he was, and the words just came out of my mouth. “I was wondering what you’re doing today. And if you want to do it together.”
Brax stopped chewing and almost choked.
Shit. We weren’t dating. I didn’t want him to think I was pitching for a date. Did I? My heart stammered, and I looked away.
He washed his sandwich down with a gulp of water. “Hang on, what was that look about?”
I’d hoped he would have looked past it, but I didn’t believe in games, much preferring to shoot straight. “I wasn’t exactly sure if ‘hanging out’ is part of the arrangement. We weren’t exactly friends before we agreed to our new arrangement. But we were more than acquaintances. ”
Brax blew a raspberry and rolled his eyes at me. “Trust me, you’re family. You’ve been Hunter’s partner for a long time, you’re always at the Tower, and everyone loves and respects you.”
“Ah, c’mon.” I felt my cheeks flushing uncharacteristically, and I laughed awkwardly.
“Are you serious? Everyone adores you. You have Hunter’s back every day, plus you’re like…a positive influence on the rest of us.” He grinned and tickled his fingertips across the counter until he hooked them around mine. “You’re really important to us.”
“So… Hanging out outside of the bedroom isn’t pushing things, then?”
“No, it’s not.” He took another smaller bite of sandwich. “But I actually have to pick up some art supplies today—”
“No problem, forget about it—”
“But I’d love it if you wanted to come with me.”
“Huh. Well…” I put a hand on my chest, genuinely touched and excited at the idea of the excursion. “I’ll get my keys.”
“What kind of stuff are we picking up?” I asked as we pulled into the back of the art supply warehouse in my M10 BMW.
“A lot of gloss. I think it’s what’s missing from the work I was trying to finish this week. If I can make it shiny, maybe I’ll like it more.” He checked the glitter on his eyelashes in the rearview mirror. “It usually works.”
He shone bright all on his own, but the glitter did draw my attention even more intensely to his beautiful blue eyes. I had to focus on not staring at him to park safely.
We walked across the parking lot and I moved closer to him to put my arm around his shoulder, but he looped his elbow through mine before I had a chance. Inside the warehouse, he immediately yanked me toward an aisle at the very end.
It felt good to be in public with him, even if it was just a near-empty warehouse with few customers. I was still humming inside with warm, fuzzy feelings about being part of his ‘family’, and I was surprised when he asked me about mine while he was looking at the back of a bottle of gloss varnish.
“Are your parents around?” He asked it as if it was a regular thing to talk about in an art supply warehouse, and I could tell the flippancy of his voice was because it was a sensitive topic.
“Yeah, they live in Florida now. Happily married, happily retired.” I said it as offhandedly as I could, and kept it short.
“Florida? Sticky. You see them much?” He handed me the large bottle of vanish, then grabbed another three and stacked them in my arms too.
“Ah, a couple of times a year.” I struggled to carry them at first, but adjusted my arms and motioned for him to stack more on me. “I have a sister in DC though, Marianne. Niece and nephew too. Great kids, super fun. I like being an uncle almost as much as I like being an FBI agent.”
He widened his eyes and then covered his mouth with his hand. “Oh my god. I wonder if any of my brothers will have kids…”
“There are seven of them. Odds are one of them will, right?”
“I guess I already have two kitten niblings. Human babies can’t be much different, right?”
I chuckled. “They must certainly are. Hey, should we get a basket or a cart?” I motioned back the way we came but Brax just shook his head.
“We’ll manage.”
I grinned at him and wondered if I’d see other ways in which he was a little stubborn and hard-headed. I liked it. He was capable, determined, and knew what he could handle - including carrying twenty-odd bottles of vanish to the register split between the two of us.
“Wait, you like being an uncle as much as being a special agent?” He glanced at me