Pawsitively in Love (10 page)

It was only a moment later that he realized it was too late and Evan was walking across the grassy triangle toward them. He’d changed out of his typical chinos and button-up and was wearing shorts, flip-flops, and a T-shirt. His dark hair was loose and flopped over his face. Austin had to hold himself back from gasping. Evan looked freaking
gorgeous
. Dexter trotted along next to him on a harness with a bright blue leash. Austin waved.

“That’s your friend?” Colleen whispered. “Fucking
damn.
”

“That’s him,” Austin muttered under his breath. He stood and motioned for Maggie to stay since Evan had his little wriggling puppy with him. Even though Austin was barely able to function with Evan standing there looking like he did, he still thought of the dogs. He wanted to make sure they’d get along in a new social situation before he let them loose.

He waved Evan over to where his friends were waiting to play. As Evan drew close, Austin’s stomach bubbled up. He couldn’t believe what he’d done. How could he have thought it was a good idea to bring Evan around his dumb friends who would never in a million years keep their comments to themselves? How could he have thought he’d be able to handle staring at him all day without, you know,
staring
. He had to. No matter how impossible it would be. Austin put on his most relaxed happy face and bounded over to scoop little nearly bald Dexter off the ground for a few rounds of friendly kisses.

“Hey, I’m glad you could make it!” he said. He grinned at Evan all casual, like he wasn’t about to pass out, and rubbed Dexter’s round puppy tummy.

“Me too. It’s nice to get outside.” He laughed. “Dex looks pretty happy to see you.”

Dexter wriggled in Austin’s arms and yipped happily. Austin had always been a classic larger-dog type when it came to his own animals, but it was so hard not to fall in love with the little guy.

“He doesn’t look too traumatized at least.”

Evan smiled. “Nah. It’s fine. Besides, I think we all had an awkward haircut or two when we were kids. It’s just Dex’s turn to have one.”

Austin put Dexter on the ground and scratched along his spine. “Has he been around other dogs much?” he asked.

Evan shook his head. “Nope. Just the little girl next door and whoever he met at your shop. He’s never even seen a cat up close that I know of.”

“Let’s see how he and Maggie do with each other. They met at the shop but they weren’t really up close and personal there.”

Maggie was still lying placidly on Austin’s blanket, in the middle of an epic belly rub from Colleen. She looked up at the presence of a small puppy near her head, woofed quietly to acknowledge him, and laid her head back onto the blanket. Dexter didn’t quite have her chill. He ran in an excited circle around her and then rolled his little body around until he was spooned up against Maggie’s back. Austin laughed. Maggie turned once more to check him out, then seemed to forget about the whole thing.

“Seems like they’ll get along just fine.”

AFTER MAGGIE
and Dexter were formally introduced, Austin figured it was time to introduce Evan to his friends. He did a silent rain dance of some sort, praying that Cole wouldn’t do anything to embarrass him. Colleen too. Although she’d been kept out of the loop Evan-wise, she was still pretty fast on her feet and could easily come up with a way to make Austin’s life hell. She’d known him since the dawn of time. She had plenty of material.

“So, Evan, this is Colleen, Cole, and Peter.” He gestured to the first three. The dangerous three. Brie, Kelly, and Vanessa were more acquaintance-level friends. They wouldn’t do anything. Colleen and Cole behaved themselves, though. Miraculously. They shook Evan’s hand and said hi. Austin introduced him to Brie, Kelly, and Vanessa next.

“So, are we playing or what?” Cole asked. He cocked his hip to the side and grinned right at Evan.

The little bastard was flirting. Austin knew Cole was like that. He flirted with everything that moved, male or female, but he didn’t mean a damn thing by it. Austin usually didn’t care any more than Peter usually did. But with Evan? Not cool. He gritted his teeth and tried to control the shot of jealousy that burned its way through him. Didn’t look like Evan noticed, though. He was too busy looking at Dexter, who’d promptly fallen asleep right next to Maggie, with his nose snuggled up into her fur, and was snoring with these tiny little snores. It was adorable.

“I haven’t taught him not to wander off yet,” Evan said. “I probably should’ve thought about that before I brought him down here.”

“It’s not a problem. I have a stake and a super long leash in the trunk of my car. Let me go grab it, and we can clip him to it. He’ll have plenty of room to run around once he wakes up.”

