"Someone's at the door," I tell Rune, now scrambling for his pants.

"Don't open it unless you know who it is," he says sharply as I duck out to see what's going on. I'm hoping I can stop Butterscotch before she wakes Lorelei up.

I'm too late. Lorelei's downstairs, too, scooping the frantically barking dog up in her arms.

"It's Gunnar," Gunnar calls out, obviously tired of pounding on the door. When I open it, I see he, Jenna, and Kim huddled together on the stoop with very unhappy expressions on their faces, "Finally," he exclaims tersely as they all step inside. He's got a duffle bag over his shoulder. Neither Jenna nor Kim does. Oh boy.

"I'd ask why neither of you believes in answering your phones, but apparently, you were both blasting At Last too loud to hear me," he says dryly, taking in a shirtless Rune with major bedhead and me in the oversized bathrobe. Gunnar looks exhausted, or as we say in the horse world, rode hard and put up wet.

"What's going on?" Rune asks, ignoring Gunnar's comment, as Lorelei puts Butterscotch down, and the young dog growls at the newcomers from behind her legs.

"When we mutually decided I should take you up on your generous invitation of hospitality, I found out I've got a dead battery; it's putting the icing on the cake on a marvelous day, don't you think?" Gunnar asks, removing his jacket and his baseball hat and hanging it up on the coat rack right by the door already filled with our jackets, "Jenna and Kim have other plans," he doesn't look at the women as he says this; instead, he crouches down to let Butterscotch smell his hand warily. She lets him pat her head for a second and then scoots behind Lorelei's legs again.

"I think it's best if we take some time to regroup," Jenna says tightly. Kim is mute and pale beside her.

"Right, so you've said," Gunnar agrees shortly, standing, "But first, as we discussed, my cousin's going to make it clear why the situation with the production company's ownership is such a problem since you don't seem to believe me," he takes Lorelei's hand, "while Pup and I go upstairs to read her back to sleep."

Lorelei looks from her dad to Rune and then me with sleepy eyes, nods once, and she, Gunnar, and Butterscotch disappear up the stairs.

"We'll be right back," Rune says to the two women, pulling me back towards the master bedroom. Inside, he shuts the door and sits on the end of the bed with a scowl, "Botheration!" he scrubs his hands over his face.

"Indeed," I agree, stepping between his legs and running my fingers through his hair to make it appear a little less like we were doing exactly what we were doing. Of course, everyone knows now, but we don't need to emphasize it.

"I just want to take this ugly robe off you and throw you back into bed," he pouts, looking up at me from under his long red and gold lashes.

"What can you possibly have against terry cloth bathrobes?" I laugh, thinking the subject will help me switch gears while internally, my body's screaming, untie the bow, Rune.

"They're bulky, with no elegance of line whatsoever," he complains, running his lovely, warm hands up the insides of the robe's wide sleeves, caressing my arms.

"Okay, Wizard Howl," I say, stepping away from him so I don't get distracted, "I understand you're not a fan of terry cloth, but let's just make it through this so we can resume what we were up to before we were interrupted."

"You forgot to add rudely to that," Rune grouses, watching me dig through my tote for the extra undies, sweater, and socks I brought along, "so rudely interrupted," he emphasizes as I dress, and he gets up to pull on his own clothes.

"Amen," I give him a small smile when I'm dressed, and we return to join the others.

**

While I make tea, Rune gets the fire going again. Jenna and Kim sit gingerly on the edge of the short section of the oversized L-shaped couch, but at least they've taken off their coats.

"This all seems so far-fetched," Jenna says to Rune as I set mugs of tea on the coffee table before them.

"Yes, it does" Rune agrees, closing the fire screen and dusting his hands off on his sweats, "but the truth really can be stranger than fiction," he says firmly, taking the mug I hand him on my second trip from the kitchen.

Rune spells out to them (in more detail than he'd given me so far) how he and other men have been groomed, sexually harassed, and, in some cases, assaulted by Franklin Haus. He explains about the podcast he's been working on and that he's sure this reality TV situation from a production team owned by Franklin was the producer's attempt to intimidate Rune into stopping the podcast.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"I find it hard to believe such a successful man would go to such lengths, Rune," Jenna tells him as she shakes her head disbelievingly.

"So, you think all five of us involved in the podcast and the several others who didn't feel capable of going on record made it all up?" Rune asks, point blank, as I sit beside him on the longer L of the couch. I slip my hand into his and give it a reassuring squeeze.

"No," Jenna says quickly, looking at Kim for confirmation, "it's just that the level of calculated mean-spiritedness you're accusing Haus of feels so over the top. Why would such a successful man waste his valuable time?"

"So, you think Rune is lying?" I ask so hotly. Jenna and Kim both flinch, "That's exactly what people said to the women whose careers were being destroyed by Harvey Weinstein for years. Why is it any different if the victims are men?"

