“Grace wants to mommy him. She was actually by the bed on the floor when she heard the SUV just now. Husky is a bit indifferent. Missy wants to lick him to death, I think. She’s a bit too enthusiastic, but not in a mean way. She’s just….”
“Missy?” Leaf grinned.
“Exactly.”
“I’m going to go play with the dogs for a while, if Leaf wants to go through the kitten care with you,” Seth said, and leaned in to give Dev a kiss now that the kitten wasn’t eating anymore.
Dev hummed into the kiss, and Seth could feel the smile on his lips. “Okay.”
Seth got off the bed and went downstairs. He grabbed the bags out of the car and left them by the stairs before going out to properly greet the dogs.
He grinned at the three expectant doggy faces behind the back door, and went out to sit on the porch stairs for them to be able to get as close as they wanted to.
Missy was, obviously, the wiggliest and most intrusive of them all. She climbed on top of him, basically bowling him over until he lay on his back, and happily settled on top of his torso to lick his chin.
“I missed you too, baby girl,” he cooed, even though oxygen deprivation was starting to creep in. She was lovable, a goof, but man, was she a compact ball of muscle and heavy as fuck for her size. “Okay, down, girl,” he wheezed, and she slid off him, just to lie against his side for maximum contact.
Husky sat on the stairs by his feet and leaned against his legs. Grace came from the side, now that Missy had calmed down a little, and sat on Seth’s other side.
“Hey, momma,” Seth cooed. “Did you find a kitty?” Immediately Grace’s attention snapped to the house, and Seth chuckled. “You’re such a good girl. You’ll get to see the kitty soon, I promise.”
For fifteen minutes or so, Seth just soaked in the warmth from the dogs and lay there on the porch floor. It was afternoon, and the sun had been shining for a couple of hours, just enough for the ground to dry some. The porch was covered, so even though the dogs weren’t completely dry, Seth was comfortable on the floor.
He did this sort of thing way too rarely. Even with Leaf home, he worked too much. He hadn’t taken a proper vacation in years. Seth supposed it might be a feature—and not a bug, like Dev would say—of his that he just didn’t know how to stop.
A sabbatical seemed like a weird, unknown concept for his work morale.
The door opened, and Dev chuckled behind him. The dogs wagged tails at him, but not even Missy wanted to move. “This is as far as you got?” Dev asked, sitting sat on Missy’s other side.
“Yep.” Seth looked at him, drinking in the sight of the honey-colored eyes and messy hair. “I love you,” he said without meaning to.
Dev’s eyes widened and he blinked a couple of times, and then a slow, radiant smile lit up his features. “I love you too. Leaf too.” His tone was almost reverent, like he didn’t quite believe he was saying it but knew it was the truth as soon as the words came out.
Seth nudged Missy out of the way and reached for Dev. They came together in a long, slow kiss that turned into lazy making out.
After a while, Missy deemed them done and licked their cheeks from above.
“Oh my God, Missy, this is not the kind of threesome I signed up for!” Dev laughed and shooed the dog away.
Seth burst out laughing, his heart swelling at the thought of this gorgeous, smart, funny young man being his and Leaf’s.
When he’d calmed down again, Seth kissed Dev once more and pulled away. “So how’s the kitten?”
“He’s good. Leaf oversaw me making the kitten go potty, which they need help with for a while, and then Leaf went to find a heating pad. I think they’ve both now zonked out in the bedroom.”
Seth liked that nothing about the kitten care seemed to be unpleasant for Dev. He just took everything at face value, because Grace had helped him save the tiny thing.
“Grace misses him already. I think she wants to play mommy,” Seth said, and Grace immediately looked up at them, then glanced at the door.
“Yeah, okay. Let’s go check up on your kitty.” Dev grinned and got up. He stopped by the door and grabbed a towel from the hook on the inside to make sure all twelve paws going inside were dry and clean. Because Husky was the last one, he carefully wiped his belly, where the longer hairs could attract an awful lot of mess.
“There you go, good boy,” Dev cooed at the dog, who gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Go on, inside.”
Seth got up and went in after them. Yeah, Dev seemed to fit right in.
ON MONDAYSeth went to work a bit dazed. With Leaf and Dev having to wake up in the night to feed the kitten, his sleep hadn’t been as restful as usual.
Seth stumbled into his office with a travel mug of coffee and thanked the universe for not having any classes to teach before midday. After lunch he might be awake enough to handle the masses, but right then, not really.
