Despite leaving hastily, Evie could not deny that Stacy had gorgeous blue eyes. In all honesty, she wouldn’t mind seeing him again. But, the prospect of going out with him and beginning something of that nature scared her to death. James had been her first real boyfriend. They’d met when she was nineteen years old and still doing her internship at the hospital. Back then, he had been working for his uncle as a construction worker and their company had been contracted to build a new wing of the hospital. Two short years later they’d gotten married, and a year after that they had their son Jamie. And as twisted as fate would have it, James died one week after their sons birth.
To be frank, there was never anyone else but James. Even though her mother and Anna continually tried to get her to start dating again, she didn’t want to. Men had somewhat become non-existent to her; they took a backseat to her pain. However, this Officer Stacy Walsh, peaked her interest—and she didn’t know why. She smiled to herself thinking about how nervous he seemed asking to see her again. She even liked how he constantly ran his hands through his unruly brown hair, making it even messier. Evie couldn’t believe her thoughts. Was it completely crazy that the first man she had taken notice of since James’ death was a cop?
That evening as Evie relaxed on the sofa watching the news with her mother, having finally gotten Jamie to sleep, her mother asked her if she could invite Linda Headley’s grandson over for dinner next week.
Evie grunted and looked at her mother who, in this moment, was resting comfortably in the easy chair off to the side of her.
“Mama, I’m not going out with some strange man I’ve never met.”
“You wouldn’t be going out with him; he’d be coming over here,” her mother insisted.
“Mama, please don’t push this issue.”
“Evie baby, I just think that…”
“I met someone,” Evie blurted out.
Her mother’s mouth dropped open. The look on her face was absolutely priceless, but she knew she was going to have to fess up now. She hadn’t meant to say anything. She didn’t even know if she would ever see Stacy again, let alone go out with him. She’d just uttered the first thing that popped into her mind that she knew would get her mother to shut up.
“Oh, really? And where did you meet this someone?” her mother finally asked.
Evie looked into her mother’s eyes and could see how they had started to slightly narrow in disbelief.
“Um, well, you remember when I ended up staying late at work like a week ago?”
Madeleine, Evie’s mother, nodded.
“Well, there was a police officer with this kid who had a gunshot wound. He brought him into the ER for medical care. I ended up running into him again at Gabriel’s during my lunch break today, and he sort of asked me out. He seemed like a nice man.”
When Evie finished her statement, she watched her mother closely for a response, but all she got was a soft smile.
“Well now, a police officer? Isn’t that interesting?”
“I don’t hate them all because of what happened to James, Mama. It’s not like he was one of the officers who shot him.”
“I know that,” her mother said. “I raised you better than that. So, what is his name?”
“It’s Stacy, Stacy Walsh.”
“What is his name?” Madeleine asked again for clarity.
“Stacy Walsh.”
Evie watched as her mother sucked in a deep breath and wore a look of perplexity on her face. But, as soon as the look came, it was gone and replaced once again with a soft smile.
“What’s the matter? Why did you look like that when I said Stacy’s name?” Evie asked.
“Look like what? I didn’t look like anything,” Madeline quickly said. “So what does Stacy look like?”