When I let myself in, Jester greets me at the door with happy, chirpy maows I haven’t heard him make in a while.
Come to think of it, he’s rarely made them since Des left for good.
I scoop him into my arms. Maybe I wasn’t the only miserable one and I was just too self-centered to realize it.
“Hey, he’s coming back. He promised us, and I believe him.”
“Maow!” He struggles to get down so I put him on the floor and he darts into the kitchen. Apparently, one of us didn’t get the pantry door shut, because the peanut butter jar’s on the floor over by the garage door and there are several other cans and jars scattered on the floor, apparent victims of his struggle to liberate the peanut butter. Fortunately, none of them have broken open.
“Good grief.” At least he didn’t get the lid off of it. I rescue it, return it to the pantry, and pick up everything else while struggling to keep him out of the pantry at the same time.
“Come on, dude!” I finally manage that task just as my phone rings.
Desi’s ringtone.
My heart races as I answer. “Hey. Change your mind?”
He snorts. “No, but I just had a visitor at my motel.”
“Who?”
“Freddy.” He proceeds to tell me about the encounter. “It’s suspicious he’s here in town.”
A cold, icy ball settles in the pit of my stomach. “Gee, yathink?”
“I swear, I’m packed and on my way there to you. But if he shows up—”
“Why would he show up here?”
“Because he’s just like that. He’s a liar and a bullshit artist. I didn’t realize how much of one at first, because we don’t have a lot of contact at work and he’d only been with the firm for about six months.
“I never would have dated him except for Mom pressuring me to go out with him. He’s the son of a friend of hers. I only went out with him as long as I did to keep her off my back. He was always obsessed with my relationship with you, asking me questions about us that I wouldn’t answer because I told him it was none of his business.”
“That’s not creepy at allll, Des.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Hopefully, he won’t show up, but I bet he does.”
“Does he have a gun? Do I need to worry?”
“No, he’s not that kind of crazy. He’s not violent. If he should happen to show up, don’t tell him anything about what I’m doing to kill the deal. I told him it would take me a few days to fix his mess and I hope he believed me. I want to finish wrapping up the remaining loose ends before I put in my notice to the firm.”
That pulls me up short and derails my anger. “Your notice? As in you’re quitting? I thought you were going to try to work from here?”
He makes a grunt I’ve missed for too long. Determined, stubborn. Totally Desi. “No. Freddy is upset that I walked away from him. I know what he’ll do, and that’s continue making my life miserable once he knows what I did with this deal. He’ll catch some flak from people at work over it, too, which will bruise his ego.”
His tone softens. “I have plenty in savings, but it might take me a while to build up a practice locally.”
My pulse spikes as I absorb the ramifications. “I don’t care. If you’re asking if I mind supporting you while you get on your feet, the answer’s of course I don’t mind. Iwantyou here. I’d be perfectly happy if you decided to be a happy house hubby and made my dinners every night.”
He laughs, and that’s a great sound. “Don’t tempt me too much. Being a kept man sounds like a great idea at this point. But no, it won’t be that bad. I’ll just need to watch my budget for a while in the beginning while I get my office set up and everything.”
“Work from home. It won’t cost you anything.”
“I’d rather not do that to our home. I want an office that’s separate so when we’re together, we’re together. I’ve spent too much time away from you already.”
That’s so sweet and chases away some of my irritation over the latest development.
Then, an idea hits me. “I have the perfect office for you, and it’s not at the house. And it won’t cost you a dime.”
