I mouthed, “Panic attack.”
He nodded and then went to the kitchen where they unpacked whatever they’d bought from town.
When Theo came to peer in, looking worried, I shook my head minutely.
“What time is it?” I mouthed at him, because I couldn’t see the kitchen wall clock from here and my phone was…probably upstairs or on the counter somewhere.
“Twelve-fifteen,” he said quietly.
“I’ll make you guys lunch,” Lake called out from the kitchen in a hushed tone.
Sighing, I closed my eyes again and relaxed back into the couch. I wasn’t a violent man, but that fucking asshole junkie should be glad that his little girl had asked me not to hurt him. Had his family not been there…
Had he actually put his hands on Rey, I would’ve lost it. Dealing with just the panic attack was enough. If there had been physical injuries too, yeah…I wasn’t sure how I would’ve dealt with that.
“Lunch is ready; we’re going to see the foal,” Theo murmured and they quietly left, Bucky in tow.
The kittens materialized from under the other couch and climbed onto ours.
“Hey, babies. How are you doing? Did you get scared?” I asked them, deciding it was time for Rey to wake up. “Such nice babies you are. We got to find you a new home, girlie,” I told the calico.
“Ouch.” Rey opened his eyes and extracted some claws from his T-shirt.
“Welcome to the land of the living.” I hugged him briefly, then put both kittens on his lap and got to my feet. “Lake made us something to eat, so I’ll go check on that. Do you want tea?”
“Uh…” He carefully stretched his hands toward the ceiling, then shook himself. “Yeah. That’d be great. Thanks.”
“Of course.”
I had the food plated and tea and coffee made when he came back from the bathroom. We ate in a companionable silence.
The door opened and Theo walked in. He washed his hands in the kitchen sink, then came to sit with us.
“So, Cook, I have a question for you, and I suppose Rey could be part of this, too.”
“Oh?” I raised a brow, finishing my sandwich.
Rey raised his brows at Theo.
“Well, with the reopening party coming up, we were thinking about catering some stuff, but we were thinking that maybe you guys wanted to do some of the cooking?” Theo took off his ball cap, scratched his scalp, and put it back on.
“Huh,” I said, thinking for a while. “I mean sure. It’s a lot of monotonous work, but that could be good practice for you, Rey. What do you think?”
His forehead scrunched up, and for a few moments he looked like some sort of a disgruntled elf.
“I mean, depends on what we would be making, I guess? I don’t know much other than regular food but we’re talking things people can grab easily, right?”
Lake came in with Bucky in tow. “Okay, I’m ready for a nap,” he announced.
Theo slapped his own thighs, then got up and knocked on the tabletop. “You two think about it. Whatever you want to do is fine, and the catering can do the rest.”
“Sure, we’ll do that.”
“Naptime, boy,” Lake told Bucky, who followed them into Lake’s bedroom.
“So, what kind of things?” Rey asked again.
I got up and went to find a notepad and a pen from the junk drawer. “Well, we can either go very easy and do some salads and stuff, leave thehors d’oeuvresfor the caterers, or…”
