The Moore the Merrier

by Alex Miska

  Chance, Logan, Xander, and Julian inflated air mattresses in one of the upstairs rooms, while their four teens gathered in the living room downstairs. Although they also had beds, the teens had voiced their intention to stay awake all night. In addition, Frankie preferred to avoid stairs but it hadn’t occurred to anyone that pugs and water bowls could be carried, no matter how hard Frankie stared at Dean to beam the idea into the boy’s brain.

  ‘This isn’t privacy. Privacy is whispering with the door closed while Marcus tries to listen.’ Cassius grumbled.

  ‘Your husbands enjoy doing privacy backward,’ Frankie said. ‘I think the pups sense someone is listening outside the door, and Julian and Logan know the pups are aware of their presence. They are all amusing themselves by feigning ignorance. It’s peculiar, I know, but our families could never be described as normal.’

  Despite his friend’s palpable frustration, Frankie enjoyed watching both generations from his station in the doorway while the Moores played their bizarre, highly diverting privacy game. From what the pug could glean, Julian and Logan had been sent downstairs on an intelligence-gathering mission, while Chance and Xander discussed plans for yet another wedding (such contentious parties appeared to be en vogue).

  ‘Cassius, I can watch over the pups tonight while you take care of your husbands,’ Roger offered. The greyhound and the boxer had bonded over their parenthood, which caused Frankie no end of jealousy. He knew Roger didn’t care for him as he did her, but she and Frankie had a solid friendship and that would have to suffice.

  ‘We’ll take turns. I know you’re exhausted, darling,’ Frankie told Roger. She licked his chin in platonic gratitude, but did not leave her post.

  The teens’ slumber party was not unlike those Trip had engaged in with Xander and Chance this past summer, so Frankie had known what to expect. The evening had commenced with video games and unhealthy food, and transitioned into gossiping while they dressed the dogs in hats they created themselves. Frankie took pains to avoid looking directly at his friends, out of respect and mutual humiliation. Although Luna was her usual sunny self, Frankie, Roger, and Cassius did not appreciate being forced to wear cat ears.

  ‘Why didn’t your Trip come to tonight’s party?’ Cassius asked Frankie.

  ‘Julian and Xander, and Chance and Logan are coupled. Trip isn’t part of a couple. I had high hopes for Tommy, but that relationship didn’t pan out. I do hope Trip takes care of himself tonight, despite my absence,’ Frankie said. Cassius lay down and leaned slightly into him in an attempt to comfort. Although his friends knew Frankie was worried about his human, the pug wasn’t comfortable confiding the depth of his concern.

  Trip had been so joyful and energetic when Frankie first moved in with him. For an entire month, he spent nearly every day with a gentleman named Tommy and laughed at his telephone whenever it made noise; the man had practically glowed with happiness. Then one day, everything changed. Trip came home and Frankie took shelter under a table as his human threw things around the room and cried. After that fateful day, Tommy stopped visiting and Trip ignored his phone whenever it chimed (which was becoming more and more infrequent). Trip only ate whenever he fed Frankie, he barely slept, and although Frankie’s nose wasn’t the finely-tuned instrument Cassius’ was, the pug knew that Trip’s personal scent should not be fluctuating so violently.

  ‘Perhaps he’ll stay with us next time,’ Roger said soothingly.

  “Dare!” Marcus exclaimed, effectively redirecting everyone’s attention.

  “I dare you to call Winston and finally ask him out!” Jackson said. All the teens gasped. In the hallway, Logan released a faint squeal, which earned him a smack from Julian. To the best of Frankie’s knowledge, being dared to call boys was traditional slumber party behavior for teenagers. But asking a boy out seemed to be a big deal, and therefore must be very different from taking a dog out.

  “What if he says no and laughs at me?” Marcus asked quietly. Frankie had met Winston at Safe Harbor and he seemed like a decent boy who would not treat sweet Marcus so callously.

  “He won’t say no,” Dean told him.

  “If he does, you can pretend you’re relieved and whisper to him that it was a dare,” Kendall suggested.

