A Man of Many Parts by Edward Kendrick

Author:Edward Kendrick [Kendrick, Edward]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

“I shouldn’t have invited him over,” Noel said to Argyle and Max as he got ready to take them for their morning walk. “It won’t do any good. Nothing will happen.”

Overhearing him, Susan asked, “What won’t happen?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing not happening means something will happen.” She grinned at him. “Double negative.”

“Right.” He rolled his eyes.

“I take it ‘him’ is Jackson.”

“Yeah. He made it very clear last night that we’ll only be friends and nothing more because he’ll be leaving soon.”

“He should get out of here now,” she replied, her expression tightening. “He’s putting all of us in danger if that guy does come after him.”

“Yeah, well…” Noel didn’t want to talk about it so he clipped leashes on the dogs’ collars and started toward the gate.

“He is,” Susan insisted, following him. “Besides, it’s not fair to you for him to hang around, no matter the reason. Friends my ass.”

Noel sighed, knowing she was right. It didn’t stop him from wishing he had the guts to take advantage of Jackson’s coming to dinner. Would it be so horrible if we did more than eat and talk? Am I willing to find out? Sure, it would just be sex for him, I’m sure. He smiled sourly. Certainly would make for some interesting dreams though, after he’s gone.

As he and the dogs started down one of the paths outside the shelter’s yard, Noel asked himself why he was fixating on Jackson to start with.

Because he’s good looking and sexy? Am I that shallow? Because he’s the only man I’ve been around in forever? Okay, the only gay man. Donovan and the men who’ve fostered some of our dogs don’t count. Maybe it’s because there’s something mysterious about him. I wasn’t lying when I told him I sensed two sides to him, one I could see, the other hidden. He had the perfect response and maybe that’s all there was to it—his being gay but cautious. But what if there’s something else that he doesn’t want anyone to know about?

He stopped walking when he had a sudden thought that was so ludicrous he laughed aloud. “He’s a secret agent and man’s coming after him because Jackson has proof of some plot to take out world leaders. It could happen,” he told the dogs when they looked at him in question, before tugging the leashes to get him moving again.

* * * *

Because he needed to keep busy, Jax spent most of Monday morning going through Donovan’s books, taking a few of them to the workroom because the covers needed minor repairs. He’d asked Donovan at breakfast if there were any of them that needed more than that.

“No,” Donovan replied. “Despite what you might think, I’m usually very careful to make certain the pages themselves are in excellent condition.”

Jax grinned. “So the crayon marks on the atlas were an anomaly.”

“More like my greed to get my hands on it overcoming common sense. I’ve admitted as much.”

“You have,” Jax replied. “By the way, I’m not going to charge you for anything I do on the covers from now on.

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