Joel makes a strangled sort of noise in the back of his throat, one that's mostly born of embarrassment, both because of what Coop is said and just how right he is. The things he and Spencer do together when they're alone have been the types of things Joel wouldn't have even imagined he'd ever be doing and when he'd first met Spencer, no matter how attracted he'd been to the other man, he would never have expected to see this side of him. The side that touches him in the car or utters some of the most incredibly unexpected and arousing things Joel has ever heard come out of a person's mouth.

But he hasn't told anyone else he's in love with Spencer and it's not that he feels any need to hide it, but that he wants to keep it to himself because it shouldn't matter to anyone but the two of them. So long as he and Spencer know how they feel, everyone else is free to think whatever they like.

When Coop is gone, Joel reaches out with one hand, stroking a finger against the top of Balto's head. She allows him to rub her for a second, then butts her head against his hand and swishes her tail, walking away with her back turned. And when Coop comes back and get Balto to eat right out of his head, he can't help it, he laughs. "I don't know why she'd be so mad, she seems to like Spencer more than she likes me," he says, reaching out to nudge his cat with his knuckles, though he's relieved to see her eating. If she's just mad at him, at least that means she'll get over it in time.

For a long time, she'd been his only company. Now he has Spencer, he has Raleigh and soon, he'll have Charlotte again, but that doesn't mean he's about to forget his cat. For the past three years, she's spend every night with him, curled up near his feet, kept him company when he'd needed it the most.