“SO, DAD’S IN,” Tate said later that night as he dug in his pocket for the front door keys. It was nearing seven, and the crisp evening air was starting to turn frigid now that the sun had set.

“And he’s bringing a plus one. Go, Will,” Logan said, and walked up the steps until he was so close behind that Tate could feel the warmth through his clothes. “I’ll ask Cole tomorrow, but I don’t see it being a problem for the Madisons. The only reason we ended up there every year was because the condo was too small. This way, we can split things up. Do Christmas night at their house as usual, and New Year’s at the cabin with the kids and a bonfire. How’s that sound?”

Perfect, Tate thought as he unlocked the door, and when he shoved it open, he looked over his shoulder to Logan. “It sounds great. I can’t wait to tell them all at Thanksgiving.”

“Neither can I. I’m excited,” Logan said as they walked inside.

“Yeah?”

“Of course. Why do you sound so skeptical?”

Tate shrugged as he faced Logan where he stood leaning against the door. “Not skeptical. I just remember a certain conversation we had about you, me, and a courthouse…”

Logan rolled his eyes. “I still think a quick, no-plans, no-fuss affair would be so much easier than a full-on wedding. That’s what Cole and Rachel did. Imagine how crazy shit is going to get when we tell them about this.”

Tate laughed, knowing that Logan was right, but shook his head anyway. They’d had this conversation at the winery, but the closer they got to announcing it, the more Logan started to exhibit signs of anxiety over words like wedding and ceremony.

“I’m not marrying you in the same courthouse you work in every day of the week, Logan. I want our family and friends there and so do you. You told me so.” Tate paused and then added, “I love you, and I want them to know how much.”

Logan pushed off the door, and when they were toe to toe, he trailed a finger down Tate’s jacket. “How am I ever supposed to say no to you when you’re such a sweet talker?”

“I’m just telling the truth.”

“Which is why I agreed, if you’ll recall. You were very persuasive that night,” Logan said as the two of them tossed their keys on the entry table.

“Hmm. So you think you’re going to like being someone’s husband, then?”

“No,” Logan said. “But I’m going to love being yours.”

Tate’s grin was immediate—and foolish, he was sure. “Mine. I like that.”

“Good, because that’s the way it’s been ever since you served me a gin and tonic.”

“Nope, I changed my mind,” Tate said, shaking his head. “I fucking love that.”

“Do you?” Logan laughed, and that sinful smirk made Tate’s cock stand up and take notice.

“Yeah. The sexiest man in the bar—no, wait. The sexiest anti-marriage man in the bar ended up my fiancé. What’s not to love about that story? Actually, I think that might make me the most persuasive man around.”

“I don’t know,” Logan said as he moved in closer. “I think it’s a toss-up on who’s the most persuasive, since I, you know, got the straight guy to admit that he loves kissing me.”

“I love doing a lot more that, and thank God. Otherwise, the fact that you’re unbuttoning my jeans might get a little bit awkward in a second.”

Logan nipped at Tate’s lip, and then he hummed in the back of his throat. “That would be the last word I’d use to describe how I feel about getting inside your jeans, Mr. Morrison.”

“Oh yeah?” Tate said, as the back of his foot hit the staircase and he stumbled slightly. “You do know we have a nice, big bed upstairs, right?”

“Mhmm, but it’s too far away,” Logan complained as he wrapped a hand around Tate’s erection.

“Oh shit…” Tate groaned, and could feel his arousal beginning to take over, as it always did whenever Logan got like this. “Upstairs,” he said again, and took Logan’s hand in his, determined not to end up butt-ass naked on their staircase. He guided them up to their bedroom, where they could finish getting undressed.

Tate kicked out of his shoes and then tossed his leather jacket over the end of the bed, and that was when he noticed Logan leaning up against the doorjamb watching him.

“What’s that look about?”

Logan licked his full lips as he lowered his eyes down over him, and Tate’s dick became hard as a rock.

“Just that never in a million years did I think we’d end up here that first night at the bar.”

“In the same bedroom?” Tate scoffed as his jeans hit the floor. “Now, that’s a lie. You were gunning for that the second we saw each other.”

“Engaged,” Logan clarified as he made his way into the room. “I had no doubt you’d end up in my bedroom or my bed—or me, since we’re on the topic.”

“Arrogant much?”

“Am I wrong?” Logan asked when he stopped opposite Tate.

“No. But you are arrogant.”

“Yet you love me anyway,” Logan said as he walked into the bathroom. “That’s why you’re marrying me.”

Tate smirked as he pulled off his shirt, and once he was completely naked, he entered the bathroom to find Logan finishing up brushing his teeth. His sweater had been removed and tossed in the dirty hamper, but everything else was perfectly in order on his lawyer.

