.”
    “Really?” Bev smoothed her fingers over her hair while her girlfriends gasped and whispered in excitement.
    A pang of jealousy worked its way through Eva’s stomach at the thought her friend would get to meet him. His cool stare had intrigued her, and his handsome face had made her heart thump a faster beat.
    “Not you,” the waitress said. “You.”
    It took a minute for Eva to realize she had spoken to her. She’d been focused on her plate. “Me?” she asked in shock. “I didn’t say anything.”
    The waitress