Page 57 of Refurbished

ANGUS

“He loved it. It was a great idea, guys, and it’s so gorgeous.” I scratched North and South under their chins, and they leaned against me. I knew they would have to be released to be with the other raccoons at some point, but I kind of hoped Eion would let me keep them as pets. Maybe we could make them a little enclosure or something. After all, it was these two that brought us together. When I got my fill of the kits, I headed back to the trailer and started dinner.

ANGUS

A fancy meal is waiting for you at home.

EION

Finishing up with the sheep, and I’ll be there. What did you make?

I laughed. As I dumped the Hamburger Helper packet into the pan. It was within my power to give him anything he could ever want for dinner, and we were going to have a box dinner.

ANGUS

Cheeseburger macaroni.

EION

Can’t wait.

Before long, Eion came into the trailer. Without stopping, he pulled me against his chest and kissed behind my ear. “Missed you. Did you give North and South some love?”

I crumbled some hamburger over the dog’s food. They started to eat, but Barnaby kept an eye on Eion. “I did. Do you think we could make them pets?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like an enclosure where I can still love on them and pet them as adults. I don’t think I would ever want to give up spending time with them.”

He stood behind me the whole time, his hands on my hips, while I stirred the pot of food. “I don’t see why not. We need to do some research, but I know that people have them as pets or semi-pets all the time. We could make them a place to still be wild animals and keep their bond with you.”

I took our dinner off the heat and then spun around in his arms. “Yaaaaaaay!” That made me happy, but everything with Eion made me happy. It had been a long couple of days, and it was nice to sit down with our simple meal and relax a little. I was happy with how the event went and assumed Eion was too.

“I know yesterday was hard for you. It wasn’t long ago that you would only grunt or communicate in single words.”

He took a forkful of food and smiled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“My bad, I must have imagined it.” It didn’t matter anyhow because I had a much better version of him now.

After cleaning up the kitchen, we sat on the sofa and looked at the articles about the event that my mother had sent to both of us. Eion and I had become a very domestic family. Ramsey got up and stretched, then walked over to the door, breaking me out of my thoughts. Usually, I let him go out on his own, but I had an idea. “Want to go see the sign in the dark?”

“Hell yeah.” Eion wore pajama pants with flamingos on them, no prosthetic, bare chest, and his hair was still a little damp from a shower. God, he looked delicious. I wanted to rub all over him like a happy cat. When I looked at him, I could feel my heart beat erratically. I wasn’t sure if I could have some sort of heart attack from desire, but if it was possible, it would happen to me because of Eion.

Hand in hand, we went to the front of the Sanctuary. The sign was gorgeous in the dark. Orlando stood proudly on one side. Spotlights were on the words perfectly, with a rainbow of colored lights around the base. I was glad I could find a company to build something based on the picture we supplied and then expand on it, because they did an amazing job. “It really is gorgeous, isn’t it?” I said as we stood there, arms around each other’s waists.

“It’s one of the nicest gifts I’ve ever been given. Thank you for arranging it, and I will reach out to West for sure. He’s a good friend to you, and has really taken me in as part of the group.”

“I’m glad you all get along. It would suck if you didn’t. Do you still want to have dinner with my mother tomorrow? She wants to discuss numbers.”

“Sure. And dinner with The Dapper Duck gang on Sunday?” He looked at me and smiled.

“Yeah. Is it weird to you that we are— Normal? Settled? Domestic?”

“Even though you didn’t say it well.” He bumped my hip. “Short answer is no. I didn’t think I wanted a relationship. I certainly didn’t believe in having a person, and I never saw myself wrapped up in someone that made my life better, but you have changed all those things.” I wrapped him up in my arms and hugged him as tightly as I could. “I love you.”

We both froze when we heard, “Come on, that was fucking hooking, get your head out of your ass, ref.”

“You heard that right?” I looked over at him.