Page 31 of A Little Spilled Milk

She was home, too.

18

EMORY

When are you coming home?

Vinnie was impatient for my arrival, and I suspected he wanted me to give him a bath and feed him dinner. He enjoyed it when I spooned food into his mouth and told him what a good boy he was.

Today was unusual in that I had in-person meetings. Working from home, I usually conducted my meetings online.

I’ll be there in thirty minutes if the traffic isn’t too bad.

I was eager to shower the dust and grime of the city off me and enjoy the evening with my boy and Tippy. Our kitten’s antics always amused us and kept us entertained, even when we were trying to watch a movie.

Traffic was awful; typical Friday evening of cars bumper to bumper, and I was fifteen minutes later than I’d told Vinnie, though we had texted while I was stuck in the car, not moving.

He flung open the door before I could insert my key in the lock. He was beaming and bouncing on the balls of his feet as he didwhen he was excited. Much as he loved me and enjoyed having me home, there had to be some other reason for overabundance of enthusiasm.

He gave me a quick hug and bounded into the living room. He didn’t yell, “Ta-da,” but he may as well have, because the expectant look on his face told me there was something different about him or our home.

Tippy was meowing at my feet, and there was a jingling, but I was glancing around the room, trying to pick up on whatever Vinnie wanted me to see.

“You have three guesses, Daddy.” Vinnie was standing on tippy toes, his cheeks spotted with pink.

“You’re wearing a new shirt.” I was grasping, because other than that, I didn’t notice anything different.”

“Ummm, yes, Daddy. It’s one I bought ages ago.”

His almost disappointed reaction had me wondering what else I needed to see.

“Ummm. You emptied the dishwasher.”

His crestfallen expression wasn’t the one I’d hoped for.

“I did, but that’s not it.”

Vinnie’s gaze rested on our kitten. “Tippy wants you to pick her up, Daddy.”

I bent down, and that was when I saw it. Our little girl was wearing a new collar, one with a bell and her name on it. Not just Tippy. There was another name as well.

“Third time lucky. Tippy has a new collar, a special one.”

“Yes.” Vinnie clapped. “Do you like it?”

“I do. It’s beautiful. Did you have this made?” Our kitten had her name added to the sparkly pink collar.

“I wanted her to know she really is part of our family.”

“I love it, and I’m sure Tippy has given lots of purry kisses to say thank you.” I took Vinnie in my arms and we hugged, almost squashing our kitten. “Wearea family, and I look forward to years of waking up and going to sleep with you.”

“But I have another surprise,” Vinnie mumbled against my chest. “Not as exciting as Tippy’s collar.”

“Let me guess. You tidied your closet drawers.”

Vinnie giggled. “No, but yes, I did that, but it wasn’t interesting.” My boy hated keeping his section of the closet organized. But we had a schedule on our tablet, and I’d only had to remind him a few times.

I sat on the sofa and pulled him onto my lap. “Do I have to guess or are you going to tell me?” I didn’t have another three guesses in me.

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