Georgie rubs along his leg, so he leans over and gives her head a scratch.
“Where’s the boy?” he asks me.
“Sleeping on your bed last time I saw. He and her were tearing around earlier, chasing eachother up and down the stairs with the zoomies, but he’s a little slower than she is so far. I think he’s tuckered out. Um…” I lick my lips. “I’m a little sad, though. Someone put in an adoption request for them and I… um…”
“You were plannin’ on it??”
“I hadn’t let myself think that far, as you know, but now the idea of not keeping them? My heart’s a little broken. We might have to go on the lamb with them, so we don’t have to give them back. Are you down?”
I’m half-serious, because these kitties have become mine. I’m a terrible foster mom and I can never do this again because I will have a whole house of animals.
“You made cupcakes for my brothers?” he changes the subject, seeming a little pissy.
“Um, yeah,” I say. “We ordered pizza, too.” I gesture to the stove where the giant box sits. “Lots left.”
“No cupcakes left, though,” Jude mutters.
I clear my throat and reach into the cupboard and produce a covered platter of pink cupcakes. Six of them. I present the platter, fluttering my eyelashes.
“All yours, baby,” I say, but I’m feeling a little gloomy underneath at my cat problem being glossed over.
His eyes light up and he sets the cupcake platter on the pizza box and then grabs my face and plants a very nice, very sexy kiss on my mouth. It’s so nice, in fact, that my knees buckle.
“Hey Ally. Next match is in three minutes. Who’s your money on?” Luka calls out.
“’Scuse me, stud muffin,” I say and am about to rush over. Jude catches my hand and stops me from going.
“Hey,” I laugh.
He pulls me close and puts his lips to my ear. “I filled out that adoption application.”
I gasp.
“Did they say just one application?”
I nod.
He smiles.
I throw my arms around him, hopping up and he catches me.
“All the cupcakes you want,” I whisper against his mouth. “And when I hit the store on the way here from work for my hair color, I also bought some sexy sleepwear.”
“Mm,” he replies. “Now I know you won’t take off on me to Japan, because the cats’ll be mine.”
“You think having custody of my cats will make me stay? Maybe I’ll cat nap them,” I tease, rubbing the tip of my nose against the side of his.
“The cats are mine and you’re my alley-cat, so where the three of you go, I do,” he says.
I bite my lip and stare into his eyes.
I love this. I love him.
“We’re still enemies,” I say.
“That’s fine by me,” he replies and sets me down, slapping my butt. “As long as you know the score.”
“The score?”
He gives me a dark look of promise. “Enemies-with-benefits. Lots of benefits.”
I smile big and sashay over to the TV to catch the details on the next two competitors.
When I look back, Jude is leaning against the counter, eating a cupcake, looking quite content.
***
We stay up late. The party moves to the rooftop patio and by three in the morning, I flop into bed. They’re still up there.
Jude comes to bed a while later and gets all chatty while I’m trying to pass out, telling me Julian went to sleep on one couch, Roman on the other and Luka found his way to the loveseat on the entrance level. It apparently pulls out into a bed and this is their normal routine when these guys come over and get too liquored up to walk the three blocks home.
He then asks me if I can make him a giant cupcake for his birthday and holds both hands wide when he says ‘giant’. Then he tells me he loves me and starts snoring. I fall asleep smiling, thinking he’s pretty adorable when he’s drunk.
It’s been a great night in many ways. Russian slap fighting – I won twenty of my dollars back so was only down sixty overall. Finding out that Georgie and Ralphie aren’t going to be going to someone else. I also got to hang out with all three of Jude’s brothers and I think the awkwardness is behind us (or mostly) where Julian is concerned. Hopefully seeing us all hang out casually put Jude at ease, too. I think that’s why Julian did it.
He’s a good guy. I like him.
I just might have a wee bit of trouble forgetting how hot and sexy his naked body is and how talented he is with his equipment.
Roman called him Dirk Diggler in some smack-talk tonight and I almost peed my pants laughing.
***
When we get up, Luka runs to the nearest store for chocolate chips and maple syrup and I make the boys banana chocolate chip pancakes. They polish off the entire batch before Luka drives us to the airport.