“We were so toxic with each other, we blew apart the entire channel.” Not the only damaging part of their relationship, but it was the one that spilled over to others the most.
“Yeah. Youbroke up, and then things went wrong.” She stood and raised her hands up in front of her chest. “But it sounds like you’re not thinking about it, so forget I said anything. But keep me up on the gossip if anything changes.”
She walked back out of the room and Evander just sat there. He couldn’t blame it on the hangover anymore. What Bunny had said just struck him and settled in his chest. He started to file back through everything that went down when they had their big breakup. Things had been brewing between them for a hotminute. With a little distance, Evander could admit he hadn’t been as supportive a boyfriend as he should have been. Ozzy didn’t need him weighing in on his family drama, and certainly didn’t need him talking about it in public like that. Not everyone was as lucky as Evander, didn’t have the kind of acceptance he’d gotten on coming out. His situation wasn’t sunshine and roses—he lost plenty of cousins and it took a long time for his relationship with his dad to be anything other than frigid—but at least everyoneacknowledgedthat he was actually gay.
When Ozzy brought Evander over, his parents still acted like he was straight as could be. Very pointedly.
Everythinghadcollapsed when they broke up, though, hadn’t it? Evander tutted his tongue. If he was really going to stay committed to his honesty, then yeah. It had. He couldn’t lie about that.
“Fuck me.” His face heated up as he considered the implications.
If they reallywerehappier and better together, did that mean it was time to try and pursue it?
Before last night, Evander would have said a big, stinking, flashing “NO” to that. But as much as they might have sworn it was all physical and about convenience…they both had access to the internet. They were both good-looking guys—especially Ozzy. Both of them could have found a willing mouth, even in a smaller town like Three Rivers, if they just wanted a way to get their rocks off.
Instead, they’d drifted back toward each other. Ozzy had broached it.
Evander scrubbed his hands over his face and repeated, “Fuck me.”
Turned out the patio wasn’t necessarily going to be the biggest problem to solve.
Chapter twenty-five
Ozzy
The yard was actuallystarting to take shape after all this time. The sod and the mulch were all basically in place and rooted down, and most of the plants had been delivered. It still rankled Ozzy a little bit to be doing this work for the rich family when they weresupposedto be putting together a house for Melanie’s parents, but he could mostly push past that as long as he kept working and moving.
Which was a problem with how many contractors were there in the yard with him. Several more had peeled away to work in the actual in-law suite, but he still had more than enough hands to get all the outdoor work done, which meant he had to muscle his way into any of the actual gardening he wanted to do, just to feel like he wasn’t standing aroundsupervising.
“Ozzy!”
He turned to see Jake jogging over to him, his shirt clinging to his chest with sweat, smiling broad. “Hey. Ev wanted final approval from both of you on the fence cutouts before I fire up the circular saw and start taking apart the fence.”
“Wow. I get final say.” Maybe blowing such a massive load had really improved Evander’s mood. He looked around to see that he reallywasn’tneeded as the rest of the crew dug holes and started hauling in bushes and potted flowers, so he gestured over Jake’s shoulder. “Let’s get going, then.”
He followed Jake toward the house and around the back. There were a couple sawhorses set up with a plywood sheet laid across them, and the now-stained trellis sections stacked up. They’d gone with a deep, reddish brown stain that would help warm up the general palette without clashing. Or something. It looked nice, and that was what mattered.
Evander also looked nice, but Ozzy wasn’t going to say anything about that. He was smiling and looked relaxed, wearing a black tank top that showed off his arms and his pits and a little flash of his chest when he moved just right…
“Well, what do you think?” Jake pointed to a white, penciled-in rectangle on the fence, then to a series of similar rectangles spaced down the length of the back fence. “This is them equally spaced, but there’s still a chance for adjustments. Or we could strip the finish off of these if that’s what you all decide.”
“I’m okay with the look, and I think the spacing’s good.” Evander raised an eyebrow to Ozzy. “Thoughts? I don’t know if this is going to do some weird shit with the sunlight or whatever. Plants need stuff.”
It was a damn sight more consideration for the landscaping needs than Ozzy would have expected. He didn’t linger on that, just looked at the spacing and considered, all the while pointedly not looking at Evander in case that consideration tried to bloom into something new. Or something old, more concerningly. “Idon’t think it should cause any trouble.” Which he knew, of course. Little cutouts in the fence weren’t going to expose anything to too much sunlight, but it was a good idea to stall a bit and play along. “I think we’re good to go. I like the colors.”
Jake clapped loud. “All right, then I think we should get a move on.” Jake went to the other side of the makeshift table and came back out with a teal circular saw. He slipped some safety goggles on, then grabbed another pair and offered them around. “Anyone want the first cut?”
Evander took abigstep back, hands up. “I had plenty of power tool time for the rest of my life.”
Ozzy snorted a laugh. “You have another hangover you need to worry about?”
“I was traumatized. If you want to get your hands dirty with it, be my guest.”
Ozzy just held up his hands, nails to the front. “They’re already dirty. Going to get back in there and dig up some more soil.” He’d finagle a spot in one of the flower beds. He needed to keep busy then more than before, presented with all those inviting muscles Ev had on display.
Jake shrugged. “I like power tools. Let’s get to cutting.”
The couple of other contractors there clamped some scrap wood around the top edge of the fence, holding it in place so it wouldn’t fall out of alignment when Jake made the cut. Ozzy walked away before the buzzing could start, but not fast enough.
