She gazed into the distance and I knew she wasn’t seeing me.
After a few moments, her eyes cleared, and I knew she was looking at me again. “Thank you for letting me come and talk about it. I didn’t have anyone else. I mean, the kittens would be no help.”
We laughed together. “Yeah, I can’t imagine them being good at advice. Unless it’s about wet food versus dry food.”
“They’re on their own today. I finally caved and decided to leave them. The cat sitter checked in on them at noon, but otherwise, they’re by themselves.”
“How are you coping with that?” I asked.
“I feel like I should run back home right now and make sure they haven’t set the kitchen on fire. I know that’s logistically improbable, but still.”
Now I was picturing the kittens messing with the stove burners, turning them on with their little paws. Cute and dangerous.
“You should probably get home to them. Make sure they didn’t try on all your clothes and trash your bathroom.”
Vail snorted and stood up. “You’re right. I’ve been gone long enough. Thank you, Lea. Thank you.”
Before I knew what was happening, she had pulled me to my feet and was hugging me. Vail. Was hugging me.
“Thank you,” she said again as my arms went around her waist.
“You’re welcome, V.” I didn’t know why I’d decided to call her that. It just came out, but it made all the sense in the world.
She leaned back and dropped her arms and we had another one of those moments when the world seemed to slow on its axis and the only thing I could see was her face, more specifically, her mouth.
Her lips parted as she exhaled, the sound louder than it should have been.
“I need to get home to the kittens,” she said, using that low voice that always made me melt inside. It was so intense I had to close my eyes.
“You should.”
Vail nodded and backed away from me. “I’ll talk to you later?” I hoped we would.
“Please.” Hopefully that didn’t sound like begging. I didn’t want to beg her to talk to me, but I wasn’t above it.
“I will.” That sounded like a promise.
* * *
A little while later,my phone had an incoming video call. Puzzled, I picked it up and saw it was from Vail.
“They survived,” her voice said as the screen filled with the two kittens. She must be on the floor with them. Brit ran over to sniff the screen, making me laugh.
“I’m so glad.” She turned the phone and showed me her face as she lay on the floor.
“Me too. Have you done any more processing?” That was a lot that Dallas had dumped on her in one lunch. Guess he didn’t go for subtlety.
“I decided to put a lot of it away until after the wedding. And I guess you’ll get to meet him too.”
“Is Laird coming?”
“No. Dallas asked him not to, and I don’t blame him. Me bringing you is one thing, but him bringing Laird as a romantic partner would make her lose her shit and I have no idea what her new husband would do. It wouldn’t be good. I expect he’s going to put off telling them as long as he can.” I didn’t blame him.
“But he said they might come up later this summer, so we’ll see. I’m curious to see them together. I literally can’t picture it.”
Vail sat up and took me with her into the kitchen. I was in the middle of making dinner myself. Everything was in the oven and I was just waiting for it all to be done.
“I’m going to get through this weekend, right?” she asked me, and while it seemed like a rhetorical question, I answered her anyway.
