Page 17 of Need Me
Chapter 5
The next morning,Robert almost fell out of bed when Corky bayed like one of the Hounds of Baskerville. His heart beat in triple-time and he was instantlyalert.
“Robbie? Hey! Youup?”
Robert rubbed his eyes and tried to stick his glasses on. He poked his left eye with the arm of them. “Ow! Fuck! No, Kate. Still in bed. What time isit?”
“Down, Corky,” Kate said, coming in Robert’s room. “Why aren’t you answering yourphone?”
Robert managed to get his glasses on without blinding himself and picked up his cellphone. He hit the screen, but it remained black. “Died. I forgot to plug it in last night. Well, this morning,actually.”
He grunted when Kate sat on his back. “This morning, huh? I thought your date got cutshort.”
“Itdid.”
Kate bounced up and down, making Robertgroan.
“Knock it off. I have to pee. Get offme.”
Kate laughed and let him up. “It’s nine-thirty, by theway.”
“Holy shit!” Robert trotted to thebathroom.
“You’ve slept late,” Kate said, following him. She stayed out in the hallway, but kept talking to him. “Whathappened?”
Robert and Kate had the kind of platonic best friendship that entitled them to have very little modesty with each other. They also had keys to each other’s houses and often entered withoutknocking.
“I couldn’t sleep and I wondered how Brooke was doing at the hospital with the accident victims. I took some donuts and coffee to the ER staff,” hesaid.
He took care of business and washed his hands. Coming out of the bathroom, he dropped a kiss on Kate’s forehead. “Good morning,Mommy.”
Kate laughed and followed him back to the bedroom. “That was really sweet of you to dothat.”
Robert smiled as he pulled on his jeans from last night. He was going to do his outside work, so there was no sense putting on clean clothes. “That’s what Brooke said.” He jerked and almost caught himself in the zipper. “Oh, my God! I invited Brooke to dinnertonight.”
Kate’s dark eyes widened. “You did what? Why would you do that? You don’tcook.”
He gave her a withering look before putting on his T-shirt. “I know that. I told her that I make great Hamburger Helper and SpamSurprise.”
Kate let out a loud laugh. “Youdidn’t!”
Robert grinned. “I did. And Idomake great Spam Surprise. I’m not going to serve that to her, though. I could get takeout from somewhere, but that’s sort ofcheating.”
“And boxed meals aren’t?” Kateteased.
Robert made a face at her and then patted his thigh. “C’mon, Corky. Time to goout.”
Corky bounded down the hallway, scaring Hugo, who’d been coming to see Kate. The cat hissed and landed a flurry of hard blows on Corky’s head. It didn’t faze the big mutt since Hugo wasdeclawed.
“Knock it off, you guys.” Robert nudged Hugo out of the way and headed for the mudroom. “Please put coffee on, SpecialK?”
Kate sighed. “Okay. I hate not being able to drinkit.”
Robert said, “I know, but it’s worthit.”
“Yeah. I just miss it. I’ll live vicariously through you,” Katereplied.
Opening the mudroom door, Robert was greeted by a loud whinny from Precious, his mare, who stood at the pasture gate that faced thehouse.