  “You don’t get it,” Marcus said. “He’s white and masc and has a real family. I’m black and femme and…”

  Logan wrapped his arms around his brother. Frankie couldn’t tell if he was hugging Julian or keeping him from running into the room, but it was effective either way. Inside the family room, Luna left Dean’s lap to nuzzle Marcus and Kendall hugged him as well, saying, “You are you. You are beautiful and kind and funny. And you do have a real family; you have us and we love you. I’m your sister now, and the twins are your cousins, and you’re so awesome that Julian and Xander are adopting us, and we’ll all be Moores soon. Call Winston right now, and if he says no then he’s a jerk who doesn’t deserve you.”

  “I’ll probably see him when I start school on Monday! What then?” Marcus asked. According to Cassius, Xander and Julian had arranged things so that Kendall could go to school through her computer and Marcus could attend Junior High School with the twins, even though they would be in separate grade levels. Frankie assumed that meant they all started on Monday, and he looked forward to hearing about it; the pug found the pre-collegiate educational system endlessly fascinating. Perhaps that could become Frankie’s focus within his anthropological studies.

  “CALL HIM,” Kendall insisted, before dialing the phone for her adoptive brother and thrusting it into his hand.

  ‘She can get surprisingly pushy nowadays,’ Cassius murmured to Frankie and Roger.

  Everyone waited with bated breath as the phone began to ring. Marcus pressed a button with a trembling hand and held the device to his ear, so that even Frankie could not hear from this distance.

  “H- hi Win. Sorry. Stone. You prefer Stone, right? Or Winston? Oh. Sorry. This is Marcus. I should have said that. Umm, how’s it going?” The loquacious boy had suddenly become unable to string a sentence together. “I’m doing okay. S- sorry I’m calling so late but… Oh, good. I lose track of time watching cat videos too. Umm…”

  ‘Cat videos,’ Roger sneered. The greyhound was as contemptuous of cats as Frankie, and the poor dear had to endure living with Logan’s two beasts.

  “Yeah. No. I mean… I was wondering… Kendall doesn’t like seeing movies in theaters so I was wondering if you wanted to maybe go see a movie sometime like maybe next weekend or another weekend we could see Triple-X or La La Land or Doctor Strange or anything you want. I just feel like getting out of the house. I love Julian and Xander but I can’t sit around the house 24/7 if you know what I mean so maybe you’d like to go to the movies with me or if not that’s okay I was just hoping-”

  Marcus’ eloquent soliloquy was finally interrupted and he listened intently with a hint of a smile before his eyes widened and he looked around the room, his eyes darting between his new cousins and sister in a sudden panic.

  “Tomorrow?!” Marcus squeaked. Dean nodded rapidly while Jackson waved his arms horizontally in an emphatically negative gesture. “Actually, maybe next weekend? I… umm… I have to go back-to-school shopping tomorrow because I’m starting on Monday at your school I mean it’s my school soon too but yeah I’m starting on Monday so I’m a little nervous and I probably won’t be getting much sleep and I’m going shopping tomorrow and please say something because I can’t stop spewing word-vomit-”

  Logan and Julian were shaking, and dancing in place, and occasionally emitting squeaks as they listened. Tiny giggles escaped Kendall through her fingers and the twins were squeezing each other’s hands hard enough to turn their knuckles white. This was the strangest behavior Frankie had ever witnessed, which was especially impressive considering the pug lived with Trip Watson.

  Faintly, Frankie could hear laughter and the shout of, “Stop! Stone to the rescue!” from the telephonic d
evice.

  A grin bloomed across Marcus’ face and every single human and dog relaxed. “Next Saturday would be great… Oh, I’d love to eat lunch with you on Monday and meet some people because I’m sure you have really nice friends and yeah a tour sounds like it would be really helpful because I won’t really know my way around because I’ve never been there before and you probably know the school well and did you know the twins Dean and Jackson are starting on Monday too and I was planning on sitting with them but maybe… That would be great! Thanks. Yeah. I think they’d like that… Okay. Oh… Okay goodbye, Win. Stone. Sorry, Stone. See you Monday too bye-bye…”

  Marcus finally paused to take a deep breath and said, “Oh. My God. Kill. Me. Now… Oh shit, you didn’t hang up? Stop laughing please stop laughing… No I don’t always know the right thing to say I mean obviously I don’t because I’m embarrassing myself horribly and STOP LAUGHING! I’ll see you Monday you great big jerk. Bye.” Marcus deliberately pressed the telephone with his finger and then repeatedly smacked himself in the head with it.

