with a guy I really want to be with, and hoping it’s enough for him, too.”
Cree nodded, preferring it to words. Evan was dressed. “I need to think about it.”
Evan reached for him.
Cree jerked out of reach before he touched him. “You’d better go.”
“Cree—”
“No. Just leave.”
Evan huffed, defeated most likely. “What about dinner?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“I’ll make some in case you change your mind,” Evan offered.
“Shut the door on the way out.”
CHAPTER 5
Evan had been walking on eggshells for the past five days. Cree kept things purely business. Running lines was done at the dining room table, nowhere close to touching. The dinner Evan had made did get eaten, but Cree had declined letting him cook since. Instead, it was an assortment of peanut butter sandwiches or random food deliveries.
Evan went to the store and filled the pantry with spices and necessities. He also stocked the freezer. Except for fresh foods, which he’d have to pick up, next time Cree let him cook, he was going to make sure it was better than anything a restaurant would deliver.
Mostly, he bided his time, waiting for Cree to say something personal. But it had been five days without any kind of encouragement.
The movie production was flying everyone to a small Austrian town tomorrow for a scene meant to represent Montana. Evan didn’t know why the hell Austria did a better job representing Montana than Montana did. Regardless, he was packed and so was Cree.
The office fax beeped. Evan walked over to it and pulled off the first page as it printed. It was a message from Pete. David Fowler had been located.
Evan’s heart rate jumped to a gallop. He stared at the paper, his mind utterly blank, then immediately racing with questions.
He’d done it. He’d found him.
When finding his father was still theory, Evan had had plans. He’d known what he would do next. Now, he just stood there with plans crashing into each other, tangling with Cree and Austria and his mother.
Two more pages printed off. Numbly, Evan picked them up. The first had a photograph, and while it was the face of a man he’d never met, tears welled in Evan’s eyes, because it was the face of a man he’d never met. Because now he had someone to associate with the pain, with his mother’s hard life, and with the devastation left behind from a man who wouldn’t care, who’d thoughtlessly turned his back on real people he was accountable to, for a dream.
Judging by the second sheet, showing drunk and disorderlies and assorted other misdemeanors, that dream hadn’t panned out. He’d managed to dodge all attempts to find him for child support. Why? So he could throw those dollars at the nearest bartender?
It made him sick to think of how much the smallest help would have eased his mother’s hard life. How if he’d stuck around and believed in the kid he’d help bring into the world, taken responsibility for the decisions he’d made early on, Evan wouldn’t be in this place now.
“Fucking bastard,” Evan snarled.
“Everything sown up for the trip?” Cree asked walking into the office.
He didn’t know why he couldn’t just say yes, and let it go. He should have. He didn’t owe Cree more than solid administrative services, but the words wouldn’t come. Evan held the papers. Dumbly, he looked up, confused when Cree looked blurry until Evan blinked and realized there were tears.
God, he so didn’t want to cry in front of Evan. He so didn’t want to fucking cry over a man who’d never given him a passing thought either. David Fowler didn’t fucking deserve an iota of emotion, damn him!
“Shit. What’s wrong?”
With a frustrated shout, Evan wadded the papers up and threw them down. He shoved the fax off its cart, and stormed out of the small room. Where were his plans? Where the fuck were his plans? What the hell did he do now? Blindly, he paced the huge living room before charging toward the wall of sliding windows.
He needed air. He