Chapter One
Toby
Toby glanced down at the glossy flyer for the third Bucket List Buddies event and chewed on his thumbnail. He felt excitement flutter in his belly. A hot air balloon ride, how long had he wanted to try that?
Forever. That’s how it felt.
Had he mentioned it to Morty or Niall, his two best friends? No, and it wasn’t because he thought they’d think him silly, just that he’d kind of romanticized floating around above the trees, not in his animal form, which he could do any time. He’d imagined himself with a hot alpha holding his hand.
It was a lovely notion, but for one thing, he wasn’t dating anyone at the moment. In fact, he hadn’t been on a date for some time after his last dating disaster. The guy had turned into a real creeper who thought he could tell Toby what to do.
Nope.
Nope.
Nope.
Toby wasn’t one for being dictated to, not when they hadn’t gotten to the naked part. And he never put out on a first, second, or third date; it was a rule for him.
Where did that leave him?
Dateless, with a romanticized version Toby had after seeing an advert once on TV for hot air ballooning.
The couple inside, hands crossed over each other to link their arms, drinking champagne—not that Toby liked champagne; it was too fizzy and gave him awful wind—all the while looking at each other with love heart gazes.
Of course, that’s how Toby imagined they had looked while the sun had set, casting beautiful colors over the sky while they glided effortlessly through the air.
Niall went with Morty to the first bucket list event.
Maybe he’d be interested in this? He supposed he could ask Niall, except he had never professed to a love of flying, so Toby suspected he’d say no.
And Morty had just had a baby—something Toby tried not to think about since he’d been at the birth—so it wasn’t like he’d want to go on an adventure with Toby and leave his daughter behind.
He sighed loudly at the realization that he had no one to take to the bucket list event, then he placed the flyer back down on the counter where some kind soul had left it and finished clearing up. Which was what he’d been doing before he’d found the flyer.
He stacked the empty trays that he’d filled not once but three times with the baked goods that Morty made for them to sell in the café. Morty came down extra early while Hector watched over the baby to do the baking, then disappeared back upstairs. It was working out better than Toby had imagined.
Melancholy wanted to cling to him when he couldn’t stop his gaze drifting back to the flyer. Stop it.
He shut his eyes for a moment and counted his blessings, something he did on such occasions when he felt something was missing.
His legs might ache at the end of the day with how busy the café/bakery was, yet he was a co-owner of a thriving business with his two best friends.
Two friends who were more like family to Toby.
And then there was Hector, Morty’s mate.
The man was so generous to not only Morty but also Toby and Niall.
Instead of turfing him and Niall out when he’d bought the building they lived in, when Morty wished to remain living above the café, Hector had gotten his builder and made plans to give Toby and Niall their own place to live.
Who did that?
The basement, which was huge and unused, had been renovated at the same time as Toby’s old apartment, and the one Morty and Niall had shared.
That space was now Hector and Morty’s home, along with Kaya, their daughter.
The basement has been converted into two apartments.
The renovations were more than Toby could ever have afforded himself.
Brad, the builder, had finished three days after Kaya’s birth, and as they’d shut the café with Morty out of action for a couple of weeks, Toby and Niall had moved in at their own pace, not having to juggle work and moving.
It meant they could all could continue with the business with little disruption once they had reopened after the temporary closure.
He loved his old place, but his new place had a shower that didn’t leak and wasn’t prone to boiling him alive in the summer or freezing him in winter. Although they were down in the basement, everything was so bright because of how they’d designed the lighting.
Not having to pay rent meant his savings bought new furniture, including the king-sized bed he wanted, along with a flat-screen TV to hang on the wall at the end of it so he could lounge there after a shower at the end of a workday. Bliss.
See, lots of blessings.
His eyes opened. He had a lot to be thankful for. He really did.
Morty was back baking, which meant he was back to his daily consumption of éclairs. The limited hours to accommodate the childcare meant Toby had to be fast at boxing and hiding his treat.
Hector was doing his share, more than, he loved to have Kaya strapped to him in one of the many colorful baby slings Hector had bought to try out while he worked in his home office. It seemed Kaya loved to nestle on Hector more than Morty.
He chuckled at how miffed Morty got just that morning, talking about when he’d gone up to relieve Hector of daddy duties, then had come back down two minutes later when Hector had already gone out for a walk with Kaya strapped to him.
“What are you laughing at?” asked Niall, appearing in front of him silently, making Toby jerk and the trays rattle he’d picked up.
