How To Evict a Hot Jock in Three Weeks - Anyta Sunday Page 0,43

ass had only been craving company? Would Logan decide he had satisfied his curiosity?

Ever-increasingly, he believed that what they had was real. But last night Logan had freaked. What if it was all wishful thinking?

He’d hurried out the house this morning afraid to face facts, afraid of his feelings, afraid of their talk, afraid to move forward.

Alexander sighed.

They would have to break up. Definitely.

But maybe they could put it off. Just one more night.

A deep chuckle startled Alexander from his thoughts. “Your brother loves you.”

Alexander frowned. “What?”

Logan steered Alexander toward the table, where the most magnificent looking caramelized onion quiche sat.

Alexander yanked his younger brother into a warm hug. He smelled of wood and onion and felt like home.

Nico wrapped his arms around him. “Sorry about leaving your birthday so early last week.”

Alexander absorbed the love and squeezed it back. “You’re incredible.”

“Luci helped me.”

The softness in Nico’s voice tugged at Alexander, and he admired the happy couple as they ate the best quiche of Alexander’s life.

“Meeting the parents,” Luci burst out, startling half the table.

Logan leaned toward Luci, interested in the turn in conversation. “How did that go?”

“I think Mom and Dad caught how much I like him.”

Nico smiled softly at her. “What do you think gave it away? The first or fourteenth kiss?”

Luci laughed. “We certainly made Dad blush. I couldn’t help it.”

Nico leaned in and kissed her on the lips. “Me neither.”

Alexander picked at the tablecloth at his lap, straightening a fold. “They weren’t surprised how soon they were meeting my brother?”

Luci shook her head. “I’ve never felt like this before. You can’t always schedule your feelings to an appropriate timeline. Sometimes, you just have to roll with it.”

She clasped Nico’s hand on the table. Her gaze sharpened on Logan and Alexander. “What did you guys get up to yesterday?”

Alexander found Logan watching him. He laughed nervously. “Things.” His chair caught on a rug as he pushed it back. “Anyone else need water?”

In the kitchen, he let out a shaky breath, covering the sound with the rushing of the tap. He jumped when cold water slid over his hand and the jug overflowed. Wincing, he turned off the faucet, the hum of conversation returning as the sound faded.

He groaned.

“. . . and then there was Daniel,” Nico said, “all beefy and brunette and thinking he was the shit. He was attractive and towered over Alexander—which I think he likes—but they never shared a house. Two years later, you come along. The first and only guy that seems to be sticking.”

“Ya’ll can’t know how well we stick after two-and-a-bit weeks.”

Nico snorted. “But you spend whole days together, as well as nights. That’s probably the equivalent of—Alexander saw his ex-boyfriend once a week for, what, a few hours? Yeah, so like, the equivalent of thirty Daniel weeks. That’s more than half a year.”

Alexander smiled through gritted teeth and faced the company. “Enough mathematics, Nico.”

“As for Logan,” Luci chimed in. “He’s often attracted to sophisticated, successful types who know what they like, but he learns, too damn late, that they don’t like him.”

Logan was the reddest Alexander had seen him. “Thank you for that, Luce.”

Luci poked a friendly tongue at him, but that friendliness vanished as she focused on Alexander. “I’m practiced at telling his girlfriends to either be sure about him or let him down before his heart gets involved.”

“Luci!” Logan warned.

Alexander heard her caution. “I’m not a girlfriend, and that fact makes me just as vulnerable.”

Another reason they needed to wrap this game up. Soon.

Nico stood, scooping up the remaining quiche. “How do we feel about dessert?”

Luci cleared their dinner plates and put fresh ones out, and Logan huddled in the kitchen with Nico. They turned to place a frosted cake on the table.

Logan paused behind Alexander’s chair and whispered in his ear. “While you were hard at work winning auctions, I worked on this. With sugar this time.”

Logan’s ticklish breath sluiced goosebumps down Alexander’s neck. Nico handed him the knife to do the honors, and Alexander’s hand trembled as he cut the first slice. He was relieved once everyone had cake on their plate and he could bathe in flutters and nerves.

The red-velvet sponge hit his tongue. The consistency was perfect, and the lemon-rind cream-cheese frosting divine.

Even Logan tooted his own horn about how tasty it turned out.

Nico slouched in his chair and rubbed his stomach. “We should definitely do this again.”

Logan glanced at Alexander, an inquisitive spark in his eye. “I’m good for tomorrow.”

Alexander swallowed.

Luci shook her