“Oh my God, Evelyn,” she exclaimed, using the full name Evie hated while pressing a hand to the boob job she’d clearly had done in the past few years. “Just look at you!”
Her cousin left that passive-aggressive comment hanging, because it could have gone a few different ways . . . that Evie looked good (mmm, probably not what she’d been going for), or she looked fat (that wouldn’t have been the first time she’d said as much), or she just looked plain and boring. Evie was pretty certain that Raquel hadn’t meant it in a flattering way, but to their family standing around, she really hadn’t said anything derogatory, either.
Eric slid his arm around Evie’s waist and pulled her close to his side. “She looks pretty fantastic, wouldn’t you say?” he replied.
Raquel blinked at him, startled by the direct question that forced her to answer. “I, uh, yes, of course.”
“I’m Eric Miller, Evie’s boyfriend,” he said, not bothering with the pleasantries of extending his hand. “And you are?”
Raquel gave him one of those sultry smiles that never failed to turn men to idiots in her presence. “I’m her cousin Raquel.” Again, she looked at Evie, a feigned frown now marring her brows as if she couldn’t exactly pinpoint what had changed . . . probably because nothing major had. “It’s just been so long and you look . . . different.”
There it was again. Different good or different bad?
Eric tightened the arm around Evie’s waist. “You know, love will do that to a person . . . make them look happy and glowing and incredibly sexy.” He said the last part on a low, unmistakably possessive growl while burying his face in Evie’s neck.
Evie shivered as he placed a warm kiss on her skin, enjoying the moment and not caring that he was pouring it on thick, not when her cousin looked so bewildered and confused by his attention on Evie and not her.
Graham joined them, holding the small plate of various fruits Raquel had sent him for. His gaze met Evie’s, and she was surprised to see a glimmer of regret in his eyes before he blinked and it was gone. “Hi, Evie. It’s good to see you.”
He sounded like he meant it, but she couldn’t say the same. “Hi, Graham. This is my boyfriend, Eric Miller.”
The two shook hands civilly, but Evie didn’t miss the way Graham sized up Eric, which was ridiculous since he had zero rights to her anymore.
“I’m sure your mother told you that we’re engaged,” Raquel announced gleefully, thrusting her left hand out in front of Evie’s face for her to see the huge rock on her finger.
Evie waited for her stomach to twist with any kind of negative emotion, but there was nothing. She wasn’t envious. She wasn’t angry. And there were no regrets. She honestly didn’t care about these two and it was a liberating feeling.
“She did tell me,” Evie replied, casting her gaze from her cousin to Graham, who looked incredibly uncomfortable with the conversation. “Congratulations. To the both of you.”
Graham shifted on his feet, as if he wanted to be anywhere but there at the moment. But his fiancée wasn’t done trying to get under Evie’s skin.
Raquel gave her a look that was just shy of being pitiful. “Evelyn—”
“It’s Evie,” she interrupted, her tone firm and insistent. Her cousin’s use of Evie’s full, old-fashioned name, which she’d been given after her grandmother, was nothing more than a tactic to subtly put her down, and she was tired of being bullied. “Not Evelyn. Evie.” Nobody, not even her parents, called her Evelyn.
“Oh. Okay,” Raquel said, as if she’d been the offended one. “You don’t have to get upset about it. I’ve always called you Evelyn.”
“I know.” She gave her cousin an uncompromising smile. “But from this second forward, it’s Evie.”
A slow crawl of pink tinged Raquel’s cheeks, and Evie couldn’t remember ever seeing her cousin embarrassed before. Then again, it was the first time she’d ever put Raquel in her place . . . and damn, it felt good. As for Graham, instead of reeling in his fiancée, he was staring at the ground like he wanted it to crack open and swallow him whole.
Raquel sighed and quickly shifted gears. “I know this situation can’t be easy for you.”
Oh, her cousin definitely didn’t want it to be easy, that was for sure. “Why would you say that?” Evie asked, sounding confused.
“Well . . . because of your past with Graham, and him now being engaged to me—”
“Raquel,” Graham said, cutting her off with a warning in his voice, proving that maybe he did have a little bit of a backbone when it came to her.
Her cousin crossed her arms over her ample chest and gave Graham an irritable look. “Well, I just don’t want this weekend to be awkward.”