SWNOVELS Pucking Sweet: Chapter 75
“Hello?” I set my stuff down in the laundry room, kicking off my shoes. “Cole? Pop?”
Poppy’s car is parked outside, but Cole’s SUV is gone. They said they were out running some errands, but that was hours ago. I figured they’d be home by now. I wander through the house, flipping on lights. I turn on the TV, flicking it off the Hallmark channel and back to SportsCenter. I go to grab a beer from the fridge, tossing my hat on the kitchen island.
Squish.
“Oh—what the—fuck—” I lift my foot. The sensation of stepping on a squished banana makes me want to gag. Only it’s not a squished banana. It’s brown squishy cat vomit.
“Fuck!” Hobbling on one foot, I sling my entire leg into the sink and jerk the water on. “Are you fucking kidding me with this?”
I don’t care what Poppy says, that cat is a menace. The thing weighs like half a pound, and yet she eats, shits, and pukes more than a goddamn rookie. And she destroys everything—shoelaces, charging cords, headphone wires. Funny how she only seems to target me and my shit.
But Poppy just fawns over her, taking her everywhere. She has this sweater she wears around the house, and she puts that damn kitten in her pocket. She talks to it all day. You’d think they had a bond like that kid with E.T.
I rinse my foot off. Then I’m climbing out of the damn sink to look at the mess on the floor. Grumbling, I jerk a few paper towels off the roll and wipe up the puke, trying not to gag as I toss it in the trash. “Fucking hell,” I mutter, slamming the trash door shut.
Good mood soured, I glance around suspiciously. Usually, the little shit likes to appear just in time to watch me clean up one of her messes.
Nothing.
I walk into the living room. “Here, kitty,” I call. “Princess?”
Groaning, I abandon my plans of beer and sports highlights, and instead go looking for the cat. There’s obviously a lot Poppy will forgive me for, but killing this cat definitely doesn’t make the list. “Here puss, puss, puss,” I call up the stairs, feeling like a goddamn idiot. “Come on out. I just wanna see that you’re alive.”
I move down the hall to the main bedroom. “Come on, cat. Please?” I drop down to my knees and check under the bed, letting out a breath of relief. She’s there, lying on her side. “Hey, fuzzball. Come on out.” I rub my fingers together the way Poppy and Cole do.
She doesn’t move.
With a groan, I flatten out on my chest, wedging myself under the bed frame. I wrap a hand around her and pull her out. “Please don’t be dead.”
She’s not moving. Her little belly looks distended and she’s listless.
“No, no, no.” I pull out my phone, panicking. I can’t call Poppy. She’ll freak out and cry and blame me. I can’t call Cole. He’s with Poppy. Then they’ll both freak out and blame me. Cursing, I race downstairs and get the cat carrier out of the garage. “It’s okay fuzzball,” I say, gently placing her into the carrier.
As I hurry back down the stairs, I search on my phone for the nearest animal hospital. It’s after hours, so the only one is an emergency vet fifteen minutes away. I get in the truck, buckling her carrier in the front seat. Then my truck is roaring to life. As soon as I get on the A1A, I make a quick call to the only person I think will help me and not be a dick about it.
He answers on the third ring. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Hey, I’m sending you an address. I need you to meet me there right now, before I freak the fuck out and ruin my goddamn life.”
I don’t even wait for a response before I’m sending the address and tossing the phone in the cup holder. “You better not die,” I say at the little gray cat. “Do you understand me? I have big plans for my life now, and for better or fucking worse, you’re in them.”
Twenty minutes later, Langley comes busting through the doors. “Dude, what the fuck?”
“They just took her back,” I say, rising out of my chair. “I don’t know what’s wrong.”
He looks around, confused. “Wait—why are we at a vet? What the hell is going on?”
“Poppy’s cat is sick,” I explain. “And I cannot let this cat die. She’s bonded to this thing, man. If it dies, I’m gonna be in so much trouble—”
“Poppy has a cat?”
“Well, technically it’s my cat,” I say. “I’m on all the paperwork. Poppy couldn’t adopt it because of the rules at the apartments so—”
“Hold on,” he says, holding up a hand. “You called me saying I had to come to this address.”
“Yeah.”
“You said you were about to ruin your goddamn life.”
“Yes.”
He frowns. “But I’m here for a cat?”
Okay, now I’m confused. “The address I sent you was for a vet. How are you fucking confused?”
He huffs, crossing his arms. “I didn’t read what the address said, I just followed the damn GPS. Nov, I didn’t even tie my shoes.” He points down at his untied shoelaces.
Okay, that’s commitment. I smile at him, feeling a little better. But then my smile falls. “Wait—what did you think you were coming here to do?”
“I don’t know.” He waves an arm. “You said you were freaking out and about to ruin your life. I just assumed you and Poppy were eloping. I thought maybe this was a courthouse or something.”
