Fiona watched him close the beard in a drawer and gave him an imperious look.
“You mean do I really think that’s going to stop you?” Wade said. “I hope so. I’m not investing in a beard safe.”
He rubbed Fiona’s head, burrowing his fingers in behind her ears in the way she liked, and she arched into his hand and purred.
He would have to check to see if Mira liked cats. He had a hard time imagining that she wouldn’t. Even true mates could run into obstacles and conflicts, but surely none of them would be as grim and hard to resolve as “you have a beloved cat, and your true mate hates cats.” Fate would know to match one cat person up with another, just to keep it simple.
“Besides, nobody would ever not like you,” he told Fiona.
Her creaky purr said that she couldn’t agree more.
Fiona’s automated feeder would dispense her dinner in another minute or two, but Wade would have to make his own. His brain still felt too fried for anything remotely complicated, so he settled on breakfast for dinner and started fixing himself an easy omelet. He cued up Mira’s podcast episode onChristmas in Connecticutfor company, but he barely got through her intro when his phone rang.
It was Petey.
“How’s Hawaii?” Wade said.
Petey laughed. It was the warm, hearty, easy laugh of a guy who had already sucked down a couple piña coladas. “Still that nice after your first day in the red suit? I was thinking you’d hang up on me. Seriously, Wade, I owe you one.”
“It turns out I owe you one too.” He would have liked to tell Petey all about Mira in person, but he couldn’t stand waiting until his brother came back from Hawaii. He had totell somebodynow. “You know Mira, the elf who’s stuck in the Galadriel costume?”
“Sure. She’s nice. I can’t believe Marsh is screwing her over like this.”
That almost got Wade sidetracked because yeah, he couldn’t believe it either. No one would care if Mira’s candy cane leggings had slightly thinner stripes than the elf’s next to her.
But that was beside the point right now.
“She’s my mate,” Wade said.
There was a muffled clatter on the other end of the line as Petey clearly dropped his phone. It was followed by a scrambled sound and then, “Are you serious?”
“Completely.”
Petey let out a whoop of pure joy that reminded Wade of why it was always worthwhile to cover for his little brother, even when Petey tended to get him into the occasional sticky situation. Petey wassweet, plain and simple.
“God, Wade, that’s amazing! Congratulations!”
Wade couldn’t stop grinning. “Thanks. Like I said, I owe you one. Or a thousand.”
Petey laughed again. “Well, you don’t have to play Santa a thousand times. Just until Christmas. But what was it like? Was it like the clouds parted and the sun shone down on her? Lightning bolt? Dramatic voice rumbling down from the sky?”
“A little bit of all three, except the voice was from my bear.” He turned the burner on low to keep the omelet from scorching. “No, she came over to ask what I was doing there—she could tell I wasn’t you—”
“Because you’re much less good-looking,” Petey said somberly.
Wade ignored that. “And our eyes met, and I just ... knew.”
Because I told you, his bear said.I’m a pretty important part of this story, you know.
It had a point.
“Mybearknew,” Wade said, correcting himself, “and it told me. She’s the one.”
Peteyaww-ed. “That’s so cool. Hey, Anne, are you the one? Are you my soulmate?”
“You got Anne to come with you after all? Good for you.”
“I know, right?” Petey said happily. “She says she’s not my soulmate but I’m pretty cute.”
