Chapter 11
CHAPTER 11
JAKE
I had no idea when my office had become a crazy mixing pot of my friends. It was honestly too early in the morning to figure it out, and until Larson and his Daddy, Canyon, had walked in, my brain had been fixated on getting through the day ahead of me. Their presence had taken me by such surprise, I hadn’t noticed Seth and his boyfriend, Maz, walk in with them. Maz also played for the Grizzlies, so I understood why he was with Seth, just not why they were both in my office.
All I wanted to do was finalize my schedule for the first annual Parliament-Grizzlies doubleheader tomorrow. I was already cursing the person who’d come up with this new tradition because it was going to be a logistical nightmare for me. One game a day was stressful enough; two was going to be a headache of epic proportions.
Since I hadn’t been expecting them, I wasn’t prepared to process their explanations, and I was pretty sure I had missed the first part of what they were saying.
Taking in the sight before me, I realized the talk had switched to animals and I wasn’t sure when that had happened or if they were talking about real or toy animals.
Before I could decipher the conversation, Logan bounced in with a huge smile on his face. Larson didn’t look anywhere near as alarmed at our friend’s sudden appearance as I did.
“Hi?” I asked, still trying to process where my morning had gone so incredibly sideways. And if five additional people in my office weren’t enough, Aiden and Trent walked through the door.
At least they didn’t look as wired as Logan.
For about ten seconds, I stood staring at my friends, my mind too blank to form a sentence.
Larson blinked slowly and yawned before addressing Logan and his boyfriends. “Glad you could make it.” Then he turned to Logan, Aiden, and me and handed each of us a tiny bag. “I’m supposed to give these to you guys.”
That still didn’t explain why Logan, Aiden, and Trent were in my office or where they’d come from.
I studied the bag in my hand. “What is it?”
Larson let out another big yawn instead of answering, so Canyon answered for him. “My mom. She’s been busy.”
With the explanation, I forgot all about being confused and my eyes widened as much as Aiden’s. Larson had a huge collection of felted mushroom toys and every time we went to his house, we played with them. Canyon’s mom had made each piece by hand, and after finding out Larson was a little, had been regularly sending him more.
I’d never gotten the story of how she’d found out he was little, and Larson turned neon red whenever anyone brought it up, so I’d never pushed. At the end of the day, what mattered most was how supportive she was and how much she loved her son’s husband.
And now she’d made something for us.
I’d barely picked up my bag before Aiden was already digging into his, and he pulled out the cutest little white duck wearing a mushroom top hat.
Looking into my bag, I noticed a tiny panda. It was cute with its big eyes and round body but nowhere near as cute as the duck. “Oh my gosh! That duck is so cute!”
Aiden shrugged. “Trade? Wait, what did you get? As long as it’s not the monkey. The monkeys are creepy.” He gave Larson an apologetic look, but Larson just grinned. We all knew the family of monkeys had not turned out quite right and Larson kept them in a box because he swore they were possessed and refused to throw them away because they would haunt him.
“No monkey. It’s a red panda.” I pulled it out of the bag so he could see its cute face. “We can trade?” My voice rose with excitement at the thought of having the duck.
Aiden shrugged, handed me the duck, and accepted the panda with a smile. He held him out for Logan to see and started to say something to me but Seth cut him off. “Guys, leave Jake alone. He’s got work to do and we have a meeting to get to with St. Claire this morning.”
Logan pulled his animal out of the bag and Seth changed his mind. “Or maybe St. Claire can wait… that’s way too cute. Is that seriously a hedgehog with mushrooms growing from it? I want one!”
A smack echoed in the room as Seth backhanded his brother’s chest. “Larson, dude, you’ve been holding out on me!”
Maz groaned at his boyfriend. “You do not need a hedgehog. What would we do with a hedgehog anyway?”
Seth looked at Maz like he’d turned into an alien. “He could live with Spike! They would get along splendidly!”
Maz’s sigh was only cut off by Esme clearing his throat from my doorway. He looked shell-shocked. Then again there were a lot of people in my office, and several of us were holding little felted animals. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’m pretty sure a few of you are running late.”
Seth blew a raspberry. “We can’t be late if the person who scheduled the meeting is also late.”
“Behave,” Maz growled to his boyfriend before looking at his watch. “And we’re not late. We have two minutes until it starts.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the entire situation, though I got the impression it hadn’t been the right reaction when Esme shot me a disapproving look.
It might have been the fact Esme ticked all my boxes, or it might have been that I was feeling more little than big after spending the last handful of minutes discussing the animals Larson had brought us. Whatever the reason, that look turned my insides molten and I had to fight the urge to apologize despite not having done anything wrong.
Seth rolled his eyes and took Maz’s hand. “Fine, we apparently need to go. But seriously, Lars, can you ask your mother-in-law for a hedgehog for me?”
Maz groaned and tugged his boyfriend out the door. "The cactus does not need a friend."
Trent also ushered Logan and Aiden out of my office, telling them I needed to work and Logan needed sleep after working overnight. It still didn’t answer why they had come, but I was more interested in how Logan could be so energetic after pulling an all-nighter at work.
Canyon and Larson left as well, and all of a sudden I was once again alone. Well, almost alone, Esme was still there, his arms crossed over his chest and wearing an all-too-knowing smirk on his face.
“It is a cute duck.” He pointed to my hand where I was still holding the small animal and I knew I couldn’t hide my blush.
“Uh, thanks.”
He looked around my office. “It makes sense.” I got the impression he was talking to himself, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know what he was talking about or not.
“Okay, I need to get going. Keep yourself out of trouble.”
“I-I—“ I still hadn’t gotten a sentence out when Esme disappeared around the corner and I heard him press the button for the elevator.
“What the fuck?” I asked my empty office before sitting down. The last fifteen seconds had been more confusing than the last ten minutes combined. What did Esme mean by saying it made sense? And why did he tell me to stay out of trouble?
I growled in frustration. There was so much to do and so little time. I needed to get my head back into my job. I had things I needed to do today and a few new police officers to show around the building. At least we’d all realized the sold-out crowds the next night were going to require more officers than we normally had on hand for games.