“Then Cotton is perfect. He can go anywhere in town with me, and that’s that.”
Heath eyeballs me suspiciously. “You’re going to take him out?”
“Yeah.”
“Where?”
I blow out a slow exhale through my lips. “Well, there’s when I grab morning coffee, run to grab groceries, school?—”
“You’rereallygoing to carry him around?”
Oh, this is going to be fun.
The town is going to have a ball with a Magnolia school teacher walking around with a stuffed bunny in her purse.
“Absolutely,” I reply confidently. “He’s perfect, I love him, Heath. Thank you so much for getting him for me.”
He blushes a bit and seems to lose some of the confidence he had with me moments ago, so I’m quick to try and get it back.
“Do me a favor and grab us some snacks out of my pantry,” I suggest. “I’m cold, and you’re all bundled up.”
Heath doesn’t wait to ask me where or what kind, he seems too interested in raiding my kitchen for things when I turn on the TV to find something to watch.
Then Micah’s voice scares the crap out of me.
“You harboring swamp creatures down there, Miss Vesper?”
My palm finds the place on my chest where my heart resides, and I can’t help but navigate another glare in his direction. “What?”
“Your drain line is clogged with gunk and tripped the safety float switch.” I stare at him when he doesn’t continue until he does. “We get a lot of humidity down here. You have some algae in there and, well, I’m just wondering what you’re doing.”
“Trying not to freeze to death.”
He begins removing his jacket, hinting that he’s going to give it to me, but I don’t want to assume.
However, that’s exactly what he does when he closes the distance between us and leans in to drape his warm coat over my body.
“I always wondered what you’d look like in my clothes.”
“Daddy!” Heath hollers out from my kitchen. “Miss Vesper has dinosaur apple sauce!”
Oh, God…
Micah’s brows shoot up. “Really?” he shoots back. “Bring us some.”
I scowl. “I didn’t offeryoua snack.”
“Well, it’s either that or you being one for me, which I think is highly inappropriate with my son in the other room.”
I have no response to that because, not only is he right, but what am I going to do? Refuse him applesauce while I’m trying to build a bit of rapport with his son?
Micah knows what he’s doing way before I do, and he’s annoying with the one-up crap lately.
“How long will it take for you to fix the heat?” I press to get this all over with.
“Fifteen minutes. How’s Jonah?”
I hold his innocent stare with one of nonchalance because he’s not going to rile me up with Heath going through my snacks. “Fine.”