“You thought I called you in a panic, wanting you to come watch me marry Poppy?”
“Watch it, stop it.” He shrugs again. “I figured I’d feel out the vibe when I got here.”
I glare at him, arms crossed. “Why would I want you to stop my wedding to Poppy?”
“Seriously?” He huffs a laugh. “Maybe because it’s you, Mister ‘My Longest Commitment Is With My Bauer Nexus Geo.’”
“Oh, and you’re so wise with relationships? Propose to the redhead yet?”
“Nope,” he replies, totally nonchalant. “I don’t think we’ll ever get married.”
“She kicked you to the curb already?”
“Nope,” he says again, grinning wider. “Actually, we’re happy and in love, thanks for asking. Tess is my forever. She’s perfect for me, and I’ll follow her anywhere. I love that woman more than my own life. It’s done.”
My shoulders drop a little. He said it so openly, so freely. He loves a woman, and he’s telling me about it. No fear, no shame. Nerves buzz in my chest. It can be this easy, right? Oh god, I’m doing this. The HR forms are signed. We can’t get in trouble letting people know. “Look…about what you saw at Shelby’s party—”
He holds up a hand. “Hey, man, I didn’t ask. And I didn’t tell,” he adds. “Tess didn’t either. Your secret is safe.”
I take a deep breath. “Well, that’s just the thing…I don’t want it to be a secret anymore.”
He raises a brow at me.
I square my shoulders at him, hands on my hips as I stare him down. “Langers, I want you to be the first to know: I’m in love with Poppy St. James. I love her so goddamn much, and I nearly lost her because of my bullshit fear of commitment. But now I got her back, and I am never losing her again. That’s why I’m freaking out about the cat,” I go on. “I needed someone here with me because if this cat dies, I need a witness that I did everything I could to save it. I am not above giving a cat mouth-to-mouth. Hell, I’ll give it a piece of my kidney.”
“Why don’t we just wait and see what the vet says.”
“Well, when Poppy packs my bags, maybe you could tell her how desperate and pathetic I was,” I go on. “You could even add that I cried a little. Because I will do anything for that woman, Langers. Literally anything.”
“Jesus,” he mutters, eyes wide. “Okay, so you’ve definitely got it bad.”
“Oh, I’m not even finished,” I say, heart racing. “I think you should also know that I’m in love with Cole.”
He blinks. “Morrow?”
“What Cole do you think I mean, asshole? We don’t have another one on the team.”
“I’m just checking,” he says, both hands raised.
“Well, yeah, it’s Cole Fucking Morrow. I love him, and he loves me. And we love Poppy. And we’re together. The three of us.”
“Wow,” he mutters. “Seriously, wow. And it’s…good? You’re happy and it’s all working?”
I smile. Even with Cole’s news about his heart health, we’re all in good spirits, ready to plan our future. “Bud, I quite literally cannot help myself,” I say. “It’s so fucking good.”
He smiles. “Well, I’m happy for you—”
“Oh, there’s more.”
His eyes go wide again. “What?”
“She’s pregnant.”
“Whoa.”
“Yeah, whoa. Could be mine,” I say with a shrug. “Could be Cole’s. There’s literally no way to tell until he comes out.”
“He?”
“Yeah, it’s a boy. I’m gonna be a father in like six months. That will be another occasion when you can race to the hospital with your shoes untied.”
He laughs. “Noted.” He’s quiet for a minute. “Nov…why did you tell me all this? I mean, like, why me first?”
“Because I’m really fucking happy,” I admit. “And when I considered who would hear my news and only be happy for me, and not, like, judgmental or rude, I thought of you. I knew you’d let me just be happy.”
I can see my words have blindsided him. He recovers, clearing his throat. “Well, this is fucking dumb. Come on, we’re hugging it out.”
I put up a hand. “Not necessary.”
“No, it’s happening.” He steps in. “We’re having a tender moment.” He wraps his arms around me, giving me a firm hug. “That’s right, just let it happen.”
“I fucking hate this,” I mutter.
“Hug me back, or I’ll recite this whole conversation to every player on the team. And as you requested, I’ll throw it in that you were crying. A lot.”
I wrap my arms around him, patting his back.
Just then the vet tech comes out. “Which one of you is here with Princess Novikov?”
Langers stiffens in my arms. We break away, and he tries to hide his goddamn smirk.
Sighing, I raise my hand. “That would be me.”
It turns out that, after seven-hundred dollars’ worth of cat X-rays, our little Miss Princess was suffering from bloating in her intestines. That’s right, I paid almost a thousand dollars in emergency vet bills, and outed myself to Ryan Langley, only to be told that the cat who hates me simply needed to fart.
This is my life now.
And goddamn it, I am still so fucking happy.