the middle was a beer mug. I hadn’t missed the way he’d glanced at me when I’d requested a glass for my bottle of water earlier.
I nervously watched the patty and sipped from the mug of beer. It wasn’t exactly expensive stuff, but I felt too relaxed to complain.
He didn’t have a pool. The yard could use a decent manicure, and we practically had no view, but I was content. In another hour or so, the sun would go down, and the evening was quite cool.
“Charles.”
I blinked my eyes open. August was looking down at me with an expression that was somewhere between a grin and exasperation. I scrunched up my nose at the acrid scent that wafted in the air.
“What’s that smell?”
“Burnt patties.”
“Oh my god!” I rushed to get up, but August pushed me back gently in the chair.
“It’s okay. You fell asleep.”
I groaned, not as easily forgiving as he seemed. “Sorry. I was feeling so peaceful and must’ve dozed off.”
“I already threw them out and have new ones on the grill.”
“Hey, I tried to warn you,” I grumbled. “I wouldn’t make a good housewife.”
“Well, if cooking is out, I’m sure you could be useful on your hands and knees.”
I choked at August’s words, blinking at him. Oh god, did he just… Oh god, he did. And now I couldn’t get the image out of my head of me on all fours before August. My insides vibrated, the fast pace of my heartbeat leaving me breathless.
“I’d love to see how you could mess up scrubbing the floors.” August chuckled and headed back over to the grill.
“Floors?”
“Yeah, you know a good housewife doesn’t only do the cooking but also the cleaning.”
My heart rate slowed. I’d been convinced that…shit. Now I was uncertain about every little line of his that I thought was him flirting with me.
August went inside, giving me enough time to calm down from my inappropriate thought about us. He placed a salad bowl on the table, and my eyes drifted down below his waist. He’d changed into worn jeans. I wasn’t quite sure if the bulge in the front was the material or something else.
Was that what I really wanted? To have August’s dick inside my mouth? I’d done it a couple of times before in college, but that was so long ago I couldn’t even remember what it felt like. It couldn’t have been all that good if I’d never done it again.
“Let me guess, no mayo?” August asked me.
“Right. But do you have any mustard?”
“Sure.”
He fixed both our burgers, and once again, I was quite pleased in the way he’d been conscious about the kind of bread he’d ordered. The whole-wheat brand he’d chosen before asking me if it was okay had sesame seeds with no egg and no yeast.
“How’s it?” I asked after he took his first bite, knowing that he wouldn’t complain about it.
“It’s…different,” he said, and I chuckled.
“Is that a bad thing? You don’t have to let my health decisions affect your eating habits, you know.”
“No, they’re good habits to have. Just an acquired taste that I’ll have to get used to.”
“Well, I’ll be out of your hair after today, so there’s no need to get acquainted with anything.”
“We’re family, Charles. You’ll be seeing me for a long time.”
Yes, family.
I needed to remember that, and then maybe the inappropriate thoughts would stop. If only it were that easy. In my head, the attractive, intuitive man sitting across from me wasn’t family. For me, family was people I knew from childhood, people I’d watched growing up. August was already a grown man, and that was the only version of him I knew. He was the man who brought me something new. Something I hadn’t experienced in a long time.
Was it so wrong to want to keep that feeling?
“You’re thinking,” August said. “Tell me about what.”
“Today’s been good for me.” I shied away from the much-too-complicated truth. “I didn’t even know how much I needed this.”
“A day of manual labor?” he teased. “Good to know. I’ll call you when I get started on my other plans for this place.”
“What are your plans?”
“You sure you want to hear me ramble about this old house?”
“I can see it means a lot to you.”
“It does. Remember what you said last night about home being the place to go?”
Oh yeah, I wished I didn’t. “Yes.”
“Well, this is my home. All my important memories are here.”