Page 29 of Inevitable

“Anyway,” he said, the roughness in his voice unfamiliar to his own ears, “I figured I’d give this couch a chance.”

Drew was once again dressed casually in a T-shirt and sweats. Ezra still couldn’t get over the kick of being able to see Drew like that, so relaxed and domestic.

Drew waved at the free seats. “There’s plenty of room.”

“I’ll go change.”

It took Ezra exactly two minutes to throw on his own pair of sweats and a long-sleeved T-shirt and at least another ten to force his body to calm down.

Bas stepped in the front door just as Ezra came out of his room. Two large boxes of pizza in hand, he pulled his boots off and smiled at the sight of Ezra standing there.

“Hey! Can you take those to the kitchen?”

Thankful for something to do, Ezra hurried to relieve Bas of the pizzas. He went to the kitchen, grabbed some napkins and glasses, and went and put everything on the kitchen table.

A hand on his shoulder made Ezra jump. He whirled around and hit the back of his hand against the edge of the cabinet. The sharp stab of pain was a nice distraction from the confusion whirling in his mind.

Bas regarded him with a raised brow. “Everything all right?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“You’re very jumpy.”

“You startled me. I was still at school in my mind.”

That excuse seemed to be enough for Bas. He shrugged and sat down.

Drew put his work aside and joined them in the kitchen.

Bas pulled one of the pizza boxes toward him. “We have one with pepperoni and another with all sorts of healthy crap. I even ordered broccoli.” Bas shuddered and pushed the box toward Drew.

“It must be love,” Drew said dryly as he grabbed a slice and poured himself a glass of water.

Bas sent Drew a toothy grin, and they all settled in to eat. It was the most ordinary evening. The pizza was nothing too special or particularly memorable, but Drew and Bas were teasing each other and joking around, and they seamlessly included Ezra into their conversation. It was all so… nice. And easy.

“Dude, why do you keep smiling at your pizza?” Bas’s teasing question brought Ezra out from his head.

He looked around, startled. Both Bas and Drew had their eyes fixed on him.

“It’s nice. Dinner. Well, not dinner, exactly…” Ezra rolled his eyes at his own bumbling explanation. “Look, I know people have dinner together all the time, but I’ve never really had that. It’s like having a home.” He could feel his face heat. “Feels nice. That’s all,” he muttered and clamped his mouth shut. That was more than he’d planned to reveal.

Bas and Drew exchanged looks. It wasn’t exactly pity but still too close to that for Ezra’s comfort.

“It’s not a big deal,” he mumbled.

Drew’s gaze felt like a laser beam on the side of his face.

“My family had dinner together every evening,” Drew said, and Bas sent him a funny look Ezra couldn’t decipher.

“We talked about our day and discussed all sorts of things.” Drew fell silent for a moment. “Wow,” he muttered. “I haven’t thought about it in a long time.”

“Maybe we should do that.” Bas interrupted the silence that had followed Drew’s reminiscing. “Maybe not every night, but a few times a week would be nice. We can dub it our Hangout Evening, and our living room will be the Relaxation Station. No. Entertainment Saloon. Wait. Leisure Lounge.”

“We tried that once. We were supposed to meet in a bar every Friday,” Drew said. “I think we couldn’t make it even a month.”

Bas shrugged, unbothered by Drew’s skepticism. “Nobody says we can’t give it another go. Who knows, maybe we’ve matured since then?”

“It does sound nice,” Drew said.