  Dean, Jackson, and Kendall spluttered and giggled, but managed not to outright guffaw. However, Julian and Logan only had enough self-control to run up the stairs before bursting into raucous laughter. Marcus shot an angry look in the general direction of the doorway, but managed to catch Frankie’s eyes.

  The pug didn’t know what to do when someone stared at him like that; it was unnerving.

  “So we’re having lunch with some new friends on Monday. That’s cool,” Jackson said nonchalantly, while Dean blurted, “He actually laughed at you,” and Kendall snarked, “Smooooooth.”

  ‘We need a distraction,’ Frankie growled to the room at large, Marcus’ eyes still boring into him. The pug wondered what he had done to personally merit such ire. Frankie wanted to lower his eyes to demonstrate submission, but couldn’t bring himself to look away.

  Taking the initiative, Luna bounded off Marcus’ lap and shoved her head into Jackson’s duffel bag. Roger’s boy knew better than to leave it open like that! He deserved what happened next.

  ‘Woohoo!’ the little dog shouted as she unearthed her treasure. She paused for effect, wiggled her hind quarters, thrashed the garment, and growled. ‘Look what I have! Look what I have! Do you want this? Because I have it and you’re not getting it back!’

  Marcus finally broke eye contact with Frankie to laugh at Luna. Kendall, studiously avoiding the sight of the dog’s antics, hugged her new brother and congratulated him. Meanwhile, Roger’s twins jumped to their feet, shouting obscenities. Luna ran around the room twice, through Dean’s legs, and out of the room calling, ‘Catch me if you can! Ha ha ha ha ha!’

  The twins raced out the door, and Cassius followed on their heels, barking over his shoulder, ‘I’ll be right back!’

  Roger looked after them, longingly. This new diet was a daily struggle for her, but she’d been feeling so much better since she began limiting her snacks to cat toys and food wrappers. At least this treat wouldn’t test Roger’s self-control; Luna never shared underpants once she caught hold of a pair.

  ‘Come along, my dear,’ Frankie said, taking pity on his beautiful friend. ‘You know those waistbands never agree with you. However, leather is a form of meat, and you deserve to treat yourself. Let’s go see if Chance left those loafers in the hallway; I’ll even let you chew the left shoe.’

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  Alex Miska is a certifiable math geek who spends her days (and nights) dreaming of quirky, sexily-intelligent men falling in love. She is a former math teacher to students with learning disabilities and disability advocate. Nestled in a small house in the woods, Alex is the doting parent of a preternaturally-happy, fluffy, white dog and his somewhat gloomy older brother, as well as the solicitous servant of two highly-opinionated Siamese cats.

  Titles by Alex Miska:

  A Chance for Moore (Moore Romance, Book 1)

  Love You, Moore (Moore Romance, Book 2)

  The Moore the Merrier (Moore Romance, Book 2.5)

  Power Trip (Moore Romance, Book 3) – coming Spring 2017!

  Characters: Listed Alphabetically

  Alice: Maine coon cat, furbaby of Greg and Dani Moore

  Amelia Pasquale: best friend of Logan Moore, co-owner of Moore Delicious

  Andrew Moore: father of Moore brothers, married to Sara Moore

  Annabelle Moore: cousin of Moore brothers, sister of Konrad Moore, daughter of Ida Moore

  Axle (see Jackson)

  ‘Buzzard’: employee at Heimdall Security

  Carleton Griffith: brother of Xander Griffith

  Cassius: boxer dog, furbaby of Xander Griffith and Julian Moore

  ‘Chance’/Chester Horatio Blevins: boyfriend of Logan Moore, best friend of Dani Rosen Moore, mathlete friend of Xander Griffith and Trip Watson, half-brother of Dean, Jackson, & Gigi, furdaddy of Luna

  Dani Rosen Moore: married to Greg Moore, best friend of Chance Blevins, friends with mathletes Xander Griffith and Trip Watson, furmommy of Alice

  ‘Dean’/Diesel Manley Blevins: half-brother of Chance, identical twin of Jackson, brother of Gigi, friends with Kendall and Marcus, former resident of Safe Harbor, furdaddy of Roger

