Page 10 of Passion and Payback

“Are you being rude?” I asked Clem, who slow blinked in response, and I took that as a yes.

“Not rude, just antisocial,” Hunter said with a chuckle. “Only lets me pick him up, and then not for very long. Then you show up, and he’s pleased as punch just to be snuggled again.”

“I guess he remembers me.”

“Gee, I wonder why an animal might remember the guy who saved him from starving or freezing, then spent days caring forhim day and night. How much did you spend on medicine and special food again?”

“I…don’t know.”

“Liar. It was more than three digits, I remember that.”

“Well?”

Hunter smiled, sitting on the corner of the desk, staring at the two of us. “So yeah, that’s the other reason I couldn’t bring myself to let anyone adopt him. And now that I’m looking at the two of you, I’m glad I did.”

“You were supposed to be a good boy, so someone would want to scoop you up and take you home,” I told Clem, who by now had closed his eyes and continued to purr loudly in my arms.

“Cats are funny. Kind of like people. Sometimes they love anyone kind to them, and others find that one person they latch onto and never want to let go,” he said with a strange expression.

“Thinking about specific people right now?” I asked softly because I could see the pain coming back into his face. He and Lucas had been incredibly close, and before…well, before his death, Lucas had been talking about getting married. Even though it had pained me to see how happy they were together, I had never wanted anything but for Hunter to be happy with someone who could be there for him and treat him right.

That had never been in question with Lucas, and he was the only guy Hunter had dated that I hadn’t disliked even though my jealousy wanted me to. But my jealousy had to suck it up and be quiet. It was my choice to keep silent about my feelings. Our lives growing up had been too chaotic, and my own heart too messy to risk trying to be with Hunter. Then, once I’d enlisted, it was obvious my life wouldn’t be compatible with Hunter’s, and it was better to let him find his own way. That was still true, though I couldn’t imagine he would ever want to date again.

“No,” he said after a moment. Then, he looked up and saw the disbelief on my face. He gave me a sad, small smile. “Stop.”

“Should I stop?”

“I…for now, okay? I just want to be happy you’re here, and I’m seeing you.”

“Alright,” I said reluctantly. “I just know you haven’t really…talked about it.”

He looked at the ground. “There’s still a lot in my head about it. But it’s been two years, and I’ve been seeing a therapist. I’ve been working out, taking self-defense classes, and trying to keep my life together. It used to be impossible to keep smiling or find anything worth smiling about, and even nowadays, I still have to fight like hell to feel halfway decent. But today? Today, I’m genuinely happy without having to fight myself to stay that way, so let’s stick to that for a while, alright? I know it’ll pass eventually, but I want to ride this high.”

It was a more than reasonable request, and I could only nod. “Okay, I don’t want to ruin anything for you. Speaking of?—”

Hunter groaned. “Please tell me you aren’t about to say you don’t want to impose on or bother me by staying with me.”

“Well, I don’t,” I said with a shrug.

Hunter shook his head. “As ridiculous as always. Trust me, it’ll be nice to have company. Some days, I regret sticking so hard to living alone. Then I think about having someone move in and realize I can suffer through the loneliness. But having you around, seeing you all the time? That’ll be…just about perfect.”

“Okay,” I said with a smile. You never did say where you’re staying nowadays since I know you moved.”

“Yeah,” he said with a sigh. “Wasn’t easy staying in the old apartment. It was too full of…you know?”

Of memories, I suspected, and nodded. “So?”

“Oh!” he said with a chuckle, pointing above our heads. “I decided to rent the whole building. So nowadays, I’m staying upstairs.”

“I…wasn’t the second-floor office space?”

“Was. But I had it converted into a living space. Had to be careful, though, couldn’t make too many changes. The owners didn’t want me to make it too hard to change back if I ever left. But hell, you’d never know it used to be an office.”

“You live above your workplace.”

He laughed. “Seriously? Even with…everything, I still love this place. And it was rough at first staying here all the time, at least financially, but then it picked up once we started getting better business.”

“Oh? I remember you saying business had gotten better, but we didn’t have time to go over how.”

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