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been a while, you know. I just want you to be happy.”
    “Thanks for the reminder that I’ve been single for over a year.” Austin made sure to keep his voice light and a little sarcastic. But he didn’t need it constantly from his mom, his friends, even customers at the shop who thought he was way too cute to be alone. Yes. He wanted someone. He really wanted someone. But it wasn’t as easy as they all made it seem. “Maybe by the next poker game, I’ll have a boyfriend to bring too.”
    “I’m sure you will.” Cole leaned over and kissed Austin on the cheek.
    Not likely…. Still. It would be nice.
     
     
    EVAN WAS so relieved it was Friday night, and almost the last one of the year at that. He’d gotten more and more tired as the semester drew to a close. Two more weeks and he was out. He had a few tests to finish writing, final papers to grade, grades to post, and that was it. Other than that, there were a couple of classes he could teach in his sleep.
    But still, he was exhausted and ready for summer. He was more grateful than he’d ever admit that he’d decided not to teach any summer classes. Of course there was a reason for that. Maybe the reason he’d decided to take summer term off from teaching was long gone out of his life, but it was better that way. Really. He’d have time for Dex and relaxing. Evan hadn’t ever done much relaxing before. It was time to give that a try.
    Evan did his best to sneak out of the department without any of the other professors noticing. There weren’t any meetings that week, which was a relief, but everyone seemed to get chatty on Friday afternoons. He didn’t want to talk to any of them, not about their weekends or their kids or the department party he was going to manufacture a reason to skip. He never wanted to talk to anyone, so it wasn’t much different, but especially not that day.
    Evan managed to make it to his car with no annoying conversations and gusted out a great big sigh of relief once he was inside with the doors locked. He wanted to go home and see his puppy whom he’d managed to visit after his ten o’clock class and for an hour or so at lunch, but he knew he had to do the shopping because once he was home he wouldn’t want to leave.
    He dragged himself into the grocery store, which was usually something he looked forward to, for salad fixings and an organic grass-fed steak. Evan had been more tempted than he wanted to admit just to drive through the taco stand and grab a burrito. But Evan knew better than that. He’d probably be up all night with a stomachache if he went and got street food. He grabbed his cloth bags from the back of the car—he’d learned pretty quickly that it was at least smiled upon if not expected to have cloth bags—and wandered into the store.
    The market was another one of his favorite parts of his new neighborhood. He didn’t actually have to drive, other than the fact he’d be carrying three bags of groceries home. It was only a few blocks away from his house, and he’d loved it at first sight. The foodie in Evan had been drawn to the racks of artisan cheese and the salad bar and sushi chefs, and the decorating snob in him loved the stained concrete floors and cafe-style signs. It had grown to be a place he liked to drop by a few times a week rather than a chore to get over with. He figured he’d come by for sushi on Saturday if he didn’t feel like cooking.
    He relaxed as soon as he walked in the door of the market. There was something about being smacked in the face with a wall of perfectly presented baked goods that changed his day from long and tiring to all of a sudden not so bad. He was tempted by the racks of warm chocolate chip cookies that he swore they baked right there in an open oven just to torture him, but he veered to the right and toward the greener, healthier parts of the store. Then he turned back.
    Maybe just one.
    Evan was nothing if not good at avoiding temptation. But once in a blue