Page 19

19

I nstead of napping before our game, I drove out to Lucky Duck and adopted a black kitten who might be part bat and who definitely wouldn’t be called Satan. Gavin had given the okay as our landlord. I’d known Cole would say yes—he lived to make people happy.

I didn’t ask Mase. Vampires liked black cats, right?

When I got home with the furball, both my roommates were awake and shuffling around in the kitchen for pre-game snacks. We’d already had lunch, but hockey games burned a lot of calories.

Cole noticed first, putting his bread back on the counter. “Is that him?”

The kitten was a trembling black ball with his face stuck in the crook of my arm, so I wasn’t going to hold him up. “Yeah. He doesn’t have a name yet because the one Alexis gave him was crap.”

Mase slowly turned. “What did you do?”

“Kenzie and this cat are soulmates. I couldn’t let him go to someone else.”

He crossed his arms. “Okay. Why is it in our house?”

I shared a hesitant look with Cole. “We’re sort of taking care of him until Kenzie gets a place that accepts cats.”

“Is she moving?”

“Not technically.”

“So your girlfriend’s cat is going to live with us. And Sunny.”

“Yes.” I kept my face neutral, but inside I was sweating hard.

Mase stared at the kitten, who finally peeped around, his bat ears swiveling at the noise. “I’m not cleaning a litter box. Duck diapers are enough.”

He went back to his lunch as if we adopted new pets every day, and honestly, it wasn’t far off. Somehow, we kept collecting weirdos and their animal counterparts. I was definitely including Marco in the animal counterpart column.

Cole shrugged at me, and I tried to put the kitten down. He clung to my shirt using all four sets of claws, staring up at me with big green eyes. Dammit. The helpless eyes were my downfall.

I tucked the kitten back into my side and joined the guys in the kitchen. “Where exactly does one find a litter box?”

Cole turned to me, incredulous, and Mase burst out laughing. At least the big guy still got my sense of humor.

“You’re a dick,” Cole muttered.

“Sure, but I’m your dick,” I fluttered my lashes at him, and he tossed a piece of bread at my face.

I let it bounce off my nose and fall to the floor. “Hey, you know my rules. I only accept bread when copious amounts of peanut butter have been applied.”

“He’s right. Peanut butter would help it stick better,” Mase offered.

Cole offered me his knife when he finished his sandwich, and I set out trying to make a PB&J with only one hand. After fumbling through the first half, Mase sighed and took pity on me.

“You’re supposed to be the normal one,” he grumped as he added jelly to my second piece and smashed them together.

I raised a brow. “None of us are normal, my man. Cole is not-so-secretly cowboy Captain America, you would happily live the rest of your life without seeing another person, and Gavin fell in love with Eva and her pet duck. ”

Cole shook his head. “We all love Henry, don’t bring her into this.”

I turned to him. “ That’s your evidence we’re all normal? We all love the pet duck, who to be clear, is an angel and better than all of us?”

Sunny quacked from her spot on the back of the couch, and I offered her a bow, careful not to startle the cat. “Sorry, Sunny girl, you are also an angel and better than all of us.”

Mase set the knife in the sink with a loud clang. “I see your point.”

Cole took a bite and chewed slowly while staring at me. “So this thing with Kenzie is serious?”

I joined him at the table with my sandwich. “Yes.”

“What about your golden rule?”

“Doesn’t apply to her.” I took a big bite and sent Mase a grateful look.

Cole picked at his crust. “Is that because she’s special or because she used to be Kane’s?”

I chewed slowly to let the anger simmer down to a reasonable level before I responded. Cole was asking because he was concerned for Kenzie, and I couldn’t blame him. My track record wasn’t great.

But dammit, he was supposed to trust me not to hurt her for selfish reasons.

“Because she’s special… and because we haven’t had sex yet.”

Cole got really still as he stared at me with his brows up near his hairline. The disbelieving silence stretched for an awkward moment, until Mase dropped his plate on the counter with a clatter.

When we turned to look at him, he shrugged. “Sorry. The moment felt dramatic.”

“Look—” I leaned forward, and the kitten let out a pitiful meow when I squished him against the table. We rearranged, while Cole dutifully waited. “Look, I didn’t know who she was the first time I met her, and I still couldn’t get her out of my head. After I found out her connection to Kane, yes, it was a little bit of sweet revenge, but she was one hundred percent on board with the plan. Now, she’s all I see. All I want to see.”

Cole’s tense expression relaxed. “Welcome to the club, man.”

Mase grunted his support and finally joined us at the table with a bag of chips.

In the back of my mind, I thought I should probably feel guilty for lying, but the rest of me insisted I’d spoken nothing but the truth. This may have started off as a way to fuck with Kane, but now, all I wanted was her.

Besides, hadn’t I been lying to them this whole time? I hadn’t thought about it until Kenzie brought it up, but suddenly, protecting myself against these guys felt stupid.

“I’m rich,” I blurted out.

Cole laughed. “Okay.”

Mase didn’t even look up from his chips. “Yeah, we know.”

