ZAHRA OWENS
To Eric’s smile, for making this angst-bunny write fluff.
To TJ’s courage, for standing by his man just like Flynn did for Gable.
“GABLE. GABE, wake up.”
“Wha—”
“Listen.”
Gable scratched his head and turned toward Flynn, next to him in bed. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Sst.”
“Okay, the kids are awake. Just go back to sleep. They’ll settle down.”
“I need to go look.”
Flynn got out of bed, and Gable groaned. He loved Flynn—really he did—but when he got all clucky and felt the need to check up on the kids when their mother was sleeping in the room right next to them, Gable drew the line. He turned around and stuck his head under his pillow in the idle hope he’d fall asleep again.
He’d almost made it, and then the main light switched on and he blinked against the invasion.
Flynn was standing in the doorway, pajama pants balancing precariously on his narrow hips and his chest naked, but he was holding something. Gable waited for the glaring light to stop bothering him so much and squinted at his partner. “What is that?”
“It’s a cat. This one was trying to keep it from us that we now have a house pet.”
Only now did Gable notice that Noah was standing next to Flynn, and he didn’t even look sleepy despite the fact it was—Gable looked at the clock next to his bed—2:30 a.m. “Put it on the porch, go to sleep, and we’ll deal with it in the morning.” He crawled back under the covers.
“But it’s freezing outside. He’ll die!” Noah protested, loud enough to wake up the rest of the house.
“Ssst!” both men cautioned. “Go back to bed, Noah. I’ll deal with this,” Flynn said more softly.
“Don’t kill him!”
“Who said anything about killing it?” Gable said, exasperated. “We’re putting it in the bathroom until the morning. I’m not arguing about this at this hour.”
Noah pouted as Flynn made him turn around to go downstairs to his room.
When he returned, it was without Noah and, more importantly, without the cat.
“So how did you find the cat?” Gable asked.
“I heard meowing. First time was a few nights ago, but I figured the kids were playing around. Then again last night and now tonight. And you may have noticed that Andy’s been grumpy all week.”
“I thought he was coming down with something,” Gable said with a shrug. It wasn’t that he didn’t care; it was just not something he wanted to deal with right then.
Flynn shook his head. “He’s your son. If he doesn’t get enough sleep, he gets cranky. If he were sick, he’d be clingy.”
Gable had to admit Flynn was right, which was always the case when it had to do with the kids.
“I was pretty sure something was keeping him from sleeping through the night. Now we know,” Flynn said with clear finality.
“So where did they get the cat?”
Flynn got under the covers and turned his back on Gable. “Like you said, we’ll figure it out in the morning.”
Within a minute, Flynn was sound asleep, but Gable wasn’t.
GABLE NEVER slept in a day in his life, not even after a sleepless night. And it was winter, which meant most of his early morning chores were done by sunrise. Content that the horses had made it through the icy night and had food and drinkable water, he returned to his expanded homestead to help Flynn out getting the kids ready for school. He could see the busy chaos of the morning kitchen through the frosted windows, so he took a deep breath before venturing inside.
As soon as he opened the door, he practically tripped. When he looked around to find the culprit, he spotted a skinny tabby skidding away and out of sight. Gable hit the door with his fist to stop himself from taking it out on the first person in his line of sight, which happened to be Tucker, the youngest addition to the family and the only one who was absolutely innocent in the whole cat adventure, given he was only two. Judging from the looks he got, though, the whole family knew exactly what foot Gable had crawled out of bed with that morning. The older kids were uncharacteristically silent, and Flynn was smiling at him as he poured him a mug of coffee.
“Looks cold outside,” Flynn stated more than asked.
“No more than usual,” Gable growled. He eyed Noah, who immediately vacated his chair, since it was the place Gable usually used when he was sitting down for breakfast.
“I’ll go get ready for school,” Noah said on his way to the annex.
“Not so fast,” Gable said as he grabbed Noah’s arm. “Sit.”
Noah dutifully sat down in the chair closest to him, his gaze directed at his shoes.
