Page 54 of Talk Birdie to Me

“Well, now Cody’s afraid someone at the zoo tipped off the potential thief.”

“But no one knows who you are or that Gary’s here.”

It was Geena’s turn to frown. She’d been grateful for Cody’s help with Gary, even though he’d been the one to drop him on her doorstep. But he hadn’t thought it through, and now she was in a bigger mess than bird droppings.

“Someone could have been watching Cody at the zoo. They could have followed him here.”

“Crap.”

Gary squawked from his perch on the unmoving ceiling fan. “Crap on a cracker!”

“That’s new,” Geena mused.

“We can discuss Gary’s vocabulary later,” Taylor said. “You’re telling me you could be in danger now?”

Geena shrugged. “Maybe. But probably not. Cody just didn’t want me to be alone, and I wasn’t about to have him sleeping on my couch again.”

Taylor’s eyes widened as she turned her head completely to face her sister. “Again?”

Rats.

Geena had been trying to hide that fact all evening. She couldn’t think of a single way to spin this or roll it back now.

“He was worried last night that someone might have followed him, and he refused to let me stay here alone.”

“So he slept on your couch,” Taylor said. “And you’re just now telling me this juicy piece of information?”

“There’s nothing juicy about it,” Geena insisted. “He slept on my couch. Then he left this morning after insisting that I let him install a security camera later this week.”

“That’s not a terrible idea. Even without this Gary stuff, you’re here alone most of the time.”

“I don’t have a problem with it,” Geena said. “I had a problem with him not wanting me alone again tonight, so I promised to ask you to spend the night so he wouldn’t have to.”

Her problem, however, wasn’t that she didn’t want Cody around. It was more that she did want him around and didn’t know how to deal with those feelings.

Taylor narrowed her eyes while Gary booped and beeped before plopping himself to poop on the paper in front of them.

“Let me get this straight. You’ve eaten with the guy three times now, and spent the night with him once.”

“Stop saying it like that.”

Taylor ignored her. “At what point are you going to admit there’s something between you two?”

“Never. I can share a meal with someone?—“

“Three times,” Taylor repeated.

“—without it meaning anything more than two people eating food because humans need to eat.”

She almost sounded like she believed that.

Almost.

“Stop minimizing,” Taylor said.

“Stop blowing it out of proportion.”

Taylor took a deep breath as her expression softened, and her tone lowered. “Seriously, I just care about you, and I want you to be happy. It sounds like you make each other happy. Or at least, you enjoy each other’s company.”

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