“Like billionaire rich. Grew up on an estate, went to fancy private school, had a full staff rich.”

That got their attention. Cole put down his food and folded his hands on the table. “Some new information there, but I repeat… okay. Why the sudden emphasis on your finances? Are you planning to buy a small country and form your own hockey league? Because I could be convinced.”

Mase shook his head. “It’s why he’s always had his one-night rule. I’d imagine Kenzie is causing all kinds of problems up there.” He tapped the side of my head.

“Ahh,” Cole nodded wisely. “I thought you just had a really short attention span.”

“Kenzie knows too, and I realized I had no reason to hide it from you guys. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth earlier.”

Mase squinted at me. “We don’t care how much money you have. I’m glad you trust us enough to talk about it, but there’s no need. Nothing has changed in the last ten minutes. Tell us what’s going on with Kenzie.”

After spending the early part of the semester frustrated at them for not believing in me, the unconditional support now felt pretty fucking good. The rush of emotion made me blurt out the fears I hadn’t let myself acknowledge yet.

“What if I fuck everything up with her? At least once a day I wonder where I got the balls to think I knew how to be in an adult relationship with someone. Kane screwed her up pretty bad, and I don’t want to make it worse.”

Cole held up both hands. “Don’t look at me. I’m not sure I’m in an adult relationship. I mean, yes, I’m going to marry Avery the first chance I get, but we’re also planning to go to the Next Best Ninja training camp for our honeymoon.”

“You’ve already talked about a honeymoon?”

He raised a brow at my incredulous tone. “Don’t you call your girlfriend Wifey?”

My eyes narrowed. “How did you hear that?”

“Word gets around and sound travels. The real question is?—”

“Enough.” Mase cut him off. “This is why I don’t come up here. Reece, you’re a million times better than Kane, and the fact that you’re worried about hurting her means you’re actively trying not to.”

Cole nodded and went to clean our mess at the counter, seemingly content to let Mase take the lead.

“And what about all the ways she could get hurt that I don’t anticipate?”

“How about this. If Cole were to come to you with worries about his future team or his farm or his squadron of attack geese, what would you tell him?”

I rubbed my mouth as his point hit me, not too happy with his insight. “I’d tell him to stop worrying. The things bothering him are outside his control… but it’s not the same.”

Mase scoffed. “That’s what they all say.”

“Is that what they told you ?”

His lips twitched. “They tried. Turns out, things outside your control can still do serious damage.”

“What did you do?”

“I found a way to take control—and I never let go.” Under the steely determination, shadows haunted his eyes.

I could ask for details, but he wouldn’t answer. He’d most likely get up and leave. Instead, I took a bite of my sandwich and chewed while I turned over his advice in my mind.

“You think I’m being too harsh on myself.”

It wasn’t a question, but Mase nodded anyway.

“Okay, big man, what do you suggest I do instead of worry?”

He grabbed a chip from the bag and crunched through it before he answered. “You can either let it go or grab the reins.”

I shook my head. “You’ve been hanging out with Cole’s cowboy ass too much.”

“I heard that,” he threw out from the kitchen. “Stephen is coming up next weekend, by the way.”

Mase scrubbed a hand down his face. “I like Stephen, but when did we become a bed and breakfast? Marco doesn’t even live here, and none of us can use the living room when Stephen visits.”

He wasn’t wrong. Stephen brought more and more luggage each time he came. If Marco was willing to move in, Stephen’s spread would be contained in a single bedroom.

My mind raced as an idea hit me. We didn’t need Marco to live here to fix up the extra room with a bed for when Stephen visited. Like a guest room situation. We could even keep most of the workout stuff in there still with a little organization.

Mase would get his living room back, and I wouldn’t be tripping over Louis Vuitton bags every other weekend. I’d need to run the idea by Gavin first, but he’d said yes to all my other crazy requests.

Faint barking invaded the silence, and Mase got up to glare out the window. “Have you guys met the new neighbors yet?”

I leaned over to check the view, but all I could see was our fence. “We have new neighbors?”

Mase growled. “They moved in last week, and their dog is a menace.”

“I’m sure having a new cat will help with that,” Cole muttered under his breath. “On that note, I’m going to go ravish Coach’s daughter while he’s busy at the rink.”

Cole tossed the sponge back in the sink, dried his hands, and didn’t look back on his way out the door. I waited a full five seconds before turning slowly to Mase.

“Isn’t Coach home working on the renovation thing?”

Mase cocked his head. “You know, you may be right. Someone should probably warn him.”

“Yeah, if only he had better friends.” The kitten stretched, pricking me with his little claws, and gave a rusty meow before falling back asleep. “I’d better go pick up supplies. By the way, I overnighted one of those robot litter boxes. Should be here soon. You might want to get Sunny used to it.”

Mase rolled his eyes. “Yay.”

I didn’t know what I was worried about with these guys. They didn’t care that I’d dropped almost a grand on a litter box, but they’d shove my head in the toilet if I skipped out on practice to go to brunch. Priorities.