Evan smiled at him gratefully. “Thanks.”

AFTER THEY
got the dogs settled and divided into teams, it was time to play some volleyball. They decided to go men against women, which they rarely did. But Evan turned out to be pretty sporty to match up against Vanessa and Brie, who’d both played in high school. Nobody was as good as Peter, who had been playing for years, but he didn’t take the game all that seriously.

Austin had a great time playing with his friends. They laughed and missed balls and took lots of beer breaks. Evan fit in better than he’d have ever expected. He joked with Peter and Colleen and fielded Cole’s flirting like a pro. Eventually Dexter woke up, and he ran in wide circles with his short little puppy legs around the spot where his leash was staked to the ground.

They all collapsed onto various blankets. Brie and Vanessa had been on snacks, and by that point, everyone needed them. They passed out sandwiches, chips, and brownies. Austin gestured for Evan, who’d been hovering, to come sit next to him on his blanket, since he hadn’t remembered to tell him to bring his own. He scooted over to the corner to make sure Evan didn’t think he was hitting on him. Which he wasn’t. But he’d sure as hell like to.

One by one the others wandered off—Vanessa, Brie, and Kelly all carpooled together, and Vanessa had a shift at the restaurant where she waited tables. Then Colleen had to go and set up for some party she was helping to cater. Soon all that was left were Cole, Peter, Evan and Austin. Austin took the volleyball net down and then lay in the sun next to the others to let the rest of the tiny beer buzz wear off.

“Thanks for inviting me, you guys,” Evan said. “I had a lot of fun.”

“No problem. Hope we didn’t take you away from anything.”

“Nah, just inputting my grades for the end of the semester.”

“Teacher?” Cole asked. Sneaky little bastard. He knew damn well what Evan was. Austin supposed he had to pretend he hadn’t already looked up Evan’s information. Of course he didn’t have to do it with such a flirty tone of voice.

“Yeah. I teach cultural anthropology at UPS.”

“A
professor
. Wow.” Cole wriggled his eyebrows.
Bastard
.

Austin tried to glare at him without alerting their group and the whole damn waterfront. He seriously needed Cole to knock it off.

“What do you do, Cole?” Evan asked politely.

“I’m a painter. Pictures, not houses. Peter is a gym teacher.” Cole leaned back against Peter’s shoulder.

“How long have you two been together?” Evan asked.

“Six years. It’s nearly seven now, isn’t it, babe?” he asked.

“Yeah. In October.”

“Now we just have to get young Austin here paired off.”

Austin kicked Cole. He knew Evan noticed. Evan cleared his throat and started to stand.

“It’s been really such a great afternoon, guys, but I’d better get back to my grades. Thank you again for inviting me.” He unclipped Dexter’s leash from the super long one. He looked like he wanted to escape.

Fucking Cole….

“We’ll text you next time we’re doing something fun,” Austin promised.
Make it a group thing. No pressure.

“That sounds great.”

AS SOON
as Evan was out of earshot, Austin reached over and punched Cole in the arm. “What the fuck was that?”

“Ow, you bastard. That hurt. I’m delicate.”

“Why’d you do that? I told you he didn’t want anything like that.”

“Sorry. I thought a bit of a nudge would be what Romeo needed. He was watching you all afternoon like he wanted to eat you.”

Austin sighed. “Maybe the sun was in his eyes.”

Cole chuckled. “Right. He’ll come around. Just wait.”

EVAN NEVER
knew what to do with himself when summer started. His busy year of classes and papers and grading reduced down to nothing but yawning hours of free time. Even when he was a kid, it wasn’t his favorite time of year. He hadn’t liked staying home all day, and as soon as he was old enough, he’d gotten a job.

Since he’d planned to go to Greece with Derek, he hadn’t signed up to teach summer classes, and all the positions were full. So Evan was out for two and a half long months of nothing to do at all. It was still balmy late May, not the heat of summer yet, and he was bursting with energy. But he didn’t have much to do. Maybe it was time to go to the store and pick out a paint color for his room, after all.

Evan had just gotten Dexter bundled into his SUV when Peggy waved from next door.

“How’s summer break treating you so far?” she asked.

