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“I hate that.”
“I’m not fond of it either, but I expected it.”
I supposed that was that. Not much else I could do right now.
There was something else, though. This plan of Sawyer’s was good. I hated to admit it, but it was. And I knew Evie well enough to expect that once she dove in, it was unlikely she’d surface for air unless she had to.
I had to get things done today, but before Sawyer left, he and I promised to give her all of our free time. There was one thing for her to clarify. “About dinner tonight,” I said. “I want to spend the time with you no matter what, so I leave it up to you. I can either wine and dine you, or we can dive into robot building right away.”
She caught her bottom lip between her teeth as she set her mug down. “I want to know where you and I go.”
“Me too.”
“And I’m gonna be honest, let’s build robots together is one of the sexiest things anyone has ever said to me.”
She meant me, not Sawyer. She had to.
“I can keep falling for you as easily in one circumstance as the other,” I said. “Though, I may hold off on feeding you chocolate covered strawberries until you’re not elbows deep in milled aluminum.”
“There were going to be strawberries?”
“There still will be.” I reached across the table to grasp her fingers. “There’s no time limit or restrictions on what happens between us.”
A frown whispered across her face and vanished again. “What about Sawyer?”
Not a topic I wanted brought up in the middle of a conversation about Evie and me. I understood why, though. We both seemed to have a problem with kissing him. Or not nearly enough of a problem with it. “What about him?”
“Maybe…” She sighed and twisted her hand so her palm rested against mine. “Maybe whatever happens with him isn’t off the table?”
That was a no good, very bad, horrible idea. So why was it tempting? “Maybe?”
“It’d be easier than getting mad at each other every time it happens.”
This conversation was surreal. Yes, we had friends in long-term, happy relationships with more than one other person. The idea itself wasn’t new to me. But Sawyer…
He was the enemy. He was a threat—an actual one, not just because he kept pursuing Evie. “Or we could try just not kissing Sawyer anymore.”
Evie raised her eyebrows. “Could you?”
“Ouch.” That was a fairer comeback than I wanted it to be. Stop making out with Sawyer seemed like the obvious answer, yet it continued to happen. It wasn’t like either of us had that problem with anyone else. Which had me curious and jealous all at the same time. “Okay. We don’t take it off the table.”
I stood and tugged her to her feet, using it as a chance to pull her closer at the same time. “Go. Get started. I know you want to.” I brushed my lips over hers.
She stiffened for a heartbeat, then relaxed in my arms. I liked this. Being able to reach out and touch her. Not holding back. Feeling her warm body against mine and her lips against mine, and hearing that tiny sigh-laugh she made when she was content.
“I’ll see you later today.” She kissed me before heading out.
The rest of my day was like normal, broken up by the bursts of excitement each time Evie texted me a new idea or image from her planning.
I put together a dinner for three of appetizers and burgers—but left the beer at Gage’s Grub—and headed to Evie’s house late that afternoon. Today’s plan was to talk about what needed to happen—most of the mechanical talk was gibberish to me, but if she told me to weld pieces together, I could do that. And apparently Sawyer was skilled with remote control hookup.
Sawyer’s car was parked in front of Evie’s house, with her truck not far away in the driveway. Seeing his work-in-progress baby next to hers was a clear visual of why they clicked so well.
I let myself in, and found them in the kitchen, a series of large sketches laid out on the table between them. It was an updated version of the bot in the sketch I gave her for her birthday.
Evie looked up when I walked into the room. “Hey, handsome.” Her already soft smile grew. She gestured at the plans. “This is what I sent you pics of. Catching Sawyer up.”
So he didn’t get the same messages I did. Was I smug about that? Only completely and entirely.
