Rialto (Unbreakable Bonds 8)

But tonight, Ian was unnaturally quiet. Hollis kept throwing him concerned glances as he drove back to the condo. Undoubtedly, his husband was worrying about the raid on the restaurant two days before, and Hollis didn’t know how to ease his mind. Nothing had come from it, but the whole thing had thrown Ian off his game. And pissed Hollis off royally. He’d been in a mood since—one he couldn’t seem to shake.

Their training class that night had been about agency policies and honestly, pretty damn boring. But still, it got them one step closer to their goal. Soon, they would be completing the home studies. They were on track to be foster parents in less than a year at the rate they were going.

“It was a good meeting.” Ian sighed and ran his hand through his hair, then turned in his seat to face Hollis. “But I had no idea how dull a PowerPoint presentation could be. I kept picturing that incoherent teacher in Charlie Brown cartoons. Loved the way you nodded off.”

“Thanks for that awesome jab to the ribs, by the way.”

Ian’s lips stretched into a wide grin. “Would you rather I let you snore?”

“Sleeping through most of that class would have been a blessing.” Hollis chuckled. “I’m looking forward to being done with these. Three hours, twice a week is taking a toll.”

“We only have two and a half weeks. We can do it.” He suddenly frowned. “But it is a lot. I’m sorry about my mood lately. I can’t help but wonder if maybe I am taking on too much. We have these classes, and we’re supposed to be getting the condo prepped for foster kids. I’ve got the new restaurant happening, and now we have all this craziness at Rialto. Rialto alone is a huge job.”

Hollis threw him a glance. “Which one would you stop?”

“That’s just it. I don’t want to stop anything. Well, I could have done without the ICE raid.” He snarled, still so obviously annoyed about that. “But the rest is all important. And we have everything nearly ready at home anyway.” He groaned and scrubbed both hands over his face. “Ignore me. I’m tired and worrying too much.”

“I’m not going to ignore you. I’m worried about you.”

“Don’t be.” Ian let out another long breath and leaned against the door. “I really am fine. Just frazzled tonight.” His phone buzzed in his lap and Ian looked down at it, then snorted. “It’s Snow again. This time he’s asking about the officiant.”

“Didn’t he just text you half an hour ago about that?”

“No, that time it was about scheduling cake tastings. He honestly just wants to hire me to do the cake, and I told him that he and Jude need to go through an official cake decorator to make sure they get what they want.”

“You love doing wedding cakes.”

“I know. I’ll probably end up doing it, but they could still go through the tasting at an actual cake shop to pick their flavors.” Ian laughed. “I could tell Snow was grumbling on the other end without even seeing him.”

“I thought he said he was doing all the wedding planning. Seems like he’s hitting you up a lot.”

“Oh, his exact words were ‘How hard could it be?’ ” Ian laughed and texted something back to Snow. “He has no idea what he’s doing. Stubborn ass.”

Hollis frowned, kind of annoyed with Snow for bugging Ian with so many questions. Snow and Jude had gotten engaged just a few months earlier, but Hollis had heard through the grapevine that Snow’s soon-to-be mother-in-law Anna was demanding that they start making official wedding plans. Things like setting a date, location, caterer, and whatnot.

Egotistical bastard that he was, Snow was convinced that he and Jude could handle it all, but it meant so many questions were flowing down to Ian. It would have been easier all around if they’d just let Ian do the planning, but everyone was worried about his time with the new restaurant, not to mention their training to become foster parents.

Rialto alone kept him busy, so the added stress of a wedding would have been too much. Well, according to the guys that made up Ian’s unique family. He knew his husband—Ian would rather be planning that wedding himself. And it wasn’t as if he didn’t have fingers in it anyway. Not with how often Snow texted.

Stopping at a red light, Hollis reached across to touch Ian’s hand in his lap. Ian turned his palm over and threaded their fingers together, giving him a sweet smile. Hollis’s heart picked up as it always did when he was on the receiving end of that particular smile. It never failed to get a rise out of him and had from the very first time he’d seen it.

God, he loved this man.