When it's Not Right

Chapter 11

        While he had his phone out, he did a quick search for the phone number to the nearest shelter and made a call to see if there were any puppies that needed fostering. The shelter wanted to meet both Tank and Cory before agreeing to anything, but it sounded promising.

        Overall, it had been a good day. He was waiting on more baseboards to finish up at Jayler's, but those would probably be in tomorrow morning and her apartment would be finished by dinner tomorrow evening. Lou and Tony had called while he was shopping to tell him they'd decided that Cory was hosting Thanksgiving dinner because their boys weren't going to be able to make it home this year – they'd also invited Jay and all three of them would be staying overnight at his place. Now Jenny and Austin were having Conner tonight.

        Cory gave Sir an extra scratching before he went back inside to start making dinner. Tank and Penny were piled up to nap on one pad in the living room and barely moved when he walked past into the kitchen. It would be good to have another puppy around, he figured. The house had been too quiet the past couple of weeks.

        He started washing and dicing vegetables to try avoiding thinking about what he was going to do after he was done at Jay's apartment tomorrow. Boredom wasn't a friend to the lingering PTSD and the anxiety that tagged along for the ride, and his last session with Doctor Vern had been focused on finding a new hobby. Jay had gotten him hooked on home cooking, so maybe he could start looking into that. And, if the snow picked up after starting so late in the season, his boss from last winter had already called to see if he'd drive a plow again this winter. Fuel deliveries, plowing, fostering puppies, picking up some chef skills, plus the usual chores for firewood and keeping the place clean with dogs... Both Lou and Tony, and Rick and Barb, had promised regular visits – weather depending – and he already had his ticket for the flight to Miami to stay with Austin and Jenny for Christmas. Jay was usually at Bowler's, at the apartment, or out with either Barb or Louise, so he'd be able to talk to her typically any time.

        That led to something that Cory did want to think about. He liked spending time with Jay. She'd talk about anything with him, and if she got uncomfortable or offended while they were talking she'd tell him why in the same point-blank style that Jenny used. Usually he had to ask why, but as soon as he asked he'd get told. And when he got told, she'd either be blushingly embarrassed or angrily flushed. Either way made her eyes stand out and – on top of a body that fit his swimsuit model sister's clothes, and considering that he was partial to redheads – he didn't mind that she told him off when she got offended.

        She'd started hugging him a lot, too. Not in a confusing way or a flirty way, but the same way that she hugged Trench: arms all the way around and the side of her face pressed against him because she was leaning in. Like he was important to her and having him around meant something.

        Cory diced up the chicken he'd thawed out and tossed it into a pot to brown. He'd picked up the same sauces that Jay used for stir-fries when he was shopping today and was hoping to get a concoction close to what she made. At the very least, he was hoping it would be edible. He poured on the sauce she used for seasoning the chicken and stirred so that nothing burned to the bottom of the pot.

        Doc Vern had wanted to talk about Jayler in the last session, too. Cory didn't want to get into that conversation yet, though, so he'd changed the subject. Anyway, there hadn't been anything but the hugs to talk about in the last session. It had been after the session that Cory had been working in her bedroom, needed to move her dresser, and the top drawer had fallen out when he'd over-tipped it by accident after hooking one of the bottom corners on her laundry basket. She'd been beyond embarrassed that her two sex toys had bounced out of the mess he'd made into the middle of an empty spot on the floor. He'd laughed about it. If life in the military had taught him anything, it was that if you wanted to keep something private because you thought it was embarrassing, that was the first thing your commander would find in your stuff. Usually because you'd knock something over and whatever you were hiding would spill out into the middle of an empty floor where everyone would clearly see it.

        The mishap had led to a great conversation about sex in general. They'd talked for over an hour, both of them sharing their likes and dislikes and a couple random mistakes that made for funny stories now that the utterly mortifying part of being in the situations was over. Then she'd made dinner for both of them, and while she was cooking they'd talked about shit that she confessed to not having told anyone about, and he hadn't been able to bring up with any of his head doctors yet (and couldn't have imagined talking to just a regular civilian about up until last week). Then they'd eaten and talked about normal stuff, and she'd hugged him like he mattered before he left.

        Cory was pretty sure Doc Vern would get pushy about the Jayler conversation in the next session, if for no other reason than Cory was doing better than expected by helping her fix up her apartment and the Doc would want to keep seeing the progress. Probably it would be a good conversation to have in a session if anything confusing came up. The nice part with Jay, though, was that not much was confusing.

        Once the chicken was done browning, Cory threw in all the vegetables that he'd diced and poured in the sauce that Jay used on top of the veggies. The goop in the pot smelled like what she made, at least. He mixed everything around until the vegetables were hot, but not wilting, and then remembered that he should've made rice. He turned off the burner and moved the pot away from the heat, and then dug through the pantry for the soft tortillas he knew should still be in there. The impromptu wraps weren't as good as what Jayler made, but they were a large distance better than his usual frozen dinners or scrambled eggs and bacon.

        He'd cleaned up the kitchen and was forty-five minutes into looking up random recipes when Jenny's number called his phone.

        "Hello?" he answered on the first note of his ring tone.

        "Hey there, Uncle Cory," Jenny said. She sounded tired and happy.

        "Hey, baby sister," he crooned back, turning away from his computer so that he could focus completely on the conversation. "How's everything going?"

        "Fast," she chuckled. "Conner's here and healthy and snuggling with his dad. He was almost nine pounds. I feel terrible because he came so quick there wasn't time for any drugs. I'm not letting Coop take photos of me yet in case I look like I feel," she laughed quietly. "The doc's say I'm good and all my internals avoided rupturing on the scar from having the twins. A bit of tearing, but he was almost nine pounds so..." her voice trailed off into a chuckle.

        "How are you feeling?" he asked, more relieved than he'd expected to hear that everything had gone well. The big concern had been another C-section like she'd needed with the twins (or complications because of that C-section).

        "I'm okay," she said. He could hear the smile in her voice. "I'm going to let you go so that I can start sending you pictures, though. And I still have to call Mama Cooper. She worries more than you, if you can believe it."

        "I don't," he replied. Jenny laughed quietly again.

        "Talk to you tomorrow, Cory. Love you," she said. Her voice was still smiling.

        "Love you, too." He smiled at her contact photo for the moment before his phone blacked out again. He closed the multiple recipe tabs he had open, opened a new search for baby clothes and toys, and started hunting for presents.