“It’s not dishonest to engage in some diplomacy.”
Ozzy snorted. “I pretty distinctly remember yourefusingdiplomacy when I asked you not to stir shit up with my parents.” And on several other occasions.
“Yourparentsare rich assholes and they suck gnarly old balls. If they didn’t want to be snarked at, they shouldn’t have made themselves such ample targets. Also, you got drunk and told me it was brilliant one night.”
He had. Because it was. It was horrifying, having Evander lay out to them why all of their political and socioeconomic policies were kind of evil. But it was all shit Ozzy had told him about in the first place, so he couldn’t very well pretend any of it was off-base. Plus, it limited the amount of times he had to go for dinner parties with his parents, at least while he and Evander were in anon-again stage. Cut down on a lot of awkward conversations and offers to hook him up with somewomanthey thought was more appropriate for him.
Evander sighed and shook his head. “Fine. I’ll be direct.” He spread his arms out to the sides. “The patio space they have here. It makessensefor this to be part of my purview on this job. They’re going to have so little space—”
“No.”
Ozzy walked away, but a hand landed on his shoulder. He turned and Evander frowned, eyes bright. “Oswald, you’re being ridiculous.”
“If you can tell me how to set up proper drainage and make sure the lighting and electrical are all safe, and how to do outdoor plumbing, and what kind of plants to put in—”
“Oh, cut the bullshit. We’re part of ateam. We don’t all know everything. That’s why we don’t each have our own show.”
“I do landscaping. This is part of the landscaping.”
“Yeah. And one of the only things we know for sure is that the dad likes gardening and caring for plants and shit. Oh,andthat the mom wants an entertaining space.” He spread his arms again. “It makes sense for me to take the lead on this so it’s usable.”
Ozzy scoffed. “Right. I don’t know how to make a usable outdoor space. By the way, how’s that gazebo I built for you?”
“Thatyoubuilt.” Evander’s face darkened a little as the blood rushed up and he balled his fists. “I couldn’t get out of bed for two days because I was hauling lumber for your little pet project—”
“Well if you don’t appreciate it, I can come light it the fuck on fire!” Ozzy’s voice carried and he cringed as many pairs of eyes landed on him. Including Melanie’s. He didn’t need to be the focal point ofanotherfight. “We can talk about this later. Good luck changing my mind away from objective reality, though.”
He strode off to grab some boxes before Evander could keep the conversation going. But likehellhe was going to let Evander swoop in and take over the biggest, most important part of the backyard. They had their own territory marked out, and that wasplainlyin Ozzy’s wheelhouse.
Chapter six
Evander
Even though they couldn’tmake any solid plans without seeing Melanie’s parents’ house and getting an idea of their style, Evander still sketched and brainstormed out every night when he got back to the hotel. So he carried his journal full of ideas as they drove through Three Rivers proper to reach their home. Aras and Robinson were in the back seat of the SUV with him, and Ozzy was in the front, with all the leg room he could possibly need.Going to have to relegate him to the back when we head out.
Her parents didn’t actually live in Three Rivers, but it wasn’t too far. They lived in a somehow even smaller town. Not a town, actually, if the internet could be believed. Avillagecalled Burr Oak, about half an hour away. So it still wasn’t too long before they pulled up in front of a small cottage-style home in the middle of town. It looked like it had seen better days, the whitepaint peeling up to reveal grayed, damaged wood siding, and the pink trim faded almost completely. However, if there were any doubts at all they’d arrived at the correct house, the bushes and trees spilling out over the short, chain link fence banished them. Evander didn’t recognize a single one of them, but the leaves were all healthy and full, in deep shades of green and red and umber.
Maybe most important for their current mission, none of the neighbors were too close. Hard to have a surprise in a town with a population less than one-thousand if everybody was living on top of each other.
As they climbed out, Ozzy whistled low, hands on his hips. “God damn. I’ve got my work cut out for me to keep up with this.” Even as he said it, a smile pulled at his lips.
In spite of himself, Evander’s chest fluttered and buoyed. The passion was never the problem with them, and that expression was Ozzy fully engrossed in the landscaping. There was never a time he was sexier than when he gave something his all.
He just didn’t do it enough. Too closed-off, too careful, too worried. He put up one too many walls and Evander just got tired of cracking through them, but in moments like that, it was easy to recall exactly why they worked.
When they did work.
Evander snapped himself from his thoughts and let the single cameraman get into position. There’d been a little back-and-forth about the process. Evander was firmly on the side of ‘it’s weird to film in someone’s house without their permission,’ along with Melanie, but they’d landed on a single camera and the caveat that, after the surprise was all done and over with, they’d talk with her parents and get their permission to use the footage.
Once they got a nod from the cameraman, they all headed in. Like the actual house walk-through, this would be covered invoice over, so everyone seemed as relaxed as they could be, going into someone’s house withoutexplicitpermission.
As Ozzy slid the key into the lock, a throat cleared from the back of the crowd. They all turned to see Robinson, red in the face and scrubbing up and down, from his jaw to his temples and back again. “I’m sorry, guys. I thought I’d be cool with this. It’s just…a lot more than I thought.” He reached into his pocket to pull out his phone, fumbled it, and barely caught it before it crashed against the ground. Then he handed it up to Aras. “Take so many pictures of the fixtures, and all the angles you can of any bathrooms. This just…sorry.”
Ozzy sighed. “Drop the drama. No one’s mad at you for dipping.” He turned the key in the lock and pushed the door open, then stepped back. “Why do you thinkI’mnot going in? Let them get weird about it. You can chill with me in the yard.”
Evander rolled his eyes. Ozzy couldn’t just berealabout this shit. He had to couch everything in that stupid veneer of edgy douchebag. Another wall, which made it a lot easier for Evander to nudge past him and forget that passionate look that had crossed his face not a minute or two earlier. “Have fun with your grass, Oswald.”
Then he and Aras headed in, along with the cameraman. Ozzy grumbled something, but Evander was already walking into the house, stepping carefully so as not to disturb anything. The polite word would be ‘maximalist’ to describe their decor. It worked for Evander just fine. He loved his stuff and patterns and bright colors. The details were a little dated, with far too many lace doilies and weird tchotchkes with giant creepy eyes, but it was better than the minimalist hellscapes that used to festoon every town in America. So few people had the means or the wherewithal to make minimalism actually work, yeteverybodywanted to try it out.
