Page 23 of One Wild Omega

As his phone rang, Tanner jumped off the stool before the painting and wiped his hands off with a rag. Capturing it before the caller hung up, he quickly answered. “Hey, Raimy.”

“Hey. We still on for dinner tonight?”

Tanner winced. He’d totally forgotten their plans. “Umm… yeah.”

“You forgot, didn’t you?”

Tanner winced again. “Noooo. Absolutely not.”

“Liar,” Raimy muttered. “You arenotsqueaking out of this one. I’m feeling unloved and unwanted recently.”

“You areneverunloved and unwanted. You know that.”

“Here lately, you’ve made me wonder.”

Tanner had been busy. He’d signed up to do a special showing at a new gallery and he wasnowherenear ready for it. Tanner glanced at the painting he’d just finished. That was the reason he wasn’t ready. His muse was ignoring what he needed to do, instead focusing on Richard. “Dinner tonight. I promise.”

“Good.” Raimy said. “You sound tired. You getting enough rest?”

“Yes, Dad,” Tanner dropped into the oversized chair he kept in the studio.

“Don’t give me shit. If I don’t watch out for you, who will? Not those workaholic brothers who work as hard as you do.”

“Quinn and Beau do not consider what I do as working.”

“Screw them both,” Raimy said. “Creating is working, too. No matter how much they want to disavow it.”

Raimy and he had met in art school and became fast friends on the very first day. It felt like they’d known one another all their lives from that first moment. Old souls who had reconnected in a new life. While Tanner was a fine artist, Raimy worked in graphic design, and of course, they were twoverydifferent fields—both of them had had to start with their core educational credits along with courses like the Fundamentals of Design and Drawing I. Somehow, they’d ended up with almost an identical schedule their first semester. Fate had worked overtime to thrust them together and fortunately, they were alike enough to be drawn closer and different enough not to drive the other insane.

Most of the time.

Once graduated, life seemed hellbent on taking them down two different paths. As busy as he’d been, Tanner hadn’t been good about holding onto their link. “I love you, Raimy.”

Raimy chuckled on the other end of the line. “Prove it.”

Tanner smiled into the phone. “I will. Tonight. I will be on time. As paintless as possible. And I’ll buy you dinner… since I’ve been a terrible friend of late.”

“Deal. But one question.”

Tanner lifted a brow. “Yeah?”

“On time? Really? Is that even possible for you?”

Tanner laughed out loud. “I don’t always pay attention to clocks when the muse is fired up. I can’t be blamed for that!”

“I’m picking you up. I’ll be at your apartment by seven thirty. And you best be there. Donotmake me come downtown to that studio and drag you out. Because I will even though I hate going downtown.”

“One of these days I’ll get around to renovating the downstairs so I can move in and I’ll always be here. So you better start loving coming down here,” Tanner said. That had always been the plan. Renovate the lower level of his building to be a studio and gallery and then turn the upstairs into an apartment so he would always be home. In the meantime, he’d started using the upper level as his studio and found the light was justperfectand he hated the thought of not painting there.

And since the lower levels were zoned business, he couldn’t live down there. He’d just kept his apartment in Uptown until he made up his mind.

“You’ve been saying that for nearly three years now. I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“Maybe I’ll just scoop up another building on this street. I’ll become the Baron of Barrington Row,” Tanner said.

“A baron, hmm?” Tanner could nearly hear Raimy rolling his eyes through the phone. “Do barons show up on time?”

“I don’t know,” Tanner said. “As royalty, I’d be above something as common astime. And get real. Things don’t really start happening until I’m in the room, anyway.”

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