Page 16 of Starved

“You’re such a liar.”

“Well, thanks for the pep talk,” Evan began.

“Wait, don’t hang up yet! What’d you decide to do tonight?”

Evan snorted. “Nice try.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m not telling you where we’re going so you can conveniently show up there.”

There was an affronted gasp. “I would never do that, Evan.”

“She totally would,” Claire interjected.

“Hey, whose side are you on, here?” Liza grumbled at her wife.

“Evan’s,” Claire said, her voice getting stronger, and the unmistakable sounds of a tussle came through the phone.

“Hey!”

“Hi Evan,” Claire said smoothly over the cat-like screeching of his sister. “Liza seems to have forgotten that some things aren’t any of her business.”

“He’s my brother, how is it not my business?” Liza protested from the background.

“Because it’s not,” Claire said firmly, and Evan grinned when Liza’s voice faded into muted grumbling. “Enjoy your date, Evan. Tell Colin we said hi.”

“Thanks, Claire. I will.”

“You’re welcome. Good night.”

Evan snorted out a laugh when the call ended, picturing his pixie-sized sister facing off against her wife, the former volleyball player. Normally he’d put his money on Liza, the chaos monster, but the exception to that rule was Claire. Cool as a cucumber, calm as a mountain lake, not even their parents could calm Liza down like Claire. He’d assumed when they’d met that they would be together only long enough for a bit of short-term fun. They had so little in common, he just didn’t see how it could last. But they’d been married for three years now, with a baby on the way, and even the most cynical observer could see they were deliriously happy.

He’d always thought people who got married should have a lot in common, an idea that was no doubt fed by his parents’ relationship. Julie and Eddie Dunbar did everything together, from reading to watching TV to running the store. They had so much in common they might as well have been one person. But Claire and Liza were doing just fine.

They did have a few things in common, he mused as he turned into Colin’s drive. A love of sports, similar tastes in movies, a shared dislike of zoos. It wasn’t much, but it was apparently enough, a fact that gave him some hope. Because when he really thought about it, he didn’t have that much in common with Colin.

He cut the engine with a frown. He’d be lying if he said that didn’t worry him, just a little bit. He liked being outside, while Colin leaned toward more indoor, cerebral interests. He was the kind of guy who took community college classes for fun, while Evan would be thrilled to never set foot in a classroom ever again.

But it wasn’t that he never read a book, or that Colin never spent any time outdoors. It would be fine, he told himself, and shoving the worries away, got out of the car.

He made his way up the neatly shoveled walk to Colin’s front door and, with a deep breath to steady his nerves, knocked.

It opened almost immediately to a frowning Colin. “Why are you at the front door?”

“Uh…we have a date?” Evan ventured.

“You never come to the front door.”

That was true. He always came around to the kitchen door, which he had a key to. In fact, he didn’t think he’d ever knocked on Colin’s door before, and Colin had never knocked on his. Even in college they’d had an open-door policy. “Do you want me to go around to the kitchen?”

“No.” Colin swept a hand through his hair and stepped back. “Sorry. I just…you surprised me.”

“It’s okay,” Evan replied, stepping inside. Colin was dressed in a green sweater and jeans that made his butt look amazing. “You look nice.”

Colin shot him a look and reached for his coat. “I assume that means it’s appropriate for wherever we’re going?”

“Sure,” Evan said, then blinked. “Wait. Were you anxious about that?”

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