Luckily, he remembered the loaner phone at the club. It had been an odd expense, something Julian had felt was needed.
“Papi or is it Nathaniel?”
Thane didn’t even need to look up to know who had instantly grated his last nerve.
“Don’t call me that,” he said and began opening desk drawers to rifle through the contents.
“Why? Isn’t that the name your parents gave you?” Julian stepped closer, the look in his eyes daring him to deny it.
“You know, you’re a pain in the ass,” Thane said, closing one drawer and opening another equally filled drawer. Freaking Julian saved everything.
“Old news. I’ve been told that a time or two. Mostly by you, but others have shared that sentiment too. Let’s talk raises instead,” Julian said. From the corner of Thane's eye, he watched Julian move to the edge of the desk to lean forward to see what he was doing.
“Do we still have that loaner phone?” he asked, tilting his head toward Julian.
“Can’t communicate with Levi from your phone now, can you?” Julian replied, stating the irritatingly obvious problem. Except how did Julian know he wanted to text Levi? He’d just gotten to California yesterday. Had Levi told him about last night? And if he had, a more important thought came to mind. What were Levi’s thoughts about how they’d left things?
“Whaddaya know?” Thane asked, pausing his search.
“A long time ago, I learned the value of tipping the bellboys to give me the heads up when my moody boss showed up unexpectedly. The guys in the south entrance saw you entering with Red last night,” Julian answered smugly, acting like he had all the answers in the world.
Thane just stared at him, letting out an irritated oomph before moving to the other side of the desk where there were more drawers to search through.
“So, you already got him in your bed less than ten hours after arriving. Pretty impressive, even for you,” Julian said.
Thane never looked up. He wasn’t going to dignify that stupid remark with any kind of acknowledgement. They had well over seven hours before the bar opened. He knew they were stocked and ready to go. Julian would have insisted on that last night during closing duties.
“Why are you already here? You have hours before we open.” That had Thane narrowing his eyes, his brow crinkled, and he glanced over at Julian, taking a good, long look at the man. Julian looked really good. Great, actually. He seemed like a man full of life. Even the scarring on his face was almost undetectable. Thane’s gaze lifted to study Julian’s eyes… “Are you okay?”
“Dr. Phil you are not.” Julian snapped his fingers at Thane as he spun on his heel and headed for the office door. Under normal circumstances, Thane would have acknowledged the only topic that ever sent Julian packing, but not in this case. Instead, he had a sense of relief that Julian was leaving him alone to text Levi. “Nope, not doing this today with you, papi. Loaner phone’s in the bottom right hand drawer. Tell your boyfriend hello.”
Before going for the phone, he picked up his cell phone and made a note to himself to explore Julian’s behavior later. Julian probably needed more counseling. Something wasn’t right, not terribly wrong, but not quite right either.
Within minutes, he had the loaner phone in his hand and a huge smile on his face as he sat back in the office chair and began to text, saying the words he’d wanted to say all morning.
“Hello, handsome.”
~~~
Levi fished the phone from his pocket as he placed the last folded pair of socks on the coffee table. Before he looked down to see who had texted, he looked out the front window. Logan mowed the last stretch of the front yard while Luke used the weed eater. They were almost done. He should get ready to go to the grocery store. They could get all this crap done today. What he hadn’t told his brothers was that he disliked chore day every bit as much as they did.
He glanced down at the screen, registered the unknown number, and opened the message with a slide of the thumb.
“Hello, handsome.”
The relief those two words brought was insane. It amazed him how quickly Logan’s and Luke’s doubts had taken hold. He was insecure as hell, and with a huge grin spreading across his face, Levi quickly typed back, “I’m sorry, do I know you?”
Thane instantly replied, “You do. I’m your date for tonight.”
Levi pushed back on the sofa, taking a settling seat as he replied, “I thought we agreed Tuesday was our next date.”
Thane was on his texting game, because less than a minute later, he responded. “We agreed to Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday. It’s Saturday. I want my date.”
Yep, that had slipped passed Levi. He thought about that for a second. Looked at the time. Two o’clock. They could really get everything done today and use tomorrow to rest, hang out around the house, do homework until his shift… Besides, if Luke and Logan were right, he probably shouldn’t come on as overeager. Right?