I woke up with a tiny paw in my eye.

"Good morning, Ginger," I whispered.

The small orange kitten puffed up for a second and I wondered if she was holding a grudge after I'd locked her out of the bedroom yesterday morning. And afternoon. Ruby had convinced me to open the door late last night, before we'd both fallen into bed, exhausted in a tangle of limbs.

Now I wished I'd stood my ground.

Ginger batted at my nose, then tried to attack my eyeballs. I winced as the tiny, needle sharp claw sank into my eyelid, but I managed to stay still and quiet because Ruby was still asleep.

She slept with no trace of self-consciousness. Her arm was flung up over her head like she was surrendering, and her jaw was slack. The blanket was tugged down, revealing one perfect mound, her pretty nipple peeking at me like it had a secret.

I felt my cock stiffening in a way that had nothing to do with morning wood.

"Avert your eyes, Ginger," I murmured as I leaned over to kiss my girl awake.

Her eyes fluttered open, and then widened. "Hey," she smiled sleepily, then looked alarmed and yanked the sheet up over her mouth.

I chuckled and snatched it away - and of course Ginger attacked it as it moved - and leaned in to kiss her again. "Don't care," I told her. "And good morning."

"I didn't think you'd stay," she said with a pleased little humming sigh.

"You kidding? I'm moving into your bed permanently."

She smiled and stretched again. "While that sounds like an excellent idea, you're going to be extremely bored if you do that."

I reached out to tweak her nipple. "Not possible."

"I have to do my lesson plans, I didn't get any work done yesterday," she said pointedly.

I licked my lips, a little disappointed. I had thought today we might go over to my family's house, maybe let everyone know how things had changed. Then maybe we could play the tapes again and Ruby could tell me which songs were her favorite. A germ of an idea was starting to form in my brain, the first idea about music I'd had in a long time. I hadn't worked out all the details yet, but I could feel the excitement starting to mount and I wanted her there to cheer me along.

But she rolled out of bed and picked a white terrycloth robe off of a hook on her closet door. "Oof," she said, wincing a little as she stood slightly bowlegged. "That last round was..."

"Sorry baby," I said, but I couldn't hide my grin of triumph quick enough and she threw a slipper at me.

"Let me make you breakfast at least, "I told her. "You can't work on an empty stomach." I pressed my lips together. "Okay I'm lying I can't cook for shit, but I can make a mean cup of coffee."

"We didn't eat much yesterday," she said, looking shy all of a sudden. "Or sleep."

I leaped up from the bed, inadvertently sending Ginger flying, and went to her side. "Can I see you later?" I asked, feeling hesitant for some reason. Ruby made me feel brand new, it was true, and part of that was I seemed to have forgotten how this whole thing worked.

She kissed me and then smiled. "You'd fucking better," she growled and I laughed at the contrast between her dirty words and her sweet face.

I made her the promised cup of coffee, chiding her for the state of her coffee maker and promising to bring over a French press as soon as she'd let me. She gave me a bowl of cold cereal, then laughed when I'd drunk the milk from the bowl. I kissed her goodbye with my milk mustache, and headed out into Crown Creek.

A fresh coat of snow had fallen overnight, and the whole world glittered in the sunshine. I wondered if the world had always been this beautiful or if things were different now that I had Ruby in my world.

When I got back home again, the first thing I did was cross the lawn and down to the creek where the shed sat. The snow had covered my footprints and where I had sat down in despair. But that wasn't why the shed looked different today.

Hearing Gid's voice yesterday, knowing there was something left of him in this world, something left for me to pick up and hold and have and use, it made the shed feel less like a tomb and more like a memorial to who he was. "Thanks, Uncle Gid," I mouthed to the window. If he was anywhere, he was here and he probably heard me.

For the first time in weeks, things felt settled. And it was all because of Ruby.

Ruby.

My girl.

The soft babble of the creek, narrowed in by ice, whispered through the trees. I found myself following the noise, listening the song it sang. The idea I'd started having over at Ruby's house was a tickle in the back of my brain, propelling me forward.

It was the first hike I'd gone on since coming back to Crown Creek, which was odd because I was a demon hiker back in the day. The quiet, snowy woods made it easier to hear my own thoughts.

It was a little before lunchtime before I turned back and returned to our property feeling like the idea had solidified into an actual plan. A light glimmered through the trees. If I didn't know better, I'd think someone had lit a bonfire.

Someone had lit a bonfire but that someone was Finn, and that meant I wasn't really surprised. "What's this?" I asked as I approached our fire pit.

He looked up from where he'd been feeding papers into the flames. "A fire," he said, straightening up and wiping his hands on his jeans before taking a sip of the open can of beer by his foot. "I needed to burn some stuff."

Every year my dad burned brush out here, but left the biggest logs lying in the grass as rudimentary chairs. I'd toasted a lot of marshmallows at this fire pit, but I'd never sat by a fire with a beer before. "Aren't you freezing out here?"

