“They’re so small,” Levi whispers almost reverently.
It’s a juxtaposition, seeing this mountain of a man with such a tiny kitten. He’s keeping his movements slow and careful, exuding a gentleness and dexterity that one would think impossible because of his size.
His tenderness with the kitten is doing absolutely nothing helpful in turning off these intense feelings coalescing inside me. Quite the opposite, in fact. The picture before me of Levi cradling the kitten, bringing the ball of fluff up to his face, is almost enough to make me lose my tentative restraint.
Meowfoy lifts one of his bean-toe paws and sets the pad on Levi’s nose. Levi’s brows raise in surprise, and he stills as if afraid to make any sudden movements. In a blink, a tiny pink tongue darts out and licks Levi right between his nostrils.
Levi blinks in amazement. “It’s rough.”
I realize he means the kitten’s tongue and let out a soft puff of air encased in a chuckle. “Have you never been licked by a cat before?”
He shakes his head while he moves Meowfoy over to the side a few inches to nuzzle the kitten against his cheek. The kitten licks Levi again, this time along the patch of skin right above his thick beard. Levi smiles wide, pure delight written on his face. “My family always had dogs while I was growing up. They still have two Pomeranians. Yappy little things that shed like crazy.” The tone of his voice leaves no doubt as to his opinion on the dogs.
Meowfoy licks him a third time. Levi’s eyes widen even further in wonder. “It feels like sandpaper.”
“Yeah, a lot of people don’t like when cats lick them.”
Levi lifts Meowfoy even higher, resting the broad expanse of his forehead against the kitten’s itty-bitty one. “It’s perfect.”
I guess I had nothing to worry about, bringing the kittens back to Levi’s with me. Turns out he’s one-hundred-percent a cat guy. I clear my throat again. “So you’re not mad that I’ve saddled you with even more houseguests?”
He looks away from Meowfoy to meet my eyes, returning the kitten to the others, then taking the box from my arms to carry it himself. “Let’s go get them settled in their new home.”
He moves aside to let me head up the trail first. Once we’re inside, he busies himself in the laundry room, saying he’s going to make a warm, cozy place for the kittens in there while I get to work making the formula so the kittens can have full bellies.
I mix all the ingredients in a bowl, then remember the kittens probably aren’t old enough to lap up the milk mixture on their own. Or are they? I’ve never taken care of a baby animal before, so I really don’t know. I pull out my phone and look up the question, not feeling all that vindicated when it turns out I’m right and kittens need to be bottle-fed until they’re three or four weeks old. Something tells me Levi doesn’t have a bottle lying around in his house anywhere. Unless one of his sisters has kids who come to visit? Then again, if they did, there’d probably be a crib in the room I’m sleeping in because Levi’s consideration for his family is unmatched.
I head to the laundry room, prepared to ask him what he thinks we should use to get the formula into the kittens’ tummies. As soon as I open the laundry room door, I freeze, unprepared for the sight before me. Levi is lying on the cold, hard tile floor, Dumpurrdore curled up asleep in a ball on Levi’s stomach, Hermeowne in the same position on Levi’s chest, and Meowfoy tucked up under Levi’s chin, using his beard asa blanket. My stomach flips over on itself as I lift my hand to cover my smile. Levi the lumberjack and Levi the human kitten pillow are two sides of the same coin, and both are making me feel some kind of way.
Levi opens his eyes, the tips of his ears turning a cute shade of pink. There’s a nest of blankets and fluffy towels beside his shoulder, obviously where the kittens weresupposedto go.
I lean my shoulder against the doorjamb and grin at him. “What happened here?” I whisper.
“Would you believe me if I said they overpowered me?” he whispers back.
My grin widens. “I saw you wield that ax, mountain man. I ain’t buying it.”
The pink travels to his cheeks. “I guess adorable things are my weakness.” But he’s not looking at the kittens asleep in a row down the core of his body. He’s looking at me. As if implying that I am an adorable thing that makes him weak.
Is Levi Redding, self-proclaimed grump and recluse,flirtingwith me? My mind scrambles to catch up. Sure, I’ve moved past my initial assumption that I annoy him and he can’t wait to be rid of me, but it’s a huge leap fromthatto flirting. Flirting implies liking. More than liking. Or, as the middle schoolers are oft to say,likeliking. I’ve been under the impression that the attraction here is entirely one-sided. Have I been wrong yet again?
And what, exactly, am I going to do with this information?
Dumpurrdore uncurls and stretches, making Levi wince.
“Claws?” I ask with a smirk.
He nods while trying to disentangle said claws from his light gray T-shirt.
“I came in to ask if you have anything to feed them with. The formula is made, but they aren’t old enough to eat without being hand-fed.”
He gently lifts the other two kittens and settles them intothe soft, warm bed he’d made for them on the ground. “I have a couple medicine syringes that should work.”
I follow him back to the kitchen where he opens a drawer and pulls out two small oral syringes with black lines along the sides to indicate milliliter measurements. We take them and the bowl of formula and head back to the laundry room. I set the bowl on the floor, then lower myself to the tile and sit crisscross. Levi joins me on the floor, his knee and shoulder pressed against mine because of the tight space. He hands over a syringe, then scoops Hermeowne up and places the brown kitten in my lap before gathering Meowfoy against his chest. It’s hard to get the formula in the syringe with just one hand, so I fill Levi’s so he doesn’t have to set Meowfoy down.
“Thanks,” he says. He moves the tip of the syringe to the kitten’s mouth and puts the slightest bit of pressure on the plunger to let out a small drop of milk. “Should we name them, do you think?”
“Oh, I, uh, already kind of named them.” I duck my head, only slightly embarrassed that I hadn’t waited on him to offer suggestions.