“So spill. Where did the cat come from?”
“I found him,” Noah mumbled.
“Speak up. I’m an old guy and a little hard of hearing.”
Gable threw Flynn a cautioning look over a giggle that had escaped the younger man’s mouth and then returned to look at Noah.
“I found him near the truck stop. He was dirty and hungry, so I took him home. Vicky helped me give him a bath. Aaw!” Noah rubbed his leg underneath the table and Gable shook his head at his daughter, who had clearly kicked her foster brother. “We have plenty of milk here, and Mom said I could keep him if I took care of him,” Noah continued.
“She did, now, did she?”
Noah nodded frantically.
“Okay, get ready for school. We’re leaving in about five minutes.”
As if given a command, everyone but Tucker fled the room to the annex to get their school stuff.
“You don’t believe him,” Flynn stated.
“I believe him in as far as the cat might have been dirty and hungry, but that tabby is wearing a collar, Flynn. That cat belongs to someone.”
“I know. He says he has no idea.”
Gable raised his eyebrows at Flynn.
“Yes, I also gave him the third degree. Just let it rest. He knows he’s in charge of taking care of the animal, and judging from the way that cat looks, he’s not doing a bad job.”
“And he’s keeping all the kids up at all hours on a school night,” Gable replied, trying to put as much finality in his words as he could. “I’m going to get to the bottom of this.”
THE FIRST chance Gable got was when he brought lunch to Calley, mother to the whole brood and the reason they’d built the annex. She’d been fighting cancer for almost three years now and needed help raising the kids, three of whom were Gable’s biological children.
“Nice day to sit here,” Gable said as he put a tray with sandwiches and coffee on the little table next to Calley’s reclining chair. Sunlight was streaming into the porch, which was closed off all around by large windows so they were protected from the cold winds. Calley was taking in the sunlight, her eyes closed and averted from the Kindle on her lap.
“I love this place. I can’t thank you enough for building it for me.”
Gable wasn’t good at small talk, and he liked to cut to the chase. “Have you talked to Noah lately?”
She opened her eyes and looked at Gable. “Is anything wrong?”
“He said you gave him permission to take in a cat?”
“What? He has a cat?”
Gable nodded and bit his lip. “The kid lied to me.”
“Wait.” Gable could practically see the wheels turning in Calley’s mind. “He asked me whether he could have a pet, and I gave him a bit of a lecture that he’d have to take care of it and not just for the week, but every single day for as long as the animal lived. That he’d have to feed it from his own money too. I’m trying to think whether I told him to check with you or Flynn first. I suppose I should have, but I might have forgotten to do that. Then again, I didn’t think it was more than a wish of his.”
Gable smiled. “Well, he took it as permission from you.”
“So he already has a cat?”
Gable nodded. “He claims he rescued it from the truck stop. That it was dirty and hungry and he couldn’t leave it in the cold.”
“Well, that’s the Noah I know.”
“The cat has an owner, though. He’s got a collar.”
“With a name or a phone number?”
“Nope, just a simple leather band.”
“Maybe someone in town lost their cat? Ask Sadie about it. She’ll know. And maybe take a picture and put it up at the shop. That way people who come in can see that you have a lost cat, and someone might recognize her.”
“It’s a tomcat.”
“Well, no different from everything else around this place, then.”
Gable narrowed his eyes at her but didn’t mean to look mean, and she knew it because she smiled. He’d do anything to see her smile these days.
“Put up a picture. You’ll see, it works.”
IT TOOK Gable three days to make it into town with a picture of the cat, which had by then been adopted into the family as Skunk.
He and Flynn had spent every night with interruptions, because the cat slept all day but not when the whole house was quiet. Since they’d elected not to let the cat stay in the annex so the kids would at least get their sleep, it was Gable and Flynn who were up at all hours. It only made Gable more grumpy.
His mood immediately lit up when he saw Sadie, who was a ray of sunshine even during the long winter. “Hey, Gable, what brings you here? Did Flynn forget to order something?”
