Page 10 of Leave

The cats, however, had thrived under Nolan’s care, and if not for Arrow’s slightly ragged ear, there was no sign that they’d ever experienced a moment’s hardship. Their fur was shiny. They were exactly the correct weight (though ShiShi might’ve beenslightlyoverweight). They had mountains of toys, several perches, and some expensive ass cat food that he paid a fortune to have shipped over from the U.S. He was religious about taking them to the vet for their shots and exams. People with prized purebred show cats probably didn’t take as good care of them as Nolan did his trio of former ferals.

In fact, I’d been surprised he was willing to let one of his buddies catsit them. A few weeks ago, I’d asked him who was going to take care of them while we were in the States.

Nolan hadn’t missed a beat.“Anderson from work. He’s always game to stay here when I’m out of town so he can get out of the barracks.”He’d turned to me.“You cool with that?”

I’d shrugged.“Of course. Yeah. I…”I still wasn’t sure how to say that I’d expectedhimto not be cool with it. Nolan was incredibly protective of his cats and his apartment. But if he trusted his buddy to stay here, then who was I to question it?

It was just odd to me that he’d insisted on someone—specifically a cop—staying here with the woman we’d been protecting, but he was completely blasé about letting a buddy crash here and watch his cats while we were gone. I’d asked a few times if he was sure, and he insisted he was, so… okay, then.

Now that I thought about it, when I’d moved in with him, I’d expected him to be the roommate from hell. Though he’d been chill and relaxed—so much so that the woman we’d been hiding was surprisingly at ease around him—I’d anticipated him having long lists of rules for a roommate, demanding I never have houseguests, and probably wanting a to-the-minute schedule for using the shitter.

But… he hadn’t. There were a million rules pertaining to sex and privacy, which all made a lot more sense now. Otherwise, he was laidback and chill as could be.

At the other end of the hall, the shower shut off, and I glanced in that direction as if I could see him. There was more to the story, wasn’t there? Since we’d made this plan in November, he hadn’t said another word about his past, so I was no closer to understanding exactly what had happened. What was I going to do? Interrogate him?

Fuck that. He’d tell me when he was ready, and I’d take him at his word that he was fine with his friend caring for the cats. If he’d wanted me to know what happened, he would’ve said something over the past several months. I’d danced around the subject a little early on, but he’d made it pretty clear hedidn’t want to discuss it, so I’d let it drop. Hell, a few times, I’d almost forgotten about our trip and our agreement to pose as boyfriends because we went so long without talking about it. Then he’d casually mention leave chits, flights, hotels, or rental cars, and oh, right, we were doing that, weren’t we?

None of that painted a picture of someone who wanted to discuss or even think about the past we’d be walking into in his hometown.

To be fair, I hadn’t exactly been an open book about my family situation. I’d given him the rundown of why I was in ultimatum mode with them, but I hadn’t gone into a ton of detail and he hadn’t asked. Now I felt guilty and stupid for letting all these sleeping dogs lie for this long. I’d hadmonthsto get a bead on him. I’d wanted to respect his boundaries and give him space, but at the same time, I wanted to know what I was about to walk into.

But now Nolan was coming down the hall with his luggage.

Now we were saying goodbye to the cats.

Now we were heading down to the car.

And now there was no turning back.

Chapter 6

Nolan

The flight from Naha to Tokyo was only about two and a half hours. Not bad. Then we had to walk a few million miles through Narita International, which was freaking huge, before we got to our next gate. Since we both preferred to have ridiculously long layovers instead of sprinting between flights, we still had two hours before we even boarded. We found a small ramen place and settled in for a light lunch; might as well enjoy some good Japanese food before we were stateside for a couple of weeks.

While we’d waited for our flight out of Naha, Riley had been agitated and fidgety. He’d insisted he wasn’t a nervous flyer—hell, he’d voluntarily gone skydiving one time—so I’d chalked it up to worrying about making our connection. With as huge as Narita was, and since we were going from a domestic to an international flight, maybe he was worried that if our flight was late, even our long layover wouldn’t be enough.

Our flight had ended up being a little early, and we’d made it here with plenty of time.

He was still wound up, though, his eyes distant as he picked at his ramen.

“Hey,” I said. “You good?”

He glanced at me, then dropped his gaze to his food and shifted in his seat. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m…” He dragged the ceramic spoon through the ramen, then sighed and put it down. Sitting back, he said, “I’m having some second thoughts.”

I froze. “Second—like about this trip?” Oh, fuck. I was going to the wedding and all the family stuff alone after all, wasn’t I? I’d kept myself calm about it for all these months because I knew Riley would be there with me, but now he was—

“About going to California.” He nudged the bowl away. “About this whole plan of trying to get my parents to see…” He shook his head. “I don’t know. It was stupid from the start.”

“Oh.”

Riley met my gaze, and understanding seemed to dawn. “I’m still in to go to Seattle.” He waved a hand. “Don’t worry about that.”

Well, that was a relief.

“But your family—you don’t want to go?”

“Not really. I need to. I can’t just avoid it forever.” He swallowed hard. “The thing is, if this doesn’t work, then I really don’t have any other ideas. This is my Hail Mary. Because if they can’t get it through their heads after I’ve brought a boyfriend home, then…” He shrugged. “What else can I do?”

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