Ozzy let that sit in his chest a few moments, then rolled his shoulders back, straightened his spine, and headed out into the yard. They had a lot of mess to undo and limited time to get it cleaned up. He could bask in his friendships later.
Plus later, he’d have more time to figure out if one of them should really go past friendship.
Chapter thirty-seven
Evander
It took the restof the night to get their farce cleared away and the yard back to something presentable. Not perfect, but close enough. The inside of their in-law apartment proved much easier. By the end of the second day, Aras had all the lighting wired and secured, and Jake was really cranking through the last of the custom furniture.
They didn’t have a traditional final walkthrough before they shunted the owner out. The Trangs weren’t the ones living there. Instead, once the crew all gave their blessings, everyone cleared out and one camerawoman did a slow, methodical tour of the place. They’d do voice over later—probably Evander, but maybe some of the others as well—and that would be the last look the audience got before all the finishing touches went into place.
Which meant there was a lot of standing around and waiting. So of course, Evander gravitated straight to Ozzy’s side. Ozzyhad staked out a position at the kitchen table, involved in idle chatter with Jamie and Melanie. Evander didn’t immediately break in, took the opportunity to take in the tableau. Ozzy looked…calm. It wasn’t as if he’d never seen Ozzy relaxed, but it was rare. Rarer than it should have been. It clawed at Ev’s chest if he thought too long or too hard aboutwhyOzzy always seemed so wound up, so uncomfortable.
Instead of sitting with that, Evander strode in and pulled up one of the empty chairs. Jamie waved at him, not taking a break in his conversation. Hard to reconcile the image of the shy, shaking boy who came to them for help with the giddy little chatterbox at the kitchen table. “Then I started looking, and there’s a whole queer youth group I can go to. I don’t think it’s very big or anything, but I didn’t think there’d be anything like that in town.”
“Well, there’s almost always something. Not always official, but it’s great that there’s something here.” Ozzy was still smiling. “You planning on going, if you can?”
“He’sbuzzing.” Melanie laid out a big plate of cheese, meat, and crackers in the center of the table, then bustled to the fridge to gather up a pitcher of water and an armful of other drinks. “I’m buzzing too. It’s just good to see him so happy.” She deposited her drinks on the table, then kissed the top of Jamie’s head.
“Come on, Mom.” Jamie rolled his eyes. “It’s not like I was moping around the house.”
Melanie didn’t say anything, just went back to her hostessing duties, passing out drinks, then heading for the pantry. She came out with two large boxes of granola bars and set them on the island.
Ozzy finally got up and intercepted her, stacking the boxes himself. “You know we actually provide everything we need, right? You don’t need to feed everyone all on your own.”
“I know there’s been some…contention about you all coming in to do this work for us. Want to mend as many fences as I can.”
Evander’s breath caught as Ozzy’s spine stiffened. He didn’t want to step in unless he had to. Ozzy could do what he needed. He’d proven as much with Jamie, if there had been any doubt.
“Shit. I mean crap.” Ozzy shook his head, his voice quiet. “I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t do a great job hiding my…initial reactions.”
“It’s fine. Jack and I went over that between ourselves formonths. It was ridiculous that we didn’t do anything with the back yard, or with that apartment back there. We could have. We had the money. But we just ignored it, and it got harder and harder to let anyone go back there andseethat we’d neglected such a big part of our house for so long.” She shrugged. “It was embarrassing. It still is. We had to work ourselves up to even apply for the show. We were going from hiding our shame to airing it out on TV.” Finally, she lowered herself onto a bar stool. “I don’t blame anyone for being bothered by this whole situation. But Iamthankful. I don’t think we ever would have found the catalyst to get started on that, so having someone come out and take charge…thank you.” She grinned, slightly red in the face. “And yes, I can do that over again if you need.”
Evander and Ozzy both followed her gaze to a camera in the corner. Ev suppressed a smile and Ozzy rolled his eyes, face turning back to that normal, dour expression, like he was ready to shout at the cameraman for doing his job and filming the TV show they were all on.
But he apparently thought better of it, which Evander loved to see. Maybe something reallyhadshifted around inside of him. He wasn’t usually one for restraint when he was pissed off.
Evander inserted himself into the conversation before Ozzy’s resolve could break. He knew how to behave, how to handle himself, but there was no reason to push it if Evander could do something to help. “I don’t think they’d ever be able to capturethat kind of real emotion again. No point trying to recapture lightning, you know?”
Melanie shrugged, rising back to her feet. “I could probably pull it off. I’m averygood actress.” She wrapped an arm around Ozzy’s shoulders again for a brief hug, then went back to collecting up snacks from the pantry.
Ozzy sighed, then looked at Evander. “Ready to talk about that patio?”
It landed with a bit more weight than it should have. That was the job, after all. But not nearly as much as it should have. After that whole thing with Jamie, comforting Ozzy, falling asleep in the bedroom, the strangeness between them seemed to have dissipated.
Evander pulled out his phone and opened his notes up. “Ready as I’ll ever be, but it’s pretty much set up already, right?”
“Finishing touches.” He looked over his shoulder at Melanie. “You want to weigh in on these plans?”
She shook her head. “I trust the professionals, and I still have to figure out what we’re doing for dinner.”
Ozzy nodded, then moved his chair closer to Evander. Much closer, almost touching their thighs together. “Maybe we should figure out something forourdinner, too.”
A trickle of heat ran down Evander’s spine and pooled in his belly. Excitement and nerves running against each other, the friction building and growing hotter and hotter. “Is this your incredibly roundabout way of asking me out on a date?”
“It might be.” Ozzy shrugged. “Unless you don’t want it to be. Then it’s just a business dinner.”
Evander shook his head right away. “We haven’t had great luck with business meetings over food. One of us got…” He glanced pointedly to Jamie, then raised his eyebrows to drive the point home to Ozzy. “…a little silly last time.”
