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Ethan
Ella ran over to her place after work and she’s still not back,” Linc said. He had found Ethan in their shared bedroom and sat down on the big bed. “I’m starting to get worried.”
“When was she due home?” Ethan asked. He knew that Ella didn’t like to be micromanaged when it came to her working hours. He and Linc both made the promise that they’d respect her wanting to work with her other clients while she hired on some extra help. He couldn’t fault her. Ella had built a pretty impressive client list while building her security company. It was one of the reasons why Ethan had hired her to outfit his penthouse in the first place.
“She was supposed to be home over an hour ago,” Linc said. “It’s not like her to at least call us, to let us know that she’s running late.” Linc was right. Their girl was good at letting them know her whereabouts.
“You try calling her cell?” Ethan asked.
Linc held up his own phone and waved it around. “Yep,” he said. “Over twenty times in the last thirty minutes. I guess she’s going to find out that I blew up her phone and I’m not sure how she’s going to feel about that.”
“I think she’s going to be pissed that you checked up on her like that, but I get it. Let’s head over to her place to check things out. Maybe she just got hung up on her last job and she’s simply running late.”
“I hope so,” Linc said. “And I’m good with her giving me hell about blowing up her phone. Honestly, I’ll be relieved that she’s safe at that point.”
“Come on,” Ethan drawled, slinging his arm around Linc’s shoulder. “Let’s go find our girl.” Ethan tried not to let on that he was just as worried about Ella as Linc seemed to be. One of them needed to keep a level head in all of this.
“I’ll drive,” Ethan insisted, grabbing his truck keys on the way out. “We’ll take the truck.”
“You just like to play cowboy,” Linc teased. “That’s why you have that thing.” He was right—Ethan bought the big, black truck when he was going through a cowboy phase. Hell, he had the hat and boots to go with it, but he wasn’t about to tell his guy that. Linc would give him shit for months if he knew about that getup.
“Shut up,” Ethan drawled.
“You’re only upset because you know that I’m right,” Linc teased. Ethan unlocked his truck and Linc climbed into the passenger side of the vehicle. He had to admit, Linc looked pretty damn good playing cowboy too.
“For the record,” Ethan said. “I bought this truck because I like the way you look when you climb up into it. You’re the sexiest cowboy that I’ve ever seen.”
Linc chuckled, “Gee,” he said, “thanks. You know how to get over to Ella’s place?” he asked.
“I do,” Ethan said. “I mean, you know that I did a full background check on her, right?” he asked.
“Yeah—you do that with everyone. The question is, does Ella know that you did a full background check on her?” Linc asked.
“Yep,” Ethan admitted. “It was part of the agreement that we had in place when she did my penthouse security. She also signed an NDA, but you already knew that too.” Ethan always insisted on having an NDA in place with all of their employees. It made things easier—more cut and dry if they ever decided to run their mouths about their business.
“I figured,” Linc said, “since you do that with every employee. But is Ella our employee still? I mean, I’d like to think that she’s more than that now, for both of us. We’ve never really discussed feelings, but I think we might need to.” Ethan hated having the “feelings” talk. It was something that he usually tried to avoid. It’s also why he never had any long-term relationships. Things just got too messy, and he hated messy.
“You know how I feel about you, right?” Linc asked. Yeah, he wasn’t going to let this go and the ten-minute drive over to Ella’s place was now going to feel like the longest trip in history.
Ethan shrugged, “I guess,” he breathed.
“Don’t do that, man,” Linc warned.
“Do what?” Ethan asked, feigning innocent.
“You know what I’m talking about, Ethan,” Linc growled. “Don’t pretend that you don’t know that I’m in love with you. We’ve denied our feelings for so long now, but I’ve been in love with you for a long time.” Ethan knew that and honestly, he felt the same way about Linc but saying it out loud terrified him.
“You know that I feel the same, right?” Ethan asked.
“You love me?” Linc asked. Ethan simply nodded. “Honestly, Ethan, you can’t even say the words out loud, can you?”
“I just don’t understand why we’re talking about this now. Let’s find Ella and then, we can hash out our feelings,” Ethan insisted.
“I think that you and I need to get our shit straight before we bring Ella into the feelings talk, man. We’ve known each other forever. We’re business partners and best friends. I think that if we can figure out where we are, Ella might just want to be on board our crazy train.”
“No one should willingly sign up for our crazy, Linc,” Ethan teased. “But I hope she agrees to be. I like her—a lot,” he quickly added.
Linc chuckled, “Well, that’s a start.”
