“Don’t get all macho on me,” Lottie warned him.
The rooster flew into the house while the door was open and lit on the edge of the sink. He leaned over and drank from a coffee cup full of water that Knox had left there on Friday.
Knox dropped all the bags on the floor, grabbed the cupand dumped it, then refilled it with clean water. “Try that, buddy. It will taste a lot better.”
“A chicken will drink out of a mud puddle,” Lottie told him.
Knox picked up the bags and set them on the table. “Maybe he did in the old life he had before he got thrown in my direction. In this new life, he gets clean water.”
Lottie turned the kitten over and checked it out, then handed her off to Knox. “Congratulations. You have a baby girl. Just don’t bring her or Cheeto to my trailer. Prissy will eat the bird, feathers, and all, and try to murder the kitten. She’s very jealous. Once, when a Dalmatian came around the site, she jumped on his back and sent him howling. We never saw him again.”
She wondered if that meant if their pets didn’t get along, then there could be no hope for anything other than a fake relationship.
Chapter 11
“Aha! Lottie is finally having the walk of shame?” Micah called out from a lawn chair at the corner of Thomas’s trailer the next morning.
Lottie slowed her stride. “No shame, just a walk.”
“Is this thing with Knox serious or just a passing fling?” Micah asked.
“Could be either.” She passed by him. “This morning it was omelets, hash browns, biscuits, and sausage gravy.”
“Must’ve been a great night for you to make breakfast for him,” Micah said.
She kept walking and glanced over her shoulder. “It was, and he cooked. I didn’t.”
“Are you going to be my partner at the building site?”
She stopped and turned around. “Nope. I’m paired up with Knox. You can work with Eddie, Thomas, or Gabe until the rest of your crew gets here.”
“Don’t you know that working with someone every single day sours a relationship?” Micah asked.
“We’re the exception.”
“I’ll be waiting in the wings to dry your tears when it all falls apart.”
“Don’t hold your breath,” she shot back and waved over her shoulder as she went on to her trailer.
Prissy jumped off the bed and slowly made her way across the floor. Lottie picked her up and buried her face in the cat’s long hair. “I know you can smell Knox’s new kitty on my hands, but you have nothing to worry about. You’ll always be number one in my books.”
Prissy wiggled free of her arms and went back to the bed, where she washed herself thoroughly and curled up on Lottie’s pillow.
“Some friend you are,” Lottie said as she fixed her lunch—a sandwich, bag of chips, an apple, and two oversized chocolate chip cookies. “What if I wanted to tell you all about the breakfast Knox made for me or, even more, how we are friends now?”
The cat raised her head and moved to the end of the bed.
“Oh, now I have your attention when it’s time for me to leave for work,” Lottie said. “Now you’ll have to wait until this evening to hear the rest of the story, but I will tell you this. Micah is relentless, and he’s already trying to work an angle that will cause a breakup between me and Knox. See you later.”
Prissy let out one of those long, pitiful meows when Lottie closed the door and left her alone. Lottie almost went back inside to console her, but Knox came around the side of her trailer and smiled at her.
“You ready to start building the inside walls of Jack’s retirement home?”
“I am,” she answered and slipped her hand in his free one. “We’ve got three days to finish our part of this cabin, and then we move on to number two.”
“I got the feeling you aren’t wild about working with Micah. Will you be glad to get back to our original five team members on Thursday?” he asked.
“More than words can say.” She sighed.
