Page 88 of Single All the Way

I found Evelyn and Berty in the living room, Berty reading a paperback and my daughter doing a word search in an activity book, both with a bowl of popcorn at their side. Christmas music played quietly from a speaker.

When she saw me, Ev jumped up and gave me a hug. “Hi, Daddy! How was work?”

Her happiness coaxed a smile from me. “Work was good. Lots of cats in today, including five kittens from one litter.”

“Can we get one?”

That pulled a genuine laugh out of me. “No room at the inn, dear daughter. The Holloway house is full up.”

“But when Miss Emerson takes Nugget and Xavier and Sky and moves to a house, we’ll have four spots open.”

The truth of that hit me in the chest like a steel beam, but I did my best to hide it, instead sharing an amused look with Berty.

“We’re not getting any new pets, vacancies or not.”

“The humans are already outnumbered,” Berty added.

“Kittens are so cute though.”

“Maybe you could draw a picture of a cat family,” Berty suggested.

Evelyn considered that. “Okay, I’ll try it.” She sat back down on the floor, pulled out a sketch pad from under the activity book, and started drawing.

“Are the others upstairs?” I asked.

“Last I knew they were building a blanket fort, hoping you’d let them sleep in it tonight,” Berty said.

I headed upstairs.

“Wow. What alternate blanket universe have I walked into?” I asked when I stepped into Ruby’s room. They must’ve absconded with every blanket in the house.

“Hey, Dad!” Ruby called from inside the fort.

“Hi, Dr. Ben! This is my room over here,” Xavier said, his head popping up from between two blankets hanging on the far side of the room.

“Architects in training, huh?”

“We have a kitchen and two bedrooms and a living room and a game room,” Ruby said, her voice getting closer as she presumably crawled through the tent. She popped out near me and hugged my legs.

“Where’s Skyler?”

“She’s not in here.” My daughter stood and surveyed the fort from the outside.

“I think she’s with Evelyn,” Xavier said, poking his head out of a different space.

I frowned. “She wasn’t with Ev. I’ll check her room. Happy decorating.”

Forty-five seconds later, I’d checked Evelyn and Skyler’s room, the bathroom, and Emerson’s room, which I needed to start thinking of as the guest room again, but found no Skyler.

With alarm beginning to pulse through me, I poked my head back in Ruby’s room. “You’re sure Sky’s not in here hiding somewhere? I can’t find her.”

“Skyler!” Ruby called.

“She’s not in my room or the game room,” Xavier said, his voice moving under the blanket roof as he searched. “Not in our kitchen.”

“Check under your real beds too,” I said and went to do the same in the other two bedrooms. I looked behind the shower curtain and scanned all the closets. “Shit.”

“She’s not in there,” Ruby said, exiting her room with a concerned look.

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