School of Fish (Fish Out of Water #6) - Amy Lane Page 0,6

you know, get back into the game early.”

“No,” Ellery said.

“Please?” Jackson closed his eyes because he didn’t want to see himself turn into a big needy whiny baby. “Please, please, please, please, pleeeeeeeeeze? Ellery, I’m bored!”

“Read a book,” Ellery said, his voice clipped.

“I’ve read books.” Mostly textbooks. Jackson had been taking online courses over the last eight weeks in order to keep his PI skills sharp so he could better help Ellery at the firm. Ellery claimed Jackson knew as much about criminal search and seizure laws as Ellery knew, but Jackson thought Ellery was probably blowing smoke, because Ellery was damned smart.

“God, read a novel. Think of ways to redecorate the house. Go to the shelter and adopt a cat.”

Jackson stared at him. “Adopt a cat?”

And finally—finally—Ellery looked away. “Look, it’s what my mother said when she was here in the spring.”

“She said our cat was inappropriate,” Jackson told him, feeling miffed.

“He licks his balls at every opportunity.”

“That’s unlikely since somebody got him fixed!”

Ellery’s brown eyes snapped. “I got him fixed so he wouldn’t run away and break your heart. And my mother also said that the cat was going to need some company when we both went back to work. And since you’re returning next week, I….” His brows drew down and his mouth pursed, and the resulting expression was grumpy and uncomfortable and very, very dear. “I don’t want him to be lonely.”

Jackson turned to the cat, who was sitting on the other side of the bed with his one remaining back leg shot up in the air as he—yes—licked where his balls used to be.

“Did you hear that, Billy Bob? Ellery loves you.”

The battered, mostly-Siamese cat looked up, his tongue halfway extended from his mouth, and blinked one-and-a-half crossed blue eyes at him. He had a snaggletooth, an ear that had healed ripped, and he’d lost his leg when Jackson’s old duplex had been shot up. His neck was as big around as Jackson’s wrist, and he tended to thug walk, even on three legs.

The fact that Ellery spoiled the cat rotten almost—almost—made up for the fact that he’d gotten Billy Bob fixed while Jackson had been in surgery for a gunshot wound.

“I do,” Ellery said primly. “And I would feel better about both of you if Billy Bob had some company.”

Jackson looked at him, hurt. “Don’t you want to help me pick out his buddy?”

Ellery glanced away again. “Well, yes,” he admitted. “I do, but….” He swallowed. “Dammit! I’m starting to feel bad. You really are working hard at recovery, and Henry’s getting better, but he’s getting on my last goddamned nerve.” Ellery took a deep breath and pulled some of his composure back. “He was in the military for ten years, and he tends to rely on orders,” he said after a minute. “It turns out I don’t mind a little independence.” He sent a conciliatory little smile Jackson’s way.

Jackson sat up completely and held a hand to his chest, hoping his heart was doing a victory lap and not threatening to quit again. “That’s it? You’re caving?” Billy Bob leaped off the bed in a fit of pique, and Ellery stood and backed up like a hunted man.

“No, I am not caving. I am making a concession to the fact that I’m not caving.”

“Oh no,” Jackson said, hopping out of bed. “I’m not going to get that kitten without you, and if I’m not getting the kitten without you, you have to let me come back to work.”

Ellery stared at him, mouth moving like he was trying to find holes in Jackson’s legal theory, and there were probably a boatload, but Jackson didn’t care.

“So you start the coffee, and I’ll get—” Jackson wrinkled his nose. Ellery had bought him a truckload of new clothes while he’d been stuck at home in Ellery’s amazingly spacious house, and Jackson had sort of promised to wear some of them. “—dressed. In the appropriate wear for my job,” he added, all virtue. “I’ll be showered and out the door and ready to go in—”

“Five days!” Ellery countered, with an admirable return of his earlier resolve. “So help me, Jackson.”

“I’ll jockey from the office,” Jackson pleaded. “Henry can do all the footwork. I’ll just help Jade.”

“Jade will strangle you,” Ellery said seriously. “If you’re in that office and underfoot, she will kill you.”

“Jade loves me like a brother,” Jackson returned, indignation lighting him up inside. Jade Cameron and her twin brother, Kaden, and their late mother had taken