A date. She'd accepted Marshall's invitation to dinner, ignoring all the logical warning bells cautioning her not to be so stupid. Reckless. So why hadn't she listened?

For the next two nights Eva was tormented with dreams worthy of a clichéd romantic comedy gone awry. An anxious, neurotic mess, Eva did what she did best when pushed to the limits of her emotional tether.

Digging in the dirt, weeding and tending to her vegetables and flowers, always levelled her mood. And her head. Gave her time to think and mull and, if needs be, forget all together. And in the rare cases when that wasn't enough, she baked.

With muffins already in the oven, elbow deep in her vegetable patch, Eva sang under her breath. Enjoying the process of tending and weeding. Of nurturing, and helping things grow. The tomatoes were coming along nicely. The Brussels sprouts were just about ready for harvesting and the rainbow carrots in another week or so.

As she laboured Skittles and Wiggles loped around her, Hailey's girl, Selena, dozing under the dappled shade of an evergreen. By mid-morning the mess in her head was beginning to clear to soft, distant white noise. In fact, Eva was almost certain she'd entirely overreacted.

Garden watered, the teasing smell of sweet chocolate chips and banana drew her back in to the kitchen. Sliding a tray of muffins out of the oven, she tested the batch with a knife and decided they could use perhaps a minute longer.

Returning the tray to the center rack, she turned off the temperature; leaving them to finish up in the residual heat.

She checked in on Payton and Lucy, enjoying cartoons in the living room and could hear Hailey cloistered in her room, anxious about landing a lead role, running through lines for My Fair Lady

She'd shown such dedication, Eva mused. And over the last couple of weeks Eva had seen a change taking place in her eldest daughter. At first she'd agreed to allowing Hailey to join with the hopes that it would give her an emotional outlet. A way to express and vent her pre-teen emotional angst. She'd never expected that Hailey would develop such a...passion and liking of the dramatic arts.

Carting her mug in one hand, a bowl of cereal in the other, Eva tucked herself in her home office. Laptop fired and ready, she dove into the latest cache of images captured over the last few days with Marshall on the mainland. Contrary to what she'd expected, having him around had been...entertaining.

And insightful.

More than once he'd helped draw her notice to an engaging moment or a pleasing angle. For all his faults, he had an intriguing eye. A keen observer. Further illustrated in his recent article.

She'd read it three times and each time it touched her differently. Deeper. The man had a gift. A way with words. Layering emotion with text the way she did with light and subject.

Beautiful. Poignant.

He could probably write a damn computer manual and still turn a reader into a blubbery, emotional mess. And true to his word, he'd cast the light everywhere else but on her. Bringing front and center the limited edition piece she'd crafted specifically for this feature.

Eva had brought him in for his opinion on which image to roll with, and ultimately his reaction had mirrored hers.

It was a black and white of an older gentleman. Shocking white hair and trimmed beard against the swarthy complexion of his south Asian heritage, the darker spotting of age over the curve of his cheeks. But his eyes, red-veined against milky white orbs, were harrowing.

So much life. And so much pain.

They'd sat with him for two whole hours. Riveted by the life this man had lived, the stories he'd shared, travelling all over the world in honour of the wife whom had been the light of his life before her untimely sickness and death.

Eva flipped through the transcribed notes Marshall had emailed to her until she found the segment that she wanted to use.

I was six when I lost my eyes. I grow up, old and alone. No woman want marry a blind man in my town. So I leave. Come to Canada. There I meet kind woman. Fall in love. Get married. She die six years ago. Now I live alone, again. Only radio for friend. But I not lonely. For a time, I know love. I blessed.

Apparently he lived on the mainland in Vancouver, and had come to Haven for a leisurely weekend with his daughter and her family.

Today's grouping Eva decided to turn to a set she's taken with a couple of young girls, late teens. A lovely bi-racial girl named Ray with plaited hair and her Asian trendy hipster girlfriend, Lou.

