32. ANGUS
Chapter thirty-two
ANGUS
I paced back and forth with my phone pressed to my chest. Ramsey had given up following me.
He sat on the couch and watched me do laps around it.
I’d been like this since I saw Eion the other day, and now I had three days before I could talk to Eion.
The desire to storm over there and drop to my knees begging him to talk to me was something I had to constantly fight.
When my mom got home from dinner with him, I hoped she would have all the answers, but I should have known better. She had very little to say.
“Tell me what he said,” I started without greeting her.
“He said that he overheard some things that hurt him deeply. Things he can’t easily accept.” She squeezed my forearm.
“What did you say, Angus? How could you hurt that man? He was vulnerable with you. He let you in after what happened to him.”
“Mom! I didn’t say anything. I love him. I have no idea what he heard from whom. Maybe I didn’t say it?” I thought about my friends. None of them would ever be intentionally hurtful, and they all liked Eion. What could he have heard?
“Did you ask him what he heard?” She looked at me, obviously unsure how to respond.
“Angus, I am not getting in the middle of this. Eion is my friend, and I won’t take sides in this situation. Which means no, I didn’t question him.”
“Okay. But I didn’t say anything. I love him, Mom.
” I hoped that if I told her enough times, she would somehow fix it.
“I’ve never felt this way about someone before.
” I started shaking. There was no way I could lose him.
He had become everything to me, and even though it hadn’t been long, he owned my heart.
She wrapped her arms around me. “I know. Do everything you can to fix it, Angus. Eion is a good man, and he still loves you, but you hurt him deeply.”
I really wish I knew what he heard. She left the room, and I resumed my pacing.
Around 10:00 p.m., I headed to bed. Ramsey followed me to my room and lay over my body.
I knew I wouldn’t actually sleep, but lying there was better than wearing a hole in my carpet.
“We have to fix this, Ramsey. I bet you miss Orlando.” I scratched his ears and pet him absently.
When I looked at the clock, it was midnight, and I decided I wouldn’t be able to wait until morning to talk to West.
ANGUS
Are you awake?
Are you awake?
Hey best best friend, you up?
I need my best friend!
I knew the excessive texts would get his attention.
WEST
The second time this week that you’ve interrupted me. I don’t like blue balls, Angus.
ANGUS
I am trying not to lose the love of my life.
WEST
Love of your life? Dang, I am happy for you.
ANGUS
Well, I need to not lose him first.
I called his number. “Hey, Buddy.”
West still had a bit of a growl. It was clear he had been busy not long before. Shit, I needed to send them on a weekend trip or something as soon as I got Eion back. “Angus MacGregor, so help me. Tyler is here, sex drunk, and I am—“
“Eww. Eww. I don’t want to know. I’m sorry about your situation, but this is more important.”
This time he growled at me. “More? I don’t think it’s MORE important to me.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. He was right.
Had the situation been reversed, I would have supported him and helped, but I don’t think there was much I would have done that I thought was more important than being intimate with Eion.
“Okay. Not more. Regardless, thanks for answering. Eion told my mom he overheard something that was so bad he could no longer trust me.”
“What? Everything you’ve ever said about that man has been nauseatingly sweet. I mean, it’s worse than how Tyler and I are, and I know that's sickening.”
The now familiar stinging behind my eyes started again. “Yeah.” My voice broke, and I rubbed my eyes.
“Do you want to come over? We can drink until sunrise, and Tyler can then call us names and put us to bed when he gets up.”
Very quietly, I heard him say, “Good night, Baby. I’ll text you letting you know what we plan.” I could tell he had left the room, and then I heard him close a door.
“I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have called.”
“No. No. You took many midnight calls from me when I met the sweetest man on earth.” He sighed.
“Fuck. I thought I was on my way to having what you have.”
“You’ll get it. We will figure out what happened, then you will grovel your way back into his heart.” I smiled at the idea.
I knocked on the door quietly. “What the fuck? Someone is knocking on my—“ He laughed. “Oh.” He opened the door, then pulled me in and hugged me hard. Even after my mom hugged the crap out of me, this was nice because someone who loved me by choice gave me comfort. We walked toward his kitchen.
“You want to drink?”
“I think I am too old for that. I’m more in the ice cream and cookies phase of being sad about a boy.”
He laughed, which made me smile. “You’re lucky Allison wants to learn how to make cookies, and East indulges that child. We have tons of cookies.”
West arrived with a tray holding cookies, ice cream, and milk. It made me feel pretty old, but it looked way better than whiskey. “This is perfect. I really am sorry about being here, and right after I eat this, I’ll let you get back to your husband.”
“It really is fine, Angus. I’ll make it up to him and enjoy every minute of it.”
I fake gagged. Even as I did so, it made me realize how much I wanted exactly what he had. “Man, I want that,” I said, very quietly, but West didn’t miss it.
“I know.”
We ate our treats, which made me feel sleepy.
But, oddly, I felt better after talking to West. We discussed everything we could remember from dinner.
And couldn’t figure out what he had heard.
Then we started wondering if someone had contacted him or said something through social media.
I said I would do a scour in the morning.
Instead of going home, he sent me to the spare room.
I’ll convince Tyler to make us breakfast. I didn’t want to know how, but I headed up to sleep off my midnight sweets binge.
It was the first night I had slept well since I was with Eion last. The smell of bacon was what got me up.
I could hear voices in the kitchen, and before I entered the room, Allison was wrapped around my legs. “Uncle Amgus. You’re here.”
