Page 20 of Clap Back (Carter Brothers)

“Why are you laughing like Dr. Evil?” he asked, pausing halfway to touching the cat.

“Athena’s mom is really religious,” I said as I started to explain my giggling. “So the first time she met Linda, she looked at her curiously and asked, ‘What does she feel like?’”

“And you said like a pair of balls?” he asked, sounding amused.

I flushed dark red as I said, “Well, not quite. I mean, I was thinking it, but I didn’t say it. Athena could tell I was trying hard not to blurt it out, so she helped change the subject to picking a name.”

“And how did you come up with the name Linda?” he wondered. “That seems really random for a cat.”

“I kept saying ‘listen’ to her when she was searching for her food bowl. And you know that saying ‘Listen, Linda?’” I asked.

He nodded. “Well, it just kind of stuck. I started using it more and more, and now she’s an overweight Sphynx cat with an attitude problem. It fits really well, actually.”

“I can see that.” He narrowed her eyes. “Does she always climb in between the couch cushions like that?”

“Yes,” I answered as I pulled the cushions of the couch up to show him her nook. “It’s warm there. When we go to bed, she likes to burrow under the blankets.”

He reached toward the cat and ran his fingers over her back.

He paused. “Usually, when you pet a cat, it’s like something easy, soft. This feels like I’m petting a goddamn foot.”

I burst out laughing. “She’s definitely not easy to pet, that’s for sure.”

The doorbell rang, and I started to stand up to go answer it, but he waved me off. “I’ll get it.”

He came back moments later with two pizza boxes, which he placed on the coffee table next to me.

Linda perked up, and I caught her up before she could make a mad dash for it.

“Be right back,” I said as I disappeared into the hallway to contain Linda so she didn’t try to share our meal with us.

When I got back, the pizza boxes were open, there were two fresh beers on the coffee table next to those boxes, and a couple of paper towels.

I smiled as I took the seat in front of my box and reached for a slice.

I dug into it, groaning the entire time.

“I had no clue how hungry I was,” I admitted. “This is really good. Like always.”

He reached for his own slice and took a bite.

I glanced over at him, waiting for his reaction.

“It’s good,” he confirmed. “There’s a place near where I just built my house. It’s called Pizza. That’s it. But it’s the best food you’ll ever put in your mouth. Maybe if you have time next week, we can check it out.”

My heart soared. “Where is it that you live?”

Saying you lived in ‘Dallas’ was a joke. There was Dallas itself, and then there was all the metroplex. Saying you lived in Dallas could mean you lived in Los Colinas, Plano, Ft. Worth, Grapevine, The Colony.

“Actually, I’m pretty far away from Dallas now. Sunnyvale. It’s about thirty-eight minutes away,” he admitted. “Farther than we’re technically allowed to be, since we’re on SWAT. But when we’re on call, all of us brothers just stay in the city at the apartment we rent not too far from the station for just such occasions.”

“Sunnyvale is a nice place,” I said. “Why did you move all the way out there, though?”

“Wanted to get the hell out of the city,” he said. “All of the brothers went in and purchased a block of land there. We built a family compound of sorts. I was the last house to get built out there.”

“You all built houses? Recently?” I gasped.

With the housing market the way it was, the prices of materials sky rocketing, and the quality of workers… that had to have been a nightmare.

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