Page 110 of The Woman with the Wallet

“What? Yeah. Totally fine. Four generations of silly shakers all handed back to their rightful owners. No, it was just… I was on my way out and I heard something. Then I… saw something.”

“What? Like a crime or something?”

“More like a… cat or something,” she said as two kittens came walking out from behind the kitchen island. One was light gray with a white nose and socks. The other was gray and white striped. “Actually… two kittens,” she said, wincing. “I had to take them. They were all alone and crying. And they ran right to me when I came up. And it’s going to freeze tonight.”

“Sugar,” I said as she looked about ready to cry if I said I didn’t want them around. “It’s fine. I think Hissy has been lonely. Besides, it’s a big apartment.”

And I’d already been looking for bigger ones.

Now that I was a capo, that I had not only my brothers—but some other men—working for me, I had more than enough money to finance getting us our forever place. As much as we both loved this apartment, we both agreed that kids were in the five-year plan. I wanted to get us settled in a place with some extra rooms.

Which also meant there would be plenty of room for an extra cat or two. Or three. Or… however the fuck many she found on the street and needed to love on.

“At least these ones don’t want to flay us,” I said as the one with the socks rubbed itself against my leg.

“They’re sweet. And I already had Brio look them over and give them a bath. We have a vet appointment tomorrow.”

“What does Hissy think of them?” I asked.

“She’s treating them like her little lost kittens. She keeps picking them up by the scruff and moving them around. Whether they want to or not.”

“Sounds like her,” I said, reaching down to scoop up the striped one. “Nicole is never gonna be able to visit now.”

“She said the allergy shots are working. Tyler’s mom has cats. And now they’re going to be visiting all the time once the baby comes…”

Max and I weren’t the only ones about to have wildly different lives. Not long after Megs and Nicole moved in with Tyler, Megs had gotten pregnant.

I was excited to see Max as an aunt.

While the Costa family as a whole had about a thousand babies running around, my personal branch of it had none yet, so I hadn’t gotten to see her with any kids yet. But if the way sheloved on every cat or dog she came across was anything to go by, she was gonna be great with them.

“So, do you have names picked out for them?”

“This one,” she said, coming over to scoop up the one with socks, “is Don.”

“Don, like…”

“Mafia don,” she said with a smile.

“And this one?” I asked, jiggling the one I was holding.

“Bandit,” she said with a smile.

A mafia don for me. And a bandit for her.

“Perfect,” I decided.

She ducked down to set the wiggling kitten on the floor, and I went ahead and grabbed the ring box, flipped the kitten on his back, then stuck the box on his belly.

“Shit, sugar. This one has something…”

“Something like… what’s that?” she asked, reaching for the box absentmindedly.

It didn’t even click as she flipped the lid.

But as soon as her gaze landed on the ring, her eyes widened and her lips parted.

“Is this…”

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