He placed the picture on the counter in front of her. “Noah decided to rescue a cat, but I suspect he has an owner somewhere. Calley suggested putting up a flyer here at the shop so we could maybe find that owner.”
Sadie rubbed her thumb over the scratches on Gable’s work-rough hands. “Looks like you have a tiger on your hands instead of a kitten.”
Gable pulled his hand away and hoped it wasn’t too obvious. “He’s a handful.” He rubbed the scabs in memory of the epic fight to get Skunk to stay still long enough for the picture to be taken.
“You know, I have a better idea,” Sadie said as she took out a netbook from under the counter. “I’ll post the picture on Facebook and put something in the comments about where you found it, and lots of cat lovers will share the picture. We’ll reach a lot more people than just those who shop here.”
Gable squared his jaw. “I’m not even going to pretend to know what you’re talking about, but don’t put my address on the Internet, okay?”
“We won’t need to. They’ll message me if they think they recognize the cat, and then we can take it from there. I’ll call you when I get more than sympathy votes.”
Gable nodded and tipped his hat at her. Calley was right. Leave it to Sadie.
“HEY, TUCKER,” Flynn said in passing as he entered the bedroom while their youngest ran out. “What’s he doing here?”
“Came to say good night,” Gable replied as he put down the book he was reading.
Flynn closed the door and started undressing. “It’s way past his bedtime. He should have been in bed two hours ago.”
“He dozed a bit here while I was reading.”
From the corner of his eye, Flynn saw Gable’s hand disappear under the covers again, just like right after he’d entered. It wasn’t his man’s usual way of signaling he was in the mood for a little passion, but Flynn was, so he decided to pursue it. He didn’t put on the pajama pants he’d gotten used to sleeping in since they now had a house full of children, but instead crawled onto the bed in the buff.
Gable looked up from his book with an amused grin.
“It’s early enough, right?”
Gable pretended not to know what Flynn meant, but when Flynn kissed his man, Gable kissed back. Flynn loved feeling Gable’s callused hands on him, and he smoothed himself down against Gable’s sinewy frame. When he pushed his hand underneath the covers to check how many clothes Gable was still wearing, he encountered something he wasn’t expecting.
“What the—”
Flynn jumped back as if he was bitten, and as he saw the blood well up over a cut on his hand, he realized that wasn’t far from the truth.
“I was going to warn you, but you cut off my speech.”
A thin head with pointy ears stuck up over the covers.
“You don’t even like him. You want him out of the house, and now I find you here in bed with that cat.”
Gable shrugged, but the way the corners of his mouth curled up showed his lack of remorse. “He likes to snuggle, and he purrs when you pet him.”
Flynn pulled on his pajama bottoms and got back into bed, a little more careful this time as he kept his distance from Gable and his new friend. “So, are you telling me you want to keep him?”
“If his owner shows up, we have to let him go, but if nobody claims him, I suppose we can keep him. He’s kind of sweet. But he’s not sleeping in the kids’ rooms.”
Flynn sighed. “No, you want to keep him here, obviously.”
Gable leaned closer to Flynn and kissed him. When he stopped, he fished Skunk from underneath the covers and dropped him at the foot end of the bed. The animal hissed at him, but Gable gave him the evil eye, and although the cat ignored it, he found a comfortable spot where Gable had put him. “He’s not taking your place in our bed.”
Flynn snuggled closer to Gable and, feeling totally secure, didn’t even stay awake long enough to remember Gable turning off the light.
GABLE LIKED dependable people. Sadie always dropped by on Monday and Thursday around 2:00 p.m., so he usually made his way to the house on delivery days around that hour so he could help her unpack her truck. Since they had grown from a family of two to a group of seven, Gable was even happier that Sadie delivered to the house. He couldn’t see himself picking out all the groceries it took to feed the seven of them at the store. Of course, shopping for themselves also meant telling Flynn no in every aisle, so deliveries were the only way they didn’t buy anything they didn’t need.
