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The kid, with the cat in her arms, watched him with wide, glossy eyes. “I’m sorry, Sam.” Her voice had a slight tremor in it.
“It’s okay. You just have to be careful where you fling toolboxes. Not all of us are as tough as you.”
“That’s what my dad says too. I’m glad I’m a girl.”
The small cat released a tiny meow from within the kid’s arms.
“She’s so cute! I want a kitten. I’m going to ask my dad for one,” Zabe said, taking a seat on the rug. “What’s her name?”
“Duchess, because I can tell she’s going to be an elegant lady cat. I thought about naming the cat Nicholas just to get back at him for Luna, but she’s much too sophisticated for that name.”
Zabe giggled. “She’s too pretty for a name like Nicholas. Do you like kitties, Sam?”
Besides a fish or two he and Nate shared during their childhood, he’d never had a pet before. When the Sunderland brothers made an argument for a dog—they’d decided on a golden retriever—their father shut them down. “It costs too much money to have a dog. What about one of those betta fish?”
After Sam moved out, he was too busy with school, and trying to pick up girls. It wasn’t a good lifestyle for pet owning, and he had stopped caring. There was no reason he couldn’t have one now. Maybe he’d follow Nicholas’s steps and get a little dog, as was his destiny.
“I don’t know anything about cats. Don’t they prefer to be left alone?” He based his assumption on standard cat stereotypes.
“No,” replied Luna. “They just prefer attention on their terms.”
Zabe lifted the cat gingerly and approached.
“Oh, no, that’s okay. I don’t need…” Duchess was placed in his lap, and they stared at each other as if sizing the other up. Should he put a protective hand over his still-sensitive crotch?
“Just pet her like this.” Zabe demonstrated this with gentle pets along the tiny animal’s spine.
Duchess meowed and he nearly jumped out of his skin. Was it angry? It began climbing his chest, probably to get within biting distance of his face. Sam couldn’t move. “Okay, someone take it. I don’t want to get scratched.”
“Stop being a weenie, which we learned today is very fragile—right, Zabe?”
The kid giggled.
Duchess’s destination appeared to be his shoulder, where the feline decided it was a good place for a nap and started purring after settling. He stiffly rotated his head to make eye contact with Luna, surprised to see her expression soft with a wistful smile. “See, it’s fine.”
“She likes you,” Zabe agreed.
Since they’d been on the couch, Luna kept a hand placed on the inside crook of his elbow. If he had been asked, when he was younger, where he wanted a girl to touch him, the elbow was probably not in the top ten. But there was something warm and caring about it. Here he was with a small cat on his shoulder, Luna on his elbow, and Zabe watching him near his knees. Sam wondered if this was what it would be like to have his own little family someday.
And, the same as receiving a plant, he was starting to get the appeal.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Luna was atMia’s aunt’s house in Sacramento for the baby shower. They’d finished playing all the cheesy games, such as guessing how many inches Mia’s ballooning waistline was or guessing baby food flavors smeared inside a diaper.
After games and food, everyone chatted, mostly surrounding Mia as she showed off nursery pictures on her phone. While the nursery had turned out fantastic, now that it was done Luna was ready for a new project to capture her attention. Her focus drifted toward the living room fireplace. It wasn’t stylized but, rather, the mantel held a variety of framed family photos. She really wanted one, functional or not. Luna did a quick search for DIY faux fireplace ideas, discovering she could reuse an old cabinet or bookshelf with a floating shelf above it to create a similar appearance. That was definitely doable.
In her newfound excitement, she sent Sam a text.“What are you doing?”
“Doing work at my mom’s place,”he responded soon after.
Luna sent a screenshot image to Sam in a text.“I want to make this since you insist I can’t have a real fireplace.”
He responded,“I give tenants my number in case there’s an apartment emergency—not to act as a sounding board to your wild home decorating ideas.”
“This IS an apartment emergency. What if I forget to tell you?”
He replied with an image of his plant with tiny tomatoes growing.“Did you notice? It’s starting to produce!”
