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Owen should have known they wouldn’t get away with it forever.
Their friends weren’t dumb, not by a long shot.
And no matter how hard they tried to be sneaky, he knew eventually they’d get caught.
He always figured that it would be his fault that they got busted though.
His carelessness was something that seemed to only grow with his old age.
But it wasn’t his fault, for once, and he was dead set on making sure that she never lived this one down.
“We’ve been caught.” The voice on the other end of the phone didn’t even greet him when he answered and he let out a huff as he sank back against the chair in his office.
“Excuse me?” She was clearly talking crazy, because there was no way they had slipped up.
“I may or may not have dug out my Christmas presents from the closet while Carlos was here earlier.” Figures she would still have all her gifts shoved in the closet, he had had his wrapped for weeks, sitting under his Christmas tree, taunting his friends every time they entered his house.
“And?” He watched as Judd raised an eyebrow at him from the hallway and he guessed that he probably had a strange look on his face. “What, did you buy me something fancy and he asked who it was for?”
“I wouldn’t use the word fancy…” He really didn’t understand what Carlos had to do with any of this to be honest. “Lacy’s more like it. Red… very little material to it.”
“Jesus, Michelle, you bought me lingerie?” The huff she let out on the other end made him chuckle, but he quickly regretted it when she growled at him. “So you had it hidden in your closet and Carlos found it?”
“I pulled the stuff out to show him what I had gotten TK and the top fell out of the box and onto the floor right in front of him.” He could only imagine the curious yet disturbed look on Carlos’ face, knowing damn good and well that he wouldn’t have expected that at all. “He picked it up, Owen. Then he just stared at me until I caved.”
“So you told him that you bought it so that you could wear it for me?” Oh this was good, really good, and when Judd pushed his way into his office with an amused look on his face he could only guess that the message he had just been reading on his phone had come from the young cop.
“I told him that I bought it for someone special.” Well that was better than just outright saying the truth. “But it’s Carlos, Owen, you know how he is…”
“He figured it out on his own?” Judd was staring him down with his arms crossed over his chest and a slight smile on his lips, waiting not so patiently for him to hang up.
“Yes. And then he insisted on seeing the whole set.” The snort he let out was anything but attractive and it made Judd chuckle in response.
“Well at least he’s supportive?” Not that the man would be anything but.
But he also knew how fiercely protective Carlos was of the woman, so he knew there was only so much he could do to help his cause in the long run.
“He didn’t say anything!” Owen didn’t know if that was good or bad, but Judd seemed to find the whole conversation rather amusing. “He just simply nodded and then walked away.”
“I… I don’t know what that means.” He couldn’t read the other man’s mind like she could so he didn’t know what any of this meant.
“I don’t either!” She huffed again and he let out a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “He probably hates the idea. He’s probably going to disown me.”
“Disown you? Does he really hate me that much?” He had thought that they had crossed all the awkward bridges in the past few months, but maybe he was wrong.
“Owen, are you listening to anything I’m saying?” This time it was Judd that snorted, making it obvious that he had heard Michelle’s exasperated question on the other end of the phone. “Carlos knows!”
“And?” It had always been her that had wanted to keep this thing between them a secret, probably because she knew her friends would hate the idea, but he, well he hated sneaking around. “I told you it was silly to try and hide this.”
Judd’s raised eyebrow and knowing smile made him huff.
Apparently they weren’t as sneaky as they had once believed.
“Christmas dinner is gonna be so awkward.” He highly doubted it could be any more awkward than sitting here being stared down by Judson Ryder.
“Nah, at least now we can sit beside each other and no one will care.” See, there were many perks to this.
“How many people are in your office staring you down right now?” He guessed that maybe she expected Carlos to sound the alarm in a group chat of some sort.
“Just Judd.” The other man smiled proudly, like it was some kind of competition and he had won a prize because he had made it there first. “And he’s scaring me.”
“Give it a few minutes, I’m sure they’ll be swarming in.” He watched as Judd placed his hands on his hips and huffed.
“I should go then…” He needed to prepare himself for the onslaught that was apparently going to take place.
Not that he doubted his ability to take on his friends.
Surely he could handle them.
“Be careful.” She almost whispered her response and he rolled his eyes.
“I’m not going to war, Michelle.” Judd snorted again and this time it was Owen who shot the glare in his direction. “I can handle them.”
“Ooookay… it’s your funeral.” The line went dead before he could respond and he closed his eyes for a brief second, instantly regretting it when he reopened them and watched as the rest of the team headed toward his office, all looking rather smug and amused.
He was never going to let her live this one down.
Nor was he going to forgive Carlos for such an exaggerated announcement.
One person knowing about his not so secret relationship was one thing, but the whole team, well that was a whole other story.