Page 59 of Until Tomorrow (Love Doesn’t Cure All: The Ashwood Duet #1)

Logan

Elliot was leaving . My mind couldn’t wrap around that. I didn’t want to. I couldn’t remember a time in my life when Elliot wasn’t there—close by and ready for whatever.

Something was wrong with him. I knew that much for sure. But short of shaking the hell out of him until he told me what, I didn’t know what to do. It was the first time in the entire course of our friendship that I didn’t know how to be a friend to him. I hated it.

“So, explain this to me again,” Elliot was saying as we got onto the elevator in my building, “the bank calls you when Eva goes shopping?”

“No, the bank calls me when there’s an obscene amount of purchases on our account or the cost is high.”

“But your wife is allowed to use your money, right?”

“Our money,” I corrected. “And I wish she would. But at this point, it’s more likely that someone is going to steal my money than it is that Eva spends it. Hence the phone call.”

“And how much did she spend?”

“Over a thousand dollars.” So nothing.

“On what?” Elliot exclaimed, eyes widening.

“Clothes. So, I’m guessing a dress or something.” We had a gala event thing in a few months, which was probably what she’d bought. A part of me wished it were something different. I wanted Eva to spoil herself.

Whe n the elevator stopped and the doors opened, we both froze. Loud music filled the hallway, coming from our condo, even though the door was closed.

“Is that Def Leppard?” I made a face. What the hell?

“I think so…” His head cocked slightly to listen better. “Yeah, that’s definitely Def Leppard.”

I scrambled to catch the door as it began to close. Elliot followed me out, and I let us into our condo with no clue as to what the hell we were walking into.

But Eva dancing and sliding around the living room in a pair of jeans, socks, and a bra was not it.

I stopped dead in my tracks to just stare, Elliot almost taking me out in the process.

He grabbed my shoulders to steady himself, and I did my best to ignore how different the contact felt with him.

My wife proved to be a great distraction.

“Is she—”

“Yeah.”

“What the—”

“I know.” Unfortunately, I didn’t have any other words than that because I got stuck on watching my wife’s ass in those jeans. Lord help me, those jeans were going to be the end of me. They hugged everything in all the right ways.

When was the last time I saw Eva in jeans? Hell, when was the last time I wore jeans?

She twirled, slipping and sliding, as she tried to stop fast when she saw us.

A giant smile lit up her gorgeous face, and I bit back a groan.

Between her ass in those jeans and that pretty smile, my dick was a conflicted mess.

Part of me was turned on by Eva, the other part of me was still mad about Elliot.

“I bought jeans!” Eva exclaimed loudly when she saw us. “Okay, I bought a lot of jeans. But! But! I crossed off an Eva Needs A Life list item!”

“Did you buy shirts to go with those jeans?” Elliot laughed, moving around me and joining her in the living room.

“Nope! I forgot.” She gestured to herself head-to-toe. “Hence why I don’t have a shirt on.”

The music picked up again, loud and unhinged.

Eva grabbed Elliot’s hand and dragged him into dancing with her.

I stayed out of their moment and wandered to the dining area, stripping out of my suit coat.

I watched them c losely as I did. How many more nights did we have like this? It wouldn’t be the same without him.

Across the room, Elliot stopped dancing. His head cocked to one side, frowning.

“Is this… are they singing about jizzing all over the place?” Elliot said incredulously. I chuckled, but it felt forced.

“I think so,” Eva replied.

“Why did we listen to this as kids?” he demanded. “Who let us listen to this shit as kids? How is this appropriate?”

“Elliot is moving,” I cut in, killing the mood.

“What?” Eva asked breathlessly. She grabbed her phone and shut off the music. Her hands dropped to her hips as she rounded on Elliot. “To where?”

“He’s thinking about moving to the West Coast,” I said before he could.

“ What? ” Her voice rose a notch. The guilty look on his face did something uncomfortable to me.

I felt instantly bad. I shouldn’t have felt so awful about Elliot moving.

If this was what he wanted, who was I to stop him?

It’d always been the three of us, but he was ready to venture out on his own for something more…

why couldn’t I bring myself to feel happy for him?

I glanced up to see a silent argument happening between Elliot and Eva—angry expressions and wild hand gestures. What the hell? I frowned.

“What’s wrong with you two?” I cut in.

“Nothing,” they answered quickly and in perfect unison.

“The last time you two sounded like that, you were trying to hide a surprise birthday party. What’s going on?” I asked.

“It’s nothing,” Elliot replied before Eva could even open her mouth. “I need to go.”

“You can’t leave after that announcement!” she snapped. I understood the distress in her tone. She wasn’t good with people leaving her. While I was upset, I knew I’d spend more time getting her through it than myself. “We need to talk about it.”

“Don’t worry, short stuff,” he said. Taking her face in his hands, he kissed her forehead. “It’s not like I’m leaving tomorrow. I don’t even know where I’m going, so we have plenty of time.”

“Hate you,” she muttered and smacked his hands out of the way.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest. With a small sigh, he hugged her back.

The pleading look he gave me only made me shr ug.

I wasn’t the only one who would take it hard that he was moving. “Don’t hate you.”

“I know,” Elliot replied. He held on a little longer before stepping back. “But it won’t be for a while, so we have time. All of us.”

He held my gaze with that last sentence. What was I supposed to do with it?

“Night, Logan,” he finally said.

“Good night, Elliot,” I whispered. Dropping a quick kiss on Eva’s cheek, he let himself out. Eva stared at me helplessly, but I didn’t know what to do.

“I need a shirt,” Eva announced and stormed right into the bedroom. She came out a minute later wearing one of my t-shirts. “Be back in a few!”

Shoeless and determined as hell, she hurried out the door. Poor Elliott. That woman was going to give him a run for his money over moving. It was more than I’d do. I couldn’t ask Elliot to stay—not if he didn’t want to.