It was normally his most favorite time of the day.
Except he could hear his neighbor moving around, and he was fighting off a blush because he now knew just how thin townhouse walls were. He hadn’t ever really thought about it because his former neighbor was almost completely deaf, and he was a widow, so it wasn’t like Peyton was going to be subjected to any sort of awkward, unintentional eavesdropping.
That couldn’t be said for the new guy. Not now, anyway.
Peyton had been half asleep when he first heard the uptick of a vibrator. In his haze, he told himself it was just a sonic toothbrush and to ignore it. And then thenoisesstarted. Quiet moans, soft gasps, a few muttered words. His neighbor had a guest—asexguest.
A few minutes later, the vibrating noise got louder, and the gasps turned into loud groans, then babbling and begging before an orgasm hit. Afterward, there wasn’t much pillow talk, but he heard his neighbor’s voice rumbling through the wall—soft and sort of sleepy.
Peyton was awake long after the noises stopped, trying to control his imagination because he had no right to be perving on the guy who clearly couldn’t stand him. And okay, sure, there was some triumph that Peyton didn’t find his brownie container crushed beneath the wheel of a power chair and left in pieces, but that didn’t mean anything. Only that the guy could appreciate a good brownie where he saw one.
And now Peyton had animosity and unintentional sex noises living rent-free in his head—which he most definitely did not ask for.
Fuck hislife.
Pulling out his phone, he did his best not to think about it as he opened up the app and stared down at the last message had Austin sent.
Austin: So, any chance you want to move this to talking? Facetime? Maybe coffee?
Peyton wasn’t ready to answer yet. It was one thing to have conversations with people, but it was quite another to put himself out there so he could be rejected to his face. He backed out of the message, then blinked in surprise when he saw four more messages from the app waiting for him.
He noticed a faint tremble in his thumb as he scrolled, and he told himself it was just the coffee and absolutely not nerves, because he was a grown-ass man who could handle the concept of dating after having his asshole sewed shut.
The thought made him laugh so hard he had to clap a hand over his mouth, and it took him a moment to recover. Leaning his forehead against the patio awning post, he breathed slowly. “Stop being a jackass, Peyton.”
“Mrow.”
Peyton glanced over to see the tiny kitten body bouncing through the unkempt grass, and he wriggled his fingers until the little creature body-slammed his hand. He gathered her to his chest, stroking fingers through her fur, which still had that baby kitten feel to it.
“You seriously need a name,” he told her.
“Mrow.”
“I feel like you’re mine now.” She nudged his hand harder, and he made a mental note to head over to the pet supply store and pick up what she needed. Maybe she was someone else’s, but even if that was the case, they let the smallest kitten loose in the neighborhood. It was a miracle she hadn’t been snatched by a hawk or flattened by some car. “You want to stay with me?”
She vibrated with purrs against him, and he leaned back on his elbow as she settled in the crook of his neck. The sunlight glinted off her fur, which was mostly black, but he could see flecks of red glowing like little sprinkles.
“Ginger,” he said.
The kitten nudged his chin and he decided she was approving.
With a grunt, Peyton held her tight as he pushed to his feet, then he looked down to see his stoma bag was inflated. With a quiet sigh at his new routine, he made his way back inside and did his level best not to think about while he was emptying literal shit from his body, he had messages waiting, and the reality of dating to face.
What a weird fucking world.
Peyton’s attention span lasted just long enough to get through his morning hours of baking and packing orders. He set the boxes aside for his brother to pick up since Linden promised to do a post office run, and Peyton made sure that Ginger was comfy in the guest room before heading over to the crunchy-granola pet store in the strip mall a few blocks from his house.
Now that he was keeping her, she’d need supplies, and it made him feel good to have something in his house he could spoil for a bit. His bank account wouldn’t thank him, but his heart would.
Pulling into the parking lot, he reached for his phone, and it began to buzz against his fingers. He startled, then glanced down and saw a message from Austin waiting for him.
Austin: I hope I didn’t overstep. I just think you’re really cute and I’d like to show you a good time.
Peyton’s stomach dropped somewhere around his feet. He knew what those words were saying without actually saying it. Bile rose in his throat, and he swallowed against the bitter taste. He knew the smart thing to do would be to tell Austin that he wanted to take things slow—very slow. But he could hear his brother’s voice in his head telling him he needed to start taking steps forward.
Maybe even leaps.
Yes, he wasn’t ready to jump in bed with a stranger, but he could probably let a guy show him a good time. And maybe it was time to confront this issue head on. But he’d deal with it later. Much later.