1. The Cat Distribution System Strikes

Idon"t own a cat.

I"ve never even had one as a pet in my life. I"ve always thought of myself as more of a dog kinda guy. We had big old bear-sized dogs growing up and I loved each of them.

But being a single guy with a lot on my plate, rocking my rookie year on the Mustangs, gaming live streams with my brothers, and living on my own for the first time in this way-too-big-for-one-man house, I didn"t think it was right to get a dog that I wouldn"t have time to give all the love he deserves.

Someone should tell the cat, who was currently snuggled up between my knees, all of that. This snoring or purring fluffball was the only warm body I"d had in my bed, so I wasn"t complaining. Simply confused AF.

I was awake at stupid o"clock in the morning partly because I had practice and mostly because of the neighborhood alarm rooster known as Luke Skycocker. His crowing didn"t seem to faze the cat.

No wait. It was Saturday. The running team's meeting wasn"t until this afternoon. Dammit. I could have slept in.

Maybe I was still asleep, because how did a cat even get in my house, much less upstairs to my bedroom, not to mention on my bed and curled up between my legs?

And if I was dreaming, I might as well dream up a warm, fluffy, purring woman between my legs. I stared down at the fluffball and squinted my eyes, trying with all my might to transform it into the girl of my dreams.

It rolled over and yawned, stretched out its paws, and stuck me right in the thigh with nails sharper than ninja stars.

"Yowch. Watch where you put those things." I yanked my leg away and the cat went flying off the bed like a speed racer.

"Wait, where are you going, cat?" Shit. I didn"t mean to yell at the thing. And now it was probably cowering somewhere in my house. I threw the covers off, noting three bright red puncture wounds way too close to the family jewels, and padded out into the hallway and down the stairs. "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty. Sorry I scared you."

"Dude. I don"t know what kind of weird sex games you and whatever girl you"ve got up there are playing, but I can already see your junk."

I stopped dead in my tracks at the foot of the stairs for two reasons. One, my older brother Flynn was standing in my kitchen and I was bare ass naked, and two, the cat was perched right above his head on top of the refrigerator and it looked like it was about to pounce.

"Don"t move," I said very quietly so as not to scare it into action.

"Come on, it"s fine. I"ll just close my eyes so you can get your girl back up to your room in private. I swear, I haven"t seen anything." Flynn closed his eyes, but also shoved a spoonful of Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch into his mouth without missing a beat.

"There"s no girl." There was never a girl. "But there is a scared cat who looks like it"s about to launch itself at your head. Which is why I said don"t move."

Flynn did, in fact, move. He dropped to a crouch, cupping the cereal bowl against his chest, which is the only reason the cat landed on his back instead of his head. "Ow, ow, holy shit, get it off, get it off."

"Hold still, dumbass, and I"ll grab it." I reached for the animal, and I swear it smiled before digging its hind leg claws in deeper and launching itself off Flynn"s back and straight for my face.

But if there was one thing I knew how to do, it was catch a compact package when it was thrown at my head. I zigged to the left, snagged the cat in mid-air, tucked it under my arm like a furry little football, and rolled across Flynn"s back, right to the open sliding glass doors that led to my backyard.

That must be how both the cat and Flynn got in. The lot of us Kingmans were in and out of each other"s houses all the time, since we lived on the same street. I honestly liked having them around, had even converted my living room into a state-of-the-art gaming and streaming center for the four youngest of us brothers.

But I was just getting used to living on my own. I"d even taken to sleeping naked, since there weren"t usually family or cats... or women in my house at the butt crack of dawn. Better go haul my PJ pants back out of the bottom of the dresser.

I planned to release the demon cat back into the wild. I darted through the door and into the backyard thinking I"d just plop the cat come football on the lawn so it could be on its merry way.

But for the second time that morning, I stopped dead in my tracks.

"Hiya, Hayes. Have you seen—" A messy bed head of dark brown hair poked up on the other side of the fence, and then those pretty blue eyes, that cute button of a nose, and the sweet round cheeks of Willa Rosemount popped up too.

"Oh my god, oh my god." She slapped her hand over her eyes and turned her face into the sun. "Why are you naked?"

If I was Everett, or even Flynn or Gryffen, I"d have something cool to say in answer to her question and freak out. But I was the one Kingman with no rizz and stood there like a lump on a log. Or rather a lump with a log.

What can I say, I was fresh out of bed and I"d already had a shot of adrenaline. The combo meant I was sporting some serious morning wood, and I absolutely refused to use this cat to cover it up. I"d already felt the razor slice of its claws a bit too close for comfort.

Flynn, somehow still munching away on his bowl of my cereal, stepped onto the grass beside me. "Hey, Willa. I didn"t know you were back in town. Where in the world were you this time? Istanbul? No, that was last year."

With me still frozen and her hand firmly covering her eyes, she answered in an adorable squeak that did nothing to temper my hard-on. "Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon, this year."

