Rae rolled his eyes. “Drama queen. I left you a message to tell you I was in town.”
“Did you?”
“Yes, Jude. A voicemail. Don’t tell me you’ve stopped listening to those too?”
“Not on purpose.” My gaze slid to the drawer where I’d yet again buried my phone. “Just busy, man.”
“Are you well?”
“Of course. You know me.”
“I do. That’s why I’m asking.”
It was my turn to roll my eyes. Rae knew I was epileptic, but he also knew my drug regime worked. “I’m good, mate, I swear. How about you? Still loving retirement?”
“If that’s what you’re calling it. I’ve only stopped the active sabbing, I still work for the anti-hunt cause.”
“Don’t get bashed up anymore, though, eh?”
Rae shrugged, his grunt noncommittal. But he let me have it, and a fondness I didn’t feel for many people bloomed in my gut. For years, Rae and his commune had led a revolt against the weekly fox hunt that had ridden through Thorston. To me, he was a fucking hero. “You want a brew?”
He nodded. “Please.”
I left him with the snakes, pointedly retrieved my phone from the drawer, and retreated to the tiny utility room where I kept a kettle and a fridge. My kettle was knackered and took ages to come to the boil, so I busied myself listening to Rae’s voicemail, and then reading through the very brief message exchange I’d shared with Isha.
Yeah, that’s right. I was still obsessing over him, even though I hadn’t heard from him since he’d walked out of the shop two days ago, taking a part of me with him. I wished I’d told him I never spilled my shit to anyone. That my garbled confession had come from somewhere I didn’t quite understand.
Then I wished I’d never told him anything at all and went back to fantasising that our Grindr encounter was all we had. Simple. Uncomplicated.
And hot as hell.
“What are you mooning about?”
“Huh?”
Rae slid his arm around my shoulders in the kind of fraternal embrace I sometimes craved when I saw other people doing it. “You seem distracted. Have I come at a bad time?”
“Nah, it’s not that. I’m just freaking out about some dude I met on Grindr.”
“Ah. Same guy you messaged me about a few weeks ago?” Rae stepped around me and took over the tea making. “Was he a creep?”
“Nope.”
“Minging?”
“Definitely nope.”
Rae winced and handed me a mug. “That’s even worse, isn’t it? When you meet a super-hot stud for a good time, then spend the next few months wondering where these blokes are in real life.”
It wasn’t quite my issue, but it was close enough for me to nod. “Speaking of which. How’s your hot blond? Still taking good care of you?”
“He is.”
An uncharacteristic flush stole over Rae’s neck, and I smiled. I was fonder of Rae than I was of most people, but our friendship was exactly that. Despite his gorgeousness, I’d never fancied him that much, and it had made my damn year when he’d met Cash. People like Rae deserved to be happy. “So…” I said. “What are you doing here? Not hunt business, is it?”
Rae shook his head. “I came to help the developers who bought Fletch’s land fix the water supply. Goon cut it off so many times the water board can’t figure it out.”
Goon. I struggled for a moment to place the name to the bastard landowner who’d tried to bully me out of the shop when he’d found out I’d run tech interference for Rae’s guerrilla campaign. I didn’t often remember the names of people I didn’t like, and I hated that bastard.