The pair of them, together for almost two years, met their senior year of high school. Where Ray's parents knew and were entirely supportive of her lifestyle choices, Lou's apparently were in utter denial. And were determined to see them separated by shipping Lou to Harvard in New York where she'd stay with a maternal Aunt.

But the pair had a plan to leave and take off for Spain at the end of summer. Lou would paint and Ray would get a job at a local bar until the time came when she could open her own little bistro.

Eva stopped at a photograph of their hands linked, fingers twined. The grip strong. Sure. And so confident.

These weren't a couple of impetuous, rebellious teens caught up in a bit of Romeo & Juliet type fanfare. But something strong, rich, and Eva truly believed, everlasting.

This was it, Lou had said. I knew the moment our lips first touched that Ray was all I would ever want. The only one who would ever hold my heart.

And how Eva had envied them that simple, honest truth. To know with such certainty. To have found their other half and to recognize one another for what that meant.

She'd never known or experienced that kind of devotion. Not with Randy, and certainly not with Nate. The two men in her life, if she could call them that, and both had been colossal disappointments.

And now there was Marshall.

Leaning back in her chair, Eva sighed. What the heck was getting herself into? This was Lottie's son, and that made it complicated. For all her bravado about responsible grownups having responsible, no-strings sex, Eva didn't blindly sleep around. And yes, she'd only agreed to dinner, but dinner led to another dinner, and another, which at some point invariably led to sex, didn't it?

Wasn't that how things usually worked between two single, consenting adults who were clearly attracted to one another? The stick, complicated mess of whether or not to sleep with him, when the time came, aside, what the heck was she supposed to do? Say? Wear?

God...did she even have anything in her closet besides ripped jeans?

Realizing she was so far beyond her depth of comfort, Eva did the only thing a girl in her position could think to do, and called her best friend for backup. And because she'd agreed to give Jenelle the week off leading up to the long weekend, she knew the one place Jenelle would be on a Monday morning.

The line rang in long, pulsing notes, but Eva stayed on, persistent, and trusted that eventually she'd give in. And smiled in triumph as Jenelle's sleep raspy voice groaned and grumbled.

"Morning sunshine."

"Why are you calling me at the ass crack of dawn on my week off?"

Eva cocked a wrist, noted the time. "It's after eleven."

"And I never get up before noon when I don't have to work."

Knowing this, and because misery loved company, Eva smiled. "Get up and get your ass over here. I need you."

"Something better be seriously wrong with the twins," she warned, referring to Shawn and Heather, the seasonal part-time help Eva brought in on occasion to cover holiday spikes or vacation coverage.

"The gallery is fine. This is personal."

Jenelle groaned and the rustling of bedding told Eva that she'd only cocooned deeper beneath the covers, stubborn as a kid refusing to get up for school. "Later. Call me later. Sleeping."

"Come on Jen," she said. "I need you. Can you be here in an hour?"

"God...What for?"

"Because..." Rolling her eyes heavenward, Eva sighed. "I want to go shopping. For clothes."

She'd barely finished the magic words when she heard a tumbling thump followed by a sputtering curse before Jenelle sang out a giddy, "I'm on my way," and hastily hung up.

Brows drawn, Eva looked down at the phone in her hand.

I'm probably going to regret this...

#

Almost a staggering six hours later, arms overburdened, Eve and Jenelle returned home with three very happy and exhausted girls. Though the primary focus of the trip into Vancouver's mainland had been about rebuilding Eva's incredibly sparse and barren wardrobe, they'd made a day out of it with lunch at a stunning restaurant followed by ice cream and a stop at kiddie boutique.

If she was going to indulge in purchasing new clothes, Eva felt it only fair that the girls be included, especially since most of what they all owned was purchased second hand.

First and foremost it had been out of practicality. They'd been plucked up in such a hurry she hadn't had an opportunity to pack much of anything. And during their time sequestered, while paperwork and new identities were being crafted, the stipend she'd been given had been abysmal.

