Pawsitively in Love (24 page)

Della looked confused. “Why? There are two rooms in this house.”

“I know. But I want to date. I want to date Austin, and if he’ll take me back, it’s going to be me and him in the house a lot.”

“I don’t like that guy.”

“But I do. I think I actually love him. And I’d like to get the chance to find that out.”

“So you’re kicking me out so you can bone some guy?”

“I’m not kicking you out, Della. I’m just saying we’re both adults, and we need our own space.” He tried to be gentle about it.

“Yeah. You’re kicking me out. How long until I’m on the street?”

“Do you have any savings? If so I can help you look for a suitable apartment.”

“Maybe I’ll just move back to New Mexico. It rains too much here anyway.”

It had only rained twice since the night Della had shown up. Evan didn’t know if he wanted to encourage her to move home or insist that she stay.

“Do you want me to help you find a place here?” he asked. If she wanted to go back to New Mexico, she could do that too, but either way he wasn’t going to argue about it with her.

“I guess so. Less work that way.”

“So can we talk about the next part?”

“Jesus, Evan. What?” She looked like she was finished with the conversation already. Too bad.

“I’m….” And yeah. It was going to be the worst part of the whole conversation. Della had hated therapy and doctors since she’d first started going. “I feel like I’m out of my depth when it comes to helping you on your bad days, Sis.”

“So what do you want me to do about it? Just keep it to myself? Go off and…. God, you suck, Evan. Everything is always about you.”

“No, Della. It’s not. This is about you. About how I want to help you feel better, but I don’t know how. There are people who do know how. They can help you.”

“There’s nothing wrong with me.”

“There isn’t. But I still think it would be nice for you to have someone to talk to sometimes. Someone who actually knows what to say.”

“I want to take a nap before work. I’m done with this conversation.”

“Will you think about it, though?”

Della shot him a dirty look. “No.”

“Then you and I are going to have to start looking at apartments tomorrow. It’s not a punishment, Dell. I just need us to have our own space, and I can’t have you here if you’re not getting help with your moods.”

“Fine.”

It was done. Not done, done, because if he knew his sister, one conversation wasn’t going to even come close to cutting it, but Evan had made a decision for himself. And he needed to make another one. Austin. He’d missed him like crazy the past couple of weeks. Every minute of every day he’d thought of him, his kisses, his laugh, the way he looked when he’d first woken up and he was all soft feathery hair and a gentle morning smile. Evan wanted that back. He needed it more than anything.

And he was going to get it. “Dex, we’re going on a trip,” he said. He clipped Dexter’s leash onto his collar, grabbed his keys and his wallet, and walked out the door. He didn’t want to wait a second longer.

“HEY, AUSTIN?”

Austin looked up from where he was doing what he seemed to be always doing lately—accounting. The more customers they had, the more paperwork seemed to come his way.

“What’s up, Jess?”

Maggie looked up from where she’d been napping contentedly on her pillow. Her ears perked up like there was someone other than Jessica, who she rarely even reacted to anymore.

“There’s someone here to see you.” Which would explain Maggie. What he was confused about was the look on Jessica’s face—apprehensive, a little excited. She bit her lip and flicked the pad of her thumb against her pinky nail.

“Who is it?” Austin asked patiently.

“It’s… well, it’s Evan.” Jessica moved out of the way, and Evan came into Austin’s tiny office.

Jessica who probably figured she’d rather live than get in the middle of whatever was about to happen between the two of them, backed out quickly and shut the door behind her. Maggie got up and trotted over to Evan, wagging her tail.
Traitor.

“Hey, girl. It’s good to see you,” Evan said. He scratched her ears. He was stalling. That much was obvious. Austin didn’t mind a stall either, so he patted his thigh until Dexter wriggled his way around the desk and put his little paws up on Austin’s thigh. He scratched Dexter’s back and beneath his chin before letting him back onto the ground.

