Page 14 of Missiletoe
“Did Vix decorate the hall?”
Baz nodded. “His favorite time of year is Hippie Christmas. He goes nuts the whole week.”
I smiled at that. Hippie Christmas was the week after graduation. Our area had five colleges all within twenty minutes of each other, so when every school cleared out for the summer, thousands of dollars’ worth of furniture, clothes, food, art, and anything else you could name lined the streets, free for the picking. I could imagine my bunny bouncing from pile to pile, picking through treasures and collecting his favorite things.
“What about actual Christmas? How does he feel about that?”
“When he remembers, he loves it and goes all out, but on the actual day, he usually forgets about it. And his birthday. And pretty much every other holiday. I remember for us, so it works out.”
Baz was a difficult guy to stay mad at. He had my emotions ping-ponging all over the place. One minute I was on my way to wanting to punch his lights out, and the next, he had me feeling soft and warm with the information he kept spilling about Vix.
It was almost like he was purposely testing me to find my breaking point.
To date, no one had managed it, but if someone was going to find it, Baz was a fine candidate.
Baz and I needed to have it out. He was so obviously an important part of Vix’s life, and if my heart had decided to instabond to Vix, I would need to come to some kind of middle ground with Baz.
So I laid Vix down on his bed because if things got ugly, I didn’t want him to get caught up in the crossfire.
I got lost arranging his body inside the animal bed he was still lying in. I saw a tattered, stuffed Olaf the snowman toy on the bed and tucked it into Vix’s arms, so he could have a friend to hug when he woke up.
I could have taken Vix out of the dog bed and put him directly on his own bed, but he looked so cute curled up inside it. I could get a new bed on my way back to the shelter.
Speaking of which, I needed to get a move on. Sylvia the pregnant cat was scheduled to arrive at the shelter soon, and I needed to be there to accept her.
Baz cleared his throat, and I realized I’d been petting Vix’s face. I had a feeling I’d been doing it for a while.
I stepped away from the bed and took a deep, calming breath.
People don’t do enough of that in my opinion. It’s probably why so many of them run around high-strung and ready to unleash mean words and actions on unsuspecting people. They can’t help themselves if their bodies are running low on oxygen and Vitamin D. People really need to get outside more, learn how to breathe properly, and roll around with dogs as often as they can.
I stepped well away from Vix’s bed, neatly skirting three half-assembled machines littering the floor as I went.
I met Baz at the door and asked, “What’s your position in Vix’s life?” There was no point in beating around the bush. He and I both knew what was going on and what needed to be said.
“I’m anything he needs me to be. No more, no less.”
Well, that was nice and vague. I decided to take a different tack and asked, “And what is he to you?”
“The same,” Baz said in a sing-song kind of way, once again being as clear as mud. He could be describing the relationship between deeply close friends or committed lovers.
If Baz hadn’t been getting between me and what I wanted, I would have thought it was cute. Not as cute as my bunny, though. Vix was managing to outshine the room while dead asleep.
God, I wanted him to wake up soon. I needed to go, but I couldn’t bear to leave him without seeing his eyes once more. To hear his sweet voice.
“I want to be more than that to him,” I stated plainly. I was coming back there as soon as I could. I still didn’t know what Baz was to Vix, but whatever he was, I would be twice that. I had to be.
“That’s painfully clear.”
“Is that a problem?”
“That remains to be seen.” Baz had a tiny, enigmatic smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
I was about to ask him point-blank if he and Vix were dating, because I needed to start preparing myself for whether or not I had to do something against my morals or if I was going to be able to continue being a good person, but the alarm on my phone went off. I had forty-five minutes before the volunteer animal taxi person showed up with Sylvia. I needed to hit up a pet store for a new bed, and since I didn’t have my truck with me, I’d have to wait for an Uber to drive me around.
Damn it. I was practically vibrating out of my skin, torn between staying to get to know Vix better and needing to live up to my responsibilities.
I mean, what if the volunteer just dropped the cat off and left? What if Sylvia went into labor alone, and got scared? I needed to be there for her.
