I attempted to keep my tone as casual as possible. “I could do that.”
“Okay.” He grinned. “Pick you up tomorrow at eleven?”
“Perfect.”
He started to twist the door handle but stopped midturn. “I should probably get your number. You know,” —he paused, digging his phone out of his jacket pocket— “in case something comes up and you need to cancel.”
“Yeah, of course.” I punched my number into his device before handing it back. His fingers danced across the screen, and within seconds, my own phone chimed from the kitchen counter.
“And now you have mine too.”
My heart jumped and kicked its heels. “Great.”
“Then I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, “unless something comes up.”
With one last smile, he opened the door.
“Sounds good,” I said. “If anything changes, I’ll let you know.”
But of course, nothing would. There wasn’t anything that could keep me from spending another day with Luca.
“Good night,” he called over his shoulder as he started down the stairs.
“Night,” I replied, watching him cross the yard before locking the door behind him.
I squealed and ran back to the sofa, scooping up Earl Grey like a small child and twirling with him in my arms.
“Early Bird,” I sang his nickname off-key as Binx made a beeline for the bedroom to get the hell out of Dodge. “The most distinguished kitty-man I ever did see. Can you believe? Luca wants to hang out with me…”
A loud knockon my door Saturday morning jolted me out of the cozy cocoon that was my bed.Shit. Is that Luca? Did I oversleep?I snatched my phone from the nightstand to find it was only a little after eight thirty.
Binx and Earl Grey regarded me through slits, probably wondering who I was and what I’d done with their antisocial mother.
There was another knock, and I threw a sweatshirt over my loose T-shirt and shorts.
“Coming,” I shouted, padding to the living room.
I flung open the door to find Kia with a drink carrier in her hands containing two coffees.
“I thought I was going to have to send out a search party,” she said, a you’ve-got-some-explaining-to-do expression on her face.
I winced. “Sorry.”
“I’ve got to be at work by ten, so you better get talking,” she said, pushing past me.
“Wait a second,” I said. “You’ve never been here before. How did you even know where I live?”
She placed the drinks on the coffee table and settled onto my sofa. “It’s not that hard to find people these days. Even if they don’t want to be found.”
“But—”
“If you must know, I showed up at the restaurant this morning looking for you,” she explained. “The girl working told me you were off today, and I said I must’ve gotten confused on where we were meeting. Then I said I’d misplaced your address and couldn’t get you on the phone, so she got it out of your file for me.”
I folded my arms over my chest and joined her on the couch. “I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to be giving out employee information like that.”
She pursed her fuchsia lips. “Maybe. But I did tell her I was serving you court documents, so maybe just let that one slide.”
“Kia!” I swatted her arm. “How the hell am I supposed to explain that?”
