Page 159 of The Moment You Know

“Yes.”

Mrs. Harte held out her hand. “Give it to me.”

“You want my phone?”

“Yes, I want your phone.”

“What are you going to do with it?”

“I’m going to talk to her,” she answered, exasperated. “What else?”

“If I give you my phone, will you get her to open her door?”

“Just give me your phone.”

Reluctantly, he handed it to the old lady.

“Hi, Paige,” Mrs. Harte said, her voice full of sunshine now.

“Hi, Dolly.”

“I meant to tell you the other day when I saw you, that I got some of those fresh cat treats that Sputnik likes so much.”

“You’re so sweet. Thank you.”

David rolled his eyes in frustration. What was going on right now? Why were they talking about cat treats?

“You’re welcome. And before you say I shouldn’t have, I got them on sale, so it was no big deal. Why don’t you come by in the morning and pick them up? Not too early, though, because I like to sleep in. Especially when I’m up late.” The last part was delivered with a pointed look at David.

“I’ll stop by before I go to work,” Paige promised. “Around 10 a.m.”

“All right. Good night, dear.”

“Good night.”

Mrs. Harte then gave David back his phone and turned toward her apartment door, without wishing him a good night.

“Wait!” he cried out, cringing when he heard the desperation in his voice. “I thought you were going to get her to open her door—”

“Why did you think I was going to do that? And how did you think I was going to do that? With my magical powers?”

“Well, no, but—”

“Paige is a grown woman, with free will—”

“I never said she wasn’t—”

“—and it’s her decision whether or not to open her door and talk to you—”

“I know, but—”

“—and if she’s not willing to open her door and talk to a man who’s not bad looking, has decent teeth, and wears his pants well …” Mrs. Harte trailed off and shook her head. “Then you must have really done something stupid, is all I can say.”

“All I did was kiss her.” The words were out of David’s mouth and into the hallway before he could stop them.

“That’s all you did? Exactly how bad of a kisser are you?”

“What?” He sounded like a shocked little boy.

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