“They’re good,” Oscar mumbled through a mouthful of cake.
Ezra chuckled, delicately peeling the wrapper off his own. “And May worked hard to bring them to us.”
Nolan took a cupcake, looked at the perfect, professional finish, looked at May, and decided she hadn’tmadethese. She wasn’t the cupcake-making type. She was more the whiskey and iced tea and long, incredibly useful talks on the porch type.
Nolan’s grandma had been like that. He still missed those long, useful talks.
“So where did they come from?” he asked, taking a bite. Finn reached over his shoulder to grab one, too, humming happily as he bit into his own.
The sound of Finn enjoying himself sent a little wave of heat rolling through Nolan’s stomach, the memory of last weekend flashing through his mind for a moment.
Had Finn thought of him, too?
“Greta Carmichael,” May sighed. “Bless her heart.”
Nolan snorted. His grandma had said that a lot, too, and he knew exactly what it meant.
“What did she do to you?” he asked, starting to get comfortable as he licked the frosting off his cake.
May chuckled. “She’s actually very sweet,” May said. “A little…muchfor my taste, but we seem to attract the type.”
“Because they’d all like to think they have your grace and understated elegance,” Ezra said.
“I just like animals.” May shrugged. “They all want to be Florida’s next top philanthropist. Which is good for us. We could sure as hell use it.”
“The sanctuary’s struggling?” Nolan asked, his stomach clenching. He didn’t like to think of these good, kind people who’d been wonderful to him worrying about money. He knew none of them were getting rich doing this, but he’d assumed everything was okay. As okay as a charity ever could be.
“Not as much as it was a year ago,” Oscar said. “Thanks to Ryan, mostly.”
Ryan blushed and looked down at his feet. Nolan felt like they were similar in a lot of ways, and he would have liked to get to know him better.
“I just do numbers,” he murmured. “But this isn’t the worst shape we’ve ever been in, no. That auction made a huge difference.”
“Gavin’s good forsomething,” Finn said softly, right beside Nolan’s ear.
Nolan wasn’t sure whether to be embarrassed or thrilled that he was so comfortable with being close to him in front of all his friends. Hisfamily. The people who mattered most to him in the world.
It was exciting, though. And Nolan could tell it meant something, too. He got the feeling Finn didn’t warm up to just anyone.
“And now it’s up to me to do the society rounds and talk about what an exciting project this is and show people pictures of these boys holding rescued animals. They like that,” May said. “Greta sent these cupcakes back with me, formy boys.”
Nolan snorted, though he doubted anyone present really minded being counted as one of May’s boys. She seemed wonderful so far.
“And now I have to go home and dress for an intimate twenty-person dinner party.” May stood from her place at the table, rolling her eyes. “So I’ll leave the rest of you to finish them.”
“I’ll finish them if no one else does,” Oscar said.
“You’re not getting any sympathy from me when you’ve got a sugar headache later,” Ryan responded.
“Yeah I am.” Oscar beamed at him, his brown eyes suddenly angelic. “You love me.”
Ryan snorted, but Nolan could see how true that was in the way they were with each other. In every interaction between them, every glance, the way Oscar leaned against Ryan’s chest without even looking behind him to check he was still there.
They werecomfortabletogether. Nolan would have loved that for himself.
Maybe he could have it with Finn. Maybe he’d been waiting all this time for areason, and the right person had finally come along.
“Be good,” May said as she headed for the door. “And if you can’t be good, be careful.”
Nolan grinned as she left, glad he’d gotten to meet her. He could see why she was surrounded with all these wonderful people.
“Come on,” Finn said, nudging Nolan’s side. “Let’s go check on Ollie.”
Shoving the last bite of his cupcake in his mouth, Nolan followed Finn’s lead out of the kitchen. Coming here was good for his soul, and he planned on making the most of it.
