"If you were planning on somehow gifting your new pet to me, think again."
He looked affronted. "Honey Bear is mine. We've already bonded. Why would I give her to you?"
Jilly couldn't help teasing him. "You've bonded so much that the cat has already run away from you?"
"She didn't run away."
Jilly sent him a smirk and, even though there's no way he could've seen it, he pulled a face at her as if he had.
"Are you sure she didn't get outside?"
"When you guys came in was the first time the door has been opened since she arrived."
So the cat was here somewhere.
"You know Lindsey is going to want to come over here every day now."
He shrugged. "She's my favorite neighbor."
Was this the same man who’d slammed the door in their face a few weeks back?
She heard drawers banging from down the hall. Maybe the bathroom.
Lindsey chanted distantly. "Here, kitty kitty. Here, kitty."
"You know, they’re probably going to leave your house a wreck."
He shrugged. "Things can be put back in their places."
"Why did you really get the cat?"
"Because I wanted it."
She shook her head. "I know what you're doing—"
"I found her!" PJs voice rang from the kitchen.
I knowwhat you're doing.
Noah was glad one of them did. He was out of his depth, over his head and swimming in shark-infested waters as he went into the kitchen, Jilly on his heels.
"Over here."
He followed the sound of PJ's voice toward the lower cabinets where he kept a set of mixing bowls and cutting boards.
"Next to you." Jilly's voice came just before the brush of her sleeve against his, the awareness of her body in the space next to him. "She's curled up on the bottom shelf, sleeping—well, yawning now. We woke her up."
Honey Bear had simply been taking a nap. How had she gotten inside the cabinet? Had he left one of the doors open?
Footsteps clattered from the back of the house as Lindsey rushed into the room. Casey's slightly-heavier trod was slower to join them.
"Ohh. Are you just a sleepy girl? You're a sweet thing, aren't you?" Jilly was baby-talking to his kitten. She stood up, and he followed. A soft rumble came from her arms, where he pictured the kitten cradled. Honey Bear was purring.
Lindsey piped in. "Oh, look at her tiny paws!"
"Let me see!" PJ said.
"Get outta my way.” Lindsey again.
