Haunted by the past

Chapter Twenty One

A/N The final encounter! Thanks to Someone_2_lost for the awesome cover! Thanks all for reading!

Evan shook his head slowly, "scheming women, hey?" He drank in her smile, her wide happy eyes, her glowing face and it gave him great pleasure.

Maddie smiled meekly, "I kind of felt I needed an in. I didn’t deserve to just walk in and expect you to speak to me, Adele asked me to bring the flowers..."

He was still staring at her, not knowing what this all meant, but so happy to just see her. “You are always welcome in my life Maddie, you know that, anytime.”

                “L’Homme Nouveau? The New Man?” There were tears in her eyes as she stared around the room, “I love what you’ve done.”

He smiled nervously, “finishing this project, hell if I hadn’t met you I may never have started it. It’s all made me a new man...then there’s your name of course, it was a silent homage to you. If you hadn’t pushed me I’d never have done this, never have had the confidence to start, you know?”

She nodded, “it’s brilliant here, I’m so happy for you. And you open tonight?”

Grimacing he hated acknowledging the nerves that grumbled in his stomach at the thought, “I can’t remember being this nervous ever before!”

Smiling Maddie turned back from studying the room to look at him again, “that’s because this is so special to you. Important things make you more involved as you have more to lose.”

He sighed, he’d lost so much recently, this was all still so surreal.

                “You paid my rent...”

His head snapped up at her words, “I wanted you to have the chance to recover; it was something small, really.”

She shook her head, “no, it was very generous; I understand I’ve been fully paid during my absence too...that wasn’t in my contract.”

                “Maddie, you’ve been injured, you couldn’t work...”

Smiling she tilted her head to the side and studied him, “you are a very kind man, I’m lucky to have ever met you.”

He shrugged, a little embarrassed at her attention, “you look amazing...healthy." In reality she was more than that, her eyes were glowing, as was her skin, her hair.  It was a stark contrast to the last time he saw her, pale and lank in her hospital bed.

She nodded, "I am good, I still need crutches, but the bones are healing." She limped to the nearest chair and sat down. He pulled out the chair next to her, turned it around, then sat resting his elbows on the seat back, his eyes not leaving hers.

                “That’s great news; I mean you’re walking well.”

Nodding she continued, “But the bones or the working were never really the issue Evan, I know that. I really need to explain things to you."

Reaching out he squeezed her hand, and they both flinched at the sizzle that the touch brought, "you don’t have to explain anything to me."

                "But I do!" she took a deep breath, trying not to melt into his warm eyes. “I have lived in fear for years, and to be honest you I don’t know what exactly I was scared of, no one could hurt me more than I was already hurt. But I thought I could manage, compartmentalise, ignore things. That night, the one of the accident I was desperate to tell you that I wanted to move in, that you were right. But then Jake was there. I don’t know why. He told my family that I pestered his work to find him, but that’s another lie. I just turned a corner and he was there, and I was petrified. I was immediately back in my teens and I didn’t know what to do, so I was back to running away...again.”