A joke.

Though Eva considered herself a master of stretching a penny, she had to tap into a whole new level of frugality just to make ends meet and keep the fridge stocked. Things like 'new' clothes had fallen about as low on the list of priorities as possible. And it seemed that habit had sort of stuck.

Well, now was the time to shake it, she thought. Tucking the girls into bed, Jenelle and Eva disappeared into her bedroom, carting in all her recent purchases and a mandatory bottle of wine.

"God." Eva flopped belly down onto her unmade bed. "How do you consider that fun?"

"How do you not?" Jenelle retorted, giddily digging through bags. "Not a bad haul. You've got a good start, but there are still some crucial essentials we need to get. Purses. Shoes. And I still think you should go back for that gorgeous little summer dress we found."

Eva levered up on to her elbows. "I just spent two thousand dollars. Most of that on myself. And you say I need to get more?"

"Hey, you asked for my help. And I'm giving it. Besides, there are a few things I can pass along to supplement." Rocking back on her knees, Jenelle looked around with a hint of a frown, the closest she dared get in order to avoid unsightly wrinkles.

"When are you going to do something about this place?" Rising, hands on her hips, she kicked a booted toe against the boxed frame of the mattress still wrapped in plastic. "You haven't even removed the damn cellophane."

Sitting up, Eva swung her legs over the side, feet unable to reach the floor, and shrugged. "Don't know. It's been this way for so long guess I got used to it." Her eyes danced over the stacked array of boxes shoved up against the walls, most of them opened and the contest disturbed, but otherwise she hadn't bothered to unpack...anything.

Hell, Eva hadn't even gotten around to painting the walls or hanging the curtain's, the cans were draped in cobwebs and the still packaged curtains hazed under a layer of dust.

She'd tried once, Eva recalled. Shortly after she'd finished with the girls' rooms. But the second she'd brought those cans in with her, the panic started. And her thoughts spun in a muddled mess of worry, doubt and fear. What would be the point if they were only going to be ripped away again? Why go through all that work, all of that effort when they'd never stayed longer than three weeks in a spot for the last two years?

Then a month went by, and another, and each time she told herself in a week she'd get to it. If they made it another week. But with every one that passed, the fear rooted deeper and deeper. For at least that whole first year on Haven, Eva hadn't been able to sleep anywhere but on the sofa bed, always worried-terrified-that someone might bust in while they slept. And that she wouldn't hear a damn thing upstairs, or wouldn't be able to react in time to save them.

So long as she stayed packed, then she hadn't really allowed herself to get too invested. And if she unpacked only to have to move all over again? Eva wasn't sure she had the strength inside of her to weather that sort of disappointment.

Jenelle sat next to her, companionably bumped shoulder to shoulder. "Hey, Gilbert. What's eating you?"

A smile latched at the corner of Eva's mouth, tugged her lips into a reluctant smirk. "Haven't called me that in a while."

"You haven't looked so down in a while. Come on, talk to me. What's going on? Is it my brother?"

Eva looked at her best friend, her dearest friend, and wondered how much longer she would have the strength to look deep into those caring, concerned grey eyes, and lie?

"No." Eva willed her face to soften, for the stiffness to work of her hands and shoulders. "Just a long day, that's all. Shopping wore me out."

"You did good for a rookie," Jenelle approved, tossing her hair over her shoulder. Patted Eva's leg. "But our lessons are far from over."

Eva groaned through a laugh, flopping back on the bed as Jenelle rose.

"Well, you're not going to bed yet so grab a coffee, if you have to and start putting these away while I swing home to grab some goodies. Then we can plan your ensemble and spend the night focusing on the things that really matter."

"Like?" Eva asked, rolling her gaze to meet Jenelle's as she paused by the door, a wicked, devious expression of dark glee flashing across her striking face.

"Killer shoes and sex."