Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“And?”
“We have a situation.”
No hesitation before, “Tomorrow. First thing. Seven o’clock. In your office. Briefing.”
“Yes, sir.”
Rhys Vaughan hung up.
Heath returned his attention to compiling everything they had on halewheelerisgodstan1 so he could give it to Vaughan in the morning.
Hale
His eyes opened.
He saw dark and felt Elsa.
His eyes adjusted to the city lights illuminating the room and saw she’d moved away from him in sleep.
Unconsciously, and urgently, he reached for her and pulled her into his arms, his body, and he did this tightly.
His heart was racing, his skin felt cold.
She stirred, her hand gliding up his chest to curl around his shoulder.
“Hale?” she asked sleepily.
He said nothing.
He just shoved his face in her hair and drank her in.
“I’m okay, honey,” she whispered, pressing closer.
He drew in a long breath.
“I’m okay,” she repeated. “I’m right here. I’m fine.”
He held her close. She let him.
He didn’t know it, but with her safe in his arms, he fell asleep first.
It would take a lot longer for Elsa, and that wasn’t (only) about the dead cat.
CHAPTER 24
BABY GATES
Hale
Hale was in his corner of the couch.
Elsa wasn’t in hers.
He had his legs stretched out, ankles crossed, resting on the coffee table.
She had her head to his thigh, and Frosty, his eyes closed, snoozing on her chest while she stroked him.
It was safe to say they’d learned, a mature cat surrendered to a shelter, when he was claimed by his forever mom, he didn’t mess about with sharing his gratitude. Frosty had settled right in.
Elsa was scrolling her phone.
Hale was looking over a marketing strategy they were going to roll out for Core Point.
It was then they heard the tiny thump.
Elsa started and turned her head.
When she moved, Frosty opened his eyes.
Hale carefully got up, lifting her head to allow himself to do so, and putting some pillows under it as he got up to investigate.
Frosty jumped off Elsa and came with him.
He hadn’t gotten to where the thump sounded before Cheddar zoomed across the floor in front of him, nearly tripping him.
The kitten went from rug to hardwood, lost purchase, and started skidding, then sliding, and finally whirling in circles, he ran into the wall with another tiny thump.
“My baby!” Elsa cried, jumping off the couch.
She got nowhere near him.
Cheddar was up and zooming back across the room.
“I think he’s okay,” Hale drawled.
Cheddar then zoomed to him, took a flying leap, and landed on Hale’s jeans at his knee, his little kitten claws digging in.
He started to climb, faltered, Hale caught him, lifted him to his chest and walked back to the couch.
He felt the ginger furball struggling for release. Since he was barely bigger than Hale’s hand, though, Hale had the advantage.
He settled back in on the couch.
Elsa settled back on his thigh.
Frosty jumped on the coffee table, sat and blinked slowly at them.
Hale let Cheddar go and he climbed up Hale’s chest, around his neck, then he lay on Hale’s shoulder.
This lasted all of ten seconds before he took another flying leap, bounced off the arm of the couch, and fell to his side on the floor.
Through this, Elsa gasped in alarm…twice.
Cheddar jumped up and zoomed away.
“Oh my fucking God, that cat is going to kill me. Heart attack at age twenty-seven,” she groused.
“Hang tight, baby. We’re getting the lay of the land. It seems like there are three scheduled zoomie sessions a night before he crashes tucked into Frosty. We’re on number three. We’re almost there.”
“Ugh.” She collapsed against him again.
Frosty’s head turned as he watched Cheddar zoom around. Like any being living with a disability, they’d noticed Frosty had developed extreme acuity in other senses, mostly vision.
Within another five minutes, Frosty jumped down. A minute longer, he was stretched out on the carpet below Elsa and Cheddar was wheeling around his belly area before he curled up in that location and promptly passed out.
“See?” Hale asked Elsa, who was peering over the couch at the cats.
“I love them so much, my bubbies, my precious pookies, my darling babies,” she cooed.
Hale smiled to himself.
He could hear purring.
She settled back in with her phone.
Hale returned to his marketing strategy.
“Chag Pesach sameach,” Hale said to Elsa’s Aunt Deborah when she opened the door of her house to them.
“Oh my goodness,” Deborah replied, touching both hands to her chest excitedly. “Look at you, what a catch!” She turned and called into the house, “Elsa and Hale are here!”
People crowded the doorway.
Fortunately, David was one of them. He waded through, pulling them inside.
“Chag Pesach sameach,” he repeated to David.
David’s head jerked when he did, then his eyes moved from Hale to Elsa and back to Hale. When they rested on Hale, he saw they were warm.
“Thank you, Hale.” David clapped him on the shoulder. “Welcome to our Seder.”
Hale nodded.
With Elsa holding his hand, David led him deeper into his sister’s home so he could attend their family’s Passover Seder.