“I cannot believe that you took advantage of our weakness for your own entertainment,” Trevor said in mock disgust.
It actually turned him on. For the past hour, he’d been struggling with the desire to drag her adorable ass to his truck. He wanted to show her just how much it turned him on, but that would have to wait until the restaurant closed down for the night or they kicked him out, whichever came first.
Zoe rolled her eyes as she gestured to the buffet tables. “I get entertainment and you get food. I really don’t see what the problem is.”
“I would have gotten at least a week’s worth of the buffet if you hadn’t told everyone,” Trevor grumbled, giving her his best pout.
“Would it make you feel better if I promised not to tell anyone else about the next buffet?”
“Yes, yes, it would,” Trevor said, feeling somewhat appeased.
“Fine, you big baby,” Zoe said, sighing as she looked around the restaurant again. “Do you think it would be okay if I went over and asked Haley if I could borrow one of her books so that I have something to do while I wait for my entertainment to start?” she asked, gesturing across the room to Haley, who had a small stack of paperback books on the table next to her.
“I’m not entertaining enough?” he asked, biting into a large, juicy breast.
“Sadly, no.”
Even though he was damn entertaining and she knew it, Trevor decided to take pity on her. “Here,” he said, picking the black shopping bag off the seat next to him and handed it to her.
“You’re giving me your condiments?” Zoe asked, looking confused as she took the bag.
“Not that you deserve it after what you pulled today,” Trevor said, gesturing to the bag, “but I got you a little something. It’s fully charged and it has a hundred-dollar balance on it, so you can start downloading whenever you’re ready.”
Nibbling her bottom lip in that nervous way of hers, Zoe shot him a curious look before placing the bag on the bench next to her and opening it. The stunned look on her face pleased him greatly.
“You’re giving me an iPad?” she asked softly.
He nodded, rather pleased with the wobbly smile she was giving him. “You mentioned how much you wanted one. So, I picked one up yesterday morning when I ran out to do errands,” he explained, not mentioning that he called Jason for help.
His cousin had been a little shocked by the call, but pleased. Trevor hated asking for help and his cousin understood that, which was why he called him. Out of all the people who knew about his problem, and there weren’t that many, only Jason and his Uncle Jared made him feel comfortable about it. His aunt babied him and the rest of his family was too damn overprotective of him.
Although Jason was a little surprised that he wanted an iPad, he hadn’t really questioned it. For two hours, they looked around until they found one they both liked. Trevor liked the look and the easy features that Jason explained to him and Jason liked the rest of the technical nonsense, so he bought one for Haley that he planned to surprise her with later.
It actually surprised him that he’d enjoyed shopping with Jason. Not that he wanted to make it a weekly thing, the shopping that is, but he wouldn’t mind spending more time with his cousin. He hadn’t realized how much he actually missed the man until they were shoving a couple of teenagers away from the demo video games so that they could play.
For the first time in a long time, he was actually looking forward to having Thanksgiving dinner with his family. It was probably past time he gave up his bullshit and stopped acting like an ass over his cousin’s happiness. Not that he ever truly begrudged Jason his happiness, but it had reminded him that he was unhappy.
Trevor wasn’t really sure when he’d gotten over his bullshit, but after spending time with Zoe and learning to relax a little more, he realized he was being an idiot. Of course, her telling him that he was being an idiot after he’d confided in her late one night might have something to do with it. Any other woman would have probably been sympathetic and babied him, but Zoe stared at him for a minute, just stared at him before she reached up and slapped him upside his head and told him to get over it.
She told him that he was missing out on something special over something that shouldn’t matter since his family clearly loved him and it was more than obvious to anyone that Jason was trying to reach out to him. After he thought it over with the help of one of her delicious sandwiches, Trevor realized that it really was petty bullshit. No matter how smart Jason was or how perfect his life seemed, Jason was just...Jason, the cousin who sometimes went out of his way to embarrass everyone but had a heart of gold.
After everything that Jason had done for him when they were kids, Trevor wanted his cousin to be happy. He’d also realized that he wanted to be part of it. He wanted to hang out with Jason again and spend more time with his family. If he decided to have children, he hoped their kids could be friends. Granted, Jason’s kids would probably be freakishly smart and would probably have to help his kids out a time or two, but that would be okay.
“Really?” Zoe asked, sounding unsure and drawing his attention once again.
“I figured this way, if you started to read a book and didn’t like it, you could always find another one,” Trevor said, shrugging it off like it was no big deal, but he was secretly pleased that he’d given her something that she clearly liked so-
“Zoe, are you crying?” Trevor asked, feeling like he’d just been kicked in the balls.
“No!” Zoe said, sounding outraged, but he didn’t miss the way that she ducked her head or tried to wipe her eyes on the back of her sleeves. “I just have something in my eye, that’s all.”
Shit.
He’d messed up on the gift. Damn it, maybe he should have just gotten her that German shepherd puppy that he’d spotted in the pet store. The damn thing looked so small and lonely curled up in the small kennel. Zoe would just love the damn thing and Toby would probably like to have a friend. Well, it looked like he’d be hitting the mall again and picking out a different gift.
It was all Jason’s fault.
The bastard, Trevor thought as he picked up a particularly large chicken drumstick and held it up to taunt the bastard only to spot Jason holding up a large juicy-looking rib. There were ribs? he wondered hopefully, licking his lips. Zoe’s sniffle brought him back. Focus. Zoe first, ribs second, and oh, there would be ribs...lots and lots of ribs.