My brother looked between me and Willa and that"s when I knew I was dead meat. I recognized the how-much-fun-can-I-have-torturing-my-little-brother glint in his eyes. As if we"d just run into her at the fucking mall or something, he said, all nonchalant, "That"s cool. Just get in?"

Willa pressed her lips together and if her hand hadn"t been covering her eyes, I"d bet she was doing that one-eyebrow raise of annoyance. I wasn"t the only one with an older brother who knew how to be a D-bag. But with her well-honed give-no-shits attitude, which I found sexy as hell, she replied, "No. A couple of days ago. Could you, uh, grab that cat and hand him over the fence to me? I need to give him his medication."

Flynn glanced at the cat, looked at me, and winked. "No can do, Willabean. I don"t think it likes me. Hayes? You got this?"

"Don"t call her that. She hates it." I"d seen her punch a lesser man, a.k.a. her brother Xander, for a similar offense. And when a woman set a boundary, it should be respected. I"d never once called her Willabean, even if I thought it was cute as shit. She was cute as… no she was freaking beautiful.

Flynn smiled and took another bite of cereal and crunched it a whole lot louder than necessary. If I didn"t do something immediately, she and I were both going to be subjected to Fun Time with Flynn for a whole lot longer.

I willed my erection to go down, which it did not, and trucked over to the fence. I lifted the furball, who had legit started purring, up to her face to block her view. "Here"s your cat, sorry about the show and Flynn being a dick."

"Thanks, for catching Seven... and, you know, the show." She kept her eyes closed as she took the cat, but I definitely noticed a grin and her cheeks got all pink. Was she flirting with me? "And that"s what older brothers are for. I think they get paid extra for being asshats."

"We do," Flynn shouted, but he was already walking back into the house. "You"re welcome."

Her cat was called Seven? Kind of a weird name. But we weren"t ones to talk. Every dog we"d ever had was named Bear. All of them. I think my dad thought we wouldn"t notice when one went over the rainbow bridge if he replaced it with a close look-alike and started calling it by the same name.

Willa stepped down off whatever she was standing on to get her head above the top of the fence. I was tall enough to see into her backyard, but she was a shorty-short pants. I don"t think she"d grown an inch since she"d been the tallest girl in the sixth grade. By seventh, she was just average, and I"d shot well past her by eighth. Not, you know, that I"d kept close track of that or anything. She"d been the sister of one of my high school teammates, so no flirting, dating, or even thinking about her allowed.

Even though I should be hightailing it back inside my house, I wasn"t ready. But how exactly did one flirt with the previously off-limits girl next door while naked? "I"ll murder him later so he won"t bother you again."

Right. Yep. Nothing said flirty banter like death and dismemberment.

"Nah, that"s okay. We"d be weak little baby birds if we hadn"t grown thick skins because of them. But thanks anyway." She paused for a moment and I should have said something else.

A thousand ideas flipped through my mind, none of which made it out of my mouth. Girls didn"t usually want to talk about Everett"s total rushing yards, Chris"s average yards per pass attempt, or Declan"s sack record. I could tell her about the humorous science book about cadavers I"d read on the plane home from our last game and ask her what she"d read lately. But that would mean more talk about dead people.

What the hell was wrong with me? This was why I never had a girlfriend. Shit.

"See ya around, Hayes."

Would she? I definitely wanted to see her.

I hadn"t seen much of her since we graduated, and now I couldn't look away. Back then, I was off to DSU to play football and she went to locations far and wide. She"d only come home to Colorado a few times since then. And, in fact, it was usually in the summer for her and Xander"s birthday. This was October.

Willa Rosemount had always been my type, with thick thighs and an ass that didn't quit. But in the past few years, she'd grown even curvier. When had she gotten so damn hot? This hard-on wasn't going anywhere if I kept thinking about her like that.

Say something else to her, dumbass. "You home for a while?"

At least that time I didn"t sound like an idiot. Nary a mention of death. The question even implied I was hoping to see her again. Shit. Did that even sound flirty? Ten seconds trying to talk to the cute and curvy girl next door and every brain cell I"d ever had melted away into the ether. Or maybe they"d all gone south.

My erection wasn"t any closer to going down, and I was well beyond the excuse of morning wood. The longer I stared at her, the harder I got. Yeah, this was all fucking for her and those luscious curves that were going to be starring in all my fantasies.

I was going to have to take care of business in the shower this morning just so I could walk around like a normal person all day. Until I saw her again.

"Not sure. I"m just on a short break from my teaching gig. Gonna hang with the Guncles at the coffee shop for a bit." Didn"t sound like she was entirely happy about that. I wondered if there was more to the story than I was getting in a chat over the fence.

"I"ll be sure to stop by for a coffee." The right words came out, but I didn"t know whether to smile or look serious.

Willa turned back to her house, the cat in her arms, looking over her shoulder at me and our eyes held for one breath, two, three. She licked her perfect lips, pulling my gaze from her eyes, and I so wanted to know what her mouth would feel like to against mine. My eyes traced down and over her body, greedily taking in every thick bit of her to commit to memory… for later. My dick was very much in favor of that line of fantasies and hardened even more if that was even possible.