“What’s up, Evan?” Austin asked. He didn’t know why Evan was there after
weeks
, but he wasn’t going to get his hopes up. Tell that to his pounding heart. “Why are you here?”

Evan coughed and ran fingers through his hair. “Can I sit, please?”

“Yeah. Sure, why not?” Austin put his pen down and shuffled his papers over to the other side of his desk.

“Listen, I know it’s been a while.”

“It has.”

“I… I made a mistake, Austin. Probably the biggest mistake of my life.”

Austin was torn between hopeful and mad as hell. After all those days and weeks, Evan was just going to come in here and give him some “I made a mistake” bullshit? “You’re going to have to spell it out for me. I’m not that bright.”

“Don’t say that about yourself. You’re amazing.” For once, Austin could tell someone really meant it. He bit his lip.

“Tell me what you mean, Evan.”

“I mean, I miss you. I miss you all the time, and I should have never pushed you away. I want to try to win you back, Austin. If you’ll let me.”

“What happened to your family coming first? You said you couldn’t deal with Della and dating me at the same time.”

“I can’t let Della run my life. I’m sorry I ever did.”

Austin’s heart was pounding. He didn’t want to be easy, didn’t want to let Evan walk right back in the door and be
Evan
when Austin had zero willpower to push him away. But he’d hurt. He hurt still. But it felt so good to have Evan there, looking at him like he used to. Austin wanted to touch him more than just about anything.

“How do I know you’re not going to do this the next time you two have a big blowout?”

“What, like tomorrow? It’s constant with her. Babe—” Austin gave Evan a look. “Sorry, Austin. I told you this is why I don’t date, why I push people away from my life. Because this thing with Della, it’s not going anywhere, and it never really stops. But I don’t want my relationship with Della to permanently ruin what I had with you. If it’s not too late, that is.”

“She wants me to be nowhere near you. She made that pretty damn clear, didn’t she?”

“I just told her that wasn’t going to happen.” Evan’s face grew steely. “My sister and I had a very difficult talk about things. She’s going to deal with the fact that my entire focus isn’t on her anymore. She’s going to work towards moving to her own apartment again. Very soon. And even though she hasn’t agreed to it yet, she’s going to get professional help, because I’m not a counselor, and I don’t want to be a counselor substitute anymore.”

“You said all of that?” Austin was shocked. Before, it seemed like Evan wasn’t even willing to discuss Della’s problems, let alone fix them.

“I did. And it’s going to happen.”

“And you want me back?”

“More than I’ve ever wanted anything in the world. I know it was short—but God.” Evan laughed softly. “Those few weeks were the best in my life.”

“They were pretty great.”

“And I’ve never felt like this about anyone else. Not even close. I want to be with you, if you’ll let me. I want to take you to staff parties, and give you gifts on your birthday or just because. I want to cook breakfast for you on weekends and watch movies when we’re too tired from work. Normal stuff, big stuff, all of it.” He laughed again. “I find myself wanting to do things I never wanted to do with anyone else. I think about it all the time, all these days I want to have with you. Please tell me it’s not too late.”

Austin got up and walked around to the front of his desk. He perched on it and reached for Evan’s hand. Evan stood and took both of Austin’s hands. His grasp was warm and still familiar after all this time. Austin wanted everything he was talking about; he was just scared. Evan’s sister was a lot. And the fact that Evan had spent years putting her first was even scarier.

“If I say yes to this, Ev, if I go back to falling for you—which let’s be real, I never stopped—I can’t do what we just did. I can’t feel like I’m not part of your life other than on the surface. Like have you push me away whenever things get less than easy.”

“You won’t be. I’m going to put us first from now on.” Evan let go of Austin’s hand to cup both of them around his face. “I
promise
. I’ve been such a mess without you.”

“Sometimes you’ll put your sister first too, and that’s fine. I just need to know that you’ll still want me to be there for you while you’re doing it.”

“I will. I did the whole time. I’m so sorry I made you feel like I didn’t.”

Austin nodded.

