Ozzy let his attention wander as Mason filled her in on the specifics, and Melanie eventually started clicking around on the app. Ozzy hadn’t gone into the parents’ house, but from what he’d seen in photographs, the Trangs didn’t furnish their home in anywhere close to the same style. The landscapingclearlywasn’t on the same level either. A single rose bush in the back yard would probably send them all into convulsions.
Outside, the basic landscaping work continued. In Ozzy’s opinion, at least half of it was busy work. Did they really need to clean the patios and the fences? They were just going to fucking get dirty again when they dug up the ground and brought in thesod and all of that. Hell, the actualusefulwork they were doing out there, tearing up the dead grass and leveling the ground, was actively spraying dirt and muck everywhere that they’d just have to clean up again. Around the actual outbuilding, they seemed to be doing a little more meaningful work. Sweeping, opening windows, pulling up carpet—everyone agreed on that, and Melanie signed off on it before they started—and all that basic preparatory work.
The crew around the table seemed mostly turned off like Ozzy was. Robinson was staring around at the house just like Ozzy was, although when he caught Ozzy’s eye, he smiled and nodded before going back to his wandering gaze. Aras was scribbling something down in a notebook, scowling, crossing things out, then scribbling more. Ozzy tried to crane his neck to see what Aras was actually writing, but it got him his own scowl in return, and Aras shifted so his arm halfway blocked the notebook.
Bunny and Mason were both in conversation with Melanie as she continued going through the design app. Jake had gotten up and somehow found himself in conversation with the Trangs’ oldest son, a lanky teen with a buzz cut. Ozzy was a little surprised to see the two of them laughing together—he remembered being a teen and would never have been caught dead doing something so thoroughly uncool as having a real conversation with an adult—but they were too far away for him to hear what was so damn funny.
Evander was buried in his phone, mouth slightly open so Ozzy could see his teeth and his tongue. When Evander slipped his tongue out across his lips, Ozzy’s crotch pulsed. Against his will.It doesn’t mean anything. Not like the two of them ever hadphysicalissues. Far from it. Hell, half the value of getting into so many fights was the absolutely wild animal sex they got to have when they made up. When he was all alone andreallyhorned up, he still turned back to the day-long fuck session they’d hadafter Ozzy apologized for dipping out on the movie marathon they’d planned. It still seemed like a stupid thing to get so upset over, in Ozzy’s opinion, but Ev had been righteously angry over it.
And once they were on even footing again, he took all that anger out on Ozzy’s ass. A deep, rough fuck. When he got exhausted, he bottomed, and they kept it up all day until neither of them could even shoot a load.
And then Evander had put on the first movie in the series they weresupposedto watch in the first place and told Ozzy to order some pizza. They hung out naked and, in spite of Ozzy’s initial reservations, Body of Hatred was some schlocky good fun to watch. Gory-ass horror with halfway decent monster makeup. He wasn’t convinced there needed to beeightof them, but in that sex-glazed fugue, munching on pizza, they’d been pretty entertaining.
His cock throbbed and brought him back to the present, where Evander had locked eyes on him. Ozzy cleared his throat. “You staring for a reason?”
“You tell me, Oswald. Not that I can stop you from checking me out, but maybe close your jaw when you do? Don’t need youdroolingon Melanie’s nice table.”
Before Ozzy could snipe back, Mason’s voice cut through. “All right. Let’s compile this together.”
“While we’re waiting, I wanted to run something by you.” Evander turned his attention and his full smile onto Melanie. “I think this’ll be a good idea.”
Chapter eight
Evander
He knew it wasn’tthe most diplomatic choice, but putting everything out in the open was Evander’s best bet. The patio space was so important. This was the right call for Melanie’s mom and dad, giving them a nice, usable space. Which was true, but if he had to take some truth serum or something, he’d also have to admit that he wanted one up on Ozzy. Especially after catching him with that goofy, cum-brained look on his face. It was the one he’d always given Evander when they were about to have the best sex of the entire month. Which was saying something. Ozzy was good in the sack.
Plus I’ve never had any complaints.
Thatwasn’t a fruitful path, so he refocused totally on Melanie instead of his memories of Ozzy. “I was thinking about that patio. It’s perfect for your mom’s entertaining space that shewould want, at least when it’s not the dead of winter. Looks like it’s set up like that at their place now?”
Melanie nodded. “Yeah. Even before they downsized. We were the neighborhood barbecue family.”
Evander nodded, smiling wider. “And I know your dad is going to take amazing care of the yard and all the plants out there. I was wondering what you thought about basically…including that patio as another room. Totally decorate it out, make it an extension of the house instead of an outdoor little spit of nothing.”
“It’s not going to be a spit of nothing.” Ozzy stood up, hands on the table. “Evander. I think we need to have a little talk about this.”
“I don’t see why we can’t talk about this now. I just want what’s best for this house.”
“So do I. But I don’t appreciate the implication that I would somehow neglect the patio space.”
“I hope I didn’t make that implication. I just figure, since designinglivingspaces is my specialty, I should probably take a pretty large role in that patio. As long as Melanie thinks that’s the kind of space her parents would actually use.”
Melanie nodded. “Absolutely. If you think you can integrate it that well.”
“I definitely can.” Evander smiled at her, pointedlynotlooking at Ozzy as he spoke. “It’ll be like the house is just flowing right outside. Ozzy will be a great help.”
“I don’t mean to nitpick, but I don’t know that you have all the experience necessary to totally kit out an outdoor space.” Ozzy still hadn’t sat back down, and the tension in his voice gave away his frustration. At least to Evander, who knew him that well.
Evander sighed, putting on his best airs of innocence. “That’s why you’re going to be such a valuable resource in helpingme out, Oswald. Couldn’t even attempt to do this without your advice.”
Ozzy’s face tightened. “We’ll talk later. To hash out the details.”
“Of course. Once we get through all this, see the final results of the design app.”
Ozzy said nothing else, finally sitting back down, but he was still staring at Evander. No more slack-jawed horny expression, either. Glaring may have been a more accurate word, but Evander stopped giving him any attention. He had everyone else on board, in public, on camera. Ozzy couldn’t do anything about that.
In the end, it didn’t look like Melanie had made too many changes when the final mood board generated. It was only the second time they’d gotten to use the all new, redesigned app, and it functioned mostly the same way as Mason’s original from all those years ago, taking all the design choices a client made and compiling them together, but he had to admit it was a step up in polish. Melanie had kept the style maximalist instead of trying to conform it to her own design sensibilities, which led to the template throwing her other choices into windows of all different shapes and sizes. Stars, hearts, squares, triangles. The colors it showed were a bit more saturated than Evander had in mind, but not outside the realm of reasonability.
