Legal Bindings

37. Nick

“The view’s nice, huh?”Nick said, hoping to engage Sydney, who stood in a corner with her arms crossed.

He glanced around the room. The apartment was a bit boxy and plain, with architecture that reminded him of a college dorm—spartan and economical. It had no personality. But it had a roof, and they could make it work.

“The window’s dirty.”

Nick tried not to roll his eyes. “I think they’d clean it before we moved in.”

“Whatever. There are only two bedrooms.”

“One for you and one for Sam.”

“Uh, and where are you going to sleep?” she scoffed, one hand on her hip.

“The living room. I can pull out the couch.”

“That’s dumb.” Sullen, she took out her phone and tapped at the screen in a way that made Nick want to take the device from her.

But he wasn’t going to do that because he wasn’t that sort of parent, even if he was beginning to understand how those sorts of parents came to be. He’d have to talk about it with Evan later—they’d been tentatively texting since Nick had called the week before, and it was nice to have a sounding board for his parenting decisions.

“Thanks, Syd, that’s super helpful.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Do you like it more or less than the other three?”

Sydney might have understood why they needed to move, but after a full day of apartment hunting, she was acting the part of a petulant toddler, whining and dragging her feet. The first place had been “ugly,” the second was “bougie,” and the third “smelled like a fart.” At stop number four, Nick’s patience was wearing thin. None of it was ideal, but they needed a place to live that they could afford without him working a corporate gig.

Living up to every expectation Nick had of her, Olivia had instituted the performance plan three days after his picking up Sydney. But that was fine with Nick. He had an interview lined up with a local college and another with a nonprofit that specialized in overturning wrongful convictions—places that mattered and where he could matter too.

“It’s okay,” Sydney said after a moment’s consideration.

“That’s not what I asked.”

She glanced up, wrinkling her nose. “I guess, like, it’s better than the farts but not as good as the ugly place.”

Nick was going to lose his mind. “By the ugly place, do you mean the first place?”

“Yeah. That one’s the best one.”

“I thought so too. None of them are the house, though, are they?”

That was the crux of the matter. His own heart was sitting well north of where it should be at the thought of leaving their house, and if that same thought accounted for Sydney’s sour mood, maybe he ought to try a little compassion rather than giving himself over to annoyance.

“No.” Tap, tap, tap.

“Could you please look at me?”

Apparently not—she kept tapping, her eyes fixed on the screen. “What?”

“Hey, come on. What’s going on? I know this is hard. Are you upset about something more than the move?”

“No, I’m fine. I just—” She was cut off by Nick’s phone, whose tinny ring punctuated the tiny space. “You’d better get that.”

Normally, he would disagree, but with the house on the market, he couldn’t afford to miss any calls. “Hello?”

“Hi, yes, is this Mr. Robinson?”

“It is.”

“Hi, this is Kay Moore, I’m an agent with Real Home Realty, and I was hoping I could swing by with a potential buyer this afternoon.”

“Oh, I’m not there right now.” Nick really had meant to get one of those lockboxes for the front door, but he had a to-do list ten miles long and no realtor to handle the details, so some things fell by the wayside.

“Could you be there in an hour?”

He looked at Sydney, who was back on her phone, lost to the world, and sighed. “Yes. I can do that. We’ll—I’ll see you then.” He hung up and turned to Sydney. “Hey, shake a leg. There’s a potential buyer coming to see the house.”

“Whoop-de-do,” she said, tracing a circle in the air with her finger.

Gritting his teeth, Nick ushered her to the car and headed for home. “Hey.” He turned onto their street only to find her sitting up straight with a ridiculous grin on her face. “Syd?”

“Oh wow.” She started to giggle.

Nick turned his attention back to the road and did a double take when he saw someone sitting on the front porch. And not just any someone, but Evan, perched on the swing like he belonged there. “What the—”

“Whooo could it be?” Sydney said, still giggling.

Nick jerked the car into the drive at an angle that would leave tire tracks on the lawn. “You… how did you…?” Realization dawned. “You planned this?”

“His flight was delayed!” she yelped. “I had to keep you out of the house!”

“You are a…” A bubble burst on the surface of his laughter, and then it was a rolling boil, churning from deep within as he cut the engine and reached over to pull her into a hug. “Manipulative, conniving little Syd Vicious.”

“I know. Go say hi!”

Nick didn’t need to be told twice, so he hopped out of the car and bounded across the lawn to where Evan stood at the top of the stairs. “Uh… hi. Fancy seeing you here.”

“Wow. Dorky, even for you.” Evan took the steps two at a time to hug Nick hard. There was a faint whiff of airport around him, but beneath that, he smelled just like himself.

“Hi. You guys planned this?” Nick pulled back and held Evan at arm’s length.

“Yeah. Syd’s been keeping me in the loop,” Evan said with a pointed glance at the For Sale by Owner sign stuck in the yard. “Unlike some people.”

“Oh. Yeah. I didn’t want to bother you with that.” He glanced at his watch. “Though a potential buyer’s coming by in, like, half an hour, so maybe you and Syd want to…” He looked at Sydney, who had followed him out of the car and was laughing too hard to ignore. “Syd?”

“Would that be, ah… Kay Moore’s client?” Evan bit his lip.

Nick’s stomach tightened, his synapses firing as he began to slot puzzle pieces together. “Wait.”

