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Theo laughed. “Uh, no. I think it’s great you’re finally playing up to your potential. Hey, who owns this kitten?” He picked up Jellybean and held him to the little girl’s face. “I think he wants to go home with you. But if you don’t want him, I can probably find someone …”
“Dad!” the girl wailed. “We have to take him!”
“Okay, but no dog, Libby.”
“We’ll see,” Libby said with determination now that step one of her evil plan had yielded fruit.
Dex put an “Adopted” tag on Jellybean’s box, then watched with Vadim and Theo as his new family headed off to the kennels, “just to see.”
“We are killing it,” Theo said.
“Sure, threaten to take every kitten home,” Petrov said. “That should work.”
“Uh, yes, it will! Oh, look out, there’s someone else who needs some encouragement.” Off he bounded to work his sales magic on more unsuspecting victims.
Dex turned to Petrov. “Thanks for coming out today. Didn’t expect it, to be honest.”
“Why? Because I am the captain and above all things?”
“You said that, not me.”
Petrov smiled. “I like to be involved. Not on the text chain, of course, let them have their bitching about me. But other things, it is good. And Isobel said I must be nice to you because you are practically family.”
Dex couldn’t have heard that right. “She said that?”
“Yes, because you were discovered by Clifford. The man was a dick but he had a great eye. He saw something in you and now you are on this team, where you are meant to be. It is Kismet. Also, I will be retiring soon.”
Petrov had been retiring for the last five years. “Oh yeah?”
“Yes, you cheeky pup. It is important that the next generation is ready to take over.”
Was the captain implying Dex O’Malley might have developed sufficient responsibility to be considered “ready to take over”?
He looked over at Ashley who was busy showing a pair of twins a couple of black and white kittens. Their eyes met and there it was again, the fireworks, the boom, the everything. His life had done a 180 in the last six weeks and it was all down to her.
Vadim’s lips quirked. “She is special, your Ashley.”
Dex swallowed. “Yeah, she is. I try to tell her all the time, but it never comes out right.”
“Sometimes it is hard to find the right words. But your actions are speaking as loud as your heart is thumping. She can hear it. We can all hear it!”
The cap was so dramatic, but he was also right. Dex’s heart went into overdrive whenever he even thought of Ashley. Willa, too. He loved them both and he needed Ash to know that.
“What should I do?”
“Tell her what’s in here.” Vadim beat a fist against his chest. “What do you have to lose?”
“Except your deep-seated fears and long-held insecurities,” Theo said, stealth-moving into position.
“Jesus, where did you come from?”
“Over there.” He thumbed behind him. “Where I got three families set up with a Fanta special, a New York cookie, and a Jean Luc Picard.”
“A what the what?”
“A Tabby, a black and white, and a gray one. As in Earl Grey hot.” Kershaw’s quick-firing brain needed Google fucking Translate. “So you’re going to break the bad news to Ashley?”
“The bad news?” Dex slid a glance to Petrov who offered nothing.
