As she sat down, a note fluttered off the desk and onto the ground in front of me. I snatched it up while Kenna busied herself behind the desk.
Mac,
Don’t worry about any of this! I’m gonna come in early tomorrow and take care of it. Go home and get some rest. I MEAN IT.
Avery
“Hey, Kenna?” I asked, holding up the note between two fingers.
“Hmm?” she answered distractedly.
“This note from Avery says you’re not supposed to work on any of this and just go home. She’s gonna take care of it tomorrow.”
She scoffed. “There’s way more here than she can take care of in an extra hour tomorrow. I’m not leavin’ until I tackle some of it.”
“I don’t know…she seems pretty adamant. She wrote ‘I mean it’ in all caps.”
A fond smile quirked up the side of her mouth, but she didn’t lift her eyes to mine. “That’s just Avery.”
I wanted to ask her about her friendship with someone who must’ve been a transplant since I’d never met her. I wanted to ask her a thousand questions just to get the details of everything I’d missed out on, but she didn’t give me the opportunity to do so. Without another word, she sat behind the desk and started sorting through the piles, her head down and brow furrowed.
Blowing out a resigned sigh, I settled into one of the guest chairs as Kenna flitted from the desk to the filing cabinets to the copy machine to her daddy’s desk, and I sent a group text to Caleb and Lilah.
Group text with Hudson, Caleb, and Lilah
8:02 p.m.
Hudson:
How’d CB do?
Lilah:
She was sweet as all get-out. We took her to see Atticus, though. Her scent left a little something to be desired.
I grinned, my thumbs poised to type a response when a text from Caleb popped up.
Caleb:
What your sister means is CB smelled like she found a field of manure and rolled around in every inch of it she could find. Then found a skunk and made pals. Then found its shit and rolled around in that. And then ate something dead, shit it out, and then rolled around in it.
This time, I laughed outright. That might have been more than Caleb had ever said at one time in his whole life.
“What’s so funny?” Kenna asked distractedly.
“Caleb’s really enjoyin’ CB’s scent.”
At the mention of the dog, Kenna glanced up, a soft smile on her lips. “She behaved herself?”
“I think so. I’m still gettin’ the full story.”
Kenna nodded before ducking her head, her brows drawn in as she focused once again on the stack of papers in front of her.
I brought my attention back to my phone and typed out a response.
Hudson:
Basically what you’re saying is she smelled like shit?
