Page 33 of Bookworm
But instead, a giant dog’s nose snoofed the peephole.
“What the?—”
I looked back at poor Jules, happily eating and oblivious to the potential danger to her right outside our door. Here I’d been afraid for a human serial killer, when a potential kitty serial killer was lurking out there instead.
And seriously, how big did that dog have to be to reach the damn peephole?
I grabbed my keys and cracked the door open, sliding out to see if this dog was just some random lost dog in the building or some sort of Kujo on the loose.
Even just cracking the door, I could tell he’d been on his hind legs, front paws pressing on my front door.
“What in the ever loving… what are you doing!?” I pushed the door more, coming fully out into the hall and the dog started hopping around, clearly happy to see me, like we were old friends. He dragged a blue leash behind him as he danced and wiggled.
He had big, droopy eyes and beautiful golden hair that I was wildly jealous of and had paid a lot of money to a stylist to achieve.
“Well, at least you’re friendly.” I bent to pet him. He jumped to meet my hand, then slurped his massive tongue beneath my chin.
“Verne, come! Verne? Where’d you run off to!?” A deep voice bellowed from the other end of the hall.
“Adam!?” I shouted.
Adam rounded the corner, two Yeti cups of coffee in his hand and he dropped his head back to the ceiling. “Oh thank God. I opened the door and he just took off!”
“You have a dog namedVernethat you failed to tell me about?”
Grinning, he handed me one of the Yeti cups, then dropped to one knee to loop the leash around his wrist. “I do. Named after the author of the best book,20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” he said, pointedly.
I rolled my eyes. “We’ll see about that after I lend you some of histruebest works.”
When he stood back up, I tried to hand him the second Yeti cup back, but he shook his head. “That one’s for you.”
I looked down at the Yeti cup, my head spinning with the delicious scent of the freshly brewed roast. “You brought me coffee?”
“Yeah.” His shoulder lifted in a shy shrug. “I figured that if you didn’t have time to go grocery shopping, then you probably didn’t have time to get coffee either. Or half and half. Or sugar.”
I brought the cup to my mouth and took a long sip. It was perfect. Light and sweet, just how I loved it. “Bless you.”
“Two cream, two sugars. Some things don’t change.”
“Hey… why did Verne come tomyapartment?” I asked. There must have been a dozen other doors between mine and Adam’s apartments that he could have chosen to scratch at.
“He really likes cats,” Adam said. “Actually, no, that’s an understatement. Helovescats. I can’t explain it, but he just does. He probably smelled Jules in there and beelined for your place.”
I looked down at Verne, panting up at me, his tongue lobbed out on the side. “No one else has a cat in this building?”
“No one on this floor.”
“Well…” I draped my hand on the doorknob. “Is Verne good with cats? Does he want to meet her?”
“He’s really good with cats. He gets excited, but he’s a gentle giant.”
“Then I don’t mind if he comes in for a minute. Unless you were on your way out…” I inclined my chin toward the leash in his hands.
“We were just going out for our morning walk. You’re welcome to join us if you want.”
I glanced down at my slippers and pajama pants. But also Adam wasn’t wrong… I had no food, including nothing to make for breakfast. A quick walk to a corner store would do me some good. “Come on in and let me put real clothes on. Then I’ll join you.”
I opened the door and walked in first, leading Verne and Adam over to where Jules was on the coffee table. Her back arched, hair spiking and eyes dilated and alert as the dog entered, but she didn’t seem too frightened.
