Page 32 of Christmas Wishes

“You can be a brat. Just be patient with yourself while you’re at it.”

Doris talked me through adding my first row of stitches, then my second. I was getting the hang of it, albeit slowly. For each row I completed, Doris finished three. It was surprisingly relaxing. I could picture myself curled up on the couch in front of the fireplace with snow falling outside of Riggs’s house.Anyhouse.A house owned by no one in particular. I blinked the image away.

“What’s your favorite thing to crochet?”

Doris grinned, which made the well-earned wrinkles around her mouth deepen. “Cat butt coasters.”

“Cat what whosters? Butt coasters?” I looked at the table on my left but didn’t see anything of the sort.

Giggling, she got up, walked over to her coffee table, and brought back a stack of coasters. I flipped through them. They were in various fur colors, but one thing remained the same: a pink center.

“The butthole on these are spectacular.”

Doris cackled. “Those two are modeled after my cats. They show me their asses enough that I was able to do them from memory.”

I shook my head and handed them back to her. “After I finish this potholder, I’m making cat butt coasters.”

She promised to send me the pattern.

“Speaking of cats. Am I hallucinating the cat at Riggs’s place? I’ve seen food and water bowls, a litter box in the laundry room, and an occasional flash of fur, but the thing seems to hide constantly.”

Doris smiled sadly. “Joule belonged to Nico. The poor cat only ever liked him, and she’s had a hard time since Nico passed. I offered to take her, but it turned out she was more miserable outside of that house, and she hated my tabby cats.”

“I bought treats for her from that pet food vendor at the market and left some at the base of the stairwell. They were gone the next morning, and there was a catnip mouse toy left outside my bedroom door. Joule must’ve been playing there while I was sleeping.”

Doris laughed so loudly that it startled me. “Joule likes you. She used to do that with Nico. Leave toys after Nico gave him treats.”

I smiled. “Aww. That’s actually sweet. Joule doesn’t like Riggs?” That surprised me. I figured Riggs was the kind of quiet guy a cat would love. They would sit silently and apart from each other.

“I’m sure she will. They’re both grieving.” Doris smiled sadly.

Before I left town, I needed to buy more treats and make sure Riggs gave them to Joule. They both needed a friend.

Both of our phones buzzed on the table moments apart. Doris picked hers up while I finished wrapping yarn around the hook and pulling a stitch.

“Riggs will be here soon. I’d better put the finishing touches on dinner.”

“Can I help?”

“Sure thing. You can work on the salad.”

As I followed Doris into her pale-yellow kitchen, I checked my phone.

Airbnb in Snow Hellscape: On my way.

It was our first text since Sunday. Now that I knew Riggs, that name didn’t suit him, so I changed the contact to Electric Man.

While I washed my hands, Doris pulled vegetables out of her fridge.

“If you’ve got any questions, best to ask them before he gets here,” she said over her shoulder.

“About Riggs?” God, it was tempting. Doris had to be a fount of knowledge about the mysterious man. “I’ve got about a million questions about him, his family, and his ex, but I feel like I should ask Riggs directly.” I’d felt comfortable asking Evie because I figured her knowledge would be cursory, but with Doris’s closeness to Riggs, I didn’t want her to accidentally share information he didn’t want me to know.

She gripped my arm as I wiped my hands on a towel and smiled like I’d passed some sort of test. “You’re right. There’s one thing I’ll say. From my perspective, where Riggs’s ex went wrong was that he didn’t take the time to listen to him. Especially when he didn’t talk.”

“Which is most of the time.”

She tapped my forehead. “Exactly.”

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