Page 10 of Tameron

“We’ll see. Anyway, can you hold him while I finish changing your tire?” He held out the kitten, and I took it without hesitation. The little thing yawned, then closed his eyes and promptly fell asleep.

Dayton smiled at me as we made our way back to my car, Dayton carrying the rope ladder. “He likes you. Maybe you should take him home.”

“I can’t. Nash has made it clear we can’t have any pets.”

“Did he now? Maybe I could persuade him.” Dayton winked at me, then knelt next to my car again, putting the ladder on the ground for now.

Persuade him? What did that mean? It sounded like he was insinuating something, implying he had an influence on Nash that I didn’t. Oh, wait. “Are you and Nash…together?”

Dayton snorted. “Queer men can be friends without fucking each other, you know.”

“I’m aware, but the way you said you could persuade him made me think that… Never mind.”

Dayton was quiet for a while as he kept working. “I wish you’d believe me when I say I want to be friends with you, Tameron. You seem to be determined to always assume the worst of me.”

My cheeks grew fiery hot. “I don’t hate you.”

“I didn’t say you did.”

“You implied it.”

“No, Tameron, I didn’t.” I had to give him credit for consistently looking up at me when he spoke, even if it meant halting his work for a moment. “But it’s a perfect example of what I mean. Why do you always think I’m criticizing you?”

Because he was? But that argument wouldn’t go over well. I cradled the kitten a little closer, grateful I had something to hold on to. “Why would you want to be friends with me?”

I mean, I could’ve asked why he wanted to befriend a guy who clearly disliked him, but that seemed a little too rude, even for me. Besides, I already knew the answer. Pity. He felt sorry for me. The man had some kind of hero-complex, being a firefighter and all, and he saw me as a charity case.

Again, he took his time answering, putting on the spare first and securing all the bolts. Then he finally looked up at me. “Because color me crazy, but you look like you could use a friend…and if there’s one thing I know how to do well, it’s being a friend. In fact, I kinda specialize in it. So maybe you can give it a chance? Give me a chance?”

I had absolutely no comeback to that.

CHAPTER FOUR

DAYTON

There were few worse sounds in the world than a pissed-off kitten. Except maybe a pissed-off tomcat, but I’d only had the misfortune of running into those a couple of times during my career. As a rookie, I’d worked in a small suburb, so the fire-to-cat-in-tree ratio favored stuck felines, which was nice, but it hadn’t prepared me for what it would be like when I was transferred to the city.

This was a nice change, if I were being honest. Not that I enjoyed being stuck in a vet’s office, but the doctor was one of my brother’s best friends, and I’d known him since he was knee-high and smart-mouthed.

“You were right,” Teo said aloud, setting the hissing, spitting, angry kitten back in front of the squeezy treat packet. She began to make hangry noises as she lapped at the goop oozing from where Teo had cut it open. “She’s about ten to twelve weeks, a little malnourished, but she’s not in any real danger.”

I smiled with relief. I couldn’t help but get invested in the lives of everyone I rescued, furry or not. ‘Great,’ I signed.

Teo smiled as he swept his fingers back through his hair. I could see the gently pulsing lights of his cochlear implant processors nestled in his black curls. They were sleeker than theones he’d worn the first time Dax dragged him through our front door, and the confident look on his face was also completely different from the shit-scared kid he’d been, clinging to my brother’s hand.

Teo came from a hearing family who had gotten him implanted as a baby, but after he failed to keep up in mainstream school, they’d let him attend the Deaf residential school my siblings attended. He’d been given a lot of shit there—a few generationally Deaf kids making him feel like an outsider because he wore CIs.

He’d assumed our family would be the same, but my parents quickly proved to him that people like those kids were the exception, not the rule in the Deaf community, and he’d been a fixture in the game room next to Dax until the day I moved out for college.

‘You okay?’ Teo asked.

I waved him off. ‘Fine. It’s been a long day.’

‘I thought transferring back here was supposed to help your stress.’

I couldn’t help a small laugh. ‘I’m not talking about work.’

No, I was talking about Tameron, as much as I didn’t want to be talking about him. It was obvious he didn’t like me, and I could not figure out why or what I’d done.

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