Page 19 of Tempest

He and the rest of the pack spent a lot of time at the beach, playing in the water, but at night, with the moon reflecting off the still surface, he felt at peace in a way he usually didn’t.

He reminded himself that it wouldn’t be forever.

The sun was just beginning to set as he stood at the edge of the lake, staring into the calm water and listening to the steady approach of another person. Saint’s scent was as familiar to him as his Pops’s, but his appearance in that moment annoyed him. He didn’t bother turning to look at his friend as the big tiger came up right next to him, shoved his hands in his pockets, and sighed dramatically.

Cash looked at him out of the corner of his eye but then went back to staring at the water without saying anything. Saint, never one to be able to hold still, fidgeted next to him and bumped his arm against Cash’s.

Still, he ignored him.

After a minute or two of silence, Saint sighed again. Louder.

“Are you okay?” Cash asked without looking over.

“I’m fine. I’m not the one moodily staring into the lake.”

“I’m not staringmoodily,” Cash grumbled, throwing him a scowl.

Saint nudged his shoulder with his own, and Cash realized he had his arms crossed tightly over his chest.

He let out a breath and dropped his arms. “I’m fine.”

Saint snorted. “Even if I couldn’t hear your heart, I’d know that was a lie. How about you try again?”

Cash resisted the urge to growl at his closest friend. “How about not. I just finished my patrol. I’m going to head back home so Finlay can take off.”

Stepping in front of him and blocking his view, Saint held his gaze, his own unusually serious. “Listen, brother, you know you can tell me anything, right?”

Rather than coax him into spilling his guts, Cash’s defensiveness only grew worse. No matter what Saint thought, there was nothing to share, no secrets to bond over. They weren’t twelve anymore with a stolen nudey mag hidden in their tree house. Cash didn’t need him to tell him everything would be okay like he had when he’d been too nervous to look.

“Nothing to tell.”

“Okay, fine. You want to pretend that it’s totally normal foryou—Mr. Grumpy-For-Three-Days-If-My-Routine-Is-Even-Slightly-Messed-Up—to invite a strange shifter to stay in your house with you?”

Cash curled his lip at the description but otherwise ignored it. “It’ll only be until he gets his memories back.”

“Ifhe gets his memories back,” Saint corrected softly. “If he doesn’t, is he going to stay with you forever?”

His panther practically purred at the idea, but Cash squashed that down and shook his head. “No, of course not. If that happens… Well, we’ll figure it out then.”

“So he’s just going to stay with you for the foreseeable future. Your whole life—your responsibilities as an Enforcer—put on hold while you wait for his brain to heal up, and you don’t have anything you want to talk about? You think that’s completely normal behavior for you?”

“Drop it, Saint.”

Saint hummed and studied him, and Cash refused to look away. “You know you can tell me anything.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” His mouth was suddenly drier than it had been a second ago.

Saint raised his dark brows. “It means… you can tell me anything,” he said slowly. “As in, if there’s something you’d like to talk about, you can with me.”

Cash shrugged. “I’m fine.”

Saint threw his hands up in the air and stomped a few feet away before spinning around and stomping back. “You’re not fine. Goddess, being your best friend can be a real pain in the ass.”

Cash rolled his eyes at his theatrics.

“You looked like you were about to rip Liam’s head off while he was questioning that bird. Don’t think we didn’t?—”

“His name is Ore,” Cash snapped and then immediately regretted it.

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