“Good news, Gable,” Sadie said as she approached with the first box. “Like I expected, I got lots of ‘aaw, cute cat’ in the comments on my post, but I also got a taker. There’s a guy on the Oregon coast who claims your cat is actually his. Or more accurately, his nine-year-old’s cat. He even posted a picture.”
After she opened the door with her hip and put the box down on the kitchen table, she fished a piece of paper out of her back pocket.
Gable opened it and saw a picture of a boy very much Noah’s age, holding the cat.
“He’s got that same butterfly spot on his nose,” Gable said. He was surprised by the regret in his voice. “God knows how the cat got all the way over here.”
“They’re driving up on Saturday to pick the cat up, if you agree that’s okay.”
Gable nodded. He started unpacking the groceries and putting the produce in the fridge.
“He grew on you, didn’t he?”
“Uh?”
Sadie laughed. “The cat.”
“The kids called him Skunk. Don’t know why. He doesn’t smell, and he’s not black and white.”
Sadie gave him a compassionate look that made him uncomfortable.
“I’m a dog guy. I don’t like cats.” Gable said that last word like he’d eaten something foul.
“’Course you don’t.” She almost snorted.
“Noah’s going to miss him more. He found him, and now I have to tell him he has to give his pet back.”
“To the boy who lost his pet. I’m sure you can sell it that way.”
Gable cocked his head in agreement.
“And you can get him another cat. Shelters are full of them.”
“Or we can get a dog. A dog is much more useful on a ranch,” Gable mused.
“Dogs don’t catch mice.”
“Neither does Skunk.”
Sadie rolled her eyes before gathering her boxes. “So what do I tell the guy?”
“Tell him we’ll be home.”
Sadie turned around to leave.
“On second thought, can you ask him to come to the store? It’s probably better if we meet on neutral grounds.”
“Yeah, imagine if he’s cute. Flynn might get jealous!” Sadie quipped.
Gable had no idea what she meant by that.
AFTER SADIE left and Gable walked back into the empty kitchen, Skunk jumped up on the table.
“Down,” Gable barked, clicking his finger at the cat. Skunk jumped down and circled his legs, almost tripping him. “Stop that,” Gable said in a much softer voice. Skunk looked up at him, and Gable realized what a beautiful cat he was. “You’re going back to where you came from, mister. Two more days, and then your little ranch vacation is over.”
Gable was just waving his finger at Skunk when he realized the door was open. When he looked up, Flynn was giving him such an amused grin, Gable knew he was never going to hear the end of this.
“So Sadie found his owner?”
“Yeah,” Gable answered. “After Saturday, we’re back to normal.”
“You’re going to miss having someone to talk to,” Flynn said. Gable couldn’t throw him a dirty look because Flynn had his back to him while he was closing the door. Damn, his man knew him too well.
GABLE HAD put off the inevitable as long as he could. On Friday night, after dinner, he knew he had to bite the bullet. “Noah, we need to talk.”
“I need to clear the table.”
Gable liked to see the uncharacteristic dedication to doing his household chores, but a nod from Flynn said Gable could proceed as they’d agreed. “Flynn will do the clearing. Sit down.” Noah fiddled with his thumbs and looked at the floor. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Noah. I need to talk to you about Skunk.”
“I’m taking care of him! I feed him twice a day, and I play with him, and he’s not keeping us awake anymore—”
“Because he’s sleeping in our room,” Gable interrupted. Flynn’s squeezing hand on his shoulder made him soften his voice. “I know you take good care of him, Noah, but his owner is coming to get him tomorrow.”
“No!” Noah’s eyes filled with tears. “You can’t give him back. He ran away from home, and now he’s mine.”
Gable put his hand on the frail boy’s knee. “I know this is hard, Noah, but it’s hard for the boy who lost his cat too. He wants him back, because he misses him.”
“It’s another boy’s cat?” Noah whispered.
Gable got up from his chair and took the printed paper Sadie had given him from among their mail. He handed it to Noah.
“This is the boy?”
Gable nodded. “And that’s Skunk, although I’m sure the boy named him something else. See, he’s got that same spot on his nose.”
