Sweet Southern Nights (Home In Magnolia Bend Book 3) by Liz Talley Page A

try.
    Jake made a face. “I’m letting him sleep in your room.”
    “Don’t you dare,” Eva said.
    “Wait, is he your boyfriend?” Charlie asked, pointing to Jake.
    “No!” they both said in unison.
    Charlie looked from her to Jake and then back to her. “Can I go watch TV?”
    “Sure, the remote’s on the coffee table,” Eva said, nudging the door open with her foot. Charlie slipped inside.
    “I gotta run,” Jake said, his eyes sliding away, something in his expression bordering on embarrassment. It was a characteristic rarely seen in the overconfident man.
    “Okay.”
    Jake started toward his truck but then turned. “Hey, E.”
    She lifted her eyebrows.
    “I want to help you. Uh, be there for you. I don’t know what’s going on in your life, with Charlie and all, but you’re my friend.”
    “I know I am.”
    “You’ll always be my friend, even when you’re pissed at me or things are weird. Okay?”
    “Okay.”
    “So what can I do?”
    Eva hadn’t a clue. At this point with a damaged Charlie under her care and the whole attraction thing for Jake busted wide open, she wasn’t sure she needed Jake around. “I don’t know.”
    “Just give me something, anything I can do to make up for the jackass I’ve been.”
    “You don’t have to do anything. All that...strange stuff between us was just temporary insanity. We’re good. You don’t owe me anything.”
    He crossed his arms.
    “Okay. Fine. How about you come over Friday night? Charlie could use a guy around. He’s been a little light on male influence in his life...unless Claren had someone around I didn’t know about. Which could have happened and scares me to death.”
    Jake crooked his eyebrow questioningly.
    She just shook her head.
You don’t want to know.
    “I can do that,” he said. “What time?”
    “Around six thirty okay?”
    Jake nodded.
    Eva watched him climb into his truck, offering a wave as he backed out. She’d planned to tell Jamison she couldn’t go out with him Friday night, but since Jake had volunteered to help, he could stay with Charlie.
    But then again, maybe she should cancel with Jamison.
    But if she did, then the doctor would think she wasn’t interested. To be honest, she wasn’t sure if she was. Jamison was nice, but almost too nice. Still, he kept her focused on something else besides Jake and the Texas-sized torch she carried for him. Dating Jamison made her look less interested, less desperate for the warmth of a certain hot-as-hell firefighter.
    “Eva!” Charlie called.
    She jerked her thoughts off the men in her life...well, sorta in her life...and went in to the male who’d be the center of her world for at least the next few months.
    Charlie sat on the couch, frowning at the TV. Eva glanced at the screen and nearly screamed. Two naked people rolled around in bed.
    “I can’t get this to work. I wanna watch Nickelodeon.”
    Eva jerked the control out of his hand, fumbling for the button that would turn the channel.
    Where was the damn guide button?
    “What are those two people doing with their clothes off?”
    “Nothing,” she moaned, jabbing at the off button but missing and hitting the menu button. The screen shrank, but the two actors were still moaning and saying really, really inappropriate things.
    “Is he hurting her?” Charlie asked, scooting forward and squinting at the left corner where some actress was pretending to have an orgasm. “She sure is screaming.”
    Eva ignored his question, finally hitting the correct button. The TV went dark. “There.”
    “You turned it off,” he said, looking at her as if she’d stomped on a baby bird or something.
    “Yes, because I wanted to show you around. I fixed up your room and bought you some new jeans and stuff. Don’t you want to come see?”
    He made a face. “All you bought was clothes?”
    “And some books,” she offered.
    “Books?” he repeated, wrinkling his nose.
    Eva sighed and set the remote on the table. In the span