Page 46 of How Not to Date a Griffin

But the little circles Nolan was tracing into his thigh as they browsed was certainly turning him on to it. Nolan would be a cuddler, Reid thought.

And maybe that wasn’t so bad.

Once their order was placed, Nolan grabbed the remote and turned the television on.

“This is perilous territory,” Nolan warned. “Picking something to watch.”

“Did you just use the word ‘perilous’?” Reid drawled. “It’ll be fine, we can agree on one thing to watch.”

Except twenty minutes later, they were still scrolling through the third streaming app.

“Oh, I hated this one,” Nolan grumbled. “The dog died.”

“Well, we don’t want anything sad,” Reid agreed. There had been enough emotional turmoil for today.

“Maybe an action comedy?” Nolan suggested.

But, “Eh, the CGI in that one is so bad,” Reid had to complain.

“It’s a comedy, isn’t it supposed to be bad?” Nolan questioned.

Reid was already shaking his head, motioning for Reid to continue scrolling. “Not if they’re trying to be serious about it.”

“The two main actresses in this series hated each other on set,” Nolan shared as they flipped through the Drama section.

Reid’s mouth dropped open. “No! Really? That kinda ruins it. I thought they were good together.”

“Good actresses, not good friends,” he murmured.

“Bummer,” Reid huffed, and laid his head back down on Nolan’s chest.

The strong thump of Nolan’s heart was steady beneath his cheek and Reid tried to focus on the scrolling, but Nolan was combing his fingers through Reid’s drying hair, and he was pretty sure he didn’t care what they watched, as long as Nolan didn’t stop.

He imagined it was similar to the way Nolan had pet all the cats at the shelter, and the word that came to mind was finally.

There’s absolutely no way Reid had been jealous of the felines. Because that was weird, right? Kind of crazy, even.

And yet Reid had spent the better part of his time – when he wasn’t washing bowls or getting treats and food – staring at Nolan. At the way he’d given each cat his full attention, letting them get sniffs in and then figuring out where they liked to be scritched, which part of their head or shoulders or neck made their fuzzy little butts lift up to meet him.

So. No. Of course he wasn’t jealous of the cats.

But if Reid could purr, he was pretty sure it would be vibrating his throat.

“So. Why cats?” Reid asked suddenly.

Nolan’s strokes through his hair faltered, and now Reid wished he’d never opened his big mouth.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, why volunteer with pets? Why not soup kitchens, or Habitat for Humanity, or—”

“Oh,” Nolan said, then hummed. “It’s kind of a sad story.”

It seemed all of Nolan’s stories were kind of sad. Reid’s heart squeezed in sympathy.

“I don’t mind. I wanna know.”

“My dad’s not a fuzzy-feeling kind of guy, as I’m sure you know. When I was home one summer, I found a kitten, all muddy and sad looking. I brought him home, but couldn’t find Dad, and Mom had already been gone for years at this point. Gosh, I think I was, like… nine? Ten? Something around there.”