Page 120 of Love It or List It
Did he hit a sore spot?Austin didn’t remember him having any bruises.“Hey.You okay?”
The dessert plates clanked onto the counter.“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because you just totally froze?And because those are your favorite plates and you’re always really careful with them?”Too late, Austin realized that was probably a rhetorical question.
“I’m fine,” Joe snapped.
This was such an obvious lie it left Austin grasping for a rebuttal.He was blaming his total shock for the fact that the next words out of his mouth were, “Okay, maybe I was wrong about being too old for drama.”
One of the kids dropped a utensil.Otherwise the house went silent.
Then Will said, “Actually I think we’re gonna wait on dessert—take Pepa for a walk before it gets too dark, you know?”
The other three fell over themselves to agree and scampered out of the house.Austin didn’t think they’d ever moved so fast, not that he was watching them.He couldn’t tear his eyes away from Joe.
But Joe wasn’t having the same problem.As the kids left, he turned his back to Austin.The wine bottle went back in the fridge.The magnet holding Will’s work schedule fell off with the force of Joe closing the door.
What the fuck.
Austin could no longer keep the question in.“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
Joe whirled around.“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”
Apparently hanging out with the kids and three cats and a dog had taught Austin a lot about patience.“Joe.I don’t know what you’re talking about.Can you please tell me why you’re upset?”
For a second Joe only gaped at him.Then he said, “Because you’re hiding something!”
Oh fuck.
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice when you started changing in the garage when you got home?”Joe’s face contorted.“Or that you changed your work hours?No way you’re working as much as you used to.And the number of times I see your car coming home from the wrong direction—”
So he knew.He knew Austin had sold the garage and he was pissed because Austin hadn’t told him.But why hadn’t he said anything before now?
Finally Joe stopped pacing and faced him head on.“Just give it to me straight.Are you cheating on me?”
Wait, what the fuck?“Why would I do that?”Austin said.“Ilove you!”
Oh Jesus.He probably shouldn’t have shouted that.
Joe gaped at him, red-faced.“Um,” he said.
What the fuck?Austin repeated in his head.
“But the—the work hours?And the clothes changing?And the phone calls.And you didn’t want red wine—”
“We have a houseful of kids,” Austin pointed out, because that seemed the most pressing issue.“Sorry for wanting alittleprivacy in our sex life, which I absolutely will not get if you drink red wine, sweet thing.”
The endearment slipped out.It felt awkward at a moment like this, when Joe was being, frankly, kind of insane.But Austin couldn’t help it.Obviously Joe had worked himself into a frenzy.Now Austin had to talk him out of it.
Joe blinked and licked his lips.“But—okay, and last weekend you didn’t want me to, uh….”
“Fuck me into a coma at ten o’clock on Saturday morning?”Austin filled in.Because yeah, he’d stopped Joe from trying to make him come more than once.“And… what, you thought I wassaving it for someone else?”
Joe averted his eyes.
For fuck’s sake.“Babe.I love how well you know my body and how good you can make me feel, but if you want to fuck me like that, you need to tell me in advance so I can clear my schedule for the rest of the day, because I’m too stupid afterward towatch TV.Take some pity and wait until the afternoon at least.”
Joe made an embarrassed noise that he muffled in his sleeve, half turned away.His ears were bright red too.After a moment he turned back and met Austin’s gaze.“And, uh, and the changing, and the… coming home from the wrong way…?”
