But like he belonged because those countertops and the entire kitchen were mine.
And he was too.
“Love you, Low,” I said quietly.
His face was turned away, mug to his lips, but his eyes were cast to the side and on me when I spoke.
After I said what I said, his expression softened, he dropped the mug, and replied, “Back at ya.”
I grinned at him.
Then I opened the door, walked through, and went to work.
* * *
My cell on my desk chimed. I looked from Justine, sitting across from me going over the formal offer I’d typed out, Rafferty crawling around on my office floor, and turned my eyes to my phone.
At what I saw, I snatched it up, slid my finger on the screen, and read the entire text.
“Hang on, babe,” I muttered to Justine.
“Sure,” she muttered back, then louder, “Raff, baby boy, no on the trash bin.”
Rafferty reached out from crawling position, latched on to the side of my trash bin, and pulled it to him.
Wads of paper flew out.
Raff squealed with delight.
Justine moved to deal with the trash I didn’t care that Raff was reorganizing.
I hit the buttons to make the call I needed to make and put my phone to my ear, telling Justine, “Don’t worry about it. You know I don’t care.”
“Babe,” Logan answered a beat after I said my last word.
It was my turn to squeal with delight.
“The kitties are ready to pick up!”
“Yee ha!” Justine cried.
Rafferty rolled to his diapered tush and clapped his hands, or tried. He missed a lot but it was a good effort.
Logan’s voice was filled with humor when he said in my ear, “When?”
“This evening. Any time after six.”
“You got the shit?” he asked.
“What shit?” I asked back.
“Litter box. Food. Shit like that.”
I didn’t have the shit.
I needed the shit.
I glanced at my day’s to-do list.
Then I asked, “Uh... could you pick up the shit?”
There was a moment of silence before, still with humor but also with some resignation, he gave me the answer old Logan (who was very much like new Logan) would give.
“I’ll pick up the shit.”
“Thanks, Snooks,” I murmured, liking that he was going to pick up the shit. Then I ordered, “Kitty chow, not adult food. And that clumping litter, not anything that’s cheap. I saw online they have one that attracts kittens for litter training. Find that one. If you can’t, find one that might combat odors. And cute kitty bowls. Ones that match the house. Oh! And toys. Ones with feathers and stuff like that.”
“Jesus,” he muttered.
“Got that?” I asked.
“I’ll buy what I buy and it’ll work,” he replied. “You don’t like it, you can go out and get what you want.”
“Okay,” I said. “If I don’t like it, I’ll go out this weekend and find something I do like. Maybe the girls will get into that.”
“If there’s money to be spent on somethin’, they will.”
That made me smile.
Then I told him, “Justine is here. I need to go.”
“Right. Tell her I said hey. Later, beautiful.”
“ ’Bye, Low.”
We rang off and I looked to Justine, who was staring at me.
“Geez, it’s like twenty years didn’t pass. You guys were always like that. Me and Ronnie could fight for three days about who was going to go out and buy a litter box.”
This was true.
Justine and Veronica found a lot of things to fight about mostly, from what I could tell, so they’d have a variety of reasons to make up.
“Low says hey,” I told her, and watched happy hit her face.
“Say hey back when you see him,” she replied right when the door flew open.
I hadn’t heard a car come up the drive, so my eyes shot there with surprise and I felt more surprise when I saw Kellie stomping in, Dottie following her.
I didn’t pay much mind to Dot because Kellie had her arm raised and she was pointing back and forth between Justine and me.
“You! And you! I just knew it!” she shouted.
“What the heck?” Justine asked.
Dot closed the door as Kellie crossed her arms on her chest, face set right at pissed, that pissed aimed at me.
“I knew you’d tell her first,” she accused. “I knew she’d get the lowdown on Logan before we got our LBD on. I knew it.”
“Kellie—” I began.
“Admit it!” she snapped. “She’s your bestest bestie and I’m second fiddle.”
Not this again.
This had been happening since forever.
And it wasn’t just me she accused of Justine being my bestest bestie, it was also the other way around with Justine.
“You’re both my bestest besties,” I said on a sigh. “We’re all bestest besties. You know that.”
“The biggest thing that happens to you since you met Logan is you gettin’ back with Logan and she gets the goods first?” She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“I tried to stop her,” Dot put in, and I looked to my sister. “We were having lunch. I mentioned Justine was here. She lost it and there was no going back.”
I looked back to Kellie and explained, “I’ve offered Jus a job, babe.”
“Ha!” she scoffed. “Likely story. And that bullshi—” Her eyes dropped to Raff, who was staring up at her in wonder, and she finished, “. . . shtein was what Dot was spouting.”