Page 61 of A Love Like Pumpkin Spice
“Oh.” The penny drops. “Ohhhh. Damn, girl. Congrats.” I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. Apparently, I do have “freshly fucked” written all over my forehead, after all. That’s not embarrassing at all.
“I swear, she’s been annoyingly happy all day,” Lauren chimes in, and I can’t help but rib her.
“Jealous?” I lift my eyebrow at them, lips stretching into a smile.
“Hell yes,” Lauren hisses with a pout and Kieran bursts into laughter. “Don’t laugh,” she scolds him. “Do you seriously want to tell us you’ve never had any problems that couldn’t be solved with a good fuck.”
“Can’t say I have,” he presses out, still chuckling. “In fact, my best fucks have only gotten me into trouble.”
“I will need those stories sometime,” Lauren says, curiosity written all over her face as she crosses her arms in front of her chest.
“Ohhh, you have a cat here.” Kieran suddenly notices and makes grabby hands toward Cinnamon with the brightest smile on his face, and I let him pull her out of the bag. She meowsin a weak protest that quickly dissolves when he cuddles her to his warm chest and tucks her into his jacket. “Who are you, cutie?”
“That’s Cinnamon,” I introduce her with a grin and watch him instantly fall in love with her. “Cinnamon, that’s Kieran.”
“Okay, okay, now with the introductions out of the way, we need to do something.” Lauren’s eyes dart between me and Kieran. “Her ex and her sister are in town.” She narrows her eyes at him. I guess she must have filled him in on everything at one point. “Are you up for a secret mission?”
“Always.” He gives us a terrible salute and hands Cinnamon back to me. “Tell me what to do, ma’am.”
“I like that.” Lauren grins before her face suddenly turns serious. “They’re at Caleb’s. Go in there and try to find out what they want. We’ll make a run for it while you distract them. Make sure they don’t see us run for our lives. When you have the intel, we meet at Nic’s house.” She narrows her eyes at him even further. “Bring cat treats. And coffee.”
“And one of those marzipan thingies, please. I’m hungry,” I add.
“Make that two.”
“I accept the mission.” He gives the two of us a serious nod. He stretches his neck to check our surroundings and all but jumps up, patting the dirt from his jeans, while trying to seem inconspicuous. “Give me three minutes after entering.” He shoots the two of us a dramatic look. “May fate be ever in your favor.” And then he runs off.
“Do you actually think he’ll find anything out?” I ask her, but she shakes her head, staring at her wristwatch and counting down the minutes until we make a run for her car.
“Let’s be honest, we both know why they’re here,” she explains, then gets ready to bolt. “But if he gets them distracted, that’s all we need. Now, let’s go.”
Then she takes my hand, and we run faster than I’ve run in years as I hug the bag with Cinnamon to my chest.
“That was boring.” That’s how Kieran greets me when I open the door for him. He walks in, immediately handing me a tray with three coffees and a bag of baked treats for us humans, then another one with treats for my cats.
Cinnamon immediately trots over, and he scoops her up to cuddle her to his chest, kissing her tiny head.
“You’re such a pretty girl. We’ll be best friends,” he coos at her while making his way to my living room like he owns the place.
“Oh. Hi, Lauren,” he greets her offhandedly before sitting on my couch and petting Cinnamon with a mischievous grin that would rival a James Bond villain.
“What happened?” Lauren asks, turning around with Pumpkin cuddled into her hood, her small face popping up between her hair. “Tell us everything.”
“Oh my God, there’s another one?” Kieran’s eyes widen.
“Right, I forgot you haven’t met them yet.” I point out. “That’s Pumpkin. She has as many brain cells as one, and she screams so loudly I fear for my windows every day.”
“God, she’s adorable.” He gazes at her dazed as he mindlessly pets Cinnamon, then shakes his head as if he’s waking up from a trance. “But anyway, nothing happened. I stalled them for a few minutes, but ultimately Caleb kicked them out because of the ruckus your ex caused the last time. Didn’t give a fuck about your sister’s crocodile tears. She couldn’t believe it. Honestly, it was glorious to watch.”
“I wish I could have seen that,” I mumble and sit on the couch too.
Immediately, both cats decide to not give a fuck about their respective humans anymore and make their way to me.
“Are you the cat whisperer?” Kieran asks, voice full of awe, and I chuckle.
“Nope, I’m just the favorite.” I grin and Kieran gets up to distribute the coffees I put on my coffee table. I hope Marissa and Jay will go back to wherever they came from if they can’t find me here.
And there are worse things than cozying up with my cats for a few days and keeping a low profile.
