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“You still wanna housesit?” Billie asked Luna.
“Sure?” Luna barely caught the set of keys Billie tossed her way.
“Someone call the owner for us. Tell them I’ll pay double for us to have this place until Jasper’s heat is over. Okay, thanks, bye.”
A moment later they disappeared back inside, the door slamming shut and the curtains closing. Our clothes were still inside…
The party was definitely over, and half of the attendees hovered awkwardly, unsure what to do. So much for our plan about telling Nicky we were dating tonight.
We got everything tidied up, and made sure the campsite was as neat as we could get it. Allie was already on the phone with whoever owned this place, negotiating the pack staying there.
Luna turned to me. “Am I even on the list to get inside their gated community?”
“That’s…a good question. I guess you might not be. I don’t know if I am either, but I can go over with you and see if we can get in. Otherwise I guess one of us is getting some kitty roommates for a while.” I trotted over to where Meg and my family were standing together. “I’m gonna go with Luna over to the pack house to make sure she can actually get in to watch the place. Do we need to do anything else before that?”
“I don’t think so,” replied Sidney. “Allie and I can bring out groceries and supplies in a couple of days. Otherwise we just have to wait for Jasper to surface.”
Mom sighed. “At least this time we know where Nicola is. How long should we wait before we expect to hear from her?”
“I would give it a week at least,” Sidney told her. “Meg, do you want to grab a ride with us?”
“Sure,” Meg agreed. “That’ll let Luca and Luna get everything sorted at the pack house faster.”
With rides and duties sorted, I climbed into Luna’s car with her to start the trip back to town. Both of the cats sang us the song of their people from the back seat in their carriers. We were still in our robes, but we could stop off to change before heading to Nicky’s.
“I wasn’t expecting to actually be asked to housesit,” Luna said. “That place is enormous. I have no idea how to take care of it. Where am I supposed to sleep? I can’t just climb into someone’s bed.”
“We’ll figure it out. I think they’re going to be pretty chill about it since this is last minute.”
“They’d better be. Hopefully it all goes smoothly.”
“I’m sure it will.”
Thank god Nicky had put all the Marinos on the access list to get into the community. I wasn’t on the list, which meant for me to do the task I’d been assigned, one of them would have to come let me in every time I came over. My schedule and Luca’s didn’t coordinate well enough that it would be easy, but I could bring my laptop over and work on studio prep, still do some of my training and workouts in the living room, and just meet up with Luca to let me back in after I was done with my evening classes. I had no idea how long Jasper’s heat would last, but I had to plan for at least a week of being there.
The house was absolutely cavernous. Without all of them there to fill the place with energy, it was dead quiet and more than a little eerie. We let the cats free and they screamed for food that I had no idea how to find.
Luca and I scoured the kitchen, opening every cupboard and drawer so I could learn the space, and eventually located some canned cat food.
“Could you stay here with me?” I was pretty sure he would agree, but I wanted to ask anyway.
“Sure, I can. I’ll let Stella know I’ll be gone for a bit and we can go get supplies from both of our places.”
“Good. I don’t want to stay here alone. It’s way too big and I’m going to be super paranoid if I have to sleep here by myself.”
“I guess it does feel pretty weird without a whole squadron of people here.”
We spent the next hour moving through the house room by room, locating the litter boxes and other spaces the cats would use so we could find them again.
With no definitive place to sleep, we settled on the couch nest in the living room. There were more than enough blankets and pillows that we didn’t have to go hunting for bedding, and it made me doubly glad that Luca was going to be staying because it felt exposed with the open-concept main floor.
As annoying as the security was to get into the community, I did appreciate that the gate guard stuck to his guns about not letting in unapproved guests who were unaccompanied. It didn’t matter to them that we explained the pack would be away and that we were housesitting because they hadn’t thought to clear that in the few moments they had to deal with anything before disappearing into the cabin. Once they surfaced it would be easier, but for now we just had to manage.
With all the initial things taken care of, we set off for both our places to pack for the upcoming week, pop in to let Stella know where we would be, and pick up Luca’s car.
When we were back again and tucked into the couch nest, watching a movie on my laptop because we couldn’t figure out how to work the fancy-ass projector, the weight of the place in the dark became all the more apparent.
I pulled the blankets up to my chin, needing the security of the fluffy fabric. It smelled like Nicky’s pack, which wasn’t terrible but did make me want to do laundry.
