Page 5 of Room 1003

His lips twitched. “Nice to meet you, Ben. What a coincidence to run into you tonight. My name’s Zack Smith, and this is my son Shane and my grandson Kit,” he said, offering introductions. “We just bought a house, and I’m afraid we might be in over our heads. Wemayhave started a little fire.” He held his fingers up, just a fraction of space between them.

Shane shook his head. “But probably not. I mean, it might’ve been a tiny fire. Like, a baby fire, but it put itself out. Hardly worth mentioning.”

Kit cranked around in his arms and piped in, “You shoulda seen all the smoke!” He wasn’t at all afraid of the potential fire, more excited than anything.

“Well, then I really hope you guys give me a call. I’m even available first thing tomorrow morning if you need me out there to make sure everything is safe.”

The two men exchanged a look, a whole conversation I couldn’t decipher passing between them. I had to admit, I was a little jealous of that kind of wordless communication with someone. It was a far closer relationship than I’d ever had with anyone.

“No pressure,” I told them quickly. “It’s late, and your son is probably exhausted.”

“No, I’m not!” he said, wiggling to get out of his dad’s arms. “We’re on an adventure. I could stay awake fordays!Not Gramps, though. He falls asleep on the couch every night after we eat supper. He snores so loud.”

Shane blinked, long and slow, sighing. He was on his last legs.

I cleared my throat and decided I needed to extricate myself from this conversation right now, before I found myself offering to carry Kit upstairs for them. “Call me. Or don’t,” I said, backing away. Shane’s eyes didn’t leave mine. “Either way, I hope your problem gets resolved.”

“Thank you,” Shane said, his voice barely louder than a whisper, but I heard him all the same.

I thought about him while walking all the way to where I parked my truck down the block. His eyes haunted me the entire drive home, and as I unlocked my front door and stepped into the foyer of my small one-bedroom bachelor’s bungalow, I found myself wondering what his real scent was, when it wasn’t masked by smoke.

I kicked off my shoes at the door and turned the living room light on. Dmitri blinked his yellow-green eyes open, gave a muffled mew and a stretch, then buried back down into his blankets.

“Come on, buddy. I need a cuddle tonight.” I scooped him up off the couch, and he muttered a little half-hearted complaint, but when he found my arms a warm spot to be, he settled back down against my chest.

He was a stray that showed up in the neighborhood one day, and while I’d always had every intention of bringing him to the shelter, I guess I never found the time. He wormed his way into my heart, and at this point, it was safe to say he was here to stay.

I plopped Dmitri on the bed, then kicked off my clothes and crawled under the covers. My cat nuzzled closer, kneading my arm until he was satisfied, then he tucked his paws under and began to purr. It was a small bit of comfort to have him here. It wasn’t nearly the same thing as having an omega to call my own, but for now, it was enough.

“You’re my family, aren’t you, buddy?” I asked, giving him a scratch behind the ears.

He gave a little rumbly meow in reply, which I decided meant, “Of course I am, Ben. I love you more than anything. More than a clean litterbox, more than taking a nap in the patch of sun on the floor, even more than wet food. Almost as much as catnip. You’re a close second.”

“Thanks, Dmitri. That’s sweet of you to say.” Then I closed my eyes and fell sleep, dreaming of amber eyes and untamable hair.

3

Shane

BythetimeIfinally fell asleep, it was pretty much time to wake up. It didn’t seem to matter that Kit hadn’t had a full night’s sleep; he was always up at dawn, like he had a little built-in alarm clock. And that meant I was up too.

For now, Kit was content watching an episode of The Beetlebops on my phone. The volume was turned all the way down, and I could still hear the tinkle of their annoying voices from here.

I was sitting at the small table in front of the oversized window, gazing down at the street ten floors below. The sun hadn’t risen above the tops of the buildings yet, the sky a burnished bronze color, but already the morning commuters had begun to fill the street. I was cupping my mug of coffee between my palms, willing myself to perk up. The room came with one of those single-cup coffee makers, with the pods. I’d always thought they were a bit wasteful, but right at this moment, I was considering changing my opinion. This was damn good coffee.

Dad dropped down in the chair across from me, sighing. He looked better than I probably did. I hadn’t dared to look in a mirror yet, but I was sure it wouldn’t be pretty. “What’s the plan?” he asked.

“Plan? Who said anything about a plan?” I was only half joking.

He chuckled, then dropped something on the table between us. My eyes went to the small square of cardstock. The electrician’s business card. “You think we should call him,” I said. It wasn’t a question.

“Of course we should call him. It was fate that we ran into him last night, right when we needed him.”

I scoffed. “Fate? Please. It was a coincidence, nothing more.”

He grumbled a sound in the back of his throat. “Coincidence or something more, either way, I think we can both agree that we’re in over our heads here. We might be able to handle some simple DIY repairs, but this kind of electrical problem is more than we can handle. There aren’t enough how-to videos in the world for the kind of help we need. We need a professional.” He reached down and planted his finger on the card, sliding it closer to me. “Oh look, a professional,” he said, heavy on the sarcasm.

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose against the impending headache. In the background, I could hear the Beetlebops’ final singalong. We only had a couple minutes of quiet left. “You’re right, okay? But I already dropped all my savings into the downpayment on the mortgage, and my next paycheck won’t cover a massive cost right now.”

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