Noah wiped his nose with his hand. “And he’s coming here to pick him up?”
“Would you like to come with me to hand him over? They’ll be at Sadie’s tomorrow morning.”
Noah shook his head.
“They drove all day today to get here. I think the kid would like to meet the person who took care of his cat.”
“Okay,” Noah murmured.
Gable squeezed Noah’s knee and got up.
“How far away does he live?”
“It’s a whole day’s drive. They live near the coast.”
“He can see the sea?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask him tomorrow? Now go help Flynn with the dishes.”
Gable watched Noah leave and figured he’d done an okay job. Noah wasn’t crying anymore, and tomorrow he’d be able to see that there was a kid who missed his cat more than Noah would miss Skunk after he was gone. When he looked across the table, Calley was smiling at him.
SATURDAY MORNING, Gable showered after morning chores and put on his second-best shirt. Despite the fact he didn’t give much attention to appearance, he did want to leave the right impression on the man and the little boy picking up Skunk.
When he was ready to go, the cat was nowhere to be found. “Here, kitty kitty,” he found himself purring as he looked under the bed and in the linen hamper where Skunk liked to hide. The search gave him mixed feelings. He knew it was right to give the cat back to its owners, but he was also sure he would miss the rascal. Gable stopped in the middle of the room when Flynn walked in.
“Trouble?” Flynn asked.
“I can’t find Skunk.”
“Guess he doesn’t want to leave.”
Gable threw Flynn a mock mean stare. “Don’t make it any worse than it is.”
“You’re going to miss him.” Flynn grinned.
“Fine. Will you lay off if I admit I will?”
Flynn took Gable’s face between his hands and gave him a peck. “You’re such a pushover. You know I love it when you go all soft like that.”
Over Flynn’s shoulder, Gable saw a head pop up out of their sock drawer. “Gotcha!”
Skunk bolted before Gable could push Flynn out of the way, but Flynn closed the door on him. They finally managed to get him from under the bed by coaxing him into a shoe box.
GABLE ARRIVED at Sadie’s with Noah. It was cold enough outside to leave Skunk in the car in his box, so they approached the shop alone. Gable soothed a nervous Noah by putting his hand on the kid’s shoulder and in passing realized he was growing so fast, soon enough he’d be bigger than him.
Although they were ten minutes early, Sadie’s face lit up when she saw the two of them enter.
“Gable! Noah, where’s the cat?”
“He’s outside in the car.”
“Come and meet Cray and Tommy.”
Sadie introduced them to Cray, a skinny, short blond guy and a kid who looked like a miniature version of him. Cray’s handshake was surprisingly firm for such a diminutive guy, and all of a sudden Gable understood Sadie’s quip about Flynn possibly being jealous.
“Welcome to our neck of the woods.”
Cray smiled. “It was quite a drive. Joe—” He stopped midsentence, as if he’d said something wrong. “My friend told me it was crazy to drive that far for a cat, but Tommy was inconsolable.”
“Joe is Cray’s boyfriend,” Tommy told everyone. He looked quite smug, and Gable couldn’t help but like the kid.
“Tommy, you know what we talked about,” Cray said through clenched teeth.
Gable felt sorry for Cray and tried to find a way to tell him it was okay.
“Gable has a boyfriend too,” Noah blurted out.
Well, that took care of that.
“Oh,” Cray said, a curious look on his face. “I figured cowboy, in a red state not exactly known for”—he leaned closer—“open-mindedness. I told Tommy to shut up about it.”
Gable chuckled. “Why don’t you come over to the ranch for lunch and meet everyone? Just to prove we’re not all redneck bigots.”
“We wouldn’t want to impose. You took care of the cat for us, and we’re really grateful, but we don’t want to be a nuisance.”
“No nuisance. You could probably use a decent meal before the trek back, and I think my partner would like to meet you too. Besides, he’s the cook at our house—and with the two of you there, we might actually finish everything he prepares.”
GABLE HAD lost any chance of that by announcing to Flynn he was bringing home two extra mouths, but he didn’t have a choice since Cray had refused to arrive at the ranch without warning.
