Page 55 of Talk Birdie to Me

Geena blew air up into her bangs as she counted backwards from five. Struggling to remember all the reasons pursuing things with Cody was a bad idea. She wasn’t even sure how he felt about her. Not to mention he’d been pretty clear about moving soon.

“I enjoy his company. Good enough?”

“For now.” Taylor grinned. “Speaking of food. Are we ordering pizza and streaming something to make this a real sleepover?”

“If we can drop this subject, and you can find a movie, I will place the delivery order right now.”

Geena put a few blueberries in Gary’s food bowl and waited for him to fly into his cage to shut the door. She’d let him out again later while they watched TV.

Taylor nodded. “Deal.”

Gary squawked before diving into his treat and shouted, “Let’s fucking eat!”

14

Cody examined the white box in his hand. He flipped it back and forth, studying the image on the cover and the text on all the other sides.

“What about this one?”

Lauren put the box she’d been looking at back on the shelf and leaned to look at Cody’s. “That one’s not bad. You don’t have to connect to a network, and you can see the images from anywhere on an app.”

“So it wouldn’t be too difficult to install?”

Cody had taken Lauren with him to look at security devices after work. She was much better with tech stuff than he was. And he wasn’t afraid to admit it.

“Nope,” Lauren said. “But I can give you a hand if you get stuck.”

“Thanks.” Cody studied it a second more, then double-checked the price. Not bad at all. Well under what he’d anticipated. No flashy bells and whistles. Just what he wanted. Simple. “Looks small, too.”

Lauren guided his hand to flip the box on its side again. “Yup. No one will know it’s there if you don’t want them to. It’ll look like a normal doorbell button, so no one will know to dismantle it.”

Exactly what they needed.

Something larger and more obvious might deter someone from trying to break in, but the way they’d easily gotten in at the zoo made him think that if they knew the security device was in place, they’d be determined enough to find a way in.

“All right then.” Cody lifted the box in the air. “This is the one.”

They walked together to the register, and Cody placed the box on the counter. The salesperson rang him up and asked about a warranty.

When he looked at Lauren, she said, “Nah. They’re a scam. Besides, you’ve got me. I’m your installment and service warranty.”

Cody paid for the item and headed to the parking lot with Lauren. “Thanks again for coming with me. I’d probably have picked the first thing I saw and been screwed.”

“That’s how you roll,” she said. “No problem. You sure you’re okay to install that yourself? I don’t have anything going on this evening.”

“Let me check first.”

He sent a text to Geena asking if it was okay to go over and install the new device. A moment later, she replied.

“Her sister’s staying over tonight. Said we can put it in another day. Maybe tomorrow evening.”

Cody didn’t have anything scheduled all week after work, so it didn’t matter to him. He never really scheduled anything except the occasional date. He’d been too busy with Geena and Gary to even bother setting something up, even though a guy he’d hooked up with a couple months ago had been messaging him again.

But normally, other than scheduling dates, everything he did was an in-the-moment-decision. He could handle this whenever she wanted him to.

Lauren stood on the other side of his car, waiting for him to unlock the doors. “What if someone tries to get in during the day?”

With a shrug, Cody said, “This is the best I’m going to get. She’s got her sister with her tonight, and Geena’s not going to want me there while she’s at work. I’ll try to go over tomorrow evening.”

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