Page 80 of Always Salty

Squeals of excitement from the few kids that were there filled the air, and I sighed.

“Holy shit,” someone said from behind me.

I smiled and stood up, looking from Apollo to his son, Tavi.

I waved. “Hi, Tavi.”

Tavi’s eyes lit up and he said, “Hi, Kee.”

Kee.

From a young age, Tavi had trouble saying Keely, so I’d been shortened to Kee.

I was so happy he remembered me.

“Tavi.” I dropped down to my haunches. “I’ve missed you so much.”

He smiled and his cheeks turned pink. “I’ve missed you, too. Is that a cat?”

I stepped back so he could see the chaos Dima had just unleashed. “A lot of cats. My friend, Milena,” I pointed at Milena who was watching on with a small smile. “She married Cutter. She and I went to a place where my old man, Dima, found some kittens last night. And we found over seventy cats!”

“Wow,” Tavi said quietly. “That’s a whole lot of cats. What are you going to do with them all?”

I grinned conspiratorially. “I think I could probably talk your dad into a few.”

Apollo cursed. “Cats and computer equipment don’t pair well together.”

“Please, Dad?” Tavi begged, turning his sweet gaze up to his father’s.

I grinned wickedly at Apollo.

“Yeah, Apollo. Just one itty, bitty kitty,” I teased.

That’s when the Serval came back into the kitchen, and Tavi gasped. “That one!”

I left to go find Dima, laughing the entire way as Apollo explained why he couldn’t have that particular cat.

I want my phone to notify when I block them. Like: Blocked at 3:26 pm.

—Text from Keely to Dima

KEELY

The cats got a clean bill of health, and thanks to Shasha’s computer guru, since Apollo was currently very busy with his son, we got all their microchips changed over to match me as their original owner.

Four of them were a handful, but since I wasn’t working anymore, I saw no reason to not keep them.

And Dima hadn’t complained once.

He’d only given the four of them in bed with me a quick glance before he’d pushed them all to the side and climbed into the bed.

When I’d woken this morning, all of them were locked out of the room, and Dima’s mouth was doing amazing things to my clit.

My first stop of the day was the pet store where I would be grabbing some cat food—apparently cats, especially male cats, needed wet food in their diet to prevent them from getting ureter crystals, who knew?—and then to Dima’s place where I would be dropping them off for the day.

That morning as Dima was showering, he’d called out to me and told me that we were staying at his place.

He’d also told me to move in as he was leaving, with a quick “because I’m fuckin’ in love with you” before slamming the door behind him and hauling ass to his bike so he didn’t have to hear my reply.

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