“I don’t think moving in together would make things easier,” Zoe said as she continued petting Toby. A moment later, much to his displeasure, she released his hand to give into Max’s petting demands.
“Why not?” Trevor asked, wishing like hell that it hadn’t come out sounding so damn pathetic.
She shrugged lazily. “Because this is an arrangement, Trevor. I don’t see the point in moving in together when the whole point is not to complicate things. It would also make it weird when we start dating other pe-”
“Who the hell are you dating?” Trevor demanded, cutting her off as he reached out and gently cupped her chin between his fingers and forced her to look at him. “Is that why you don’t want to move in with me? Because of some guy?”
Her eyes widened as his words hit, and then, much to his horror, she smiled. “You’re jealous?”
“No, I’m not,” Trevor snorted in disgust, but holy hell, he was.
“Yes, you are,” Zoe said, struggling to bite back a pleased smile and failing miserably.
“No, I’m not!” he snapped, dropping his hand and practically jumped off the bed.
Trevor pointed an accusing finger at her. “You’re just trying to change the subject, woman. I think it would be for the best for everyone if you moved in with me,” and ignored other men, but he couldn’t exactly say that, although he would make damn sure that there were no other men. “Think about it and when you get home tonight, we’ll figure it out,” he said, heading for the door, but he couldn’t help noticing the way her expression suddenly became guarded as she turned her attention back to the dogs.
“Okay, we’ll talk about it later,” Zoe said, shrugging it off like there was really nothing to talk about.
Groaning in frustration, Trevor marched back over to her and took her mouth in a hungry kiss that had him thinking about skipping Thanksgiving dinner and spending the day with her, but he couldn’t do that to his family and he didn’t want to wreck her plans for the day.
“We’ll talk later,” he murmured against her lips.
“Fine,” she sighed heavily as he pulled away.
“Good,” he said, pleased that she wasn’t arguing about it, at least, not at the moment. Hopefully, after she was filled with turkey and all the trimmings, she’d be too exhausted to argue with him.
“You better go or you’ll be late,” Zoe said, gesturing to the clock again.
He winced when he saw what time it was. “Shit, I really have to go. Do you have a long drive?” he asked, wondering if he should plan to swing back here later to give her a ride. It snowed last night and rained this morning and he really didn’t trust her car in this weather or any weather for that matter. It was just another reminder that he’d have to buy her a car soon.
“It’s not very far,” Zoe said, giving him a small smile.
“Okay, but if you don’t want to drive or your car dies, give me a call and I’ll come give you a ride,” Trevor said, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead and giving the dogs a quick rub behind their ears before he headed for the door.
“What if I want to give you a ride?” Zoe asked teasingly, laughing when he tripped over his own damn feet.
Chapter 26
“You missed breakfast,” Jason announced as Trevor stepped inside the large kitchen filled with Bradfords.
“That’s fine. I’m not really hungry,” he said, barely aware or caring that all activity in the busy kitchen suddenly stopped as every Bradford in the room stared at him in disbelief. Even one-year-old Cole stopped trying to climb onto the counter to get at the large platter of cookies his mother made to stare at him.
“You’re not hungry?” his aunt Megan asked, frowning as she wiped her hands on her pale green apron. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m fine,” Trevor answered automatically as he stole the vegetable peeler out of Jason’s hand and started working on one of the three ten-pound bags of potatoes needed for today’s meal. Right now, he needed something to focus on instead of how pissed he was.
“Trevor, sweetheart, do you want to talk?” his aunt asked, and he didn’t have to look up to know that she was probably twisting her hands nervously in her apron. She was a worrier and a babier, and on a good day, all her fussing was hard to take and today sure as hell was not a good day. “Why don’t I make you up a quick plate of eggs and bacon and we can go into the living room and-”
He shook his head. “I’m fine, Aunt Megan. Really.”
“But-”
“He’s fine, honey,” Uncle Jared said. “But I could use a hand finding the cranberry sauce.”
“Wasn’t it on the counter?” Megan asked, leaving him to go help Uncle Jared and hopefully forgetting all about him for the rest of the day, which he knew wasn’t likely to happen. She’d just bug the hell out of him until he told her what was wrong.
“You want to talk about it?” Jason asked quietly so that the rest of their family wouldn’t hear.
