Page 61 of The Honorable Texan
They blinked again.But this time they looked at each other and then back at him.
He shook his head.He was doing it again, talking to the cats.Violet and the baby would be good for his mental health.Any day now, he was going to think the cats actually understood him.
He got up and went to the sink.Just as he put his coffee cup and plate under the running water, separate sets of teeth dug into separate ankles.
“Eyoowch!”he burst out, and started cursing.
The two cats moved quickly away, in different directions, with their ears back and their tails as rigid as flags.He rubbed the marks, glaring after them.
“I said, you’ll have to adapt and I meant it!”he yelled after them.
They walked faster.
He wasn’t going to tell Violet about this, he decidedas he doctored the small incisions.She’d have him locked up before the wedding!
* * *
When Blake wentto pick Violet up at Duke’s house for lunch, neither Duke nor his wife and son were around.
“Has she left?”he asked Violet covertly.
She shook her head.“They were stiff and polite at first.Now, they’re walking around each other like wrestlers looking for a good hold.”
He sighed as he tucked her hand into his and they headed toward his car.“I was afraid it might go like that.People don’t really change, you know,” he added thoughtfully.“They hide traits that bother potential mates, but bad habits always show up eventually.”
She stopped walking and looked up at him with twinkling eyes.“Do tell?And what hideous traits are you hiding from me?”
His own eyes twinkled.He bent down.“I’m a rock fanatic.”
Her eyebrows levered up.“You like rock music?”
He shook his head.“I like rocks.Meteorites.Fossils.Crystals.Right now, I’m keen on iron meteorites.I go out looking for them with a metal detector on weekends.”
She began to smile.“I’ve got a box of projectile points in my closet,” she said.“I picked them up on my grandfather’s farm when I was a little girl.Some are big and some are little.I don’t even know much about them, but I treasure them just the same.And I’ve got quartz crystals of all sorts, from amethyst to rose quartz…!”
He hugged her close, laughing.“Of all the coincidences,” he burst out.
She hugged him back.“I can see us now, hiking upa mountain with the baby in a backpack and a metal detector,” she chuckled.
He drew away so that he could see her face.“We’ll take turns carrying him,” he mused.“Or her.”
“He feels like a boy,” she said.“I don’t know why.”
He bent and kissed her nose tenderly.“We’ll love whatever we get.Maybe he’ll like rocks, too.And astronomy.”
He took her hand again and led her toward the car.He favored his left leg a little and winced as he moved.
“What’s wrong?”she asked immediately.“Did you hurt yourself?”
He paused by the passenger door of his car and studied her.
“Don’t you want to tell me?”she persisted when he hesitated.
“You might want me locked up when I tell you,” he mused.
“Be daring.”
He laughed.“I told the cats we were getting married and expecting an addition to the family.They looked at each other, and at me.One got on either side of me and they bit both ankles at once and flounced off in a huff.”