Finn looked up and then gestured like it was obvious. "I made a fire."

"It's November."

"Fires are warm no matter the month."

He was right. I held my hands out, letting the tips of my fingers un-freeze a bit. "You got any more of that?" I asked, gesturing to the cooler by his leg.

Wordlessly he opened his cooler and handed me a cold can. "A nice cold one on a hot day," I deadpanned, opening the tab. "Can't beat that."

"Mmm," was all Finn said, staring into the flames like they contained the answers to a question he'd been seeking forever.

I looked down at my hands. The fronts of my shins were burning up but my back was freezing. "You know, we have a fire place. Inside," I said pointedly.

"Too many people inside," Finn said.

"Beau's inside."

"Beau's not people."

I cleared my throat. "Wanted to run something by you."

"Me?" Finn raised his eyebrow and pressed a hand to his heart in a mock swoon. "To what do I owe the honor?"

"The fact that you know Claire best," I said immediately.

That seemed to give him pause. His face softened a little. Back when we were kids, Claire had been the third twin, almost their triplet. And in spite of his hair-trigger temper with everyone else, Finn had always been patient with Claire, who seemed to recognize and honor that special privilege by defending his tantrums at the top of her voice. "What's going on with Sissy?" he asked, a look of mild concern in his eyes.

I took another drink and thought carefully for a moment. It was still so new, this thing with Ruby. Nothing might ever come of it.

No, fuck that, I wanted something to come of it. I opened my mouth to ask him what he thought, how Claire might take it if I started dating her friend.

"You guys okay?" Beau called from the deck.

Finn looked up the lawn back to the house and raised his beer at his twin. "Thirsty?"

"Course! But I'm cold too!"

"There's a fire!"

Beau seemed to consider this. I shivered and dragged my log closer to the fire. A light snow had started to fall, big, fat flakes that didn't so much fall as dance in the air, light enough to fight gravity and float upward in the wind like we were in the center of a massive snow globe. Beau disappeared back inside. Finn shrugged. "Guess he wasn't that thirsty."

Then the front door slammed open and Beau started down the steep side yard lawn. He was carrying something in his hand that as he got closer resolved itself into a pile of brightly colored hats. "If you're gonna sit out here in the snow, cover your idiot heads," he grumbled, handing one to me and then chucking the other one full force at Finn who caught it right in the face.

I unfolded it in my lap and stared. "Is this one of the ones..."

"Aunt Margaret knitted?" he finished, sitting down and pulling a wholly sensible black cap out of his pocket. "You bet your ass it is. If you're going to be ridiculous sitting out here in the snow, you're going to wear a ridiculous hat."

Finn, meanwhile, had pulled his red and green chevron creation onto his head without complaint. The white pompom bobbed solemnly on the top of his head.

I burst out laughing.

Beau's grin widened. Finn struck a pose and I laughed harder. Beau's deep bass chuckle started up, the slow "huh huh huh" of his laugh that always made us laugh harder. It was contagious, the kind of shit we used to get in trouble for at the dinner table, laughing so hard you go soundless and shaking and your face starts to hurt.

Just before everything had gone foul, we'd had a moment like this. Down in London's Portobello Road Market, bored out of our mind's as Gabe's ex was shopping, some wide eyed tourist had recognized us and asked if we were the King Brothers.

"Nah mate, sorry," Finn had replied in the most ridiculous British accent I'd ever heard.

"Right," Gabe jumped in, his accent even more transparently fake than Finn's. "We do get that a lot don't we?"

"You really think we look like them?" I'd asked, not even bothering with the fake accent because I'm terrible at them.

The tourist had blinked and put her phone away, saving us from the selfie. "Oh my god you're right," she'd said, looking horrified. "You guys look nothing like them, I'm so sorry."

"I hear they're assholes anyway," Beau prompted which had her nodding and apologizing before she moved on.

And we'd laughed.

Just liked we were laughing now. "Where the fuck did you find these?" I managed to wheeze to Beau.

He nodded solemnly. "They're new, actually. She sent them. Early Christmas present."

"They're supposed to go under the tree, jackass."

"I thought it was something I got from Amazon. Didn't even read the address label until I'd opened it. Then I figured -" His grin was mischievous. "I mean, you looked cold."

"The fuck is this?" Gabe was rounding the corner. My chest tightened when I saw his sling, and the way he was moving so carelessly with it too.

"Oh good you're here. Have a hat." Beau chucked a green and white one at Gabe who let it land at his feet while he stared at it in mock horror. "Courtesy of Aunt Margaret."

"Put it on. You've got snowflakes in your hair," I instructed.

Gabe grinned and slapped it on his head one handed. The floppy tassel hanging to one side made him look like a scruffy, worse for wear elf. Beau's "huh huh huh," started up again which made me laugh again and suddenly all four of us were doubled over and everything was right again.