Page 193 of Waiting Game

“She likes my smell better though.”

“You smell good, but she still comes to me for food, plus Cupid’s like her cat mom.”

“Are we really arguing about cat custody?”

“Bet your ass we are.” She winks at me. “How’s the calf?”

“Shit.” I wiggle my leg slightly when it starts to ache from how I’m sitting in the car. “Thanks for offering to come over. I know that was awkward.”

“As if that matters. You should have said something. I could have met you there.”

I shoot her a smile. “I like being at your place.”

No lie.

“Only you’d prefer a grungy dump like mine in comparison to yours.”

“Yours is lived in.”

“Oh, is that what it is?” Another chuckle escapes her as she unzips Betsy’s carrier and draws her out.

When she rests her on my chest, I cup under her fluffy butt and murmur, “You like Daddy best, don’t you, Pumpkin?”

“She’s either Betsy or Pumpkin. You can’t have both.”

“How about Betsy the Pumpkin?” I mock.

“No, that’s not the rule. Betsy the Beautiful, I’ll accept.”

“How did that start?”

“Alliteration rocks.”

My lips curve. “You’re as crazy as I am.”

She mimics my trademark wink. “What took you so long to figure it out?”

“How’s the bar doing?”

The change of topic has her grimacing. “We’re going to paint it. Hopefully, that’ll help with our rep. I wanted to do it sooner but I couldn’t afford to shut the place down. I accepted there’ll never be a good time so I’m tearing off the Band-Aid.

“Apparently, Uncle Chuck used to bribe the health inspector and ever since I’ve learned that, it’s been skeeving me out. I doubled down on our cleaning schedule and I put the job at the top of the ‘imperative’ list.”

“Understandable.”

Chuck’s such a douche.

As I gather more and more intel about this guy, I can totally see how he sold out Gracie. But it’s a complete contrast to what I’m experiencing with Mia—she’s got a beautiful soul. Generous and kind. Her uncle, on the other hand, not so much.

“We’re starting to make videos for social media too. Slowly trickling out information about my great-grandfather, focusing on some of the memorabilia. We’ll see if that’ll boost our sales.”

“Marty Charles could be a massive draw. Do you want help with a publicist?”

“You’re too kind, Cole. Thank you, but we’ll figure it out.” She gives me a kiss though, so I know she’s not mad at me for interfering.

It kills me that I can’t star in a couple vids for her.

The constraints of our situation are really starting to piss me off.

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