Chapter 473 Chapter 473
“I’m kidding.” Calum braced his legs further apart and crossed his arms over his chest, he was looking at Noah when he started talking, “it’s happened before, due to injury, pregnancy,” he nodded, “other reasons. The marking is for your cat, not you. Some cats are out of control when it comes to their mates.”
Noah nodded to let him know he was following him, hoping he’d continue.
“The,” he turned his head slowly and gave Blair a blank look, “other part of the relationship is for you and her and,” he turned back to him, “there’s no set of rules that say how that works, it’s entirely up to the two of you.”
Blair huffed out a breath. “I thought my life was complicated.” He gave Noah a slight nod, “I think you just need to sit down and talk to her, both of you figure it out.”
“Is that what you did with Kobie?” Noah had never really asked; they were just one day ‘mated’.
Blair grimaced and then rolled his eyes, “it was a complete shit show, I spent a lot of time chasing her,” he snorted, “literally a few times,” he sobered, “but as you know her whole world had—” He trailed off and then held his look, “okay, I get it now.” He blew out a breath, “I didn’t see it when you were talking about it before, but both you and Emersyn—” he waved his hand around.
Calum grinned, “you used to be smarter.”
Blair glared at him, “there used to just be me to worry about now there’s,” he flung his hand in the air, “forty-seven or eight, I don’t know—too many people I have to think about and so much shit I have to remember.” He sighed.
Calum watched him for a minute with a smirk on his face, if Noah wasn’t mistaken, he only brought it up to wind Blair up again. He watched Blair pace around in a circle with his hands on his head for a moment, “are you done, or do you need a few more minutes?”
Blair held up his hand and then paced three feet to his left and then nodded, “done now.” He gave Calum the middle finger and then smiled at him.
“I told Tia and Ollie,” Noah paused after he said that name, “that they could come here any time they wanted.”
Blair blinked and looked at him, “what’s two more, right?” He grinned, “I’m kidding, that’s fine. Your brother is quiet, I like him.” He glanced out the window, “your sister, she’s uh, blunt to put it mildly.”
Noah grinned, “she knows what she likes or doesn’t, there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Your folks are going back tomorrow,” Calum said quietly.
Noah inhaled slowly, “I feel no connection to them at all.”
“That’s not unusual in circumstances like this. You’ve been through a lot and their lives are basically the life you no longer know.”
Noah turned to Calum to see a sincere look in his eyes, “yeah, I’ll still go say bye to them before they head back when I take Tia over to Ed’s.”
“Times up,” Blair said making both of them look at him. “Here come the ladies and they look like they have a purpose to all be heading this way.”
Calum went over and looked, “shit.” He scowled at the floor, “I haven’t done anything wrong recently.”
Blair shrugged, “I’ve been too busy to screw up.” He looked over at him and Noah’s heart started beating faster, “it’s got to be directed at you, bud.”
Noah’s eyes felt like they bulged out of his head, he gave it a quick shake. Then he saw the smirk on Calum’s face as Blair looked at him. “You guys suck, you know that?” He moved over to the window to look for himself. They just looked like they were walking this way, not like they were on a mission. “Asshole.” He looked at Blair, “I could have lost it.”
Blair shrugged, “the beast tamer is walking this way, we’re good.”
Noah looked back out the window, Emersyn was talking to Shaelan, and she looked—happy. It was nice to see her not look like she wanted to bolt for the first door. He knew there were going to be bad moments, that was just part of it, he almost laughed out loud at that, his moments far outweighed hers.
All three of them jolted and moved from the window when the door opened. Noah glanced briefly at the other two women’s faces and then looked at Emersyn, she stepped further from the others than Kobie and Shaelan, but that look of suffocating wasn’t on her face, so she was okay.
Kobie smiled at Blair, “we’re going to take your niece home with us for the night,” she nodded, “give you a chance to get to know her.”
Blair cocked his head to the side, “Which one?”
Kobie smiled, “Aspyn.”
Blair looked from her to Emersyn, “she’ll be okay with it?”
Emersyn nodded, “Kobie told her that you’re a big white tiger,” she smiled, but didn’t look directly at Noah, “so now she has to see that for herself.”
Blair rubbed his hand across his chest, “sure, I guess if she’s okay with it.”
Noah smiled and then looked at him, “at least then she’ll be asking to ride on your back.”
“Ride on my back,” he looked from him back to Kobie, who smiled sweetly at him making him snap his mouth shut and shrug, but his expression said there would be a discussion about it.
During the whole exchange, it wasn’t lost on Noah that Emersyn wasn’t looking at him at all. The look on her face wasn’t bad, but it made him nervous, and he didn’t know why. He glanced at Calum to see he was watching Shaelan, with a questioning look on his face.
The silence started to feel heavy, and Noah couldn’t handle it. “You did a great job in here.” He blurted out and turned to look at the kitchen area. “Do you want to keep those cupboards or-or would you like something different.”
Blair cleared his throat, “we have new ones coming for the houses if you want us to add to the order.”
Noah turned his head to send him a quick thankful look and was only met with a big grin.
“I like them,” Emersyn said as she moved to go stand in front of them. “Kobie is going to help me with the fixtures,” she looked at the window, “curtains and things.”
Noah nodded, all while looking at her, trying to figure out why she was looking everywhere but directly at him. He was used to women not making eye contact with him, but she always looked him directly in the eye. “Okay, just let me know if you need a hand.” He turned and looked at the door, “I’m going to go see if Cooper needs help.” Head down, he went to the door and out it. He didn’t even know where Cooper was or what he was doing, he could be taking a nap for all he knew. He paused in step and shook his head; he’d never known him to have a nap.
He walked to the other side of the house and looked around, no one was there. Which worked for him, he stopped and looked at the snow on the ground. Something had changed with Emersyn. Things weren’t the same. He clenched his teeth together. Last night. He somehow fucked it up.
“Do you always mumble to your boots?”