She realized she was ravenous after spending the entire night making love to Drake. Hopefully Maddox and whoever else he brought with him on shopping duty wouldn’t be in a huge hurry. Or maybe she could bribe them with breakfast.
Confident that she could win them over with a home-cooked breakfast, she began pulling out the ingredients and in just a few minutes was manning several skillets.
Fifteen minutes later, Edward buzzed to let her know Maddox was on his way up. A short time after, Maddox stuck his head into the kitchen.
“Oh my God, please tell me there’s enough for me,” Maddox said with a mock groan.
“Forget him,” Justice said, walking by Maddox with a shove. “I love you more, so I should get fed.”
Evangeline laughed and shook her head. “Sit down. All of you. Who else is here or is it just the two of you?”
“Jax and Hartley are downstairs keeping an eye on things,” Maddox said.
“Do we have time to eat, then?” she asked anxiously.
“Sugar, if you made enough for us, you can take as long as you want to,” Justice declared.
She grinned. “Give me five minutes and I’ll serve it up.”
Both men plopped onto stools at the bar with such eager looks that she had to laugh. She shook her head as she began dishing up the omelettes, hash browns and fried ham and bacon. After plating everything, she opened the oven to check on the homemade biscuits and decided they were just perfectly done.
She pulled them out of the oven and then dished up several biscuits onto plates for Justice and Maddox. She placed a plate in front of each and smiled at their reactions.
“I’ve died and gone to heaven,” Maddox breathed.
Evangeline settled into a stool across from Maddox and picked at the food on her plate. It was the first time she’d seen Maddox since that night and she realized she had no idea if he’d gotten into trouble because she’d given him the slip at her girlfriends’ apartment.
Suddenly she wasn’t as hungry as she’d been just earlier, and she pushed her food around with her fork while she waited for the two men to finish.
“Evangeline, what’s wrong?” Maddox asked quietly.
She jumped, startled by his perceptiveness. Then she glanced quickly at Justice, blushing at the thought of having to air this out in front of him. He surprised her, however, by picking up his empty plate and making his way to the sink. Then he sauntered back toward the living room, saying he’d wait for them there.
She glanced nervously in Maddox’s direction, hoping he’d accept her muttered “nothing” as answer enough.
No such luck.
He frowned at her and then to her dismay he walked around to her side of the bar and took her hand.
“What’s bothering you?” he asked bluntly.
He frowned again when he realized how hard she was shaking.
“I’m sorry,” she blurted out. And then she hung her head, no longer able to hold his gaze.
“What the fuck for?”
She flinched at his explosive outburst and tried to pull away, but he gripped her hand tighter and then gently touched her cheek, forcing her to look once more at him.
“Evangeline? What in the hell do you have to be sorry for?”
There was genuine shock and dismay in both his tone and expression.
Her face was on fire and she could have stabbed herself for even bringing the matter up when apparently there had been no need.
She sucked in a deep breath and focused her stare at the area over his right shoulder.
“I’m sorry for sneaking out on you the way I did that . . . night,” she whispered. “I hope you’ll forgive me and I hope you didn’t get into trouble because of what I did.”
His mouth fell open in sheer astonishment, and then his gaze became stormy and black with rage. She shrank back but he pressed more firmly into her space and grasped both her shoulders in his hands.
“Look at me, Evangeline,” he ordered fiercely. He waited until her gaze slowly swung back to him and then his eyes softened. “You have nothing to apologize for, for fuck’s sake. Christ, tell me you haven’t been avoiding me all this time because you were worried I was angry with you.”
She shrugged. “I wasn’t sure. I mean, I didn’t know. It was horrible. I wish that night had never happened.”
To her further dismay, tears slid down her cheeks, leaving a hot trail over her skin. Maddox moved his hands from her shoulders to cup her cheeks, using his thumbs to gently wipe the moisture away from her face.
“Listen to me, sweetheart. No one and I mean not a single one of us is angry with you. We were pissed as hell at Drake for what he did, even though we understand why he did it. But never once did we think any less of you. In no way did you deserve what happened that night, and no one knows that more than Drake. He was unbearable until he found you again and brought you back home. But, honey, listen to me. If he hadn’t gone after you, if he hadn’t decided to close ranks around you and make the threat known that if anyone tried to hurt you in any way, they’d be one dead motherfucker, then one of us would have. Do you understand that? We will never let anything happen to you.”