“So, here’s the thing.” Evan cleared his throat and stood a bit straighter, glancing between Nick and Sydney. “I couldn’t find a studio space in New York. And when I found out you were selling the, uh… attic where I did my best work, I knew I couldn’t miss the opportunity to snap it up.”

“He’s gonna buy the house!” Sydney yelled in case Nick was having trouble grasping the concept.

“Well, sort of. I’d like to own the house with you, Nick. I’d like it to be our house.” He tossed his head back toward the porch, where Nick could see a bouquet of flowers on the swing. “I had a whole big thing planned, but then my flight got delayed, and I didn’t have time, and it’s… it was just ridiculous, anyway. Because all that matters is you and me and Syd.”

“And Sam soon,” Sydney said.

“And Sam soon,” Evan agreed. “When you called me, Nick, it helped me figure some things out. Namely, that I wasn’t happy in New York, no matter how much I pretended to be. It’s a great city, but it’s not home, and I was spending all my time convincing myself that I’d made the right choice instead of admitting that dreams can change. And when I really thought about it, the only thing that made me happy was thinking about you and this house and the weird little family we built.”

A burning sensation was growing behind Nick’s eyes, and he blinked several times in a row. “Evan—”

“Hang on, let me get it out. I think, you know, I’ve spent my whole life coasting. I was smart. My family was pretty nuclear and normal, and I was talented. So I never pushed myself all that hard. You—meeting you, living with you—that pushed me, and that push was what I needed to succeed. But success is relative, right? I don’t think it means much if you’re miserable, and I was miserable until you called and reminded me how to be happy.” He paused to take a shaky breath. “But also, I need to apologize to you.”

“You don’t.” Nick shook his head just as Sydney slipped her hand into his and gave it a squeeze.

“I do, actually. I’m sorry that you told me exactly who you were—where you’d come from—and I ignored what that might mean for you. I expected you to be the sort of person who would beg me to stay and put his whole heart on the line and make my decisions for me. When you didn’t do that, I resented you for it. But you’re not that guy, Nicky, and it was unfair of me to expect you to be. You calling me in New York… man, that took some guts, and the more I thought about it, the more I understood that what you were actually saying, without saying it, was that you love me.”

Hearing that broke Nick open. A tear made its way down his cheek as he admitted the truth to himself.

“You’re not someone who says that a lot, and I don’t think you like to say it first. So I’m just… I’m fucking sorry I didn’t meet you where you were. Because I love you, too, Nick. And I want to be here with you, whatever that looks like.”

It was a good speech—and a good apology, even if Nick hadn’t known he needed one. He wanted to say something back—to find the right words to express how he felt—but Evan had done that for him. So he let himself be silent as he stepped in for a hug, wrapping his arms tightly around Evan’s slim frame and tugging Sydney with him because she was meant to be there too.

“You guys are so gushy,” she mumbled as she pulled back a few seconds later, wiping her eyes. “God.”

“Takes one to know one,” Evan shot back with a grin.

“Yeah, whatever. I’m going to Jeremy’s for a while. I’ll let you two, you know, catch up.” She made finger quotes around that, and Nick wrinkled his nose as she sprinted across the yard.

“Wait, hang on.” Evan laughed, reaching for Nick’s hand and pulling it to his lips. “Who’s Jeremy? And does she think she just gave us permission for sex?”

“Oh.” Nick couldn’t help but grin. “Jeremy is Brin and Kim’s seventeen-year-old son. With whom Sydney has been spending a fair bit of time.” That was fine with Nick—he wasn’t some patriarchal monster, and he liked that he knew Jeremy’s mothers. “Turns out we’re not the only people in this neighborhood taking in teenagers, though they adopted him when he was ten. But it’s…” He cleared his throat before swiping his sleeve across his damp eyes. “It’s funny how many people you find when you open yourself up to meeting them.”

“Look at you.” Evan bumped his hip against Nick’s. “Community building. And hey, I’ve already talked to Donna about my background check. Nothing criminal showed up, and that’s all they care about. The other stuff, I’m gonna have to hire an accountant, so I’ll let them help me clean anything up that’s, well, lingering.”

Acting on impulse, Nick leaned down to kiss Evan, welcoming him home but doing it publicly, with God and all their neighbors watching if they liked. And if they didn’t like? Well, fuck them. He was doing it anyway. “Are you really gonna buy my house?”

“I’m going to buy part of your house so it can be our house.” Evan squeezed. “What else am I going to do with all the cash I’m bilking from billionaires?”

“Our house. You know, that paperwork’s gonna be a nightmare,” Nick said, surprising himself with the implication.

Evan smiled then shrugged. “Not if we get married. Hypothetically.”

The weight of that word no longer carried frightening connotations. Grinning, Nick leaned his forehead against Evan’s. “Well, now, that’s an impulsive idea.”

“It is, indeed. And you know, you’ve been carrying a lot these past couple months. True?”

“It hasn’t been that bad.”

Evan scoffed, catching Nick’s chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Nicky. True?”

Nick licked his lips. “Yeah, true.”

“Let me shoulder that burden for a while.”

Nick’s knees buckled at Evan’s words, and he slumped against him with a sigh. “Please.”

Evan ruffled his hair then gave a tug, a mischievous smile playing across his elfin face. “Well, then. Let’s go inside and take a load off those shoulders.”

Nick had never been so happy to be home.