Page 57 of True Honey
I tried reaching out again only for Red to swat at me for even trying to get close to him. The cat fucking loved everyonebutme. I had let the kid adopt a grumpy old cat and now I could only hope that Red liked Drew enough to convince her that what I did wasn’t a violation of our agreement.
“Man he hates you,” August chuckled. “It’s kind of hilarious.”
“I like this kid,” Arlo mumbled, too busy scratching Red’s belly to notice Cael messing around on his phone.
“What are you doing?” I asked him.
“Changing your name from Gramps to Cat Daddy in the group chat,” Cael laughed, not looking up from his phone. I sighed and left the four of them to fuck around with our newest family member, I needed a cold shower and a game plan.
SHORE
“Acat?” Drew looked from Red, curled up in a ball in August’s arms to me with a terrified expression on her face. “You got him a cat?”
“He wanted a cat,” I said, deciding that honesty was the best policy.
“So you just…got him a cat?” Drew asked, her shock still rampant. “How old is that thing?” She gaped at it.
“Cosy says it’s eleven, roughly…” I cleared my throat as Drew moved toward her son and gave the cat a chance to smell her before curling her fingers into the hair between his ears.Right, why wouldn’t the evil cat love her? Why do you hate me?I glared at the mangy thing.
“You bought my son a senior cat without talking to me?” Drew’s voice sounded a little less strained that time, like she was coming around and no longer mad at me… hopefully. “Why?”
“We were at the stadium yesterday-”
“You were at the stadium yesterday?” She looked at August who just shrugged. I could hear the concern in her voice over the fact that I was parading around her son without her knowledge and behind her back.
“He was home alone, said you were working at Hilly’s…” I raised an eyebrow at her,you were supposed to quit.“Him and Van’s sister were talking about cats, one thing led to another. If it’s any consolation, I tried to get him to go with a kitten but he wanted that…thing.”
Red’s entire body vibrated with a low growl.
“Is it rabid?” Drew asked after the interaction.
“No, Red just hates him,” August teased, a string of light hearted laughter falling from him.
Drew snorted, and it was the first I’d heard that laughter in days. I leaned into the sound, my heart rate slowing from the light tone in her voice. Her bright green eyes met mine and I held my breath, the sparkle was bright and a defeated smirk formed on her face.
I adored the way she looked at me and even worse I enjoyed how warm my apartment felt with them in it, in my life. It was the most reckless chance I’d ever taken but one so worth it that I couldn’t remember how it felt to be alone.
I would do anything to make her see that.
That much was decided.
Smiling with pride I took her in, leaning over her son and the cat. She was wearing the pajama’s I bought her, and I could smell the body wash from her shower rolling off her skin. It was all making it very hard to control myself. I wanted a repeat of my birthday, a hundred repeats.
Drew Courtney was under my skin and I liked the way she rested there.
“I can’t believe you got him a cat,” she sighed under her breath but I could tell that August being happy did the same thing for her. She rubbed her hand into the back of his unruly hair and watched him faun over the cat gently.
“What are your plans for the day?” I asked, changing the conversation as I wandered to the fridge.
“I have a day off,” she smiled at me, “probably laundry.”
“Screw laundry,” I said, “I have tickets to the game this afternoon. It’s a playoff game, it should be really good.”
Drew looked apprehensive, “I don’t know anything about baseball, it would be a waste of a ticket.”
“You don’t have to know the rules to enjoy the sunshine,” I said, the meaning behind my words doubled. I just wanted to enjoy her sunshine, rules be damned.
“I don’t know,” she chewed her lip.
