“I don’t mind if you need to get it off your chest. Penny's good at talking, but I'm better suited to listening.”
He shook his head. “I appreciate the offer, but I know you have better things to do than listen to me. Rosie said to expect you soon to take a couple of the kittens home, so I assume that’s why you’re here.”
The kittens had been conspicuously absent since my arrival. I’d expected them to be tearing around the place like they were at my last visit, but there wasn’t a single one in sight.
“Yes, sir.”
He shot me a weary look, and I chuckled.
“Sorry. Habit.”
“I’ll allow it this once.” He pushed to his feet. “Rosie’s had the lot of them holed up in her room. Said she wanted to spend as much time with them as she could before they went off to their new families.”
“She’s always welcome to come see ours,” I said. “Any time. Penny and I would be happy to have her by.”
His smile was sad as he turned away. “I’ll be sure she knows that.”
He disappeared down the hall and reemerged a few moments later with two kittens cradled in his arms. The black one was tipped onto her back and purring up at him, while the brown tabby was clawing at his shirt to try to get free.
“You sure you want this one?” He jutted his chin toward the tabby. “She’s a bit of a menace.”
I chuckled. “Then she’ll fit in just fine with Penny. Like calls to like, after all.”
Laughter rolled out of him, and I couldn’t help but grin. He dipped to let me retrieve the black kitten first, who scaled my chest and tucked herself in the collar of my cloak and around my neck. I pulled my hood up to more fully cocoon her inside before taking the flailing tabby from Gerald’s hands. I wound my cloak around the squirmy kitten to contain her before tucking her under my arm.
“Thank you,” I said as Gerald walked me to the door. “And please tell Rosie we’re here if she needs us.”
He clapped a hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “I will.”
Back out in the cold, I rushed toward home. The tabby never stopped moving, trying to pull herself out of the folds of my cloak but only succeeding in further tangling herself. By the time I pushed through the door, I was worried I’d never get her out of it.
The house smelled sweetly of vanilla, and as I stepped inside, I could barely see Penny in the kitchen, bent over the counter. He glanced back long enough to ensure it was me before returning to his task with a grin.
“You’re early,” he called over to me.
I toed off my boots on the mat by the door and joined Penny in the kitchen where he was slathering some small cakes with icing. He looked adorable in his apron, flour streaked across his cheek and dusting his hair, and I’d have grabbed him up to kiss him if I didn’t have my hands full of barely contained kitten.
“Couldn’t focus,” I said, moving into his line of sight. “And I have something for you.”
He glanced over, and his eyes grew wide as he caught sight of the tiny tabby who was now halfway out of her confinement.
I held her out to him.
“I have it on good authority that this troublemaker was your favorite.”
He grinned as he extricated her from her woolen prison, then giggled when he brought her up nose-to-nose and she batted at his cheek. He looked up at me, and his brows creased. “What about…”
I dropped my hood, and the little black kitten’s head popped up out of my collar.
Penny’s smile widened. “I knew you wouldn’t leave her behind.”
“Rosie said she chose me. I’m going to have to agree.”
His cheer faded, and he tucked the tabby into the crook of his arm to tease her with the end of a wooden spoon.
“Did you see her? Rosie? How is she?”
I tugged off my cloak and laid it over the back of one of the chairs pushed up to the table. “She didn’t come out of her room. Gerald said she wasn’t up for visitors, but I made sure to have him pass on that we’d be happy to see her whenever she’s ready.”
