Page 68 of Refurbished

The now familiar stinging behind my eyes started again. “Yeah.” My voice broke, and I rubbed my eyes.

“Do you want to come over? We can drink until sunrise, and Tyler can then call us names and put us to bed when he gets up.”

Very quietly, I heard him say, “Good night, Baby. I’ll text you letting you know what we plan.” I could tell he had left the room, and then I heard him close a door.

“I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have called.”

“No. No. You took many midnight calls from me when I met the sweetest man on earth.” He sighed.

“Fuck. I thought I was on my way to having what you have.”

“You’ll get it. We will figure out what happened, then you will grovel your way back into his heart.” I smiled at the idea.

I knocked on the door quietly. “What the fuck? Someone is knocking on my—“ He laughed. “Oh.” He opened the door, then pulled me in and hugged me hard. Even after my mom hugged the crap out of me, this was nice because someone who loved me by choice gave me comfort. We walked toward his kitchen.

“You want to drink?”

“I think I am too old for that. I’m more in the ice cream and cookies phase of being sad about a boy.”

He laughed, which made me smile. “You’re lucky Allison wants to learn how to make cookies, and East indulges that child. We have tons of cookies.”

West arrived with a tray holding cookies, ice cream, and milk. It made me feel pretty old, but it looked way better than whiskey. “This is perfect. I really am sorry about being here, and right after I eat this, I’ll let you get back to your husband.”

“It really is fine, Angus. I’ll make it up to him and enjoy every minute of it.”

I fake gagged. Even as I did so, it made me realize how much I wanted exactly what he had. “Man, I want that,” I said, very quietly, but West didn’t miss it.

“I know.”

We ate our treats, which made me feel sleepy. But, oddly, I felt better after talking to West. We discussed everything we could remember from dinner. And couldn’t figure out what he had heard. Then we started wondering if someone had contacted him or said something through social media. I said I would do a scour in the morning. Instead of going home, he sent me to the spare room. I’ll convince Tyler to make us breakfast. I didn’t want to know how, but I headed up to sleep off my midnight sweets binge. It was the first night I had slept well since I was with Eion last. The smell of bacon was what got me up. I could hear voices in the kitchen, and before I entered the room, Allison was wrapped around my legs. “Uncle Amgus. You’re here.”

Laughing because, for some reason, she was convinced my name was Amgus, even though we had told her many times it was an N, not an M. I suspected it was now her nickname for me, and I was okay with that. I couldn’t wait until she was a teenager, still calling me Amgus. I chuckled as I picked her up. “Yes, I am here. I came because your Uncle West is my very bestest, bestest friend.” With Allison on my hip, I found East, West, and Tyler in the kitchen. The twin brothers seemed to be mostly getting in the way while Tyler attempted to cook.

“There he is,” West said, smiling at me. “How did you sleep?”

“Good. The first time in days I actually slept.” He gave me a closed-mouth smile.

“You can stay until Friday if you want people around. I mean—“

“Stay with us, Angus. You need people.” Tyler cut off his husband. He looked worried, and I couldn’t believe they all cared so much about me.

“Yeah. I can do that. I hate to admit it, but accepting I don’t have to do this all alone is hard.”

“You have all of us,” West said. “Hungry?”

Kissing her cheek, I set Allison down, and with a giggle, she ran off. “She sure brings sunshine to everything, doesn’t she?”

East smiled, a goofy look on his face. “She is so much like her mom was. I am lucky to have her. You’re right, she is a bundle of brightness.” When you watched East talk about the two of them, you could see how much he missed his wife and how much he loved his daughter. I hoped one day he would have someone who would cherish them both.

“Let’s eat,” Tyler said, as he herded us toward the table, a plate of waffles in his hand.

I was surprised when I looked at the clock, and it was almost 11:00 a.m. I had slept much later than expected, though West and I had gone to bed around three. With a full stomach surrounded by friends, I missed Eion fiercely, but I also missed the animals—especially North and South. I felt melancholy. “I’m really glad things worked out for you and West,” I told Tyler as we sat in the living room.

“Everything will work out for you, too. Even though we can’t figure out what he heard, we know it wasn’t intentional. We all really like him.”

Having my friends like the man I loved was important to me, and knowing they did was a relief. Now I had to get through the next two and a half days. As always, I was scheduled to work throughout the week and weekend, but I covered my shift on Friday. No matter what happened, I knew I wouldn’t want to be at the front door of the bar. I hoped I would end up spending time with Eion at the Sanctuary.

Later that afternoon, West and I went to get some clothes for me at the cottage. When I put on my corset for work, my heart got heavy. The simple task of helping me dress had become something intimate between Eion and me. I missed it, the little touches and the soft kisses. We had created things that were just ours, and helping me get dressed for work was one of them. Eion didn’t know, but my shifts at the bar had already been changed. Since Zach covered Friday nights, I knew I would wear the corsets for Eion and take him out to dinner instead. Nothing made me feel more sexy than when Eion undressed me while wearing one of the binders.