Page 9 of Tainted Wings of Failure

"That was…" Noah trails off, clearly thinking about the words he is about to say out loud. "Not the proudest moment in my career, but I have no regrets, because although the way we met was rather unconventional, I found my match this way." My heart swells with affection for him. It's not the worst thing he could have said; it could have been a little sweeter, but Noah just isn't the type for a lot of endearing words.

"See, this is how you found your true love! And maybe she could have been mine!" Kyle argues.

"She's twenty-two, Kyle, you're thirty-five!" Noah groans, deep lines forming on his forehead as he rubs his eyes through his lids.

"Yes, and? You're thirty-five too and Evelyn is twenty-seven, so you two have an age gap too!"

"This is different."

"It's not. Time is ticking and I have to take every chance to find the love of my life. And I mean, the younger she is, the longer she can carry my children," he says with a broad shit-eating grin on his face.

I scrunch my nose in disgust at Kyle's comment and turn to Noah, who has his face buried in the palm of his hand, his shoulders hunched.

"Babe, have a drink," I say, and he lifts his head to look at me before grabbing his glass of whiskey and downing it in one big gulp.

"I never want to hear those words out of your mouth again." Noah turns back to Kyle and shoots him a threatening glare.

Who chuckles in response and slides his empty glass over to him for a refill. "I'm just kidding, I don't even want a girlfriend, let alone kids."

Noah refills their glasses and slides Kyle's back to him. "Good, because if you ever go after a girl that young again, I'm going to castrate you."

"Yeah, no thanks. I've seen you do it to others and that shit looked painful."

The two then fall into a friendly conversation about everyday subjects, including Noah's search for a new hobby, but also Kyle's own life and, in part, his work.

When I consider the stew ready, I turn to the two men and interrupt their conversation. "Kyle, would you like to join us for dinner?"

"Would love to! What are you having? It smells really good."

"Venison stew. Noah shot a deer a few days ago." I smile and look at Noah, who has already gotten up from his chair to fetch the bowls and cutlery for dinner.

"Look at you. Being a real man, showing off your hunting skills to woo your girl." Kyle turns his attention to Noah, who puts down everything but the coaster for the pot and doesn’t hesitate to smack Kyle in the back of the head with it.

After dinner, Noah excused himself to go over his routine with the doves and get them ready for the night. Meanwhile, Kyle helps me clean up and rinses the dishes before loading them into the dishwasher. While I'm busy putting the leftovers in containers to freeze for later, I keep stealing glances at him. I can't shake the nagging gut feeling that something is wrong with his little surprise visit. While he's generally a fidgety person, he's acting more erratic than usual—unable to sit still and constantly fiddling with his fingers or phone, as if he's nervous.

"Kyle, why are you here?" I break the silence and turn around, leaning against the kitchen counter. He turns to face me and dries his hands on a dish towel.

"I'm here to see Noah and have a little chat, that is all," he says.

I narrow my eyes and glare at him. "Then tell me, why don't I believe that this is the truth?" I cross my arms in front of my chest.

"Because you're being paranoid. I'm not here to take him away from you." He chuckles and walks over to me, placing his hands on my shoulders. "I'm here to talk to him, then I'll leave and you'll have him all to yourself again, okay?"

I groan in annoyance as he lifts his hand and begins to ruffle my hair. Raising my hand, I flick his away from me. "You better not drag him into anything."

Kyle shrugs, dismissing my concerns. "Don't stress yourself too much and stop making things up where there's nothing to worry about." The door to the back porch opens, interrupting our conversation, and Noah walks in. Kyle then takes a step back from me and turns to face him.

"Your birds are okay?" he asks, walking out of the kitchen and over to Noah, who nods.

"Yeah, they're fine," he says and then turns to look at me.

With a handful of steps, he crosses the living room and joins me in the open kitchen, stopping in front of me and leaning down to plant a kiss on my forehead. "Don't wait for me. I'll join you in bed as soon as we're done."

I glare up at him, grab him by the collar of his shirt and pull him down for a proper kiss. "You better make sure it doesn't take too long," I whisper against his lips before letting him go.

"I'll do my best," he says, then pulls away from me and leads Kyle upstairs to his office.

I let out a heavy exhale and turn to grab the bottle of wine on the kitchen counter and an empty glass from the cupboards. I would love to be a fly on the wall right now and eavesdrop on what they are talking about. But it would just upset Noah, and with how cranky he's been acting lately, I don't want to add to his stress. If it's something serious, I'm sure he'll tell me. Well, I hope he will.

---