“You think you can handle a hot mess,” I teased, reaching for another napkin to blow my nose with. “But you’re a lightweight when the rubber meets the road, Chief.”
He looked up at me in a sudden lightbulb moment. “The workshop!”
“I’m not tackling the green dragon right now. Not saying I’d be opposed to some healthy distraction, but I was thinking of another kind of woodworking, to be honest.”
“No! My workshop has heating and air-conditioning as well as a full bathroom and a finished attic space with the dormer windows. It’s big enough to convert it into a two-bedroom apartment really easily.”
What the heck was he talking about? Rental property? What did that have to do with?—
“Your mom and Willow could live there so we could help out with Willow and keep an eye on your mom. It would mean no more paying rent, so she could have time to work on getting better instead of stressing about getting another job.”
My head spun with the idea. “Evan, we can’t possibly?—”
His hand covered my mouth. “Please don’t say no yet. Let’s talk it through like we agreed to do about all this stuff. We’re partners now, remember?”
I thought about what it would be like living in a converted garage apartment on Evan’s property. “You wouldn’t have any privacy. If my family and I lived in your workshop apartment, you’d never have time alone.”
Evan stared at me like I was an alien. “No, sweetheart. You’d be living with me here in our house. The apartment would be for your mom and Willow.”
Was he asking me to move in with him? More than that, was he basically asking my entire family to move in with him?
“Are you insane?” I croaked. “Why would you do that? You have everything right now. A great job, good money, property, solitude, a little twink on the side…”
His eyes narrowed. “You’d better be joking about the side bit. And all the rest is bullshit if you’re not here with me. Willow and I get along great. I haven’t officially met your mom before, but I’d love a chance to help her because I love you and presumably you love her. There will be conditions of her staying here though. She’ll have to show you respect and pursue treatment of some kind if that’s what the doctor recommends. If she can’t do those two things…”
“She can. Well, at least the respecting me part. She’s kind of changed her tune toward me since Kade went away. I think she’s finally realizing that I can be weird, gay,andreliable at the same time.”
We talked through what would need to be done to the workshop before we could move them into it.
“What about your woodworking?” I asked. I couldn’t imagine asking him to give up his hobby for my family.
“I have a three-car garage and one truck. Even with your car here, we can park in the driveway and move my woodshop into the garage until we think of another solution. Who knows? Maybe I can build a new workshop on the other side of the house where that old boathouse used to be.”
When the subject of my jobs came back around, I sat up straight. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I think I want to ask Nico to give me Rox’s old job as manager of the bakery.”
“I thought Nico was the bakery manager.”
I nodded. “He is, but I think it was out of some kind of leftover guilt toward his sister. Now that his tattoo shop is growing so quickly, he’s stretched pretty thin. I’ve always thought I couldn’t handle the responsibility, but I can. And I deserve it. I want that job, Evan. Sugar Britches is a part of me, and I know every customer who comes through there. There’s no person better to manage the place than me. I may not have a college degree yet, but I know lots of smart people who can help me learn what I need to know in the meantime.”
The hearts in Evan’s eyes were comical.
“You’re a badass,” he said. “I’m so fucking proud of you. If he knows what’s good for him, Nico won’t even let you get the proposition out of your mouth before he says hell yes. And you know I’ll do anything to help. Even though my degree is in Fire and Emergency Services Administration, it’s still considered a degree from A&M’s College of Business in San Antonio.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “You trying to impress me, Chief?”
“You trying to flirt with me, gorgeous?”
I climbed onto his lap to straddle him, sliding my hands over his wide, muscular shoulders and appreciating the salt-and-pepper stubble on his cheeks by nuzzling my face against it.
“Always.”
We left the legal pad on the table and made our way to the bedroom where one or the other of us worked all the wood to our mutual satisfaction.
EVAN’S EPILOGUE
Five Months Later - 4th of July
“Satan’s ballsac,it’s as hot as a naked firefighter out here,” Stevie mumbled under his breath as he ripped open the top of the first bakery box from the stack we’d just unloaded off the hand truck.
