Page 6 of Tangled With You

It was good. Definitely good. Hell, right then he didn’tcare if he never touched the man. Or, more honestly, he cared. He cared a wholelot more than he wished he did.

But he’d deal.

What choice did he have?

* * * *

“This is a stellar location,” Trevor said, then took a sipof whiskey and sighed. “I could sit here all day looking at the view.”

“I have to work hard not to,” Ollie admitted, feeling a rushof pleasure simply from the fact that Trevor liked his place. “One of thesedays I’m going to talk to Jackson about extending the balcony. Right now, it’stoo narrow.”

As if to illustrate the point, he gestured from where theysat on the bench to where their feet were propped at the balcony’s barrier.

“I love that idea,” Trevor said. “And it shouldn’t be toohard for a guy with Jackson’s skills.” He leaned forward, his shirt untuckingat the back to reveal a strip of tanned skin.

A strip that Ollie noticed, dammit.

“Sorry,” Ollie said, only then realizing that Trevor hadbeen talking. “I missed that.”

“I said I assume you own the hillside land. Worst case, hecould set a post or something, but I bet he could just extend it with a fewtrusses attached to the house itself.”

“Were you an architect in another life?”

“Nah, but I like working with my hands.”

“Right.” Ollie cleared his throat, deliberately not thinkingabout Trevor’s hands. “Leah mentioned that once.” Leah was Trevor’s roommateand another agent at Stark Security.

“My hands?” Trevor’s brows rose. “I’m flattered shenoticed.”

Ollie rolled his eyes. “That you’d fixed up a house.”

“Yeah.” There was a definite chill in his voice. “That Idid.”

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to touch a nerve.”

Trevor waved his hand, as if shooing away bad omens. “No,it’s me. Not the fondest memories.”

“Again, sorry.”

For a moment, silence hung between them. Then Trevor reachedfor another slice of pizza. “It was with Greg. My ex. We’d been together forjust over two years when the law finally changed and we got married.”

“So fucked up that there had to be a change in the law inthe first place. And now the bullshit of knowing that right might be takenaway.”

“No kidding.” Trevor grimaced. “Then again, probably wouldhave been easier if I’d never been able to marry the guy in the first place.Would’ve saved a lot of trouble on the backend.”

“Don’t even joke about that,” Ollie snapped. “You loved him.You wanted to spend your life with him. It’s absurd for anyone to say youcan’t, or that it’s a lesser marriage than between a man and a woman.”

“I know. Believe me, I agree. Stupid joke on my part.Marriage wasn’t the problem. Marrying Greg was.”

Ollie started to say that Trevor didn’t have to tell him anyof this; it was obviously a sore subject. But at the same time, he wanted toknow. Maybe that made him an asshole, but he stayed silent, taking a sip ofwhiskey as Trevor continued.

“Anyway, first thing we did was buy a house. Nothing saysmarriage like community property, right?”

“So they say.”

“Yeah, but what they don’t mention is that when communityproperty is divided, it’s an expensive, stinking pain in the ass.”

“You got divorced.” He knew Trevor was single, so that waseasy enough to figure out. “And I’m thinking it wasn’t a congenial breakup.”