15
My chest jerked in a pleasant way as I walked into the dining room with two cups of coffee and placed one at Nicky’s elbow and the other beside Kwan. The early afternoon sunlight visible through the windows was beautiful, and in the distance the tops of tall grass and wildflowers in the nearby field rippled in the breeze like green water.
Harley let out a small contemplative sound that glued my attention to him, and fidgeted where he sat cross-legged in the middle of the long dining room table, frowning down at a piece of paper. Last weekend had been so fun it still blew my mind, and more than once he’d blown me too, after he got over himself that is. Who would have thought a little time-out in the kennel would be all it took to get his head screwed on right?
We’d also had a nice week afterward. We were together every night except Wednesday. He’d said he needed one night alone to recharge by himself—“I’m just an introvert, Brad, I need it.”—and that was fine, even though I’d missed him. We were already sliding into a really good routine together, and more importantly for everyone, considering Kwan was here watching our every move, a healthy one. I was as happy as could be with the example we were setting. Harley wanted to be around, be my kitten, and I wanted him here more than ever. The longer I stared at him the more fluttery bursts of electricity slid through my stomach. I could look at him forever.
Harley glanced up at me but quickly redirected his focus back to the document he held. “Your resume looks good as far as I can see,” he said, and then smiled at Kwan. That was a hell of an improvement over where we were last week too. I reached over and ruffled Kwan’s hair and he leaned into my touch. Harley didn’t even bat an eyelash, only pouted a little at me until I ran my fingers over his cheek and under his chin in a little tickle.
“Look over mine next,” Nicky said, eyes still stuck on his laptop. He furiously hit the spacebar and then growled under his breath, doing such a good puppy impression that Kwan sent him a long side-eye, and I had to laugh.
“You should really change this every time to be a better match for each company you give an application. That’s how I got my job. You wouldn’t believe how many I had to send out before I secured even one interview.”
Nicky groaned but it came out as more of a whine. “That will take forever.”
“Yeah,” Harley said very matter-of-fact, without even looking like he felt sorry for them. “But considering what you’re making at this job, and that your boss asked if Kwan would take a pay cut because of his much needed days off, this has to happen.”
“And I want out of there too after the way they’re treating him,” Nicky grumbled, still poking at his keyboard.
Kwan stayed silent on the matter and went back to his own computer. It seemed like he was having trouble paying attention here, maybe because he was usually a pup in this space, but I didn’t want to butt in and tell them to go somewhere else.
Harley went to set down the paper beside him on the table, but I snagged it. The name at the top jumped out at me. “Animus Tech? Isn’t that owned by Boyd McGivens? He’s a Grizzly, right?”
“Yes, he is,” Nicky said primly and cleared his throat.
“Kwan, put me down as a reference. Just for kicks. I can tell him about your ability to motivate team members.” I winked at Harley—who only narrowed his eyes on me as he wrinkled his nose like he’d caught wind of something awful—then leaned forward and wrapped my arms around him. He gasped, and his tangy, sweet scent had my mouth watering as I moved him toward me, and I half expected him to kick, but he didn’t, in deference to the laptops and hot drinks. Instead, he let me haul him against my chest and gracefully lowered his legs one at a time from the edge of the table.
He wasn’t really dressed for a casual family dinner, which we were supposed to be off to soon, and his overdone outfit was my first clue that maybe he was nervous about going to his brother’s birthday party. His shirt was a nice yellow button-up that made his eyes seem closer to feline gold than brown, and he had a narrow tie looped around his neck, the kind that never really made sense to me. Fashion wasn’t my thing, though, so what did I know? More than anything, I wanted to tie a bell to the end of the stringy thing.
“What are you thinking that’s making you smile like that?” He arched to the side so he could look up and back to get a better view of me.
“That you’re a handsome cat.”
“Hmm…. Really?”
“You are, but no. That’s not what I was thinking.” I laughed and flicked the end of his tie, and he cuffed me on the side with a curled hand. I spun him, easily drawing him back in for a kiss. He gasped when I dipped him toward the ground. His lips weren’t soft and sweet like they usually were. His entire body was stiff, actually.
“Do you want to go?” I whispered to him before carefully raising us both vertical.
Sighing, he glanced over at Nicky and Kwan, hard at work with their heads bent together over a cell phone between them.
“No. Better do it anyway. Mom will only ramp up the invitations if I turn down another one. I’ll also expire of guilt.” He gave me a weak smile, the sort of thing you passed around at a funeral, and I was about to ask again, when he told Nicky and Kwan goodbye and hooked his hand onto my elbow.
“Should I change?” I was wearing black board shorts and a Mighty Unicorns T-shirt with the logo from two seasons ago—a cartoon unicorn drinking a margarita. It was the same thing I’d wear anyplace to hang out during the summer. He barely glanced at me.
“You always look good.”
I let the topic die because it was clear by the way his shoulders traveled toward his ears and his back straightened like a board that he was working himself into some type of mood, one I hadn’t encountered yet. Once outside, I started toward my car, and he hesitated, but then went with my choice. It might have been easier for him to drive, but the way he was acting, my instincts roared at me to take care of him.
We rode in silence for about forty minutes to the south side of New Gothenburg, where there were nice family suburbs, and then he directed me through a maze of neighborhoods. We stopped in front of a three-story split-level house with red-and-tan bricks on the bottom and halfway up the front. Tawny siding covered the house the rest of the way to the top. The place could be on the cover of Wholesome Suburban Living . There was a garage that stretched off to the right and an aboveground pool with a deck built around it to the left. Some kids raced around the lawn in their swimsuits, attacking one another with water balloons, while a teenage boy lounged lazily on the ground under a tree nearby with a couple of buckets, occasionally passing out more balloons.
When I got to the driveway it was completely full, so I parked along the street just a little beyond the entrance. Harley laugh-groaned and cupped his hands over his face.
“Oh no, they’re all here. Goddamn it, I should have known they’d be here for Dylan’s birthday. He’s the favorite.” Harley didn’t sound put out by that and I was glad, because sibling rivalry was well out of my wheelhouse.
“The soccer guy?”
Harley nodded.
