Trust Jodi to lower the tone. Rupert took a halfhearted swipe at him, but Forrest intercepted his hand, leaping onto Jodi’s shoulder with a low growl that told Rupert as much as he needed to know about whose cat she was going to be.
As if he’d expected anything less. Jodi had been irresistible tohimfrom the day they’d met, and despite what life had thrown at them, nothing had changed—nothing, and everything.
“Do you think Jen will ever want Indie back?”
“Hmm?” Rupert glanced down at Jodi. “Oh, shit ... I don’t know. I’m still getting used to the fact that she gave her up in the first place.”
Jodi grunted. He hadn’t seemed at all surprised when Jen had appeared one evening a few months ago, bearing the good news that she was emigrating to Brazil with her new boyfriend.“Face it, mate. She’s a selfish twat.”
Indeed, and her loss was Rupert’s gain. He wasn’t going to let her invade another moment of his life, not even this one ... especially not this one. Rupert pulled Jodi close again and squeezed him as tight as he dared. The accident had nearly killed them both—in different ways—but what they had now was as imperfectly perfect as it had ever been, and he wouldn’t change a thing. “I fucking love you, boyo, you know that?”
Jodi looked up and grinned. “Course I do, knobhead. That’s why I made it this far.”
“Knobhead?”
“Yeah ... knobhead, my whole fucking world, whatever I call you, it all means the same, ’cause I love you too, Rupe. More than you’ll ever know.”
Epilogue Extension
Jodi hovered outside the restaurant, one hand on the door, the other clenched at his side. His journey to Shepherd’s Bush had been uneventful, but even after all this time, walking into a crowded place to ask questions he didn’t quite understand still scared the shit out of him.
He might not even be here. What if he doesn’t work here anymore? Or what if he’s at one of his other restaurants?
It had crossed Jodi’s mind that perhaps Cass Pearson had forgotten all abouthimin the time it had taken Jodi to recall a scant memory of a man he used to share a bed with.
Rupert hadn’t agreed.“Boyo, no one could ever forget you.”
The warmth that rushed Jodi’s chest was enough to propel him forwards. He opened the door to the restaurant—toPippa’s—and stepped inside.
A low thrum of activity greeted him. The dining area was busy, but not as packed as he’d feared, and he wove through the tables to the bar without incident.
As luck would have it, a chef was at the coffee machine, loading a tray with full mugs.
Jodi cleared his throat. “Excuse me?”
The chef glanced over his shoulder. “Unless you’ve got a question about the grub, I can’t help you, mate. Steph’ll be back in a sec.”
“I’m looking for Cass.”
The chef turned the milk steamer off and spun around, fixing Jodi with a deep stare. “Cass don’t work Wednesdays. What you want him for? Business?”
“Old friend.” That was one way of describing it, and Jodi was glad he’d lost the habit of blurting out every little thing that passed through his damaged brain. The chef—Jolen, if the name stitched into his sleeve was correct—had kind eyes, but Jodi doubted he wanted to hear the one and only solid memory he had of the man he was looking for.Cass flipped Jodi onto his back and glanced over his shoulder, beckoning someone over that Jodi couldn’t see. “Fuck me while I fuck him. I don’t want to do this without you.”
Jolen cleared his throat and retrieved his tray of drinks. “Wait here a sec. I’ll ask about for you.”
He disappeared. Jodi tapped his finger on the spotless bar and waved away the server when she came back from wherever she’d been. “I’m waiting for Cass.”
“He’s not here.”
“I know.”
Another chef came through the door behind the bar. His flinty gaze landed on Jodi, and he was in front of him before Jodi could blink. “Cass is on his way. He asked me to check Rupert knows you’re were here.”
He knows.These days, Jodi was rarely certain of much, but he could always tell when someone he’d never met before already knew his entire life had fallen out of his head. “He knows. Thanks for checking.”
The chef nodded, and a brief smile brightened his otherwise unreadable expression. “No worries. Cass won’t be long. Can I get you anything? Food? A drink?”
“I’m good.”
