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“Ha. Funny.”
Briar tipped her head to the side, eyeing me in surprise. “What, you wouldn’t want to bring him?”
I’d take him if it wasn’t for one very simple fact. “He wouldn’t come.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” said Cat.
I gave a short, humorless chuckle. “Oh, I do. One of the conditions of our arrangement is that we don’t go out on dates, remember? Taking him for a meal with my friends would seem too much like a date.”
Izzy’s nose wrinkled. “That’s true. But you could still ask him.”
“Only to get rudely shot down? No thanks. I’ll bring Judy.” Hearing soft murmurs and a distinctive cat-yowl, I glanced back over my shoulder. “Speak of the she-devil …” Judy was slowly padding my way, a noisy Sushi at her side. The calico seemed to love the sound of her own voice.
Knowing the woman would eavesdrop if I stayed on call andmassivelysupport my friends’ opinion that I should invite Kaiser to Cat’s meal, I rounded up the phone conversation and then rang off.
Reaching my side, Judy grinned as the dogs crowded her, licking at her hands. “Talking to our new neighbor, were you?”
“No, I was on a video call with my friends.” Standing, I pocketed my cell. “They all said to tell you hi. Oh, and you’re invited to Cat’s birthday meal on Wednesday, by the way.”
“That will be nice. Are we taking Kaiser with us?”
“Why would we?”
She shot me an impatient look. “You can’t tell me that you haven’t seen more of him lately.”
“It’s a casual fling, nothing more. We don’t date, we don’t act as each other’s plus-one, we just—”
“Have raunchy sex? That’s a good start, I suppose. The ‘casual’ part won’t last long.”
“Don’t start with all that again.” Catching sight of Sushi leaping into a flower bed, I sighed. “What is wrong with that cat?”
Judy straightened her shoulders in affront. “Nothing at all is wrong with her.”
“She keeps jumping into shrubs and flower beds and even the damn stream.”
“She’s bored. I told you we need the bird—”
“Not happening,” I said, slamming up my hand. “Let it go.”
Judy huffed. “It’s not as if you’d have dead birds all over the estate. She likes to eat the bodies.”
I grimaced. “That doesn’t actually comfort me.”
Her brow creased in surprise. “No?”
“No.” I turned toward the house, shaking my head. “How about we go inside and have dinner? I’m starving.”
“Works for me.” She linked her arm through mine as we walked. “I made stew. Made a little too much, actually.” She paused, twisting her mouth. “There’ll be plenty left over if you’d like to take some over to K—”
“Grams.”
Her lips flattened. “A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”
“So, what, you want to win his heart?”
“I wantyouto.” She poked my shoulder.“You could tell him that it was you whocooked the stew.”
“I won’t be telling him anything, because I’m not taking him any stew.”
