AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She gets up from her chair and cranes her neck in search of Gabe, and her eyes widen.
„Oh my God, he’s been ambushed by my treehugger friends. I better get him out of there, before they drive him mad,” she says. „Excuse me!”
She reaches for her flute of champagne and hurries off, her elegant white dress floating around her as if she was a celestial creature.
Claire and Ella hit it off right away when Gabe and Ella came to Boston just a few weeks after I told the boys about Claire, and they have stayed in close contact ever since. Ella was so intrigued when she heard about our cats and about Claire’s volunteer work at the shelter, that she decided to adopt a couple of cats of her own, and Claire was happy to help, especially when she heard that Ella was looking for older cats rather than young ones.
We are official patrons of the shelter now, too. It was my idea to offer monthly donations and help out with the replacement of the hospital enclosure. If all goes well, the new building should be ready to open in a couple of weeks. I never thought I would ever get into animal rescue, but after adopting our cats and seeing the poor state of the shelter, it only felt right.
Ourcats. A smile tugs at the corner of my mouth, when I realize how much that is true. Claire and I aren’t living together yet, but that doesn’t change the fact that we consider the little gang of felines to be ours. Our family. I guess a part of me always knew that I would keep them, just like I knew that Claire was mine, forever.
She snuggles up against me, and I look at her, enchanted by the warmth of her smile, as she listens to Kat and Madison chatting happily. I knew she would fit right in with the group, even though she’s so much younger than the rest of us. She’s still in school, and about the same age us boys were when we made our pact—the pact that kept us united even after we graduated.
The pact that made us all rich enough to find a way to get my sister to back off when she was trying to threaten me. She was right that I wouldn’t be able to fund the research project from my own pocket, but when the four of us work together, there’s nothing and no one who can stop us. She never followed through on her threat, probably because she knew that it wouldn’t work in her favor anyway. My father trusts her more than he should, but at least she doesn’t seem to want to exploit that trust too much.
„So, you’re really going to stay home once the baby is there?” Kat asks Chase, who is sitting to my right.
He nods. „Oh, yes. That was the deal, because Madison has too much on her plate with her new position and all. Besides, I’m looking forward to being a stay at home dad for a while.”
„Very modern of you,” Logan chimes in, his remark laced with cynicism. „Can’t wait to see you handling diapers.”
„Oh, I have practiced!” Chase exclaims. „I can put a perfect diaper on anything, even a cat!”
„He really can,” Madison adds, a proud smile spreading across her face. „He’s way better at it than me.”
„Still, I’m not going to let you prove that on our cats,” I interject, and the group erupts with laughter once again.
„That’s okay, as long as you use your extra free time to come and visit us more often,” Chase says. „You no longer have the excuse of a job that keeps you busy.”
Claire places her hand on mine, providing me with a tender squeeze, while regarding me with an appreciative smile. It’s true, I’m no longer tied to my busy life as a professor, because I did the unspeakable: I gave up a tenured position at one of the most prestigious schools in the country. And I’m more convinced than ever that it was the right thing to do. Claire may have shifted the focus of her major, but she’s still a student in the Math department, and I want her to be able to finish her education without the threat of our taboo relationship hanging over her head. Besides, I neither need the money nor the esteem that comes with the job, and there are other ways for me to continue doing what I love.
„May I remind you that I’ll be starting as a guest lecturer at MIT in the fall?” I tell Chase. „I might be less busy, because I’ll have the luxury of teaching just one class for the semester, but I’m planning to spend all that extra time with my family.”
I wrap my arm around Claire and pull her closer, and Chase waves me off.
„Fine, fine, you disgusting little lovebirds,” he teases.
„Oh, as if you wouldn’t understand,” Claire says, before nodding in Madison’s direction. „You two are pretty adorable, you know.”
Madison and Chase both laugh in the same exuberant way, their vast energy filling the room. I have only met Madison a couple of times, but even from those few meetings, I can tell that she’s just as perfect for Chase as Claire is for me. The same goes for Gabe and his Ella—much to our surprise—and our two cynical literature nerds Logan and Kat.
The former comes walking over to our table, his tattoo peeking through at the collar and beneath his rolled up sleeves. He’s the only one of us who chose a tattoo of an ear of wheat that is large enough to be seen, even when he’s pretty much fully dressed. It has become part of a full length sleeve tattoo on his right arm.
He plants his emptied flute on the table and beams at Kat, offering her his hand.
„Let’s dance, fiancée,” he says. „Might as well practice for our party to come.”
„Party?” Kat responds, arching an eyebrow at him. „I hope you’re aware that a wedding is a little more than a party.”
He chuckles and pulls her up from her chair.
„Of course, of course,” he assures her. „It’s still a party, though. So let’s enjoy it.”
„You coming, too?” Kat asks in our direction.
Claire and I both shake our heads.
„Not really your kind of party, huh,” Logan says, winking at me.
