Chapter Six
Brent
Cat-sitting Bunny Foo-Foo was one of my favorite things.
It felt like I wasn’t alone while, at the same time, doing a favor for a friend.
In the past, I’d usually watched her at Altan’s place, but the tattoo parlor added too much to my commute.
Since they were taking a midweek “three-day weekend,” it was easier to have her come to my place.
It made sense, with Sothea having most of his work on the weekends, that they’d try to break away when no one else did.
Most cats didn’t like being moved around.
They liked their place, their sun patches, and their humans.
But Altan’s fur baby was a pretty cool cat in a world where cats were the coolest of all pets.
At least, to me, they were. She didn’t seem to mind coming over here, probably because I had a special pillow just for her and gave her plenty of attention.
I wasn’t allowed a pet of my own, but the occasional guest didn’t get the management in an uproar.
They were technically leaving tomorrow, but Sothea suggested Altan come over tonight to give the cat time to adjust, but also to give him and me some together time. We didn’t get a lot of that anymore.
Between my job and where he was currently living and their growing family, there just wasn’t a ton of time left to go around.
We made sure to squeeze some in. Our friendship was important to us.
Sothea was great about making sure we had that time, but it wasn’t the same as before.
I wasn’t sad about it, exactly. Relationships changed with time. It did take some adjusting, though.
Exactly on time, there was a knock on my door. When I opened it, there was Altan with my furry buddy.
“Hey, sweetie.” I took the cat carrier and brought it to my bedroom, unzipping it next to the little cat condo I’d picked up for her the last time they had me cat-sit. She jumped straight up onto it, curled into a ball, and started purring.
“There you are, sweet thing. If you need anything else, let me know.” She looked up at me. “Yes, your dry food’s in the other room, and, when it’s time for your wet food, I will be sure to get you that as well. Take a rest.”
“I swear, sometimes you talk more to that cat than you do to me.”
“That’s because she doesn’t talk back, I guess.”
“Then how do you answer her questions?”
“Har har.” He was always teasing me about my affinity with cats.
And there was some truth to me answering unspoken questions from her pretty much all the time.
I always felt like I knew what she needed to hear next and went with it.
They had all these specialists who are whisperers for horses and lizards and lions.
Maybe I was the cat whisperer. Or maybe I was just lonely and had a good bond with this one.
“Okay, cat’s settled in.” He dragged me by the hand to the couch and pushed me down with both his hands on my shoulders. “Now, tell me everything. What’s the deal with you and Theo?”
“What do you mean, ‘deal’?”
“Come on. I know that more happened that night when you two walked away holding hands. You don’t do that.”
“I do too,” I said, grabbing his as proof.
“Please. First of all, I’m your bestie. Second of all, grabbing my hand is not the same as what you did that night, and you know it.”
It was shocking it took him this long to ask, although I’d dodged any hits our conversation was heading in Theo’s direction when it first went down.
“Fine.” I fell back against the couch and closed my eyes. “I may be sort of, kind of…fine, 100 percent slept with Theo that night.”
“You what?”
“Yeah, we banged. We did the do. He had me seeing stars. Happy now?”
“I would’ve been a lot happier if you hadn’t skipped over all the things that led up to it and gone straight to the stars.”
“Do you really want to know what I was doing with Theo, your partner’s brother?” I made sure to meet his eyes before blinking. If I was going to be this uncomfortable, he could be too.
He closed his eyes. “No. Ew. No, no, no. That’s like my brother.”
“Exactly. No details for you.”
“So, then, start with what happened next? Don’t tell me he kicked you out of bed, because I will go over to that firehouse right now.” He held up his fists as if he could ever hurt a soul.
“Of course he didn’t. He’s not an alphahole.” This would be so much easier if he was.
“Then what happened? You guys just decided, one and done, see you later?”
“More like I left before he woke up.”
His eyes went wide.
“Because you didn’t like him?”
“Less that I didn’t like him and more that I liked him too much.” Saying the words out loud had me cringing.
“You are talking in circles. Liking him too much makes no sense on any planet.”
“And how many have you been on?” I pushed his shoulder.
“Cut it. You know what I mean.”
I nodded.
“He did your tattoo. He can’t be too mad.”
“I guess.”
“What is it, anyway? I didn’t get a good look.”
And that had been intentional. Something about it felt too private and important to share. I didn’t like keeping things from my bestie, but it was more instinctual than thought out at the time.
“Well, it’s not done yet, but it’s a bear. A dragon. A dragon-bear. I don’t know. It’s beautiful, though, absolutely stunning.” Even half done, it was a true masterpiece.
“How can you not know if it’s a dragon or a bear?”
That was a fair question.
“Because it’s a bear, but I think it’s a dragon.” I unbuttoned my shirt. “Look.” I showed him my tattoo.
“I see what you mean.” He leaned in close. “Wow. He’s talented. Like, really talented.”
“So is his brother. And his other brother. Why would you think he was any different? Runs in the family and all that.”
“Yeah…they’re kind of not family.” He looked straight at the floor, no longer interested in my ink.
“What do you mean they’re not family? They’re brothers.”
“No, I said that wrong. They 100 percent are family, but he was a foster kid.”
That was the first I’d heard of that, and I probably should have known sooner. It wasn’t my business. That was for him to share if he felt like it. At least, that’s what it was like for me.
I loved my bestie, but it took a long time before I let him in enough to know I was in foster care after my parents died. A great-aunt took me in, eventually, but for a time, that had been my reality too.
“How about we not talk about him anymore?”
“Sorry.” He grabbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t mean to—”
“I’m not mad. I promise.” The last thing he needed was to feel guilty about bringing up foster care.
“I don’t have to be home until bedtime. Let’s have an omega night out.”
“You don’t have to be home? Like you have a curfew?”
“No, not like I have a curfew. More like Sothea said, ‘You’re gonna stay out and you’re gonna have fun, and I don’t want to see you until bedtime.’”
“Yeah, that sounds more like him.” He was one of the nicest alphas I’d ever met. I was happy for my bestie for getting one of the good ones. “Fine, we can go out, but I’m really not in the mood for loud crowds and clubs.”
“Me neither.” He stood up and patted his belly. “But I am in the mood for pancakes.”
And off to the twenty-four-hour diner we went. I made him talk about everything and anything that wasn’t Theo. He kind of sucked at it. So did I. But that was okay. Because, pancakes.