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Another animal scurried by, and his ears perked up. He took off after it. When he was an animal, he took on a lot of its natural instincts, though he didn’t kill anything—he just didn’t have that in him. But he loved the chase even as he knew he was probably terrifying the poor creature running from him.
The scents of the earth teased his senses—fresh dirt and the sharp tang of grass with the occasional sweet wildflowers thrown into the mix. His senses were stronger.
He panted as he gave chase, enjoying the challenge of keeping up with the mouse. It found a burrow and went deep. He nosed the ground around it a bit but soon gave up to stretch out on the grass. Insects crawled around and beneath him as he stared up at a sliver of moon he could see between leaves of the trees.
He’d grown up around forests and had always felt more alive when he was in them. City life didn’t appeal to him; the plantation was the first time he’d felt at home in a long time. He’d stayed on the move for so many years, driven by something he didn’t understand and answers he couldn’t find.
Those answers had been here the whole time.
He rolled over, enjoying the cool grass against his belly. The little mouse scurried out from its hiding place, took one look at him, and ran back.
Inwardly laughing, Baer closed his eyes, thinking a nap outside was just the thing he needed. He let the night blanket him as he went to sleep.Chapter 7Baer hesitated outside of Wiley’s bedroom door, his hand hanging in the air mere inches away from the wood. He’d just seen the guy at lunch. There was no reason to bother him, except for the fact that Baer missed him. Clay and Dane had run to the hardware store for some supplies. Grey was working. In short, there was no one around to keep him occupied and out of Wiley’s hair.
And he really wanted to be in Wiley’s hair.
Rolling his eyes at himself, Baer knocked on the door. He’d stick his head in to say hi and see if he needed anything. Just a quick second. That was all.
“Come in!” Wiley called.
Baer opened the door and quickly closed it again so Ruby couldn’t follow him in. His dog was also feeling bored, and playing with Queenie was not a good idea. The cat had zero interest in Ruby.
Wiley was sitting in the middle of the bed with a large sketch pad in his lap and Queenie stretched out across the blankets next to him. He didn’t see what Wiley had been drawing before he closed the pad up again.
“Hey,” Baer said with a little wave that made him feel like the biggest dork in existence. Wasn’t there a time when he’d considered himself smooth? Yeah, all that went out the window the day he saw Wiley climb out of his Mini Cooper. “How’s it going?”
“Not bad.”
“Getting a lot of work done?”
“Noooo!” Wiley howled before flopping back onto the pillows. Baer immediately grinned at him. He loved spending time with this man. All his emotions and gestures seemed bigger than life, which made him fun.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’ve got all these ideas and thoughts about a possible new series, but it’s all just a mess in my head. I can’t get it to…” Wiley lifted both of his hands into the air, fingers bent like they were gripping large objects that he was trying to fit together. There was a pencil threaded between a couple of fingers in his left hand, which made Baer smile. He was left-handed. Just another little fact he could tuck away in his brain like a magpie collecting trinkets.
Wiley growled. “I can’t get it all to make sense.” He dropped his arms back to the bed with a loud sigh.
“Sounds like you could use a break. Let your brain cool off.”
“Yeah, probably.”
Baer smirked as a new idea formed in his head. “You know, we never got around to setting up your Xbox.”
Wiley sat up like a shot, his eyes wide. “You wanna play?”
“Hell, yeah.”
The words had barely left his lips before Wiley was tossing aside the sketch pad and pencil. Queenie meowed irritably at being disturbed and moved to another part of the bed while Wiley clambered to his feet.
Baer followed him into the game room and helped him get the gaming console hooked up to the TV. Wiley sorted through a handful of disc games he brought and then ran through some of the hundreds of games he apparently had stored on the external hard drive. They were plenty of choices.
Unfortunately, most games were designed for only a single player, so they first started with some simple fighting games. They were evenly matched for the most part. Wiley liked to go for the quick and nimble fighters while Baer liked the bruisers who were best with brute strength. It didn’t take too long for Wiley to outsmart him at every turn, seeming to wait until Baer fell into a comfortable pattern before sneaking past his guard time and again.
