Irresistibly Strong by Victoria Pinder

Author:Victoria Pinder [Pinder, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Victoria Pinder

Chapter 11

How in the world could Eva earn Jake’s trust and love?

The question haunted her but at the same time, she'd caused all her own troubles. She knew it. And nothing she’d done so far would fix her mess.

She needed a clue on what to do next.

Eva smoothed her white dress with pink flowers printed on the fabric. The next morning, after sleeping in, she was ready to go to a tea party like some fancy lady, but she was a fraud.

Everyone upstairs knew it.

She headed out of the bedroom and knocked on Jake’s office door. She leaned against the frame and spoke when he looked at her from his desk. “Jake, the women are all having tea soon. I’ve decided not to go.”

He stood and walked around his desk to her. She straightened and he kissed her forehead. “Go and make friends with my brother’s wives.”

She closed her eyes and told him quietly why her heart skipped. “But they know I held back.” Every time they'd shared and wanted to help the Bentleys, she'd listened but hadn't offered a peep. Caitlyn and Lois had smiled the other day, but honestly they had no reason to like her. She hadn’t been nice to them when they'd revealed who they were. She’d hidden when they’d needed support because she too was a fraud.

A fraud in love so they knew exactly how she felt.

He squeezed her arms and she longed for him to just hold her. She opened her eyes as he said, “You had your reasons, but I need our family to work, and that means that you ladies all need to get along.”

Right. Her stomach churned. All of them might line up and take turns chiding her for being prickly and quiet. She could imagine the laughter the Bentley wives might have in store for her.

The tightness in her gut tempted her to go and hide in her room.

But Jake wanted his family to work, with her in it--she had to march upstairs and face the firing squad. This wouldn’t be the first time she’d had to find that fire inside her, so she nodded at him in salute and said, “I’ll be back.”

He winked at her like all was well. “Good, because when I get news from Hoskell, or anything about Natasha, we'll need to talk.”

Nothing else flashed in her mind that might be useful to him. She’d fetched Natasha coffee full of sugar but no cream, or made photocopies without reading anything. If she had, maybe she’d know more now. Eva stepped out of his office and said, “I’ll be back before Emily gets home.”

He followed her and kissed her cheek. “We’ll all have tea together at three.”

“Your family drinks a lot of tea.” She headed toward the door and slipped on her shoes as Jake grabbed a sandwich from his kitchen to take back to his office so he could work on a corporate merger he’d been hired to handle.

She straightened her shoulders and marched out.

For months, she’d sat in a corner and not known what to say at these weekly get-togethers.

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