I don't get the 'aha' moment back from them I'm looking for. Both look at me as if I've started to speak a foreign language. I'm about to say something else, but Rune squeezes my hand and speaks up first.

"Well, I'm glad to know neither of you has had anyone purposefully decide to destroy your psyche and career," both his voice and his expression bland, and then more intently, "but please don't speak about any of this to anyone else for now. This is all very confidential."

"Don't worry, we don't plan to," Jenna says, almost with a shudder. Kim nods her head in agreement, still silent. Both stand as if they can't escape from us quickly enough, "I'd like to forget all this as soon as possible," Jenna adds.

"So, what are your plans?" Rune asks as we follow them to the front door, watching them slip back on their rain jackets.

"We're heading east tomorrow, toward the sun," Jenna says, "to let Gunnar and Lorelei have more quality time together and give ourselves time to reflect."

"We'll be doing some trail running in the Cascades," Kim adds, "and think about your idea of doing something on our own."

"Good," Rune says lightly, " Will we see you back at the house next weekend?" He asks, in a neutral, not incredibly inviting tone, but not rude. I wouldn't be so even-tempered if I spoke right now, so I bite my tongue.

"That's the plan," Jenna nods as she and Kim walk back into the rainy night.

Gunnar comes back downstairs as soon as they're out the door, almost as if he's been listening in the hall upstairs.

"Anyone else need a drink?" he asks as he moves into the kitchen, picking up one of the remaining bottles of wine and starting to open it.

Rune and I both shake our heads. We all return to the couch, and Gunnar flops down where Jenna and Kim were sitting, "Do you think you got through to those two naive idiots?"

"I doubt it," Rune admits.

"I'm starting to believe she's addicted to toxic positivity," Gunnar admits, taking a long drink of wine.

"What in the world does that mean?" I ask, curling my legs up and scooting closer to Rune's warmth.

"Something along the lines of if you keep the right thoughts, nothing bad will ever happen to you," he sighs and rubs his eyes, "Jenna is fantastic in so many ways, but she's been really sheltered. I don't think she's ever dealt with any serious setbacks in her life. She's always worked for her parent's, who've done really well."

"Nothing like you having your mom killed in a car crash by a drunk driver when she was seven?" Rune asks, sounding angry and sad, as Gunnar nods and takes another drink, "No aunt/replacement mom told she successfully beat breast cancer after being free of it for five years, only to be diagnosed with stage four cancer a few years later and dying at the height of Covid?"

"No," Gunnar says, setting down the wine glass, and pinching the bridge of his nose exactly as Rune does when his head hurts, "she seems to have missed out on all that sort of fun."

"Such fucking good times we've had," Rune agrees sarcastically, brooding into his tea.

I'd forgotten about Gunnar's mom being killed when he was young. All things considered, it's no wonder what's left of their family is so tight knit.

"I only met that asshole Haus one time," Gunnar slouches back in the couch, "and that was enough for me. I told you to steer clear of him Ruination."

"You did," Rune admits quietly, "and I was an idiot looking for father figures and success."

"When did you meet Franklin?" I ask Gunnar, "You weren't at our house for that Christmas party when Rune and his mom met him."

"No. Not a chance," Gunnar chuckles, "And watch your hot mom and your bookish dad disapprove of my ongoing relationship with your sister?" Gunnar scowls, "It was at that extravagant summer network party you invited me to?" he asks Rune, "The one I brought Syd along to?"

An ongoing relationship with my sister? I think, confused. I had no idea they were still seeing each other after the last summer we spent up here as teens. I knew about the commercial, vaguely, but I thought Syd had already been dating her partner Bill then.

Interesting, Theo comments.

"Yeah, it was in August. I would have invited you too," Rune tells me before I ask, "but you'd already left for Italy on your vacation."

"I think I have a photo of us from it somewhere," Gunnar leans his head against the back of the couch and closes his eyes, a dreamy, wistful smile on his handsome tired face, "In a sea of celebrities, Syd was the hottest girl at the party. We were in the middle of shooting that crazy cologne ad at that vineyard in Malibu. That was one of the only modeling jobs I actually enjoyed."

Gunnar goes on to tell us how he almost decked Franklin for his insinuating way of telling the people they encountered that Sydney was his almost daughter, and really, who knows?

"He wanted people to think Sydney was his?" I gasp. I have never heard Franklin say this, but I can imagine how he might say it. I'm sure he would love to take credit for some of Sydney's beauty.

"Oh yeah," Gunnar takes another sip of wine, "He didn't like at all that I told him it was an impossibility that your sister and you both share your dad's fabulous ass and legs."

This gives all three of us the giggles. It's not that funny, but we all need something to laugh about.