“Is that a yes?” Evan asked.

“Yeah. That’s a yes.” Austin smiled softly. “I’m probably a huge fool, but it’s a yes. I missed Dexter anyway.”

Evan chuckled and whooped and pulled Austin into a tight, spinning hug. “Thank you, babe. Can I call you babe again?”

Austin nodded. “Yes. If you kiss me.”

“That won’t be a problem at all.”

Evan leaned over and pulled Austin into a deep kiss—the kind that Austin had been missing so desperately.

IT WAS
a lazy morning, drenched with the first rain in nearly two weeks, and Evan didn’t want to get out of bed. He didn’t want to go anywhere Austin wasn’t—at least not for the foreseeable future. Evan pulled Austin close. They’d both slept in. Evan only had a few more days to do that before classes started up again. He figured he might as well savor it while he got the chance.

“You awake?” Austin mumbled.

“No. Go back to sleep.” Evan leaned over and kissed the back of Austin’s neck.

“You want me to go? I can totally go.” Austin started wriggling out of Evan’s arms. Evan pulled him back in. He wasn’t going to have any of that.

“Absolutely not. Why would I want you to go?”

“You just had the talk with your sister yesterday. Isn’t the sleepover pushing it a bit?”

“I just….” Evan sighed. “Things aren’t going to be easy with her no matter what I do. She’s already mad that I want her to find her own place, and we’re going to fight about the therapy thing until she agrees to go.”

“So won’t having me here make it worse.”

“Not for me. I love her to death, and I want her in my life, but I can’t let her dictate what I do anymore.”

“I get it.”

“I’m sorry to put you in the middle of it, though. If you’re too uncomfortable, you can go.”

“No. It’s fine. I told you I wanted to be here.”

Evan frowned. “If she really doesn’t like it, maybe it’ll help her in her new quest to find an apartment. I told her I’d be happy to help her with the down payment and the security deposit.”

“There are some really nice buildings in this area. She shouldn’t have too much trouble finding something she likes.”

Evan didn’t agree, but he nodded, brushing his nose along Austin’s neck. He didn’t really want to talk about his sister. He’d spent the last way-too-long talking about his sister. Thinking about his sister. Dealing with his sister. “Hey, babe?”

“Yeah?”

“Maybe we should spend the night at your place tonight,” Evan said.

“Really?”

“Yeah. As much as I don’t care if she doesn’t like you sleeping over, I just
can’t
…. Not with her here.”

Austin’s chuckle vibrated against Evan’s chest. “To be fair, I don’t think I’d be too into getting it on with Mary Beth right across the hallway either. That’s the kind of stuff you have to put up with in high school.”

Evan shuddered. “Yes. Not again.”

“So, you’re spending the night at my place, huh?” Austin turned and wriggled his eyebrows at Evan. He grinned, Evan kissed him, and he wondered how he’d ever thought he could give this up.

“I think that would be a good idea.”

“Me too,” Austin said. “Although we may not have your sister around, but there will be two other people who don’t really like getting kicked out of bed.” Austin cocked his chin down to the foot of the bed where Dexter and Maggie were snoring away happily, curled into a content ball of ginger and tawny fur.

Evan laughed out loud. “Those two are just going to have to get used to it.”

“Yeah,” Austin grinned. “I think they’ll manage.”

Corbin Ford, aka the Nightwatchman, named for the antique pocket watches he leaves behind at jobs, has been in the cat-burgling business for years. His father was. His grandfather was. His mother is still one of the most renowned thieves. Corbin likes his high-profile heists, priceless paintings from private collections, artifacts from museums, but his favorite? Jewels. Sparkly, beautiful jewels. If they’re famous, better yet.

Interpol agent Luke Eldridge has one goal and one goal only: to catch the Nightwatchman. Luke’s been after him for months, but getting the slip time and again is getting embarrassing. Luke has never even laid eyes on the bastard, but he’d happily strangle him. And then arrest him.