Eve jumped, looking up at her with bleary, unfocused eyes.
“Oh my God, were you asleep?” Josie asked, irrationally delighted by the sleep-drugged, disoriented version of Eve currently blinking at her, obviously trying to gather her wits.
“What?” Eve brushed at a flyaway strand of hair. “No.”
Josie rested her elbows on the bar, leaning toward her. “Yeah, pretty sure you were.”
Eve straightened on her stool, wincing as she stretched her back. “Might have dozed off for a moment.”
“You should go home,” Josie told her. “In fact, leave the kittens here tonight. The bar’s almost empty, and Adam can watch it for me while I feed them. I’ll probably close early.”
“Are you sure?” Eve asked.
She nodded. “Go get a good night’s sleep.”
Eve hesitated—surprising for a woman who’d spent the past week hassling Josie to find someone to take the kittens for her—before nodding. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Josie watched as she shut down her laptop, packed it into her briefcase, and stood.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
“Yep.”
And then Eve lingered for another moment, just staring at Josie, before she turned on her heel and walked out the door.
9
Eve breezed through Swanson’s front door at five o’clock on Thursday looking as poised and impenetrable as she had when Josie first met her a week ago. Maybe she’d needed the sleep even more than Josie realized. She was feeling the effects of a night on kitten duty herself, although after years of it, she didn’t really mind. She’d also become an expert at maximizing her sleep between feedings, something she didn’t think Eve had been nearly as successful at.
“Hi,” Josie said.
“Hello.” Eve settled herself on her usual stool and set up her laptop. She was dressed all in black today, pants and a matching blouse. “How are they?”
“Fine,” Josie told her. “You missed them, didn’t you?”
“Not even a little bit.” Eve powered on her laptop, keeping her eyes on the screen.
“They never crossed your mind,” Josie teased. “Certainly, they weren’t thefirstthing you asked about when you walked through my door.”
Eve huffed in annoyance. “Forget I asked.”
“Why can’t you just admit you like them?”
Eve gave her a harsh look before returning her attention to her laptop.
“They’re getting bigger,” Josie said.
“I noticed.”
“They’re going to outgrow that box soon. Also…I named them.” She dangled the bait, waiting for Eve to bite.
After a moment, she glanced up from her laptop. “And?”
“Our winning bidder is a Broadway aficionado. So we have Phantom the black kitten, Pippin the gray tabby, the gray-and-white kitten is Hamilton, and our little girl, the white one, is Blanche.”
Eve’s lips pursed, twisting slightly to one side, and then she smiled, a real smile that seemed to light up her whole face. “Blanche Dubois. I loveA Streetcar Named Desire. Those are all great names, actually. Did you raise a lot of money?”
“About three hundred dollars. It should cover their first round of vaccines.”
