His face clears, and he sighs. “Right, right. The story. Of course. Just what I thought you meant.”
I press my lips together to control my amusement. “What tale did you have planned to tell me?”
“Ah.” He turns onto his side to lean over me. “It is a daring tale, my love. Are you sure you’re ready?”
Content to receive whatever he wishes to give me, I confirm that I am, and he begins.
“Once upon a time, there was asupremelycute princess…”
Chapter Nineteen
?
Archie
Building a patio for our soon-to-be cat—a catio, if you will—goes even faster than I thought it might. It isn’t unlike a chicken coop, which I’ve researched loads of times and even gone so far as to buy materials for, though I can never quite bring myself to actuallybuilda chicken coop. A chicken shouldn’t be locked up in a cage like some subpar citizen of the animal kingdom. It should be free to peck and explore as it sees fit, like they do in Asia.
A cat, though… a cat should be contained, particularly when said cat lives in the woods, where it isn’t safe for a little creature to roam. They aren’t strong like chickens are. They need protection.
Which is precisely why I’m glad I bought the best lumber and materials money could buy for my theoretical future chickens’ theoretical future coop. Our not-so-theoretical future kitten is going to live lavish and protected within the four hardware cloth walls of their fancy new catio. The space connects to the house via the backdoor and eats up the entirety of the human patio—hatio?—that was previously taking up the area.
The outdoor table and chairs that used to live here have been dragged to Stryker’s house thanks mostly to Basil, who heard my saws going and decided to check in on me. Seeing no bloody bits and bobs lying about, he tried to sneak away. Unfortunately for him, he’s about six-foot-thirty, and I’m not a blind man, so I saw him. He then had the pleasure of hauling the heavyiron furniture away to make space for me to put up walls while Sarelia organized our pet store purchases inside.
Once the walls and roof were up, I vacuumed all the dust and debris left behind, pressure washed the foundation, then went in search of my darling wife.
I find her not amidst the mountain of pet supplies in the living room, nor in the kitchen with the several skyscrapers of wet food tins, nor in her room, nor in mine, nor anywhere in the top two winding layers of the house.
Worry knotting in my stomach, I make my way downstairs to check the cameras and figure out where she’s gone.
When I hit the bottom of the stairs, however, I find that I cannot check the cameras, because Sarelia is already watching them.
She giggles as she spins in my desk chair, beaming at me across the room. “These cameras areincredible,” she raves. “Do you know that you have a freckle on the back of your ear? I was able to zoom right in on it! It’s shaped like a little heart.” She grins. “So cute!”
I look behind her at the monitors where she’s pulled up feeds from all over the house, outside and in. A stream showing the back garden where I was working holds the biggest portion of the screens, and I can follow my own path searching for her based on which feeds were brought up next on other sections of screen.
Across the room, Ted cries.
Sarelia glances at him, and her nose wrinkles. “He’s getting kind of loud.”
I hum, unconcerned about Ted’s discomfort. “You were stalking me.”
She returns her attention to me, where it should be. “Well… yes?” Her lower lip disappears between her teeth. “Is that not okay?”
I take deep, calming breaths, and count to twenty.
It does not calm me down.
“We need to go upstairs now,” I say.
Sarelia shrinks in on herself. “I’m sorry,” she replies. “I didn’t mean to overstep. I just thought…” She gestures to the screens. “I thought this was…”
“Sarelia,” I interrupt. “Upstairs.”
“I–” She gulps. “Upstairs. Right. Okay. Can I just… where upstairs? Is there a scolding room?”
Scolding…
“No,” I growl, stalking toward her. “But there are a great many rooms with a great many pieces of very comfortable furniture that are not within twenty feet of a slowly dying man, and I would much prefer to kiss you there. If you like the ambiance down here, though…”
