* * * *
Knox kept his smile in place until Mo had disappeared back into the kitchen, then gave his husband a boot under the table.“Way to go, Romeo.”
“Me?”Jamming his fork into his pasta, Jesse returned the kick.“What about you, Mr.Smolder?”
Knox winced.“It was the haircut.It caught me off guard.”
“You always did have a thing for punky girls.”Twirling pasta around his fork, Jesse shot Knox a look from under his lashes.“If she’d dyed her hair pink, you’d probably have started drooling.”
Knowing it was the truth, Knox picked up his fork.“You see the stink-eye Mo was giving us?”
His mouth full, Jesse nodded.
Irritated with himself, Knox scowled at his pasta.“We’ll be lucky if she doesn’t fire us.”
Swallowing, Jesse shook his head.“She’s not going to fire us.They want the restaurant up and running by Valentine’s Day, and it’s too late to find another contractor or have new plans drawn up.Besides, she likes us.”
“That was before she saw us hitting on her niece.”
“We weren’t hitting that hard,” Jesse argued.“At least, I wasn’t.”
“Shut up,” Knox muttered.
“Besides, she was hitting back.”
Knox had noticed.“That’s not the point.”
“If it’s not, then I don’t know what is.”Jesse shot a look over his shoulder.The Friday night regulars were trickling in, and Chloe was busy behind the bar.Jesse turned back to Knox.“I want her, Knox.”
“Keep it down,” Knox muttered, even though with the music and the chatter of voices there was no way Jesse’s words would carry far enough for Chloe to hear.
“She couldn’t hear me if I shouted it,” Jesse pointed out.“You want her, too.”
Knox didn’t bother to argue.Jesse knew him better than anyone, and had clued into his attraction for Chloe almost before he had.“I want a lot of things.Doesn’t mean I can have them.”
“What are we going to do?”
Frustrated lust tangling with the pasta in his belly, Knox shrugged.“Nothing we can do.”
“I’m going to have blue balls for this entire reno,” Jesse groused.
Knox rolled his eyes.“Your balls are far from blue.”
Jesse’s grin flashed.“So are yours.”
“Which is why we’ll be fine.”
“Yeah.”Still, Jesse darted a glance over his shoulder.When he turned back, his brown eyes were wistful.“It’s not just that.I like her, Knox.”
I like her, too.“I know.”
“She likes us, too,” Jesse went on, then narrowed his eyes.“Don’t give me that look.”
“What look?”
“YourJesse’s being an idiotlook.I’m not wrong about this.”
“I don’t think you’re wrong, and I don’t think you’re being an idiot,” Knox soothed, hoping to cut Jesse’s temper off before it got going.He wanted to go home and fuck, not go home and fight.“I just think it’s foolish to focus on something you can’t have.”