As Tate made his way across the heated tile floor, Logan followed his progress in the mirror. Tate loved it when Logan got like this, quiet and predatory, and right now, as Logan turned to rest his ass up against the sink, he was looking at Tate as though seeing him for the first time.

“Come here,” Logan said, crooking a finger.

Tate didn’t hesitate, moving the couple of steps he needed until he was standing between Logan’s legs.

“I love this,” Logan said as he wound his arms around Tate’s waist. “When you’re naked and I’m not. It’s so fucking hot.”

Tate rubbed his erection against the stiff cock inside Logan’s jeans. “Really? I couldn’t tell.”

Logan shoved a leg between his thighs, and then pinched the round curve of his ass. “Smart-ass.”

“It’s a tight one, too. Want to get inside it?”

Logan groaned and thrust his hips forward. “Fuck, Tate.”

“That’s what I had in mind. You. Fucking me. Right now.”

“Christ,” Logan said, and shut his eyes as Tate ground his hips against him. “How, after all this time, can you still make me lose my mind in seconds?”

Tate panted against Logan’s lips as he reached down between them to unfasten his jeans. “I don’t know…but trust me, the feeling’s mutual. I want you in me. Right here, where I can watch.”

Logan’s eyes flicked open and blazed, and just as Tate was about to take his mouth in a blistering kiss, one of their phones began to ring.

“Ignore it,” Logan said, and as tempted as Tate was to do just that, he also knew it could be Robbie at the bar or Logan’s office.

“We can’t.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“Logan…two minutes?” Tate said as he reluctantly let go and headed through the door.

“Make it one,” Logan called out as Tate walked over to his phone and realized it wasn’t his.

“Hey? It’s yours. Want me to leave it?”

“Do you recognize the number?”

Tate looked at the caller ID, but it was a number he hadn’t seen before. “No. Let me see who it is really quick.”

“If you don’t hurry up, I’m going to finish what you started all on my own, Tate.”

As he hit accept, Tate re-entered the bathroom to find Logan now stripped of his shirt and leaning inside their shower to turn on the faucet. “Hello?”

“Well, well, well. This is a nice surprise,” a female greeted him. “I wasn’t expecting you to answer the phone, handsome.”

Tate didn’t have to ask who it was at the other end of the phone by that greeting, but he did reach for a towel, because there was something intrinsically wrong about talking to Evelyn Mitchell naked as the day he was born.

* * *

LOGAN LOOKED OVER to where Tate was wrapping a towel around his waist and mouthed strip just as Tate said into the phone, “Evelyn. How are you tonight?”

Logan’s spine stiffened at her name, and another very prominent part of him went limp. He then gestured with his hand for Tate to end things.

“I’m not here,” he whispered right when Tate said, “He’s just here. One second.”

Logan cursed but walked over to where Tate was holding out the phone.

“Sorry,” he said as Logan wrapped his fingers around the cell.

Logan aimed a tight-lipped smile at Tate. “No. It’s fine. Let me go take this while you shower, and I’ll meet you in bed.”

Tate grimaced but leaned in and placed a kiss to Logan’s temple. “Okay. But don’t be long.”

Logan nodded and then left the bathroom, wondering what Evelyn could possibly be calling him for, not to mention where she was calling from, if it wasn’t her usual phone.

Annoyed by the interruption, he brought the phone up to his ear and said, “Evelyn, who do I have to blame for this unexpected pleasure?”

As her laugh echoed through the phone, Logan took the stairs down to the living room and made his way through to the kitchen.

“Really, Logan. How rude. Can’t a mother call her boy for the holidays?”

“A mother can, yes,” Logan said as he reached for a bottle of bourbon. “You don’t…ever.” Evelyn tsked him as Logan poured a finger of the amber liquid into a glass and tossed it back, and when she said nothing more, he sighed. “Are you okay? Do you need something?”

“Oh no, no. It’s nothing like that. I’m fine.” When she paused, Logan leaned up against the counter and rubbed a hand over his face, waiting, because with Evelyn, there had to be more than that—there always was. “It’s just… I’m in town, and it’s Thanksgiving this week…”

And there it is. Logan shut his eyes and counted back from twenty as he pictured Evelyn running a hand over her raven hair in that cautious but unaffected way she had about her. He hadn’t seen her for months, but after they’d spoken on the phone recently, he’d thought that would be it until after the holidays. The last thing he wanted was to introduce her to Tate’s father. And Cole and Rachel? Shit…that was not how he wanted Thanksgiving to go. Not this year.

“I don’t know, Evelyn. We have plans, family coming over…”

“I won’t make any fuss,” she said, and Logan pinched the bridge of his nose, praying for patience, and then he thought of the man he’d left upstairs. The man who gave everyone a second chance if he thought there was even the slightest hope of redemption. “I can even bring something,” she added.

“You don’t cook.”

“No. But I can buy something. A pie? A casserole? Alcohol?”