“Can’t you make a bit more noise? You gave me a fright,” Toby huffed, readjusting the stack of trays to walk past Niall, embarrassed to be caught looking like a spare part for no reason.
“What would be the point in that when I’ve been standing watching you for the last three minutes, and you didn’t even notice I was here with your eyes shut? What’s with you?”
His friend’s smirk had Toby shaking his head. “Nothing.”
“Then why the glum expression?”
Toby twisted to glance at Niall. Had he looked glum? “You asked me what I was laughing at?” he pointed out.
“You were, but before that, you had the ‘I have to count my blessings’ look.”
Toby blew out a breath at how easily Niall pegged his thoughts. He debated for a second too long, noticing Niall reaching for the flyer he’d placed back on the counter.
His friend could be a dog with a bone, unwilling to release a subject, and Toby wasn’t sure he wanted to get into it and sound a little pathetic.
“What’s this?”
Toby shrugged and went into the empty kitchen, going straight to the big sink they washed the large trays in. The sound of sneakers squeaking on the tiled floor caused Toby to roll his eyes heavenward as he switched on the hot tap and squirted in detergent. “It’s nothing,” he tried.
“Liar. You wanna try your hand at a bucket list event to see if you can find a mate, too?”
Toby’s gaze flew to Niall, who was now leaning on the drainer at the side of him.
“Don’t be silly. The chances of that are zero!
” Hector and Morty were fated mates and met at a bucket list buddies event.
It also turned out that Lionel, Hector’s best friend, and Brad, the builder who had done the renovations in the building, had attended the last bucket list event and, lo and behold, they were fated mates too.
Had Toby secretly thought he might have a chance? He couldn’t say for sure because he really had wanted to do the whole hot air balloon experience, just with an existing boyfriend.
“Zero…nah, I think Bucket List Buddies are batting a hundred right now with fated mates meeting at the two differing events.” Niall tapped the glossy flyer he’d brought with him. “Haven’t you mentioned doing this kind of thing before?”
Niall had an excellent memory, so Toby didn’t doubt him. Toby could hardly remember where he’d put his house keys most days. “Maybe,” he hedged. Yet his earlier excitement hummed under his skin, and he gave in and asked, “Wanna go with me?”
Niall’s head shake was quick and firm. “Not my thing. That shouldn’t stop you from booking to go.” Niall glanced at the flyer, his eyes widening. “Though after what you spent on your new bed and TV, you probably can’t afford this.”
Toby snatched back the flyer, causing soap suds to flick over Niall’s T-shirt and jeans. “Hey,” Niall snapped, rubbing at the spreading wetness. “I got a hot date, and now I’ll have wet stains on me.”
Distracted, Toby giggled at Niall’s obsession with Vene, the plasterer who worked with Brad. “You got the courage to ask Vene out, did you?”
Niall’s cheeks got a rosy glow as he glanced up, and something about the look in his eyes had Toby’s eyes narrowing on his friend. “He asked me out, came by this morning, said he needed to check something in my apartment—”
Toby pointed at Niall with the flyer. “You had sex!” he exclaimed, understanding exactly what had happened. “How could you when you haven’t been on a date?”
“We aren’t all like you, Mr. Three Date Rule. I don’t always average a second or fucking third date.”
Niall’s tone held something that made Toby get an uneasy feeling at the base of his skull.
He nudged Niall with his shoulder, aware that putting his wet hands on Niall would only piss him off more.
“Then those guys are fools for not seeing what a great guy you are. Accomplished. Business owner. Talented with marketing—”
“You missed drop-dead gorgeous,” Niall cut him off, clearly embarrassed.
Toby laughed as he was supposed to. Niall was clearly done with the subject, so, for now, Toby let it go.
“I was getting there.” He looked at the flyer and the details on the cost. It was steep, three hundred dollars, and then he gave Niall big puppy dog eyes.
“Don’t suppose you could loan a guy three hundred bucks? ”
“You know those damn eyes do me in every time. I don’t have the cash, but I’ll use my card and book it for you. You won’t need to pay me back either, ‘cause I know you’ll meet your mate flying above the clouds. Then I’ll get lifetime bragging rights like I have for Morty and Hector’s meeting.”
Belly laughter rolled out of Toby, and he shook his head, tears making his vision blurry at how convincing Niall sounded. “Ye-ah, r-right,” he stammered through the next bout.
As if it would happen again!