Chapter 10
ADRIAN
Once the door closed behind Dominic and Evelyn, I turned to the others. “We need to talk about something.”
“Well, that’s not ominous at all,” Sebastian said. “I take it, it’s about the budding attraction between our Evie and a certain, possibly former-FIA agent?”
“What?” Marcus swung his head to his brother.
Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Come on. You have eyes. Nothing’s happened yet, obviously, but anyone with eyes can see they’re on that path.”
I took control of the conversation before Sebastian could derail it further. “I don’t know if they are on that path. He’s a good guy, and we all know Evelyn is amazing. So I did want to talk about it and get your thoughts.”
“Talking about it is a good idea,” Alexander said. He grabbed another round of beers for everyone and passed them out before retaking his seat at the table. “Adrian, you brought it up, so you start us off.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Look, I know we don’t know Dominic well, but he seems like a good guy.
Trust is obviously earned over time, though.
” I looked at Marcus, who pointedly ignored me.
“I don’t even know if Evelyn is interested in him like that, but I think we should be open to it if she is. ”
Alexander nodded. “Whatever happens, it’s Evelyn’s decision. I agree we don’t know him very well, but over the last week or so, he’s definitely pitched in and helped any way he could. But I’ll reiterate, it’s Evelyn’s decision. Sebastian?”
Sebastian shrugged. “I like him, but whatever makes Evie happy makes me happy. If he hurts her, though, I’ll gut him.”
I rubbed my forehead. Sometimes I forgot about Sebastian’s psychotic tendencies when it came to Evelyn. “Noted. Marcus?”
Marcus shrugged. “I don’t know him well enough yet, but I’m the last one who gets a say here.”
“You’re wrong.” I frowned at him.
He thought he was last place in this relationship despite me telling him that there were no rankings here.
He just shrugged, and I moved on to the next thing I wanted to bring up.
“Okay, so we agree to let it happen on Evelyn’s timeline.
” They all nodded, and I continued. “We also need to talk about how we’re going to prevent Evelyn from burning herself out chasing Kingfisher.
I’m worried this is going to take longer than we think, and I want to make sure we’re thinking about taking care of her mental health and lightening her load. ”
“Agreed,” Alexander said. “I’m meeting with the VPs tomorrow to delegate some more responsibility to them and review the candidates they’ve recommended for internal promotions. That should take some pressure off us.”
“Older brother is going to let go of some control?” Sebastian said dramatically. “The sky must be falling.”
Alexander ignored him. “That takes care of some of the SDS work. Plus, we can hire another executive assistant for Evelyn’s team to take some of the load off her plate there. We should have done it years ago, but I had no idea how much she truly managed until recently.”
Marcus nodded. “I can work with HR tomorrow to get a job description written. What else?”
“Orgasms are a great stress reliever,” Sebastian said. “I can totally take care of that.”
Marcus tossed a balled-up napkin at him. “Get your mind out of the gutter!”
“What? They are!” Sebastian shot back.
I snatched the napkin he tossed back at Marcus out of the air. “I was actually thinking of doing dinner at my mom’s again. With all of us.”
Alexander frowned. “She kind of shut down after the last one; are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“She did,” I acknowledged. “And I think it probably had to do with her parents. But I think it would be a good idea to show her what parental love can be, and you know my mom will smother her in love if given the chance. I think between my mom and us, we can show her that love isn’t going to abandon her, and that’ll help her feel more settled and maybe heal a bit. ”
“I think that’s what makes me hesitant about Dominic,” Marcus said. “I know he’s here while he’s suspended from the FIA, but what happens after he’s reinstated? If he goes back to DC, that will just hurt Evelyn.”
“That’s a fair point,” I said. It was a valid worry.
“I would hire him at SDS,” Alexander said, then shrugged when everyone looked at him. “We’ve hired federal agents before.”
“We can tell him he has options,” I agreed. “He may still want to go back to the FIA, but I think the FIA’s actions recently have maybe changed his mind.”
“We’ll see,” Alexander said. “So when are you thinking of doing dinner with your mom and all of us?”
“I was thinking about this Sunday,” I said. “And we should try to do some dates here and there too, so it’s not just work, work, work all the time for her. Because we know she’ll drown in it if given the chance.”
Alexander chuckled. “She definitely would. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who works as hard as she does.”
“High praise coming from the workaholic,” Sebastian teased.
Alexander lifted his eyes to the ceiling, looking for the patience we all sought when dealing with Sebastian.
“On that note,” I said, standing, “I’m going to go.”
“Are you sure I can’t crash your night with Evie?” Sebastian pleaded.
“No,” I said. “It’s my night with her.”
Sebastian pouted, an odd expression for a grown man, but I could see how Evelyn called him a golden retriever puppy.
I headed downstairs and popped into my apartment to check on Dominic real quick.
I expected him to be in bed, but he was standing in the kitchen with an odd look on his face, like he was contemplating life.
I recognized that look. He must have spent some time with Evelyn.
Only she could put that starstruck look on a man’s face. I hid my smile.
“Hey,” I said. “Evelyn get in okay?”
“Yes.” He shook himself out of his thoughts. “We had a drink, and then she started yawning, so she went to bed.”
“Good,” I said, deciding to push a bit and see what he was thinking. “Everything okay?”
His expression smoothed out as he hid whatever he was thinking. I wanted to laugh but held it in. The man had it bad. “Yep, just getting some water before I hit the sack as well.” He raised his water glass.
“Good. Just let me know if you need anything,” I said. “I’m going to sleep over at Evelyn’s tonight.”
“Sounds good. Goodnight.”
I didn’t miss the flash of longing on his face before I closed the door behind me.
I smiled widely once I was in the hallway.
Evelyn tended to have that effect on all of us.
Some might say I should be jealous that another man had caught her eye, but I was secure in our relationship.
Besides, as we headed into the heart of the storm, Evelyn was going to need as many people as possible to keep her safe as we faced Kingfisher.