Gio barked out a laugh. “Oh, really?”
“Yep.”
“Not just a pretty face then?”
“That’s right. Now get over here and kiss this pretty face.”
Gio leaned in and happily obliged. He hummed against Sacha’s lips until a scratch at the door made Gio chuckle. No need to guess who that was, Chip had barely let Sacha out of his sight since they got home from Urgent Care.
Sacha shook his head. “Better let him in before he knocks down the door. Or worse, brings Ace.”
“He feels bad about what happened,” Gio said, letting in Chip and Cookie. They rushed to the bed and hopped up, licking Sacha like they hadn’t seen him in years before settling next to him.
“I know he does. But it’s Ace. His trying to fix things will only lead to him breaking something, and that something will be me. Oh, wait.”
Gio shook his head, amused. “He’s just trying to help.” He pulled one of Sacha’s T-shirts from the dresser drawer, and when he turned around, he had the life scared out of him.
“Holy shit!” Gio put a hand to his chest. “Ace, for the love of—Why are you sneaking up on me?” His friend knew better. Anything that shot his heart rate up suddenly was not good.
Ace frowned. “I just walked into the room.”
Gio looked to Sacha and narrowed his gaze. “Really? You couldn’t have warned me?”
“I saw him when you did,” Sacha replied, throwing his arms up. “I keep saying we need to put a bell on him, but no one listens.”
“I’m not a cat,” Ace grumbled. He cocked his head. “Though a bell would be incredibly annoying, so maybe not such a bad idea. I could get one of those jester hats with all the dangly bells.”
“No,” Gio said, shaking his head. He threw Sacha’s T-shirt at him, hitting him in the face and making him laugh.
“But ‘he’s just trying to help’,” Sacha repeated Gio’s earlier words back to him, his grin smug. “How’s that working out for you?”
CHAPTERFOUR
This sucked.
Joker sipped his eggnog and wrinkled his nose. Ugh, there was no booze in this. Discreetly, he glanced around and saw that his family was busy mingling or doing whatever they did during a holiday party. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed his cup into the trash bin next to the table. Turning, he poured himself some eggnog from the spiked eggnog punch bowl. He lifted the cup to his lips, only to have Fitz pluck it from his hand.Son of a—
“Hey!” Where the hell had he even come from?
“Nope,” Fitz said, stopping long enough to kiss his cheek before floating off, taking Joker’s spiked eggnog with him.
Damn it! His family was trying to kill him. How did they expect him to make it through the holidays in this terrifyingly cheerful town without the ability to escape or drink alcohol? Why did his family have to be so annoying, looking out for his freaking well-being all the time? It was exhausting.
King stepped up to him, and Joker sighed.
“What?”
“You should be sitting.”
“And you should be figuring out what your boyfriend is up to.”
King arched an eyebrow at him and pointed to Joker’s empty chair at their table. “Sit.”
“Oh yeah?” Joker lifted his chin defiantly. “And what if I don’t?”
“I will pick you up and put you there.”
Damn. He would too.