Laughing because, for some reason, she was convinced my name was Amgus, even though we had told her many times it was an N, not an M.
I suspected it was now her nickname for me, and I was okay with that.
I couldn’t wait until she was a teenager, still calling me Amgus.
I chuckled as I picked her up. “Yes, I am here. I came because your Uncle West is my very bestest, bestest friend.” With Allison on my hip, I found East, West, and Tyler in the kitchen.
The twin brothers seemed to be mostly getting in the way while Tyler attempted to cook.
“There he is,” West said, smiling at me. “How did you sleep?”
“Good. The first time in days I actually slept.” He gave me a closed-mouth smile.
“You can stay until Friday if you want people around. I mean—“
“Stay with us, Angus. You need people.” Tyler cut off his husband. He looked worried, and I couldn’t believe they all cared so much about me.
“Yeah. I can do that. I hate to admit it, but accepting I don’t have to do this all alone is hard.”
“You have all of us,” West said. “Hungry?”
Kissing her cheek, I set Allison down, and with a giggle, she ran off. “She sure brings sunshine to everything, doesn’t she?”
East smiled, a goofy look on his face. “She is so much like her mom was. I am lucky to have her. You’re right, she is a bundle of brightness.
” When you watched East talk about the two of them, you could see how much he missed his wife and how much he loved his daughter.
I hoped one day he would have someone who would cherish them both.
“Let’s eat,” Tyler said, as he herded us toward the table, a plate of waffles in his hand.
I was surprised when I looked at the clock, and it was almost 11:00 a.m. I had slept much later than expected, though West and I had gone to bed around three.
With a full stomach surrounded by friends, I missed Eion fiercely, but I also missed the animals—especially North and South.
I felt melancholy. “I’m really glad things worked out for you and West,” I told Tyler as we sat in the living room.
“Everything will work out for you, too. Even though we can’t figure out what he heard, we know it wasn’t intentional. We all really like him.”
Having my friends like the man I loved was important to me, and knowing they did was a relief.
Now I had to get through the next two and a half days.
As always, I was scheduled to work throughout the week and weekend, but I covered my shift on Friday.
No matter what happened, I knew I wouldn’t want to be at the front door of the bar.
I hoped I would end up spending time with Eion at the Sanctuary.
Later that afternoon, West and I went to get some clothes for me at the cottage.
When I put on my corset for work, my heart got heavy.
The simple task of helping me dress had become something intimate between Eion and me.
I missed it, the little touches and the soft kisses.
We had created things that were just ours, and helping me get dressed for work was one of them.
Eion didn’t know, but my shifts at the bar had already been changed.
Since Zach covered Friday nights, I knew I would wear the corsets for Eion and take him out to dinner instead.
Nothing made me feel more sexy than when Eion undressed me while wearing one of the binders.
Somehow I got through the next few days, faking my way through my shifts.
On Friday morning, I went downstairs around nine.
My friends didn’t need to know that I’d been awake since three in the morning, pacing my room.
All my friends, including Spark, were standing in the kitchen when I finally went downstairs.
Coffee was shoved in my hand, and someone guided me to one of the dining room chairs.
Tyler put a huge bouquet of flowers in front of me. “Take these. He’ll love them.”
They were beautiful, not as gorgeous as Eion, but they would make him smile, and I ached to see it.
I hoped I could get him to laugh, because that was my absolute favorite thing.
Thinking about it made me tingle everywhere.
West’s voice brought me back to what was being said.
“If he lets you take him to dinner, we’ve made reservations at the nice Italian place downtown—it was voted the best in the state.
He mentioned he’d like to try it, and we made sure that Zachary would care for the animals tonight. ”
Spark whispered in my ear. “There is also a room at the hotel next door for two nights, just in case.”
West was back. “Wear this outfit. We decided it’s our favorite combination.
” He had my dark burgundy button-down, with a black corset, but it had very fine gold filigree sewn into it, which popped against the dark shirt.
There were crisp black boot-cut jeans, and he set my black Lucchese boots on the ground.
Tyler walked up bashfully, clearly with something behind his back.
“After some research, this scent should draw him to you.” He handed me a toiletry kit with the Tom Ford logo on it.
“This has a leathery-cherry scent. I got everything: shampoo, body wash, deodorant, and cologne. You should smell tasty.”
They all stood there looking at me, then I pulled each of them into a hug.
They knew I would be so nervous I wouldn’t have my shit together enough to smell good, dress up, and take flowers.
It was obvious they wanted this for me as much as I did.
“Thank you all very much.” It was nearly ten, so I headed up to get ready for the most important conversation of my life.
When I stepped out of my car in front of the Sanctuary, dressed to the nines and carrying flowers, I felt terrified, but I had done everything I could externally to bring him back to me.
I turned my head to see a bulldozer and an excavator being unloaded from a semi-trailer across from the Sanctuary buildings.
They were about to clear the land across the street.
I bet Eion will have a lot to say about that.
After I closed the gate, I turned around, and there he stood.
He looked gorgeous in a cable-knit sweater, ripped jeans, and work boots.
Nobody would look at him and say he had dressed up, but I knew better.
It felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest, so I closed the few feet that were between us.
“Hi. You look gorgeous.” I handed him the flowers, and he smiled at me.
It felt like I had won the lottery, and maybe there was hope to fix this.
“Thank you. Let’s go see Orlando. I think he missed you.” He ducked into the medical suite and left the flowers inside. I knew that having Orlando nearby wouldn’t hurt my chances of getting Eion back.