River of sin

10. You do not need anymore time

When Jacob woke the next morning alone in his bed after sleeping through, he sighed loudly, feeling disappointed. He looked across to see the same sight he'd seen three years ago, his folded shirt neatly placed on the side, no jovial sweet note this time, he checked his ring, sighing relieved it was still placed on his pinkie, he twiddled with it spinning it around his finger, closing his eyes to calm himself. The room still smelt of her, his bed sheets, his pillow, the air, they all smelt of the girl that still intrigued and confused him. Comforted him. He picked up the shirt smelling it deeply.

"Not the scent of a little girl anymore, my little Evie" he whispered rubbing his fingers on the fabric.
"I would hope not" he looked up to see Yvonne bringing in tea "I have to go soon" she explained
"In broad daylight? Would it not be better to stay till nightfall? Safer? I thought you left before it got light."
"We slept in. Apparently we both needed a good nights sleep. Your family will be arriving soon and you have work no doubt."
"Stuff it. I'll delegate for the day. Perk of being the boss. Please. Stay."
"Jacob...."
"Don't say it" he warned "just don't"
"Our friendship is....fragile."
"I'm about to make it more so" he stood up looming over her

"You don't intimidate me, Jacob"
"Good, I don't want to. Why are you here, Evie?"
"First place I wanted to be, stepping off that boat. Yours was the only face I wanted to see......I'm a Barnes. A little girl. You're...."
"You're not a little girl anymore, Evie!" He said firmly "screw Barnes and Evans. Our friendship doesn't have surnames! Remember! Three years, Evie! It's been over three blooming years yet here you are, why?"
"If you didn't want me to stay...."
"I was the one that asked you to."

He broke away angrily, going to the window, running his fingers through his hair frustrated.
"Jacob" Yvonne spoke softly "when I left.....I was a young girl in love with a man that did not look at me the same way I did him."
He snapped his face up to watch her, her words surprising and intriguing him.
"The odds were....I was just a young girl, it was just a stupid infatuation."
"You wouldn't be standing here in my room if that were true. You would not have sent me that letter or that photograph, you would not have wrote to my Gran and asked of me, you would have just walked away." He stared her down "is there someone else? In America?"
"Yeah" she laughed, his face turning sour "my out of control twin bother." She laughed, cracking him, making him laugh with her. "Are we jealous per chance, mr Evans?"
"And if I were?" He asked "I said I wouldn't touch a sixteen year old. You're nineteen now. Becoming a women in your own right." He looked her up and down "you ain't no little girl no more, Yvonne Barnes. Holding you against my chest last night, I could tell you weren't."

"What's that supposed to mean exactly!" She stated outraged
"Oh my little Evie, no darling. I ain't implying nought. I mean" he wafted his hands at her body "you've....matured. In the all the right places I might add. You looked mature at sixteen but now you're...."
"Behave" she rolled her eyes playfully tutting him.
"So no one? In America?" He watched her shake her head "has there been?" She shook her head again"anyone tried?"
"A few. Been on a few awful dinner dates my brother set me up on." She scoffed "you? Or shouldn't I ask mr Evans. With a reputation like yours."
"And what does my little miss Evie know of my reputation with women?"
"Plenty" she looked away self consciously

"None have had my heart" he walked over whispering in her ear again. "I won't lie. I've paid for services since I've been back from war...since you left. Few I haven't had to pay." He rubbed her arms softly "it's a man's need, darling."
"I'm well aware of men's needs" she shrugged him off
"Look at me....look at me, Yvonne!" He Demanded, grabbing her arm to turn her around, seeing her flinch away from him fearfully "you don't need to do that." He softened. "Not ever. Not with me. Don't flinch away from me, little darling." He held her face firmly but tenderly "you tell me you're feeling what I am then that's it. The others are in the dust. They won't even get my money. I'm a fiercely loyal man. You were a little girl when you left. I....I didn't feel what I feel now. I felt something, a connection, something but not this."

"And what is it that you feel now exactly, mr Jacob Evans?"
"I still don't know" he grinned smugly "And little darling I don't think you do either. You want this. I know you do. I can see it in your eyes. You shouldn't want this but you do. Same as me."
"Promise me I'm not a pawn in your game, Jacob." She whispered, lightly placing her hands on his bare chest
"Never. I'll admit I thought of pairing you off with Harrison back when you were sixteen and seventeen, simply to piss off your father. This ain't that. I ain't taken this off in over three years....because it's all that calms me. The thought of you is all that calms me. You got in my head and no woman ever gets in my head. Ever. I don't know why you did, why you make me feel like this, why you.....why you feel like home, why you feel like the only thing that's been right since I came back without him but I want to find out. three years for a man like me to be attached to a girl after a single platonic night is a big deal" He held up his pinkie twiddling the ring with his thumb "so....stay. I'll take you back when it gets dark. Spend the day with me, then if tonight you want to keep this strictly professional...strictly friends, then that's what we'll be. Walk away, no hard feelings. I can't get you out of my head, not for three years, now you're back and my heads bloody scrambled."

Silence descended the room, the sound of the family arriving downstairs in the background. Jacob ran his thumb across her bottom lip, watching her face intently "Evie?" He asked "in this here room it's just you and me. Just Jacob and Evie. You can trust me. You know you can. You wouldn't have come here last night if you didn't....I saw you at the graveyard."
"I had hoped to be back for the funeral. I got waylaid. News of her passing took some time to reach me. I was hoping the delay in her regular letters was not what I feared. I was on the first boat I could get on. I'd been stalling my fathers request for me to return for months. I should have come home when he first demanded, I should have been here."
"Gran would understand. Probably not safe for you to be there anyway. Barnes at an Evans funeral, especially my Gran who it all started with, would have caused havoc. On both sides."

"It wasn't the funeral I wanted to be here for. It was you. To hold you. Care for you in your grief. Love you, to heal your broken heart, I know what she meant to you. I also knew....you needed me." She looked up at him "mr hard man that can't crack under pressure, show his emotions, show any sign of weakness, until he's alone in this here room. Like Maggie told me. She told me all about you."
"Then you got a head start on me, little darling."
"I promised her I would come back for you when I was older, when I was old enough for you to see me as more than a little girl, she said when I did we would both see what she did, bubbling under the surface between us, I thought I had more time."
"You do not need any more time. Nineteen is plenty old enough for the thoughts currently running through my mind. Stay. We can stay in here. I'll go tell them not to disturb me. They won't even know it's you in here. I hear Betty, let me go see her, sort her out, then I'll be back. Lock the door. I won't be long. I'll knock five times, don't unlock it otherwise."