Her pupils expanded. Austin curled protectively over Liam’s head, yelping as paws landed squarely between his shoulder blades. A dozen precise strikes landed on the back of his head, then jaws tried to clamp around his skull. The cat gagged on a mouthful of his hair. Liam diverted the cat’s attention to his hand, which she viciously attacked.
She then bolted away.
“How are you ever meant to sleep?”
“She sleeps 90 per cent of the time… Hang on, have you been doing this all night?”
Austin caught the blanket and yanked it up over his head, tucking it right up against Liam’s chin. The cat jumped onto Austin’s head. She batted around, but the shield of the blanket protected Austin from her claws. Realising her attacks weren’tgetting through, she walked in little circles, plopped down, and purred loudly for a few minutes before beginning to snore.
Austin flushed. “She thinks she won.”
For a second, it seemed like Liam was going to be stupid enough to agree. “I’ll make breakfast,” he said instead. He carefully extracted himself from Austin and the cat. “Get some sleep.”
The cat yawned, squirmed her way under Austin’s blanket, and curled up under his chin. Austin growled. She purred and pressed her wet little nose against his pulse. He was terrified she’d bite his gills, and with a prickle, they smoothly merged back into his neck. It was the first time they’d disappeared since their painful emergence. Liam looked down at them with an unreadable expression. Without saying a word, he fetched his phone, took a picture, and set about making breakfast.
Austin was too angry to speak for a long time.
He watched Liam through slitted eyes as he moved comfortably about the kitchen, putting together a fry-up.
Austin didn’t remember falling asleep, but he felt way better when he woke hours later. The kitten was still curled under his chin and stubbornly clung to his shoulder when he sat up.
Liam was sipping coffee in the kitchen. “Breakfast?”
Austin nodded. “And can you bring me my phone?”
While Liam warmed up breakfast, Austin got hold of Tammy, earning an odd look from Liam when he shared the cottage address with her.
“I’m sure she knows about this place already,” Austin said. “She’s not stupid.”
Liam set a pillow on Austin’s lap and a plate of breakfast foods on top of that. Austin ate one-handed as he scrolled through the masses of texts from Bradley that Liam had warnedhim about. In the last photo he’d sent, his girlfriend was kissing the healing cut on his jaw, and Bradley looked quite pleased with himself. Austin almost sent,Glad it’s healing well. But the cat bit his ear, and he sent,You have a stupid nameinstead.
Sam’s texts took longer to go through, but the unreal story Sam had told in Hal’s court made more sense when he could read it and think it over slowly.
Austin believed what Sam had said about their encounter in the bar being a misunderstanding, but he couldn’t think of what to say. He’d spiralled after Sam. And he’d been in such a negative headspace for such a long time that it was hard to suddenly absolve Sam of blame. He wondered if this complicated feeling was at all similar to what Connor had felt towards Austin about the cheating misunderstanding.
Liam made a pleased sort of grunt as he took Austin’s empty plate. “Will you manage a second helping?”
“I’m full now.” Austin put his phone aside and peered around the room. It had been too dark to see anything when he’d stumbled in dead tired last night, but now he could see that Liam had cleaned the place up. A proper sliding screen door separated the washer and dryer from the rest of the room, a new window had replaced the cracked one, and every speck of mould had been scrubbed from the walls. Best of all, the draughty open fireplace had been replaced with a stove. His cottage wasn’t ice cold.
“You’ve done a lot.”
“You were gone a while,” Liam said over his shoulder as he washed the dishes.
He didn’t say it any particular way, but Austin knew from Tristan that Liam had been sitting on the shore, waiting. Austin pushed the cat off his shoulder and went into the kitchen. He leaned against the counter next to Liam. “I’m sorry I just left like that.”
“Wilbur and Bradley spooked you.”
“I exhausted myself getting over there, and at first I didn’t trust Tristan enough to get a message to you,” Austin said. “I’ll get word to you sooner if something like that happens again.”
“I’d appreciate that.” Liam set his hands on the edge of the sink and seemed to debate something. “I’m going to get the name of a good architect from Tammy to plan out an extension.”
“Okay.”
Liam stared at him.
“What? You have my details for paying for it all. If you don’t, just get them through Tammy.”
“You’re sure you’re all right with me living here again?”
