Page 69 of Refurbished

Somehow I got through the next few days, faking my way through my shifts. On Friday morning, I went downstairs around nine. My friends didn’t need to know that I’d been awake since three in the morning, pacing my room. All my friends, including Spark, were standing in the kitchen when I finally went downstairs. Coffee was shoved in my hand, and someone guided me to one of the dining room chairs. Tyler put a huge bouquet of flowers in front of me. “Take these. He’ll love them.”

They were beautiful, not as gorgeous as Eion, but they would make him smile, and I ached to see it. I hoped I could get him to laugh, because that was my absolute favorite thing. Thinking about it made me tingle everywhere. West’s voice brought me back to what was being said. “If he lets you take him to dinner, we’ve made reservations at the nice Italian place downtown—it was voted the best in the state. He mentioned he’d like to try it, and we made sure that Zachary would care for the animals tonight.”

Spark whispered in my ear. “There is also a room at the hotel next door for two nights, just in case.”

West was back. “Wear this outfit. We decided it’s our favorite combination.” He had my dark burgundy button-down, with a black corset, but it had very fine gold filigree sewn into it, which popped against the dark shirt. There were crisp black boot-cut jeans, and he set my black Lucchese boots on the ground.

Tyler walked up bashfully, clearly with something behind his back. “After some research, this scent should draw him to you.” He handed me a toiletry kit with the Tom Ford logo on it. “This has a leathery-cherry scent. I got everything: shampoo, body wash, deodorant, and cologne. You should smell tasty.”

They all stood there looking at me, then I pulled each of them into a hug. They knew I would be so nervous I wouldn’t have my shit together enough to smell good, dress up, and take flowers. It was obvious they wanted this for me as much as I did. “Thank you all very much.” It was nearly ten, so I headed up to get ready for the most important conversation of my life.

When I stepped out of my car in front of the Sanctuary, dressed to the nines and carrying flowers, I felt terrified, but I had done everything I could externally to bring him back to me. I turned my head to see a bulldozer and an excavator being unloaded from a semi-trailer across from the Sanctuary buildings. They were about to clear the land across the street. I bet Eion will have a lot to say about that. After I closed the gate, I turned around, and there he stood. He looked gorgeous in a cable-knit sweater, ripped jeans, and work boots. Nobody would look at him and say he had dressed up, but I knew better. It felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest, so I closed the few feet that were between us. “Hi. You look gorgeous.” I handed him the flowers, and he smiled at me. It felt like I had won the lottery, and maybe there was hope to fix this.

“Thank you. Let’s go see Orlando. I think he missed you.” He ducked into the medical suite and left the flowers inside. I knew that having Orlando nearby wouldn’t hurt my chances of getting Eion back.

Chapter thirty-three

EION

When Angus stepped out of the car, I could barely catch my breath. He was always beautiful, but in the days I hadn’t seen him, somehow he’d gotten even more handsome. My soul missed him deep down; he had taken root, and it was still there trying to grow. Angus was everything to me, and I was having a hard time staying mad about what I heard. Then I remembered how he said he couldn’t make this permanent, and the hurt flared back to life. We climbed the stairs, and he started petting our friend.

“I missed you, big fella. Are you taking care of your daddy?” I kept reminding myself to hold strong. “I’m glad you are willing to talk to me.” He said without turning his head; something about it told me if he did, I would see how bad he was hurting.

The bulldozer across the street started up. “Fucking great. I lost the land across the street on top of losing you.”

He turned and looked at me. “Eion, can you tell me why you are so mad at me?” I was surprised his mom hadn’t told him that I had heard something. Actually, she probably did, but he isn’t the type of guy to use that information. My Angus would want to hear directly from me. I wasn’t even sure how to address this because it hurt to think about, but I had committed to telling him. I didn’t want to carry it into my next relationship.

“I heard what you said at the party about me.”

He looked at me, obviously confused. “If you heard what I said, you know my secret then. I am so sorry, but I thought it would be a great thing. I can change it.”

Now I was even more confused. “Change it? Secret?”

“Yeah, that’s what you heard, right. I told Tyler what I planned to do for us. I’m sorry that it was too much. Eion, I thought we were in the same place. We can sell it or wait until another time. I just thought it would be a good thing.”

Now I was even more confused because he was clearly talking about something entirely different. This meant we had a lot more to talk about than I thought. “I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. You weren’t talking to West, not Tyler.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “I didn’t have a private conversation about you with West.”

Trying hard not to get loud, I gritted my teeth. “Yes, you did. I heard you say, ‘I can’t make this permanent because he is incomplete.’ It would never work.”

His eyes got big, and I knew I caught him. The words were burned into my heart. “Eion, that wasn’t about you. It was about someone I have on the security team at work. He hadn’t finished his schooling yet and needed his security certificate. Keeping him on the team wouldn’t work.”

I looked at Angus, then looked away. “Fuck.”

“That’s what this has been about? You thought I would say something like that? About you?”

“I. We.” Then I did the one thing that I thought I had stopped doing. I turned around and walked away.

“Damn it,” was all I heard.

Barnaby was up against me immediately, trying to get me to stop so he could calm me. I was wrong, very wrong. Somehow, I had believed the absolute worst thing about Angus. Great, it went from me breaking up with him because of what he was saying about me to him leaving me because I actually thought he could say something like that. I’m an idiot. I knew better, and yet I still believed it. When I got to the pasture where the alpacas were, I couldn’t even smile at our new residents. Zach had brought them over the next day. He gave me paperwork he apparently printed off the Internet, which said they had been surrendered to us. Normally when I needed cheering up, I would come laugh at the goats. Ramsey and Angus will be enamored by them. Now I had to figure out how to fix this situation that I created. Then there was the secret he had mentioned, which I was curious about. Barnaby was now pushing his entire body against me, reminding me to be calm. Angus walked up next to me a few minutes later.

“Hey there, sexy. New residents?”

“Yeah. Zach rescued them. I think we can do more of those types of rescues once we are upgraded. I bet those goats can find a new home once we get them healthy. I don’t think Zach would let me get rid of the alpaca.”

“He still coming out here and watching hockey with them?”