Page 11 of Nix
Had thinking about him brought Nix to him?
From the counter, Nix turned, and spotting Evan he just fucking beamed. “Bestie!”
Amanda, the barista at the counter, barked out a laugh. “Bestie?”
Nix ran over and grabbed Evan’s hand before dragging Evan to the counter. “Amanda! This is my new best friend, Mules. Do you know him? He’s awesome.”
Amanda’s gaze caught his and she grinned. “We all know Evan here. He comes in all the time.”
Nix gasped dramatically while throwing his upper body onto the counter covering most of the small surface. “He knew about this amazing place, and he didn’t tell me?”
Evan cleared his throat. “In my defense I didn’t know you lived in my neighborhood.”
“Isn’t it great?” Nix straightened again. “And now we’re best coffee buddies.”
“I love you,” Amanda said to Nix. “Do you want a job?”
Evan growled. “He had a job! He plays hockey. With me.” What the fuck! He was standing right there and this chick was hitting on Nix? No, wait, Evan didn’t have a claim to Nix. He needed to calm the fuck down. Easier said than done with Nix beaming beside him.
“You're a hockey player?” she asked while eyeing him. “Aren’t you rather…small?”
Instead of getting offended like Evan wanted to do, Nix just waved his hand. “I’m tiny but I’m mighty! Ha! That rhymes. I need to use that line more often.”
“Like Mighty Mouse?” Amanda asked with evident confusion.
“Uh…” Nix cocked his head. “I don’t know who that is.”
Evan groaned, dropping his head back. How young was this kid?
“Are you joking? It was an awesome cartoon that played in the early 2000s,” Amanda explained.
“Oh! We didn’t watch much television as kids. Our mom liked us to play outside and get fresh air. Also maybe to save the furniture from being broken. We might have had excess energy even when we were little kids. Then we found hockey and that’s all she wrote. We were hooked,” Nix said.
“We?” Amanda questioned.
What was with all this talk? Mules needed to get to the arena. Hell, Nix needed to get there too.
“I’m a triplet!” Nix announced with a flourish.
“There are three of you?” Amanda sounded excited. “Are they as adorable as you? Do they want a job?”
“We all play hockey,” Nix told her. “And I’m the most adorable!”
“I bet!” Amanda grinned at him.
“We really need to get our coffees and get to the arena,” Mules stated firmly. He didn’t make any comment on Nix’s adorableness, because the kid wasn’t wrong. He was rather cute. And very sweet.
“Oh!” Nix backed off, glancing at his phone. “My car is running late.”
“You ordered a car?” Mules questioned.
“A ride share,” Nix said. “I don’t drive.”
Fuck his life. Evan couldn’t just leave Nix behind. “Cancel the car. You can ride with me.” He turned to Amanda, who was already passing a cup across the counter to him.
“Your usual,” she said with a wink.
He dug out a ten and passed it over. “Appreciate it.” Evan grabbed Nix’s arm. “Let’s go.”
