“Make him stop. Now,” Adam said as he walked into the living room, throwing his backpack on the other loveseat. He eyed Austin and me. “You guys look comfortable.”
I patted my stomach. “We ate a big lunch.”
Roscoe sniffed the air and furrowed his brows. “You went to the barbeque place without me? You know how much I wanted to go, but you got all pissy about money.”
Adam sat on the loveseat, glaring daggers at me. “You guys went out to eat? Together?”
“It was just lunch.” I looked over at Roscoe. “And I didn’t buy, but the prices are pretty good. Maybe I’ll take you there this week.”
“All right. I’ll forgive ya,” Roscoe said with a grin, his tail wagging.
Adam stood up and walked over to us before burying his nose in Austin’s mane. “You actually took a bath?”
“Yup,” Austin replied, tearing away from the tv show.
“You smell good.”
“Yousmell like Darryl.” There was a slight annoyance in his tone.
“Oh, come on, don’t give me that look,” Adam said, crawling onto Austin’s lap. “I heard you missed me.”
The werewolf tossed me a sideways glance, and I nodded for him to respond.
“Yeah.”
I started to understand what was wrong with their dynamic. When Austin and I were together, I didn’t keep trying to talk to him; instead, I waited for him to initiate the conversation. Roscoe did the same thing, which was why Austin had preferred being around him the last week or so. Adam, on the other hand, had this loose party mentality where he was always the center of attention. He was good-looking and outgoing, so he never had an issue picking up human guys or werewolves, but his extroverted personality clashed hard with how reserved and nervous Austin was.
“How about we have some fun?” Adam gave the werewolf another sniff. “How’d you get your fur so soft?”
“Cody brushed me and used thebig guns.”
He turned to me. “You brushed him?”
“He was really poofy.”
“Hah,” Roscoe cut in. “Turned it on high, huh?”
Austin nodded.
Adam slid off Austin’s lap and walked into the hallway without saying anything, rather turned left toward the back door.
I got up and started after him but stopped to give Roscoe a kiss. “Meet me in the bedroom in a bit.”
“Oh boy,” Roscoe said, scrambling off the loveseat. “I’ll go clean myself up just fer you.”
Austin remained where he was, his attention back on the TV show as if oblivious to what was going on. Part of me wondered if he was doing it on purpose, or if his lack of concern was unintentional. For now, I needed to find a way to get them talking.
I pushed the back door open just as Adam sat on one of the lawn chairs surrounding the fire pit.
“Hey,” I said, sitting in the chair across from him. “Sorry about Roscoe.”
“Is there something wrong with me?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Roscoe didn’t touch me the whole time we were gone and now…” He trailed off, looking down at his hands. “Am I ugly or something?”
“For fuck’s sake,” I said, crossing one leg over my knee. “You’re probably one of the hottest guys I’ve ever met.”
