Saint shrugged. “My tongue feels like it belongs in someone else’s mouth.”
“You have more than one to choose from.”
“You’re not good at sex jokes either.”
I’d have argued it was more that he was the toughest crowd on earth, but the cat had piqued my curiosity enough to let it go. It was long and thin and jet black from nose to tail, with huge yellow eyes. “Where did you get it?”
“Him,” Saint corrected. “Alexei and Folk brought him home, but he can’t stay with Folk because his pet vixen might kill him.”
“You like Folk, don’t you?”
Another shrug.
It was all I was getting. I opened my mouth to probe further into Saint’s wellbeing, but he beat me to it with a subject change abrupt enough that I forgot all about it.
“Did you fuck Mateo?”
I stretched my legs in front of me. From anyone else, the question would’ve been as crude as it sounded, but Saint wasn’t like anyone else. There was every chance he’d meant to word it differently and only the basics had made it to his lips. “Are you asking me if something changed while we were away?”
Saint scrubbed a hand down his face. “Probably.”
“Why?”
“I need to know where his head’s at.”
Fair. Mateo was Saint’s wingman. The enforcer to his sergeant-at-arms. If Mateo was distracted, it could get them both killed.
I coaxed Saint’s new friend closer and stroked a finger down his bony back. “Something did change,” I conceded. “But it’s all good. You don’t have to worry about him.”
“What about you?”
“You’re worried about me?”
Saint leaned back on the wall behind him. He looked as fatigued as I felt, but amused too, if I looked hard enough. Which I did.Nosy, remember?“I’m not worried,” Saint said after a protracted pause. “It’s more, I always thought a meteor would hit the earth when you two finally... whatever. But you’re kind of chill, father.”
“Thank you.” I let the cat rub his face on my knuckles. “I’m not going to deconstruct the rest of it.”
Saint reached in his pocket and held out a bag of the gummies Mateo and Rubi had sourced from god knew where.
I waved them away. Smoking weed was my jam when my mood was right, but edibles made me hurl.
Saint tossed one into his mouth and tucked the bag back in his pocket. I watched him chew, pondering what had put him in a place where he wanted or needed to be so fucking stoned. The Saint I knew was all about control and a hyperawareness that was mildly superhuman, but then, he’d nearly died six months ago. We both had, and I was nowhere close to being the man I’d been before.
“Everything’s different when you love them.”
His voice made me jump. I’d zoned out with him on my mind and forgotten he was there because I didn’t need edibles to be spacey as hell.
“Are we talking about sex again?”
Saint tipped his head back, his keen gaze tracking the light flare from the unicorn charm on his wrist. “Maybe. I’m just saying let it go. Whatever it is. I lost a part of myself when I realised I loved them both, and I don’t want it back.”
He was done with me. Eyes closed, enjoying whatever trip he was on, shutting me out.
It was such a Saint thing to do—to drop a wisdom bomb like it was nothing and close a conversation with silence.
I loved him for it.
Grinning, I hauled myself to my feet, halfway to the door before I remembered how it had started. “What do I have no idea about, brother?”
