“I can start on that.”
He watched me for a second, customers in the storeforgotten. He seemed to study my face and it made me warm all over. “Thank you. And you can ask me anything at all.”
I gave a nod, not wanting to meet his eyes. The other people in the store were suddenly on my radar. “I’ll just...” I stepped past him into the storeroom and opened the first box.
He went about serving the customers, chatting about a romance book, which Winter had clearly loved.
Maybe I should read it.
Romance books weren’t my go-to. I’d read them, of course, but I preferred fantasy or poetry, mood depending.
But romance seemed like something I wanted to read suddenly, immersing myself in emotions and feelings of falling in love. It might not seem so unrealistic to me now. No, notunrealistic.
Perhaps out of reach or unobtainable was more fitting.
I’d read romance with as much firsthand experience as I had reading a fantasy about rival kings and sword fights.
But now . . .
Now I think I understood.
The bell above the door chimed again and I’d assumed it was the customer leaving, but a girl spoke. “Hi, I’ll just put their bag in the storeroom?—”
“Thanks, Evie,” Winter said.
Then a girl appeared. She was young and had a patch of blue in her black hair and a nose ring. She came into the storeroom and stopped. “Oh.”
I stood there, holding a book on economics.
“Hi!” she said brightly. “I’m Evie. I was kitty-sitting for Winter.” She proceeded to open her coat and show the baby carrier with some little ginger ears poking out the top.
“Uh, yes,” I managed. “I . . . I’m Deacon. I’m, uh . . .”
“Oh, Deacon the vet. Winter told me about you.” Sheproceeded to pull off her coat and unclip the baby carrier. “Then you’ll know exactly what to do with these two little sweetlings.”
Before I knew what she was doing, she had the carrier and was strapping it to me. It was all I could do to hold my arms out and blink while she just steamrolled me, buckled me in, and stood back to admire her handiwork. “Done.” Then Winter was there, standing in the door watching, smiling, somewhat apologetically. Evie collected her coat. “I have to go. Grandpa’s waiting.”
“Thank you, Evie,” Winter said as she headed out.
“Anytime. You know I love them. Nice to meet you, Deacon.” The bell above the door chimed again, and she was gone.
Winter turned back to me, trying not to smile as he came over. “I’m sorry, are you okay? Need me to take it off you?”
I blinked again, took stock of my whole body, trying to determine if I felt violated or not, and decided that I was surprisingly okay. “Uh... no, it’s okay... I think...”
Then one of the kittens popped his head out and meowed, then the second one did the same. The first one used his little claws to climb up toward my face. Bright, I assumed. Wow, they’d really grown.
“Oh, Bright,” Winter said, taking the kitten and giving him a cuddle. “You behave yourself, you little menace.” He held him up to his face, giving him a dozen kisses all over his little head. “Aren’t they just the cutest?”
They really were.
So was the way Winter held him, cared for him.
“Yes, they are.” Merry climbed up out of the carrier then and I was quick to grab him before he decided to free-fall to the ground. “And they’re growing well. Eating well, by the looks of it. Little Merry isn’t so little anymore.”
“No. He had to grow because his brother kept beating on him. It’s like a game of survivor at this point.” Winter held Bright up and gave him another kiss. “You keep picking on him, don’t you. So hehadto grow up big and strong.” Winter smiled at me then. “Merry gives it back to him now. They wrestle and tumble most of the day. Evie comes over from the youth center and saves me. Well, saves Bright, because he learned how to climb out of the pen. But sometimes Ro will take them home early. Or, if she’s at home all day, she keeps them and I have a stress-free day.”
“Kittens are a handful,” I said. “Like puppies.”