When he opened the door, the extended kitchen table was packed with all sorts of cold food, and Flynn was taking a huge quiche out of the oven. It looked more like they’d organized a barn raising instead of a simple cat handover.
“Cray, right? I’m Flynn,” Flynn said as he shook Cray’s hand. “Sit down anywhere.” Flynn turned toward Noah. “Lunchtime, Noah. Go wash up.”
“I need to call Joe, tell him we’ll be late,” Cray told Gable as he unearthed his cell phone.
“No problem.”
Gable moved to Flynn and grabbed him by the hips. “You don’t mind I brought company?”
Flynn looked at him with wide eyes. “I’m just not sure the company would appreciate the public display of affection.”
Gable chuckled. “Joe is his boyfriend. And he thought we were all redneck bigots, so I just wanted to show him we aren’t.”
“Hey, I’m not complaining.” Flynn smiled. “Maybe you should have invited the other guys too.”
“That would be overkill.”
“Probably.” Flynn chuckled.
The kids flooded in, and Gable noticed that Tommy simply went with the flow.
“No cats at the table, guys,” Flynn cautioned when he saw Noah clinging to Skunk.
“Come on,” Noah protested. “He’s leaving after lunch.”
Flynn didn’t say more, but Noah obviously understood the death stare for what it was.
“Is Calley coming for lunch?” Gable asked.
“I brought her sammiches,” Vicky replied.
“Thank you, Vickster.” She beamed at Gable’s words.
“You have quite a family here,” Cray remarked, looking around the table.
“You and Joe are raising Tommy, right? That’s a family too.”
“My family doesn’t think so. They don’t think it’s right that I raise Tommy. Because of Joe.”
Flynn turned to Tommy. “Do you like Joe, Tommy?”
“He’s the coolest!” Tommy replied with his mouth full of cheese sandwich.
“Tommy doesn’t mind, and that’s what matters.”
Gable took Flynn’s hand under the table as he watched the proud look Cray gave Tommy.
SAYING GOOD-BYE to Skunk wasn’t easy, but Gable was impressed that none of the kids cried. He ruffled up Noah’s hair as Cray and Tommy drove away, and they spent the day among the horses, which made everyone feel better.
The next day Gable found the house surprisingly empty, since the only thing missing was… Skunk. Even an uninterrupted night didn’t make him feel any easier.
On Monday after the kids were at school, he made the excuse to Flynn that he had to run into town to give Sadie a play-by-play. He was surprised Flynn bought it.
FLYNN WONDERED why Gable was making excuses to run into town. Occasionally Gable disappeared for an hour or two, and Flynn had never worried. Gable had never before announced he was leaving, though.
When Gable’s truck drove up the driveway, lunchtime had already passed and Flynn had just finished the dishes. He walked outside, drying his hands.
When he saw Gable step out, he got all fuzzy warm inside his belly. On a leash Gable was leading a surprisingly calm sheepdog puppy that reminded Flynn of Bridget, the dog they’d lost some years earlier.
“Shelter?” Flynn asked as Gable got closer.
“Nope. She comes from good stock. Warner over in Rigby had puppies.”
“I hope his dog is the one who had puppies!” Flynn laughed.
Gable kissed him to shut him up.
“You didn’t have to lie to me.”
“I wanted it to be a surprise.”
Flynn heard whining, and he looked down at the dog, who didn’t look like he had anything to whine about. Gable was digging into his coat pocket, and when his hand came up, he was holding a tiny black-and-white kitten. “Warner couldn’t vouch for this thing’s stock, though. The puppy found it in the barn, and they’ve been inseparable ever since.”
Flynn rolled his eyes. “This is becoming a habit, is it?”
“What?”
“Lying to me.”
“It’s not a lie. Warner told me the story. He wasn’t going to give the kitten up, but then I thought about Noah and how diligently he looked after Skunk, and I figured at least this one looked like a skunk.”
Flynn laughed. “You’re nuts, but I love you. And so will Noah.”