Evan chuckled politely. “It’s only been about three hours. Ask me tonight and I might be bouncing off the walls.”

“We’re doing barbecue if you want to come over for dinner,” she said.

“That sounds good, actually. I was about to go pick out some paint for my bedroom, but I doubt I’ll get to it today.”

“You know, you’re always welcome to invite friends over to come with you,” Peggy said politely. Which was probably code for “why are you always alone?” “And of course, you can leave Dex here while you go to the store.”

Actually, that would be fine. It was nothing he’d never done before. Evan took Dexter from the passenger seat, gave him a kiss on the forehead, and put him gently on the ground before handing his leash to Peggy.

“I might actually invite someone if you don’t mind. My friend Austin, who owns the dog salon, is off tonight. Do you mind if he stops by?”

“The one who shaved Dexter?” Peggy made a face.

“The one whose
employee
accidentally shaved Dexter. We’ve made our peace. He’s actually a great guy.”

“That’s fine, then. I’d like to meet him.”

“We’re just friends.” Evan knew that look in Peggy’s eyes. He’d seen it whenever anyone decided they needed to start matchmaking for him. “Really. Just friends.”

Peggy gave him a knowing grin. “Of course.”

EVAN FOUND
himself in the paint aisle at Home Depot with his hands trembling, which was obviously ridiculous. He and Austin
were
friends after the volleyball game. New friends, sure, but friends. It shouldn’t be a big deal to invite him over for some barbecue and to hang out. It
wasn’t
a big deal. No. Evan pulled out his phone before he could stop himself and sent Austin a text to invite him over for the barbecue. Said he thought it would be a nice night, and the neighbors were friendly. There. Done. Back to picking a paint color.

He’d spent most of his life in rentals, and even though he had never pictured himself as a colorful person, it had been fun to pick out a host of pale calming colors to paint his house—pale sea-glass green, a gray the color of bleached stones, gray-blue like the sky on a cloudy day. The color for his room had come out all wrong. It had ended up being too minty, not the spa-like sage he’d wanted. So he compared the original chip with others until he found the change that he wanted, ordered the paint, bought supplies, and put it all into the back of his SUV to take home.

After he’d unloaded the paint and supplies, he went over to collect his dog from Peggy. She’d just made coffee and offered him a cup. Evan said sure. He didn’t have much else to do.

“Here you go. There’s cream and sugar on the table.” He sank down onto one of the cushioned kitchen chairs and watched Scout chase Dexter around the room. She giggled loudly while he scrambled on too-big paws.

“They’re so cute together,” he said.

“Yes. She’s begging me for a puppy of her own. I’m not sure I think she’s ready, but it’s so good for her to have Dexter.”

“He seems to love her just as much as she loves him.”

Peggy snorted. “That dog is a pushover. He loves everyone.”

Evan couldn’t deny it. “Still great to see him having fun.”

Peggy eyed Evan silently for a few moments as she took a sip from her coffee. “What?” Evan finally asked.

“I don’t know. I was just thinking about how you’ve been hanging out here for months… but it’s almost like I don’t really know you.”

“Sure you do. You know I’m a professor. You know where I work. You know my dog….” He was supremely uncomfortable. Which had to be obvious to Peggy. Evan really didn’t like talking about himself beyond surface level chitchat.

“That’s not really
knowing
you, though.”

Evan shrugged. “How well does anyone know their friends?”

He was trying to think of any excuse to chug down his coffee, grab Dexter, and get the hell out of there before she could ask any more awkward questions.

“What do you want me to bring over tonight?” There. That would do it. Peggy liked nothing more than talking about food. That was one of the first ways they’d bonded. She’d told him of the wonders found at the Metropolitan Market, and they’d talked about cooking for at least half an hour after that.

It totally worked. “Can you do a dessert and maybe some salad?” Peggy asked.

“Absolutely. Let me grab Dex and I’ll head up to the market to get stuff. Greek salad sound good to you?”

Peggy was a smart woman. She had to know that he’d evaded her. But she also seemed to be willing to let it go gracefully, which Evan was more than grateful for. He picked up Dexter’s leash from the counter and headed him off at the pass when he was about to take another lap around the kitchen, and before Evan knew it, he had his squirming dog at his own blissfully silent house with zero inquisitions.