“Sorry,” Lucas murmured, noticing the deep flush to Andrei’s cheeks. He’d wanted to help Andrei relax around his friends. Not embarrass him.
Andrei stunned him by stopping and brushing his lips gently across his in a soft kiss. “It was a good try,” he whispered. And then he was moving again, continuing into the kitchen to hand over the towels to Ian. That was encouraging.…
“Andrei, I think I left a bottle of wine in the back seat of the truck. Could you go get it?” Sonja asked, not blinking an eye at the fact that her son looked like he’d been thoroughly kissed in the laundry room not a minute earlier.
“Keys?”
“Your father has them.”
Andrei nodded and set off to find Milos. There was no missing that his gait was a little stiffer. He probably shouldn’t have convinced Andrei to go commando to Thanksgiving.
“Are you having fun?”
Rowe’s slow drawl snapped Lucas’s attention away from Andrei’s discomfort to see his best friend leaning against the wall next to him, his lips pulled in a wide, knowing grin.
“Not as much as I’d like,” Lucas muttered and then grabbed a fistful of Rowe’s shirt as a new idea occurred to him. He pulled Rowe off balance and into the laundry room before shutting the door behind him.
“What the hell? I’m not kissing you!” Rowe squawked, arms flailing wildly.
Lucas shoved him away and snapped the light on. “Shut up. I want to ask you something.”
“Fine but you stay over there until the blood gets back to your brain. You’re all handsy and horny.”
Rolling his eyes, Lucas leaned against the door again. “I’m serious.”
And in the blink of an eye, so was Rowe. “What’s wrong?” All humor had left his voice.
Okay, so maybe Lucas hadn’t meant for him to be that serious. Lucas licked his lips and took a deep breath, trying to find the right words. When he finally spoke, his voice was low, barely over a whisper to keep from being overheard by Ian and Sonja in the kitchen. “I…I’m thinking about asking Andrei to go away with me for a long weekend. Before all the holiday craziness.”
“Go away with you?”
Lucas shrugged. God, he sounded like some clueless fucking teenager. He hadn’t even felt like this when he was a teenager. How did Andrei manage to reduce him to a bundle of insecurity? “A trip. Just the two of us, to like St. Maarten or maybe the Maldives.”
Rowe arched one eyebrow at him, leaning back against the dryer. “So…”
“Do you think he’d want to? He was talking earlier about this being too fast and I don’t want to ask him and scare him off. I just thought this would be a way for us to have a little time together because December is going to be a fucking nightmare of work and social obligations that we won’t have two minutes of peace until after New Year’s.”
Rowe stared at him like he’d lost his mind and he couldn’t blame him. All those words had just come pouring out of his mouth like a dam had suddenly collapsed and there was just no holding back the flood. Fuck, he never should have said a word. Or maybe just not have mentioned it to Rowe.
“Never mind,” Lucas muttered, turning with his hand on the knob.
“No,” Rowe said sharply, grabbing his shoulder. “You just surprised me.”
Lucas stopped, but he didn’t turn around, not wanting to see the look on Rowe’s face again. He felt enough like an idiot.
“Too fast?” Rowe repeated. “I don’t know. Maybe. You guys have been seeing each other, what? A month or two? Meeting family, holidays, and then flying off to some tropical island. Yeah, it might be a little fast, but if it’s right, fast doesn’t matter.”
“Right like you and Mel?” Lucas risked a glance over his shoulder at Rowe to find the man smiling broadly at him.
“Mel and I are so fucking wrong we can’t help but be right.”
Lucas snorted at Rowe’s ridiculous logic, some of the tension he’d been carrying around finally oozing from his shoulders and easing from around his lungs so that he could draw a deep breath again.
“Just ask him. Tell him what you’re thinking. He’s a smart guy. He’ll get it.”
“Thanks.” Lucas started to turn the knob on the door, but Rowe’s hand tightened on his shoulder.
“While I’ve got you, do you think Mel looks okay?”
Lucas jerked out of Rowe’s grasp, turning to completely face him. “What the fuck does that mean? What’s wrong? Is she sick?” he demanded in a harsh whisper. He stepped toward Rowe, who just as quickly backpedaled until he was pressed against the washer.
“What? No! I mean I don’t think so. No.”
“Then what the hell are you talking about?”
Rowe winced, looking a little embarrassed. “She said she has a surprise for me and I know that she’s seen a doctor twice in the past week. I think…I mean…do you think she looks pregnant?”