Page 167 of Foreplay on Words

“You stop it, or I’m gonna tell Mom you want to adopt,” I pointed at him and dared him to challenge me.

“Ew.” He made a face, and Elle smacked him on the shoulder.

“Hey!”

“You know I love little bug, but nope. Not gonna happen,” he shook his head.

“Sorry, Sadie, you’re going to have to wait to get some cousins,” Evan told her in his version of the baby voice. It was pretty damn adorable.

“What were you talking to our parents about in the house?” I asked curiously as I leaned in toward Evan.

Shortly after Evan had joined us outside, our parents filled the table on the back patio with a huge spread of food. Everyone had filled up their plates and spread out across the seating available in the backyard.

Evan and I were sitting on a blanket in the middle of the yard, Elle and Ethan a few yards away, trying to keep Sadie from crawling over to us.

My niece seemingly had a crush on Evan, climbing into his lap at every opportunity. I couldn’t blame the girl; if it were socially acceptable, I’d be in his lap all the time too.

“They were asking how the book tour had started, and if we had anything planned in the cities we’re stopping in,” he answered quickly. He refused to look me in the eye, picking at a piece of grass past the edge of the blanket. I felt like he was hiding something, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

“And what did you tell them?”

He shrugged as he smiled over at me. “Just that I’d worked with Diana to figure out some things we could do in our downtime. No use in wasting our travels spending it all between bookstores and the hotels.”

“Do I get to know any of these plans?” Evan was all kinds of sneaky on this trip. I was kind of impressed with his planning.

“Can’t you let a guy have some surprises?” He laughed as he leaned over and kissed my shoulder.

“You better not have us doing anything crazy,” I warned, but we both knew I’d do it anyway.

“You think I’m going to plan something crazy? I have difficulty getting up the nerve to talk into a microphone in front of a crowd. Since when do I do adventurous?”

I raised my eyebrows at him and bit my lip. “I can think of some pretty adventurous things you’ve done recently.” His eyes widened as I leaned in to whisper in his ear. “Don’t you remember the other night?” I drew my finger down the skin exposed by his unbuttoned neckline. “Or the time with the wooden spoon?”

He shifted around on the blanket, pulling down on one of his pant legs. “You’re going to embarrass me in front of our families.”

“Still not going to share what our plans are?” I asked as I bit my lip, looking at him from underneath my lashes.

He laughed as he traced the bare skin on my knee with one of his fingertips. “You’re going to have to be patient. I promise it’s worth the wait.”

Our next stop—Denver—was a whirlwind. Diana had us booked for back-to-back appearances, and we barely had time to breathe before she dragged us to the next venue.

“You guys ready?” Sam asked as we waited in the hotel lobby for the app alert that our car was here.

“Tell me again why I agreed to this?” Kristine sighed and looked around, an irritated look on her face.

“Because we’re awesome, you would have just spent the day inside your room, and we get to drink beer paid for by the publishing house,” I shrugged.

“Sounds like a win to me. Come on, Kris, live a little.” Sam winked at Kristine, and she rolled her eyes at him. Obviously, they hadn’t declared their undying love for each other yet.

“I’m looking forward to a little bit of a break,” Evan agreed, his thumb stroking my fingers lightly as he held my hand.

“But we have to get on a plane at the ass crack of dawn tomorrow,” Kristine whined.

“Since when have you gone to bed before midnight?” Sam asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Have you been monitoring my sleeping habits?” She narrowed her eyes at Sam. I knew they’d shared a mini suite in Boston, but there had been a mix-up when we arrived in Denver, and they were put into a room with two queen beds instead of two queen rooms. Sam had offered to find another hotel, but Kristine had relented and said they were adults and could figure it out since there weren’t any available nearby.

So far, Evan and I hadn’t seen any additional action from those two, so the bet looked like it wouldn’t end up in either of our favor. I wasn’t holding out hope the situation would improve over the next few weeks.

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