Chapter Eleven

Oren

From the moment I scented them, I realized there was no leaving them or this place. This cabin was for us to make our home. Everything about it felt right. Except the size, but there was plenty of room to expand.

They agreed, and that meant there was a lot to do. The cabin was great, and it was nearly done as far as repairs went, but, in addition to adding on, it also needed some technology upgrades. My first attempt at connecting to the internet had failed. It was intermittent at best and slow even when it was connected. We had to figure out a way to get wired or possibly satellite internet installed.

All of that took time. Thankfully, money wasn’t an issue—not yet—but that didn’t mean these things weren’t time consuming.

I called my boss, not wanting to have the conversation we needed to hold. He’d been great, letting me stay here while I figured stuff out with the house. But my arrangement wasn’t permanent. It couldn’t be. Too much of what I did required me to be in the office. The only reason this worked was because I took on a little bit of Stan’s work, and he took on my in-person meetings and presentations.

It was a lot to ask of him, and I was beyond grateful for his help. I’d told him when I came back to the city we’d do a karaoke set, just the two of us. At the time, I thought it would be me returning forever. Now, it would be me coming to get my things. How different my life was all because of one pop-up ad.

When I called work, I had no idea what to expect. Would they fire me on the spot? Would they beg me to come back? Would they pull out some secret bit of my contract that would bind me to them forever and drag me back to the city?

I laughed at myself for turning my life into some really bad rom-com, as if such a contract existed. But luckily for me, real life didn’t come close to matching my imagination and my boss was understanding. He was one of the few shifters in the company, and once I said, “mate,” he understood. He congratulated me and told me he would see what he could do.

At the time, I assumed he meant he’d try to get me my sick days paid or arrange for me to not have to come back to clean out my office. But then he called the next day and told me he’d found me another job within the company—one that could be done fully remotely. It wasn’t the same as what I’d been doing. There was no more clocking in at nine and clocking out at five, but it would be money coming in until I could figure things out, and that worked for me.

Ideally, I wanted to find something local, something where I could become a part of this community too. I loved my mates, and I loved being in a family, but I missed being around coworkers and having that space too.

“What do you think?” Heath turned his computer around.

“What am I looking at?” I’d been spacing out over my morning coffee, my mind flitting between all the things that still needed doing.

“Well, they sell these, like Insta-houses—that’s not the right word—but they’re not trailers. They come flat, and then you kind of pick them up like a kid’s toy, using either a crane or some really strong men. I don’t know how it goes together, but look.”

I pressed play on the video he showed me, and sure enough, they kind of dropped this house in place, then picked up all four sides, one at a time, until they somehow pieced it together, and then there was a roof placed on top. The weird thing was, in the video, they actually looked really nice—like sure, they pieced together like a construction toy and not what one thinks of when they think of new construction, but also, they were sold as sturdy and functional. Maybe they were the best of all worlds, or maybe they had really good PR people. Probably a bit of both.

“I’m not saying no, but I don’t know how those would weather here.” Would they stay warm in the winter, cool in the summer? Could they handle the snow? Could I? Everything was so new to me, also.

“Yeah, I was wondering about that too, but they’re really neat.” He tapped the screen right above where the price was. “And if we could find a way to connect it to the house...”

He was right. That was a great deal. It should definitely go on our maybe list.

“Maybe?” Archer came in, eyeing us with amusement. “Maybe what?”

He looked us up and down like we’d been up to something—which, to be fair, was a pretty constant state for us. But not this time. We were just drinking coffee and being influenced by short videos selling buildings.

“We were looking at possibilities for adding on to the house.” I leaned back so he could get a better view.

“Oh, let me see.” He sat down with us, and we spent the next hour going down a rabbit hole of mini easy houses that were very unlike the manufactured homes of old, but also not quite houses either. But really, the houses weren’t the important part, it was the three of us discussing our future together and what that was going to look like.

I leaned into Archer’s side, my hand on Heath’s thigh. It didn’t matter what we decided to do with the house or where I worked. This, right here, was what mattered—Heath and Archer by my side and in my heart.