Page 34 of The Boyfriend Gamble

After the server had returned with our drinks, taken our food order, and removed our menus, I offered a smile. “So, Felix…sleeping in a proper bed.”

He blushed.

Which was kind of adorable.

“Yeah, thanks for that. Not that I minded the bears for company, but I like the idea of not having to keep the bear spray close at hand.”

Josie giggled. “You know, you’ll have to figure out some way to make it safe for when the kids want sleepovers outside.”

Felix frowned. “Kids?”

“The gaggle of kids you’re going to have.” She patted down her hair. “I don’t know if a fence is feasible. And you’ll need a system to contain the dogs.”

“Dogs?”

He appeared mildly distressed, with a furrow in his brow.

“Well, of course you’re going to have dogs. All kids need dogs. Don’t worry, you’ll figure out how to handle it.”

Wait. Not once had she saidwe.

I nearly called her out on it, but tonight didn’t feel like the time or place. “So, what interview did you nail?”

As I’d hoped, that launched her into a long discussion about some opportunity that at once felt specific, but also felt weirdly vague. I assumed the job would be in Vancouver and was about to seek clarification of that when our food arrived.

During the meal, Felix told us about an interaction with a parent. Something about maybe not being able to keep a foster child the man and his partner had cared for. I also figured out Felix’s favorite student just lived down the road and, now that Felix was no longer the boy’s teacher, that he could interact more freely with the kid.

I was definitely glad Felix would get to know some of his neighbors. And having the cop down the road wouldn’t go amiss either.

“Okay, I have to go.” Josie leapt up, quite unexpectedly. She pressed a kiss to my cheek, squeezed Felix’s hand, then headed to the host stand. Presumedly to pay.

“Well…” Felix eyed me. “She seems really happy.”

“I think she is. She loves her fashion-design work.”

He scratched his stubble that was barely visible. “Right. Well, I’m going to head out.”

For a moment, I thought he was going to kiss me on the cheek. But he didn’t. Instead, he nodded and then beat a hasty retreat.

That was weird.

I contemplated eating dessert, but didn’t want to do so alone. In a moment of inspiration, I texted Julian. Immediately, an invitation arrived.

After ensuring Josie had paid the bill, I hopped into my car and headed over to Julian and August’s home.

August had finally agreed to move into Julian’s place. Josie had updated and decorated his old home, and now he rented it out.

In some ways this felt slow because they’d been together for months now. In other ways it felt fast because August had said he was going to wait for a year after his sister’s passing. Ironically, although I’d always seen Julian as the impulsive one, now that he’d decided to move, August had taken the reins in getting them settled properly in Julian’s house. Or maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised—August was a take-charge kind of guy. Hence running his own arborist business for years.

In a moment of odd candor, he’d also admitted his sister died suddenly, leaving him over a billion dollars from some app she’d designed, and that he’d started a charitable foundation in her name. He’d found a woman to run it, apparently someone very competent, and he took a hands-off approach, just reading the reports and making decisions when pressed to do so.

As I drove into the suburb where Julian lived, my brain kept swirling. Every time I tried to push Josie and Felix out of my mind, they wormed their way back in.

Well, mostly Felix.

I grinned when I pulled up to the house and found both August and Julian sitting on their front porch, gazing out over the setting sun. I exited the car and walked over to them. “Too late for a visit?”

Julian leapt up, strode over to me, embraced me, then slapped me on the back. “Never too late for friends.”

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