“All good,” he answered quickly.
“Okay,” Ryder said, and wished to hell he knew how to be a friend. It had been so long since he’d had that sort of friend, a talk-about-feelings sort of friend, he didn’t even know how to ask.
“Are you worried about re-entering the romantic zone, and blowing it?” Evan asked, finally interrupting the silence.
“Yes. Terribly.” The light changed, and Ryder finally caught up to Zoe. Her truck was so tall he couldn’t see beyond her, but his rental was so low to the ground that wasn’t unusual.
“You probably will,” Evan said simply.
“I don’t want things to get nasty if we don’t work.”
“I feel ya,” Evan said.
“We’ll be there in a few, actually. Zoe wanted to get changed. Ultrasound goo got all over her clothes.” He puffed out his cheeks and exhaled carefully. “I live in fucking Phoenix,” he growled to himself.
“No way in hell Zoe would leave Foothills, and we’d all kick your ass if you even tried to uproot her.”
“I wouldn’t ask her too, nor would I want to put a baby on an airplane all the time.” The road widened and speeds slowed as they neared Foothills’ main drag.
Zoe slowed and flicked on her blinker.
Ryder did the same, and knew he only had a minute or two left with Evan. Privacy was nil once in the house. “Almost to you.”
“Look, Ryder, you can hardly manage getting to appointments, and you’re not even to the third trimester yet.” Evan paused, and Ryder could hear his impatience seep into his typically easygoing tone. “You’ve got some tough choices to make, and no one can make those for you. Maybe it feels like you’ve got time to decide, but the sooner you figure it out, the easier this will be on both of you.”
“You’re right.” Fucking hell, he was making this a bigger mess than it had to be. The driveway came into view, and Ryder quickly asked, “Have you heard from Jagger lately? I know he’s been really busy.” Between the ad shoots and practices, Jagger was less accessible than Ryder.
Evan snorted a desperate laugh. “I believe we’re talking about your doomed relationship right now.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Ryder said, almost wishing he hadn’t brought it up, but knew Evan would want to know. “Just wanted to give you a heads-up… he was telling Bellamy about you, and they were interested.”
“I’m sorry… what?”
“You’ve got a damn college football national championship title under your belt, now you’re an adorable small-town restauranteur. He tossed around some stats from your college ball days that sounded impressive. They think a promo series with the two of you would be a huge hit…”
“Fuck no,” Evan said, laughing with little humor. “He’d better not be throwing my name anywhere near a damn spotlight.”
“I thought you might feel that way, so I wanted to mention it before they got too excited.” He turned into the driveway after Zoe, and waved as he saw Evan sitting on a patio chair on the front porch.
“Thanks,” Evan said on a long sigh, and waved back before ending the call.
As Ryder pulled into the narrow scrap of space left behind Zoe’s truck, she was already out and dashed onto the porch, shared a quick moment with Evan, and headed inside. Ryder slowly climbed out of the rental car, and grabbed his backpack from the passenger seat.
Evan waited on the porch, and settled back into his patio chair, propped his feet on the rail, and folded his hands behind his head. The moment Ryder stepped onto the creaky wooden steps, Evan shrugged and shook his head knowingly. “You gotta stay in the friend zone.”
“I knew I should have called Grady instead,” Ryder grumbled, and plopped into the other porch chair, setting his backpack at his feet.
“Sleepover?” Evan asked, glancing at the bag.
Ryder looked down at the casual jeans, henley, and chelseas he’d worn for the meeting. That new image he was trying to project. At least his promotion and his latest contracts had come with a wardrobe change. “I was thinking of changing for dinner, but I think I’ll stick with casual. Friend zone and all.”
Evan nodded slowly. They sat quietly for a moment, then Evan said lightly, “If you accidentally sleepover and wind up here for coffee, I bought some new stuff you’ve got to try.”
“Dark roast?”
“Naturally.”
“Local?”
