Page 55 of From Nowhere

Maren laughs. “He’s in the shed out back. Follow me.” Her gaze lingers on me while she walks past us. It’s mischievous and sexy.

“Oh! Dad, get the gift out,” Lola says, spinning toward me.

I nod several times, retrieving six stalks of rhubarb from the pack attached to my bike. They’re tied with hemp string.

Lola hands them to Maren. “My dad said it’s polite to bring a gift when you visit someone’s house for the first time.”

Maren’s gaze shoots to me. “Thank you. Your dad is something else.”

I wink, and Maren leads us to the backyard.

“Looks like you have a full house tonight,” I say.

“Yeah. Will starts his next shift in the morning. He’ll be leaving for his tai chi class soon. And Fitz and Jamie are eating an early dinner before checking out a few houses. But I just know they will make an offer onmyhouse.”

“The one with the cat tree house?”

“Yes.” She unlocks the shed door and opens it.

“It’s a bedroom!” Lola covers her mouth.

“Yes. It’s called a she shed. I used to sleep out here, and then my friend Jamie stayed out here; now it’s Bandit’s room.”

We step inside, and Lola’s world explodes with glitter, rainbows, and butterflies.

“That’s the kitten, that’s the kitten, that’s the kitten!” Lola scoops the kitten off the bed, kissing his head. “You saved my kitten!”

Maren tears up, as she did at the restaurant when Lola mentioned the scars on her face. I’m not entirely immune to this moment, either, but I won’t cry. It’s just a cat.

“I saved your kitten, but my roommate is allergic to cats, so that’s why Bandit must live in the shed, which is obviously just a really cool bedroom. And I spend lots of time in here with him, so he never feels abandoned.”

“It’s a cool shed.” Lola nods.

“Do you want to come meet my roommates before they leave?” Maren asks.

“Can I bring Bandit?”

“Lola, she just said Bandit can’t be in the house,” I remind her with my own exaggerated eye roll.

Lola doesn’t even look up from the cat. “If I go inside and meet them, do I have to stay foradult talk? Or can I come back out here with Bandit?”

I close my eyes and shake my head.

Maren laughs. “You can absolutely come back out here. Adult talk is pretty boring.”

“Fine,” Lola says with an exasperated sigh, following us to the house.

A dark-haired woman jumps away from the window, hand tangled in the window blind’s lift cord.

“Were you spying on me?” Maren asks as we step into the house.

The woman blushes, her gaze ping-ponging between Maren, Lola, and me as she backs into the kitchen. “No. I was just ...”

“Yes. She’s been watching the whole time,” a guy in jeans and a Missoula Smoke Jumper hoodie says, leaning against the counter while eating a piece of what looks like old pizza.

“Snitch,” the dark-haired woman says, turning and stealing a bite of his pizza.

He smirks at her, wiping her mouth with the pad of his thumb. She teasingly nibbles it.

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