Logan shook his head and wondered when he’d become such an idiot, because that was when he heard himself say, “That. Bring lots of alcohol.” God knows I’ll need it.

There was silence on the other end, and then Evelyn said, “You mean it? I can come?”

I must be losing my mind. “Yes. You can come.”

“Oh, good! I promise to be on my best behavior.”

Well, considering he was already providing the food and place of the function, Logan couldn’t really see what harm she could possibly cause, but… “Let’s not make any promises we might not be able to keep.”

Evelyn clapped her hands excitedly.

“This is our new address.” Logan rattled it off for her and then added, “Everybody’s getting here at around ten.”

“Oooh, Wicker Park? Very nice.”

Logan could just imagine her in cartoon form with her eyes wide and dollar signs appearing in the center. “Evelyn?”

“Yes, Hot Wheels?”

Logan was about to tell her not to fuck this up for him, but instead he bit his tongue and ended with, “We’ll see you on Thursday.”

“I can’t wait. And tell that handsome man of yours to let me know if there’s anything else I can bring.”

Logan made a noncommittal sound, said his goodbyes, and then ended the call.

Once he’d placed the phone on the kitchen counter, he headed back upstairs and thought that this engagement must’ve been making him sentimental, because some part of him—some very small, minute part of him—was actually happy that Evelyn would be there when they finally told everyone their news.

* * *

TATE WAS STEPPING out from the shower when he heard Logan re-enter their bedroom, and wondered what mood he would find his fiancé in. He quickly toweled off and then wrapped it around his hips as he walked into their room to see Logan pulling back the covers.

He’d removed his shoes and jeans and was now standing in his tight black boxer briefs, and Tate couldn’t help himself from walking over and running a palm over Logan’s fine ass. As he did, Logan straightened and leaned back into him, and Tate placed a kiss just under his ear. “Everything okay?”

“Hmm?”

“Is everything okay with Evelyn?”

“Oh, yes. Everything’s fine,” Logan said as he angled his face to look at Tate. “Just know that it’s your fault she’s coming to Thanksgiving. You handed me the phone.”

Tate knew the thought of dealing with Evelyn always gave Logan a headache, but right then, he seemed almost…happy about what he’d just said. Fine with the idea of Evelyn showing up for the holiday.

“So you invited her? I’m shocked. But maybe it’ll be good for you two. Aren’t you the one who always tells me I won’t know how things will turn out unless I try?”

Logan shook his head even as Tate wrapped his arms around him and trailed his fingers down to the edge of his briefs.

“Yes, but not in reference to Evelyn. I already know how things with her generally end.”

“Well, maybe she’ll surprise us. And just think,” Tate said as he kissed his way down Logan’s neck. “Now you won’t have to call her separately to tell her your news.”

As Logan’s head fell back on Tate’s shoulder, he slipped his fingers inside Logan’s briefs and wrapped them around his stiffening cock.

“News?” Logan sighed, his mind clearly on other things now.

“Yeah, the news that her only son is about to get married.”

“That is some pretty fantastic news.”

Tate gave a firm pull of Logan’s erection. “I think so.”

“Oh fuck, that feels really good,” Logan said.

“Then how about you get out of these and in bed?”

Logan nodded, and in less than a minute, the two of them were stripped down to nothing and climbing between the sheets. As they moved in close to one another, Tate was about to ask why Evelyn—

“Mmm, you feel good,” he said as Logan moved over the top of him to settle between his thighs.

“Do I?”

Tate ran his hands down Logan’s back to his ass and pulled him even closer. “Yeah. You do. I was going to ask you something, but…”

“But?”

“But now I can’t remember what it was. How do you do that?”

When one of Logan’s eyebrows arched, Tate licked his lips and said, “Make me forget everything but you? Make me wish that…” Tate laughed a little at himself. “Never mind.”

Logan’s eyes glittered as he rocked his hips over the top of Tate’s. “If you think for one second I’m letting you get away with that, you can forget it. You just made me talk to my mother, so you owe me. What do I make you wish, Tate?”

Tate arched his body up against Logan’s powerful one and tried to put into words what he meant. “Sometimes, you make me wish that we were the only two people in the world. And the way you look at me like now… God, Logan. It’s like I’m the only one in yours.” As Logan stilled above him, Tate gave him a crooked smile. “You think I’m crazy now, don’t you? Sappy and sentimental.”

“No,” Logan said, brushing Tate’s hair away from his forehead. “I was just wondering how I ever got through a day without you in it.”

Tate leaned up and took Logan’s lips in a kiss that he swore he felt down to his very soul. “Better than any wish,” he whispered against Logan’s mouth. “That’s what you are. Better than any wish I could’ve made for myself.”

“See, I told you,” Logan said against his lips. “Total sweet talker.”

That might have been the case on some nights, Tate thought, as Logan kissed his way down his body. But for tonight, all talk was over.