  Diesel (see Dean)

  Donald Yarborough: brother-in-law of Xander Griffith, married to Veronica Griffith-Yarborough

  Eleanor Moore: future adopted daughter of Chance and Logan Moore

  ‘Frankie’/Sir Francis Bacon: pug dog, furbaby of Trip Watson

  ‘Gigi’/Gertrude Gladys Blevins: half-sister of Chance Blevins and sister of twins Dean and Jackson

  Greg Moore: eldest Moore brother, married to Dani Rosen, best friend of Tommy Powers

  Hunter: employee at Moore Delicious

  Ida Moore: aunt of Moore brothers, mother of Konrad and Annabelle

  ‘Jackson’/Axle Truman Blevins: half-brother of Chance, identical twin of Dean, brother of Gigi, friends with Kendall and Marcus, former resident at Safe Harbor, furdaddy of Roger

  Jezebel: employee at Moore Delicious

  John Watson (see Trip)

  Joy Watson: twin sister of John ‘Trip’ Watson

  Julian ‘Sparky’ Moore: youngest Moore brother, engaged to Xander Griffith, employee at Heimdall Security, furdaddy of Cassius

  Kendall: future adopted daughter of Julian Moore & Xander Griffith, friends with Marcus and twins Jackson & Dean, resident at Safe Harbor

  Konrad Moore: cousin of Moore brothers, brother of Annabelle Moore, son of Ida Moore

  Leonardo: Siamese cat, furbaby of Logan Moore, littermate of Michelangelo

  Logan Moore: middle Moore brother, boyfriend of Chance Blevins, best friend of Amelia Pasquale

  Luna: dachshund/yorkie mix dog, furbaby of Chance Blevins

  Marcus: future adopted son of Julian Moore & Xander Griffith, friends with Kendall and twins Jackson & Dean, resident at Safe Harbor

  Maxim ‘Heimdall’ Domovik: friend of Xander Griffith, owner of Heimdall Security

  Michelangelo: Siamese cat, furbaby of Logan Moore, littermate of Leonardo

  Poppy: director of Safe Harbor

  Roger: greyhound dog, furbaby of Jackson & Dean Blevins

  Quinn Ostry: best friend of Julian Moore

  Sara Moore: mother of Moore brothers, wife of Andrew Moore

  Sean: employee at Moore Delicious

  ‘Specter’/‘Inspector Gadget’: head of cyber-security at Heimdall Security

  Tommy Powers: best friend of Greg Moore

  ‘Trip’/John Watson: mathlete friend of Chance Blevins and Xander Griffith

  Veronica Griffith-Yarborough: sister of Xander
Griffith, wife of Donald Yarborough

  ‘Xander’/Alexander Griffith: engaged to Julian Moore, mathlete friend of Chance Blevins and Trip Watson, friend of Greg & Dani Moore

  Character Guide: Grouped

  Moore Family

  Andrew & Sara Moore (parents)

  Greg Moore (brother)

  Logan Moore (brother)

  Julian Moore (brother)

  Romantic Relationships

  Greg Moore & Dani Rosen

  Logan Moore & Chance Blevins

  Julian Moore & Xander Griffith

  Pets

  LOGAN & CHANCE: Michelangelo & Leonardo (Siamese cats), Luna (dachshund/yorkie) & Roger (greyhound)

  JULIAN & XANDER: Cassius (boxer)

  TRIP: Frankie (pug)

  GREG & DANI: Alice (Maine coon cat)

  Friends: “Mathletes”

  Chance Blevins

  Xander Griffith

  Trip Watson

  Other Friend Pairings

  Chance Blevins & Dani Rosen

  Logan Moore & Amelia Pasquale

  Greg Moore & Tommy Powers

  Julian Moore & Quinn Ostry

  Xander Griffith & Max Domovik

  Adoptive Children:

  LOGAN & CHANCE: Jackson & Dean

  JULIAN & XANDER: Kendall & Marcus

  Blevins Family

  ‘Chance’/Chester Horatio Blevins

  ‘Nana’/Eleanor Pierce

  ‘Jackson’/Axle Truman Blevins

  ‘Dean’/Diesel Manley Blevins

  ‘Gigi’/Gertrude Gladys Blevins