Page 129 of Stags

Stockton hesitated. “You know, I used to feel like women—all women—were constantly, uh,rejectingme.”

Athos turned to look at him, slowly lifting his chin, looking him over. “You got some sob stories, too.”

“Well, things are good now, though, actually,” said Stockton. “Things are really good. So, I’m just saying, maybe there’s some way for things to get better on your side, too. I don’t know what’s going on with you, of course.”

“I don’t even think it was me she was rejecting,” said Athos. “I don’t know what the fuck she was rejecting. But I think I may have gotten overly attached to this theoretical fawn I was sowing in her womb, and if I did… Damn it, tell me that I cannot sue her for shared custody. Tell me that’s a dick move. My mother would tell me that was a dick move. There’s no reason for a buck to be involved in his child’s life.”

“I mean… I’m glad to know my dad,” said Stockton. “I wish he had not fucked my girlfriend, true, but—”

“Wait, what?”

“You remember that morning when we were having breakfast at the rite, and Bruin was all, ‘I shattered some little doe’s innocence’ or whatever?”

“That was your girlfriend?”

“Not then, she was not. But then she and I got together, and we didn’t know, and then I found out, and then…” Stockton groaned. “Anyway, it was a mess.”

“Yeah,” said Athos, looking horrified.

“We worked through it, though,” said Stockton.

“How?”

“You can’t sue her for custody,” said Stockton with a shrug. “That’s a dick move. But if she’s not rejecting you, whatisshe rejecting?”

“I don’t know,” said Athos.

“Well, figure it out,” said Stockton. “And then you do that for her, whatever she doesn’t want to do. You take care of that for her, and then she takes you back. She needs you for something. Figure out what it is and be that.”

“No,” said Athos, shaking his head. “That’s the thing. They don’t need us. Women do not need us.”

“Uh huh, right. Which is why gender evolved at all, then. Because having two genders is absolutely pointless,” said Stockton.

Athos blinked rapidly, digesting that. “You know what? I’m good. You have things to do, intern?”

Stockton chuckled. “Yeah, I got things to do. Sure.”

“Good, because if you don’t, I have briefs for you to proofread,” said Athos.

Stockton backed out of the room. “You know, I hope it works out.”

“I’M NOT SAYINGthat,” Lyall muttered. “I honestly don’t know why I said anything at all. Let’s pretend I didn’t say anything, actually.”

It was morning. Eiren was in his bed, her chest pounding wildly, and she wasn’t sure if it was because she was panicked or because she was excited or some odd mixture of both. She should have gone home ages ago, but she hadn’t. She’d waited, drinking coffee in his bed, listening to him talk to her about whatever weird coding problem he was having.

She didn’t know anything about coding, but she’d learned from listening to him.

Typically, she wasn’t much interested in listening to people talk about things she didn’t understand, but the odd thing with Lyall was that everything about him interested her. She could listen to him read the damned phone book and be riveted.

“You don’t mean it,” she whispered. “You have been very clear, all along, that you don’t want a relationship. Why would you evensaythis?”

“You’re different,” he said. “So, I think we should try it.”

“It’s skipping ten thousand steps,” she said, shaking her head. “We need to date first. We need to go out in public together. We need to meet each other’s families. We need—”

“We go out in public,” he said. “What do you mean by that? It’s not like you’re my dirty deerkin secret.”

“You’ve prowled after me, reluctantly, when I go out and see people I know, and you stay to the shadows, are gruff and won’t talk to anyone, and then insist that we leave early.”

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