"You should probably put some clothes on first." She gave me a suggestive little eyebrow waggle that sent electricity down my chest and stomach. "Unless you became a nudist or something. Stranger things have happened."

She went into the house, and I stood there staring like a weird, naked stalker for far too long. Willa Rosemount was the last person I thought I"d be showing my junk to this morning. Man, she looked good. Still cute as pie, but there was something more to her now. Had her hips always swayed like that?

Or was I just horny as hell and as likely to fantasize about video game characters as I was about the girl next door? Both, both were happening at the same time. I could definitely imagine Willa in some trooper armor wielding a set of katanas.

And didn"t that thought have my cock insisting I jump over the fence and... and nothing. My cock and I were acting like I was a teenager who couldn"t control his hormones. I was a grown-ass man with a job and responsibilities.

I marched back into the house and smacked Flynn on the side of the head as I walked past him sitting on the couch. "You"re evil."

"Did you ask her out?" He bobbed his chin at me. "At least tell me you got her number."

I ignored him, walked into the laundry room off the kitchen to grab some boxers out of the dryer, and then returned to pour my own bowl of cereal. What was left of it anyway. Dammit. I was going to have to go grocery shopping. Again. This had to be how Dad felt whenever we inhaled all the food in the house.

"What are you doing here anyway?" I plopped down onto the other end of the couch. "Don"t you have a game today?"

"Yeah. Why do you think I"m carb-loading?" He gave me a shit-eating grin. "You should bring your new girlfriend."

I knew this game just as well as any other Fun Times with Flynn. He wanted me to say she wasn"t my girlfriend so he could tease me mercilessly. But this wasn"t high school and I was smarter than he was. "Sorry, no can do. We"re having coffee later."

That wasn"t exactly a lie.

"Hells to the yeah, bro. I knew I set you up to score. You can thank me later." He gulped the last of his cereal and milk and left his bowl and spoon perched precariously on the arm of the couch. "Be sure to leave a sock on the door so we know not to come barging in later tonight."

"I"m locking all my doors and you"re no longer welcome in my house." Which was a lie. We had a live stream on our gaming channel later tonight with Gryffen and Isak. Besides, he had set me up so I had to talk to her. He might be an asshole, but he really did use his powers for good.

The question now was how I was going to capitalize on the one time I had successfully flirted with a girl. I guess I really should go over to the café her family owned for that cup of coffee. Not that I was a big coffee drinker or anything. And she hadn"t said she was working there today.

Shit. I was already fucking this up and I hadn"t even properly asked her out yet. Lord, help me.

No. Wait. Love Guru help me. This was Everett"s area of expertise, and if anyone could coach me through how to romance a woman like Willa, it was him.

I finished my cereal, did the damn dishes myself, got ready, and jogged on over to Everett"s, which was just a few doors down from me. For once there wasn"t some little sports car in his driveway which was his personal version of a sock on the door. Interesting. It wasn"t like Ev not to have a lady over on a Friday night.

He"d better not be sick or something. We needed him for the game on Sunday.

I jumped over the gate to his backyard, planning to slip in through his house"s sliding glass door, just like Flynn had done to me. Although I planned to knock and announce myself. But I found Ev sitting on his lawn furniture, in a robe, drinking coffee, staring out at the clear autumn sky, listening to a Kelsey Best break up song on his phone.

Uh-oh.

"What"re you doing, Ev?" I used a cautious and quiet voice because I wasn't sure I"d ever seen my brother like this. He was downright melancholy and I was worried I knew why.

He grabbed for the phone, spilling half his coffee in the process, and turned the song off too quickly. "Sup, Hayes?"

I sat across from him, leaned in, and folded my hands. "I was here to ask you for advice, but you look like you could use some yourself. Look, if you"ve got a crush on Kels, none of us would blame you. I mean, Dec might pulverize you, but?—"

"Geez, no, kid. I don"t have a crush on my brother"s fiancée. I just like her music, okay? Everybody does, it"s no big deal." He took a sip of the remaining coffee, made a face at it like he just realized it was cold piss-water, and set it down on the wooden side table. "Now tell me what kind of advice you"re here for."

His smile was a little too forced, but Ev and I had gotten a lot closer since I joined the Mustangs this year. We spent a lot of time together, and I knew when he wasn"t ready to talk about whatever was bothering him. I"d get it out of him eventually.

"So... there"s this girl."

"It"s about fucking time, my man." This time his smile was genuine. "I thought you were going to be a virgin forever."

Oh shit. He knew? Did everyone in the family know? Probably. That"s the kind of family we had. That explained why Flynn had been so excited when I said I had a coffee date. "Yeah, well, you weren"t the only one."

Not that I was thinking about having sex with Willa. I hadn"t even asked her out yet.

Who was I kidding? I was definitely thinking about all the things I wanted to do with Willa. And next time, I hoped I wouldn"t be the only one who was naked.