Asher and Jax stayed quiet. It was like they understood that I was trying to gather all my thoughts into something coherent to say. Their patience was unending, and another piece of me slotted back into place.
“I didn’t know what love looked like. I didn’t know it could be like this. I—the two of you showed up for me tonight, and you didn’t have to. You could have gone off somewhere and did anything. But you stayed and you helped. No one has ever done that for me before.”
“Because they’re stupid,” Jax said, kissing my shoulder.
“I didn’t know what love looked like. But I do now. And I—” I had to take a breath and swallow the nerves that made my insides shake. “I love you too.”
The breath I exhaled trembled on the way out. “I’m scared though. Because I don’t know how to be in love. It’s something I’ve wanted since—well, forever—but I don’t know how to be a boyfriend.”
Asher pulled back and held my face in his palms. “Blue, have you met me? I’m a complete mess. I don’t know how to do a lot of things. Sometimes I barely know how to be a person, let alone afunctioning adult. I don’t know how to be a boyfriend either, and now we both have two of them. We can figure it out together.”
Asher’s sincerity made me weak in the knees, and I might have crumpled to the floor had it not been for Jax and the way he held me up.
“I may not know a lot, but I know that we will always show up for you, Blue,” Jax promised, his lips ghosting against my ear.
I tilted my head to give him better access to my neck, but a sudden drop in the temperature of the water had us all scrambling to get out before we turned into popsicles.
My bathroom wasn’t really big enough for three grown men to dry off in, so there was a bit of jostling and elbows bumping, but none of us seemed to mind. We wore towels back to the section of my apartment that held my bed. It was separated from the rest with shelves. A dresser was tucked off to the side and the cats had been placed in the gap between the dresser and the shelves.
I fished three pairs of lounge pants out of a drawer and handed a pair each to Jax and Asher. “We never got dinner.”
Jax looked at me, then at the lounge pants, then at Asher. Then he looked at me again and tossed the pants aside.
“I know what I want,” he said as he lunged for me.
I squawked and tried to get away, but there was nowhere to go.
Oh darn.
THIRTY-THREE
ASHER
Sexy,fun, post-shower time had been made impossible by the introduction of momma cat and her little family. Oops. Jax had no sooner tossed Blue onto the bed, than the kittens started kicking up a fuss in their corner of the room.
“We were supposed to bathe them,” I realized out loud, and that’s what really killed the mood.
Jax collapsed on top of Blue and let out a sigh. After a second, he turned his head and looked at me.
“I forgot about the kittens,” Jax admitted.
“I know we can’t possibly keep them all, but I couldn’t leave them at the clinic.” I bent down and picked up the little black one, who had wobbled out of the crate and trotted toward me, clearly the bravest of them all.
“If they didn’t stink so bad, I’d kiss them,” I said as I scooped the curious one up off the floor.
Blue wriggled out from under Jax. Getting to his feet, he brushed a kiss against my cheek. “I’ll get the bath set up. We can wash them up in the kitchen sink.”
“Is that sanitary?” Jax rolled onto his back and propped himself up on his elbows.
“It’s a stainless steel sink. It’ll wash,” Blue said as he rummaged around in the bag of supplies. “I brought a bunch of stuff from the clinic for this. This shampoo will help kill whatever little parasites are crawling on them.”
Jax got to his feet. “Parasites? What kind of parasites?”
“Fleas, Jax. Just fleas. I have some stuff for their ear mites too. Can you bring the kittens to the kitchen?” Blue asked and I gathered up the other two kittens. Jax eyed the crate suspiciously.
“What about momma?”
“We’ll bathe her last. She’ll be the most difficult.”
