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“To scare the hell out of him,” Brian growls. “That was my plan, but then things got more complicated. He’s going to apologize for what he said. Nobody gets to call you that.”
“But now we’ve got criminals after us?” I say, voice shaky with fear.
Brian steps even closer. When he takes my hands in his, despite him squeezing comfortingly with warmth, I’m way too aware that we’re in the street. Anybody could see us. Okay, it’s dark. Okay, I don’t think anybody is staring out onto the street, but why wouldn’t they be?
There was just a big commotion. Somebody could be at a window, in the dark, watching us and just so happen to know Mom or Dad. I don’t step back, though. I squeeze his hands tightly.
“I can’t believe you did that for me,” I whisper. “After I left your apartment… Hell, let’s be honest. After you kicked me out…”
His hand strokes up my cheek, tucking my hair behind my ear. There’s tingling dancing over me, down my neck, all over my body that has me almost kissing him.
“I’m sorry about that,” he says. “I really am, but you must admit, this is weird.”
I move away from him.
“Weird,” I repeat, remembering his joke from earlier.
He nods. “You can get as pouty as you want, Evie, but it is. I used to call you kiddo. You used to call me uncle.”
I kneel again, take the dustpan and brush, and continue cleaning.
“I get that,” I reply, “but you don’t have to say it.”
He turns his back to me as he begins taping up the window.
“So, what are you going to do about Keith?” I ask.
The tension between us is confusing. It’s like he’s mad at me for not wanting him to call us weird, but he’s right. Isn’t he? This is weird, but the thing is, it’s not that weird for me. I’ve spent so much time imagining what this would be like—playing through all the different scenarios, wishing I could taste his kiss and feel his touch, but he hasn’t. So yeah, okay, it’s a dream come true for me. For him, it’s weird, weird, weird.
“Brian?” I ask when he doesn’t reply.
“I should call the cops and let them handle it,” he says. “That would be the smart thing to do and the safe thing, but I can’t stop thinking about what he said. Insulting you, Evie… It’s not acceptable.”
His muscles shift as he works, rippling with each motion of the duct tape as he fixes the cardboard over the window.
“I’ve been called names before,” I tell him.
He spins, hand clenched tightly around the roll of tape. “Does that make it okay? There are too many cruel bastards in this world, too many assholes who think they can say any damn thing they want to a woman… a woman who…”
“A woman who what?” I whisper.
So many things exist in my mind, projections that have me throwing a party for myself.
A woman who completes me. A woman who I can’t live without. A woman who I’m going to marry.
“Doesn’t deserve to be treated like that,” he finishes, and I feel like the world’s biggest fool. “There’s something else.”
“Hmm?”
I stand again. Eventually, I’ll get to the glass.
“I spoke to your dad earlier today. I was going to tell you soon, before the brick.”
“What is it?” I ask.
This time, he doesn’t take my hand. He stays a few feet away, but his hand clenches tighter around the duct tape.
“I told him about the Keith situation. I had to lie. I told him I swung by because he owed you money. If I’d told him—”
“I get it,” I cut in, hating the need for lies. “If you’d told him the truth, he’d wonder why you care so much.”
“Exactly.”
But why do you care so much?
“I asked if I could stay in the annex until it’s resolved, just in case Keith tries something stupid. Your dad has given me his blessing.”
“Does that seem like a good idea?” I ask, my heartbeat picking up at the thought of Brian in my space, Brian there when I wake up and go to sleep. When the rest of the house is dark and quiet, will he sneak into my room, like I always dreamed about?
“We’ll have to be good,” he says, a smirk passing quickly across his face as if he knows how impossible that challenge is. “At least this way, we might finally get this tattoo done.”
“But how are you going to get Keith to stop?”
“That keen for me to go, are you?” he jokes.
I roll my eyes. “It’s not that. It’s just… being around you, sneaking around. I don’t know if I can do it.”
“That’s why we’ll have to behave, Evie,” he snarls. “No kissing. Nothing intimate. From now on, I’m just good old Uncle Bradley.”
I shake my head. “I can’t think of you like that anymore.”
