Page 108 of As The Shifter World Turns

Toby and I followed Martin and Daire as they carried the last of the boxes from the landing, while Neil and Ivor were in the new house making our bed so we had somewhere to sleep tonight even though we’d be surrounded by chaos.

And they’d helped me unpack a lot of kitchen stuff yesterday so we could eat and make tea and coffee. The new fridge was installed—along with a washing machine—and we’d arranged for a food delivery this morning.

And when the moving was done and all our stuff was in the new house, Micah waved goodbye to our friends and thanked them, reminding them to come back for dinner.

“Don’t worry, we won’t forget,” Daire said as he wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. “You owe us.”

We’d arranged for someone to clean our former apartment but Daire wanted to make repairs and having it empty was the perfect time. Knowing ourgrizzly friend, he’d forget or try to do it himself. But he’d come up with a scheme to earn more money by making wacky gardening videos, and he’d gained masses of followers. He had companies paying him to advertise their stuff, so he could allow apartment 3B to stay empty for a while.

“If you set up Elune’s crib, I’ll unpack what I need of her things for today and we can put off the rest of the unpacking until after lunch.”

“I like the sound of that.”

And later that night, when our friends arrived, we climbed to our bare roof which right now, wasn’t nearly as inviting as the one at Sunshine Manor. But Micah had carried up an old piece of carpet we’d had at the manor and put that, along with some rugs Patch had chewed, on the concrete. With cushions and some solar lighting, it’d do for now. And we’d brought the dog’s portable playpen upstairs as with us eating on the floor, there was no way he wouldn’t snatch some of our food.

Micah clamored up the stairs with the food delivery helped by Martin and Toby. “We’ve got Thai.” He glanced at Neil who clapped. “Pizza, tacos, chicken and fries.”

“Please tell me you have some greens in here,” Neil said as he poked his head in the bags.

“Yeah, Archer insisted I order salads.”

“A house-warming present,” Daire said as he placed a potted jasmine on the roof.

“Thank you.” Micah would have to look after it as I was a plant killer.

“Poor Patch looks so lonely,” Toby said as he took a slice of pizza.

“Once you’ve finished eating, you can get in the playpen with him.” I handed him a doggy snack. “But this might cheer him up.”

I hardly saw my daughter the entire night. She was entertained by one Sunshine Manor uncle before another one demanded to hold her.

Martin and Neil sat cross-legged at one end of the mat, their heads close together. I hoped they would last. With a young son, Martin didn’t strike me as someone who was looking for a short-term relationship.

“I don’t know. Man, there must be something wrong with me.” My head snapped to the side as Daire chugged a mouthful of beer. “I really liked Wesley, but we weren’t in love.”

Neil grimaced at the mention of Wesley even though it’d been months since Daire kicked him out.

The grizzly shifter continued. “He was good at f…”

“Daire,” Martin shouted and jerked his head toward Toby who by now was in the doggy play pen with Patch.

“Shoot, sorry. Anyway he was good at that if you get my meaning.”

“Shame he was a thief,” Ryder noted as he shot Ivor a glance.

Daire had reported his suspicions to the police about Wesley being the one who’d stolen his identity and they’d finally gottenenough evidence to charge him.

“And then there was a guy at college.”

“Who?” Neil’s head shot up.

Daire shrugged. “You never met him.” I suspected the poor guy was worried Neil would disapprove. “I kept it on the down low. Someone from college. And again, we hadn't progressed far enough for me to want to mate with him, but I thought he could have been the one, you know.”

Neil leaned over and took his friend’s hand. “What happened?”

“He found someone else and they mated the night they met!”

“I’m sorry.” Neil slung an arm around Daire. “You can always cry on my shoulder.” With Martin in Neil’s life, Daire and Neil didn’t see as much of one another as they used to, even though they lived in the same building. “Come for dinner tomorrow night. Just the two of us.”

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