I was making lunch for us and the guys—and periodically extracting kitten claws from my jeans. Yes, I’d worn shorts earlier, but after the first one tried to climb up my calf, I’d wised up.
“Okay, okay, I’m ready,” Rey said, bouncing into the kitchen and looking one hundred percent not ready at all.
“Oh, Jesus, grab her for me?” The calico was about to dig her tiny claws onto my ass cheek through the worn jeans.
Rey came to my rescue. “Okay, kiddo, that’s not what we do. We do not touch the booty without consent, okay?”
I snorted with laughter and shook my head.
Before I could say anything, the doorbell rang.
“That’s got to be them!” Rey looked a bit wide-eyed.
“Since nobody else uses the doorbell, I’d say it’s a safe bet.” I glanced at the clock on the wall. “They’re a few minutes early.”
“Okay, okay, I’m gonna—” Rey handed the kitten over to me, and I took her, chuckling as I watched Rey march to the front door.
He’d clearly decided to get through this somehow, and he looked stiff as a board.
I couldn’t see to the front door, but I heard him greet the couple who were likely to adopt one of the boy kittens.
“If you don’t mind taking off your shoes, that would be great,” Rey said to them firmly.
I hid a smile in black and orange fur. He could be assertive when he wanted to. Normally we took off our shoes just because if we didn’t, the amount of dirt and crap—sometimes literal—that we’d carry inside would be astronomical. I wore my flipflops inside because nothing caught on the soles and I used other shoes when I went anywhere further than the trash cans or backyard.
“Hi,” I said when the couple came into view.
They were maybe in their early thirties, and they looked like easygoing, good people. Then again, I knew Rey had vetted them incredibly thoroughly.
“Guys, this is Cook, he’s our resident chef here.” Rey smiled. “This is Martha and Jamie.”
“Nice to meet you.” Jamie came to shake my hand.
“You, too.”
“Did you see where the boys went?” Rey looked around.
“The calico is precious,” Martha cooed as she came to shake my hand.
“She’s something alright,” I murmured, grinning.
“She might’ve tried to climb his calf earlier.” Rey smirked. “But I honestly think it’s his fault for looking like a tree.”
Martha gave me subtle elevator eyes and nodded. “I’ll say.”
Jamie rolled his eyes fondly, then pointed toward the living room. “Hey, I saw a black ball of fluff!”
I handed the kitten to Rey and went back to working while they went to look for the tiny menaces.
Within half an hour, we had one less kitten and Rey looked sad but also accomplished.
“Well done,” I told him when he sidled up to me to steal one of the cookies I’d had cooling on a rack.
“Tomorrow’s the next people. It’s a couple who has two kids. They’re from Kankakee. They seem great on paper, and Sierra said she spoke with the wife and she said they’d talked to their kids about kitten handling and stuff.”
“Well, it’s going to be just us tomorrow, too, because Lake insisted on taking Theo to a nice lunch in town and River will be working.”
“Yeah. Sierra said she’ll be at the office for the paperwork.”
