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“Oh, hey, how did it go?” he asked. “Did you find any snow pants?”
“Where’s Dallas?” I asked abruptly.
He paused for a moment, probably caught off guard by my tone, but when a lady handed him a small piece of paper, he turned his attention to it, then nodded and thanked her. He began rifling through the cabinet again as he spoke. “Um, I sent him to go lie down for a bit. He wasn’t doing well with all” –he pointed to the people around us who were chatting amongst themselves– “this.”
Nolan suddenly dropped his head against the cabinet and I felt a momentary pang of guilt for how tired he looked. His eyes met mine. He kept his voice low as he said, “People just keep showing up and we just weren’t expecting that. I guess after last night, they’re either curious or want to apologize or whatever. Dallas is still recovering so he wasn’t feeling well to begin with…”
I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him, but I steeled myself to ignore the pity. Yes, Nolan had been kind to me considering all I’d done, but he’d also lied to me. I’d trusted him to watch out for Newt and he’d lied to me.
“Where’s Newt?” I asked.
“Isaac, come see!” I heard Newt call. I turned to see him sitting in the far corner of the office. He was surrounded by a couple of people, so I couldn’t really see him. I hurried to him, intent on grabbing him and telling him we were leaving, but when I got to where he was, I came to a stop at the sight that greeted me.
Because he was covered in kittens.
Literally covered in kittens.
There was one in his hands, two curled up in his lap, and even one on his shoulder. Several more were walking all around the little cordoned-off corner that someone, Nolan probably, had created out of some boxes and various pieces of office furniture. Loki was snuggled up next to Newt with his head on Newt’s thigh, and there was a kitten between the wolf hybrid’s big paws and another climbing along his back.
It had to be one of the cutest scenes I’d ever witnessed.
“And this one is Mater,” Newt said to a woman as he carefully held up the kitten in his hands. The woman took it from him.
“Whatcha doing, buddy?” I asked as I knelt down by the barrier keeping the kittens on Newt’s side.
“I’m the cat per,” he announced.
“The what?” I asked with a laugh. Something in my chest eased at the sight of my brother’s broad smile.
“The kitties tell me their secrets, so Nolan says I’m the cat per since I can talk to them.”
I chuckled. “Do you mean, the Cat Whisperer?”
“Yeah, that’s what I said.” Newt dropped his hand to Loki’s head. “Nolan says people wanna take the kitties home with them, but I gotta say it’s okay because I know them best.”
I didn’t really understand what my brother was talking about, but just seeing him look so at home made some of my anger recede. “Have you been spending a lot of time with the kittens?” I asked.
Newt nodded. “I helped feed them. And the big cats too. Nolan asked me to name them. This one’s Sally and this one’s Chick…”
I listened and watched as Newt spouted off the name of each kitten.
“And know what else?”
“What?” I asked dutifully.
“Nolan taught me to play something for Gentry! ’Cause it makes him feel safe. He says I’m real good.”
“You are really good,” Nolan said from behind me, then he was kneeling next to me. “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is Gentry’s favorite and I don’t play it anywhere near as good as you,” Nolan said as he reached out to poke my brother in the belly with a pretend tickle.
Newt practically beamed. My eyes caught on Nolan’s fingers… specifically his nails. They were painted a mix of bright pink and orange. I recognized my brother’s handiwork and couldn’t help but smile. “I see you’ve been to Newt’s Nifty Nails.”
Nolan glanced at his nails and chuckled. “You should see Dallas’s,” he said. He faked a frown and said, “He got a mani and a pedi.”
“I promise to do your toes tonight,” Newt said. “Any color you want.”
I laughed. “Wow, you must be special. He never lets me pick the colors,” I said as I showed off my multi-colored nails. Newt wasn’t coordinated enough to polish only the nail, so my fingers usually ended up covered in color, but I kept nail polish remover on hand so I could clean the color off my skin afterward, leaving just the nails polished. Nolan’s fingers practically looked like they’d been dipped in the polish, but I didn’t see any evidence he’d tried to pick or scrub the color off. Some men might have been willing to indulge a small child when it came to something like letting them color their nails, but they would have cleaned it off right away. And the majority certainly wouldn’t have been seen in public with nail polish.
