15. Chapter 15
Chapter fifteen
Ozzy
Ozzy leaned against the back wall of the outbuilding they were working on. Well, that everyone else was working on. He was in the backyard, spreading dirt and rolling out sod. It was ridiculous how heavy that shit was, even when all you had to do was push it out to cover some bare ground. God forbid you misalign one of the rolls and have to try and adjust it on the fly. He’d throw his back out at least three times in the past, trying to manhandle a length of sod around where he wanted it. Luckily, that hadn’t happened on this job. So far. He wasn’t as young as he used to be, so he took extra care with that kind of hard work.
Which was why he made a point of taking a break. Tucked into the little space between the back of the house and the rear fence. He didn’t want to look like this was wearing him the fuck out, but it was. Partially because he hadn’t slept so well the night before. He’d fumed at Evander for a while. Then the guilt crept in. Fitful sleep. Going back and forth between being pissed to being annoyed—at Ev and at himself—to being frustratingly turned on. When he did catch an actual hour or two of sleep, his dreams were all hot mouths and moans and warm, russet skin.
He dumped half a bottle of cool water over his head, then took a hefty swig before setting it down next to him.
“That’s not how you drink, you know.” He heard the voice before he saw the figure walking up. A familiar figure. Especially from his cavalcade of sex dreams the night before. Evander walked up, then actually sat down next to Ozzy. Awfully close. “I can give you lessons if you need.”
Ozzy grabbed his water bottle and splashed it onto Evander in response, soaking down a swath of his hair and getting a disgruntled gasp, which Ozzy couldn’t help but grin at.
Evander shook the water off from his hands. “What would you have done if I had a hundred dollar bill outstretched?”
“Well, I have working eyes, so I would have seen that, taken the money, then sprayed you down.” Ozzy swallowed the last mouthful of water from his bottle, then crumbled it up and tightened the cap down.
Ev shook his head, but he wasn’t pissed. Not unless he’d completely changed all his old, familiar tells. He had a glint in his eyes, and maybe most importantly, he hadn’t gotten up and run off.
Evander sucked on his teeth, emitting a high-pitched sound. “What do you think about this fence?”
“What? It’s a fence.”
“Yeah, but it’s a fence .” Evander pointed vaguely over his shoulder. “This window is a fucking waste. The fence here just totally blocks off any view they might have, which makes this window an absolutely dumbass decision.”
“I don’t disagree, but what do you want me to do about it?”
That spark in Evander’s eyes intensified and Ozzy saw that he’d fallen right into Ev’s trap. This is what happens when I don’t sleep . Another day, he might have called him out for the tactic—it was hardly a testament to his honesty—but they’d just agreed to work better together. Which Ozzy had brought up in the first place. He couldn’t exactly turn around and start backbiting immediately.
Evander sighed. “I’m so glad you asked. I wanted to discuss that with you last night, but…” He bobbled his head, then shrugged. “Well, you were there. You know how that went. I have some ideas I found, though. Might need Jake to step in on them, depending if you think it’s reasonable or not. I would bow to your expertise on that. But I think we can at least improve the view beyond some crusty old wood.”
“It’s actually decent wood.” Ozzy clucked his tongue. “Fine. But if we’re doing this, we need to do this. Get as much as we can hashed out as possible, so we have a good baseline to work from.” They could focus on the job, not on their own bullshit, and not on…whatever the fuck had been going on with Evander the night before. “Dinner. Plans. That whole thing.” It would be easy to tack Jake onto that get-together—Ev had brought him up specifically—but Ozzy couldn’t quite bring himself to add another party to their potential meeting. We need to learn to get along with each other without a buffer.
Even though he didn’t voice it, that was a good excuse. He still heard Evander saying “blow job” in the back of his mind, and sitting so close, old memories and sensations crept up, all radiating from Evander. So it was a bullshit excuse, but it sounded good on paper, and would get him through. God willing, anyway.
With a groan, Ozzy pushed up to his feet, water dripping from his hair and down his nose into a little puddle on the dirt where they hadn’t yet done any real work. Bare soil. He brushed his ass off, then offered Evander a hand.
He didn’t take it, instead pushing himself to his feet and shaking his head. “Don’t need your butt stank all over my hands.”
“Never heard you complain about it before.”
He rolled his eyes. “Watch your tongue, Oswald. I can still make this a painful process if I want.”
“Hey, I’m not the one who started things on this—never mind.” Ozzy was half charmed by the bastard and half annoyed. “Meet me in the lobby at six tonight. Don’t keep me waiting.”
Evander didn’t respond, but that was on him. It was his idea to meet up. He could take or leave the offer.
Ozzy really hated how much he wanted Ev to take the offer. Exposure therapy. I spend more time with him, I’ll get rid of this nonsense. Shake him off. It’ll be good for both of us, and we can actually get some work done . Another line of BS, but if he didn’t focus on it too hard, Ozzy could sort of make himself buy it. There was at least a possibility things would work out that way. But given his dreams and everything, it was very important that they had their meeting somewhere public.
Without a bed.
Where everyone was wearing their clothes.
Because try as he might, know as much as he did, Ozzy found himself continually drawn back to that physical familiarity with Ev. In spite of their feelings toward each other. Although do we even feel the same way anymore?