Page 12 of Dove
“I’d like that, thank you,” she answered politely, turning back to face me, but I could see the excitement building in her eyes. I counted it as a win.
Our tentative conversation trailed off. My eyes flicked to the screen door. Lunch was likely done now, and soon Josie would be coming out to check on Dove.
“Do you ever keep them?” she broke our silence to ask. When I slid my attention back to her, her eyes met mine.
I hesitated. “Not usually. We have enough cats running around we have no control over. They kind of turn up when they feel like it, so if we have a litter, we usually give them away to good homes.”
She nodded once, shifting the kitten in her arms so she could rub her face against its soft fur. A tiny pink tongue withdrew to place a rough little lick on her cheek and her smile was suddenly megawatt bright.
It was the first full smile she’d given since arriving.
“But,” I heard myself say, “what’s one more?”
Her head whipped up, cautious hope shining in her bright blues.
“Just…” I glanced back to the screen door. The coast was clear, but I lowered my voice anyway. “Let’s not tell my dad, okay? He’s not a huge fan of cats, despite all the ones hanging around.” I’d have to foot the bill for the cat food, but I didn’t mind. Dad paid me an allowance; I could do what I wanted with it.
As if delighted by the secret we now shared between us, her smile grew, causing a dimple to form on her left cheek, deepening with her happiness.
“I won’t tell,” she vowed. She pressed her face into the cat’s soft fur again and murmured, “I promise. Thanks, Josh.”
Something...warmflooded my chest. A protective feeling I’d never experienced before. I didn’t have any siblings, someone tocare about beyond myself. Was the desire to see her smile that bright all the time normal?
“Come on.” I set the kitten in my arms down, waiting until it stretched and got steady legs under him. “Let’s grab some lunch, and then I can show you around the farm.”
She pressed a kiss to the kitten’s head before setting it down gently, and I suspected we’d be hunting for them the moment lunch was over.
I decided I didn’t care if what I was feeling was normal or not. Dove deserved happiness in her life, after everything she’d been through, and I vowed to make it my top priority from this point on.
4
DOVE
I’d been fully prepared to choke on the dust Josh kicked up in his wake when he high-tailed it out of here the moment he dropped me off yesterday.
With our parent’s funeral done and over with, and the paperwork he was responsible to fill out accessible anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection, there was really no reason for him to stick around.
So, when he didn’t leave that night, I figured he’d planned to grab some shut eye and leave early the next day. When I came down at dawn to find him in his old, worn farming clothes, I’d paused in surprise at the base of the stairs.
Three years might not have seemed like a lot of time to some, but it’d done plenty for Josh. Where the faded John Deere shirt had once hung off his lean frame, it now stretched across his broad chest, and the old, grease-stained Levi’s he’d needed belts to hold up now fit almost a little too snugly along his thighs and hips.
“’Mornin’,” he greeted in a lazy drawl, sipping at a coffee, leaning causally against the butcher block countertop. His dark brown hair was unruly, as if he hadn’t bothered to comb throughit. His eyes followed me over the rim of his mug as my hand slipped from the banister, and I padded into the kitchen. He held a folded-up newspaper in his other hand, likely scanning the funnies section. It’d been the only interest Josh had ever really taken in the news growing up.
But when I skirted around the kitchen island and reached up to grab my own mug from the cupboard beside him, I peeked over and spied him reading the local news instead. Leaning across the counter behind his back, my arm extended around him to grab at the half full coffee pot. I couldn’t stop the subtle inhale I took as I invaded his space. I went about pouring my coffee, comforted by the scent of him. At least he smelled the same. A deep, clean woodsy scent. Josh had always been no-frills kind of guy when it came to that stuff.
I wondered if the familiar smell was because he still purchased and used the same shower products, or because he’d found some of his old stuff lingering in our bathroom. There was still a small drawer of Josh’s things in there filled with stuff he’d left behind. I’d never had the heart to clean it out. Growing up, I’d taken up most of the space in our bathroom, but he’d designated that spot as his, and I’d always respected that. Even with him gone, it didn’t feel right to take it over.
“I see they’re finally getting rid of the old mill,” he commented offhandedly as I returned the coffee pot to the warmer. “Wonder where the local teens will sneak off to make out once it’s gone.”
Uninterested in his small talk, I padded over to the steel fridge, pulling it open to grab the creamer I liked to use. Coffee, to me, was a necessity, especially when I was up before the sun, but I certainly didn’t drink it for the taste. My eyes were drawn to Josh’s mug, noticing how dark the liquid inside it was.
That hadn’t changed, at least. Black, like always. How did he do it?
I tipped a heavy amount of creamer into my cup until the coffee turned a pale color. Placing the container back in the fridge, I swirled the mug around, careful not to slosh it, before taking a tentative sip. I hummed in satisfaction. Hot and delicious.
After taking one more sip, I set it down on the counter and opened the freezer. I didn’t want to spend any more time in the kitchen than I had to, what with him hovering about, so making a big breakfast was out of the question. Cool air caressed my arms as I reached in, grabbing the box of frozen waffles from the back.
Most mornings, Mom cooked us up breakfast, but that had waned the farther she’d gotten into her treatment, and I’d grown use to grabbing easy things to scarf down. I didn’t mind much—they were a guilty pleasure of mine—although my mother’s side-eye game was strong whenever she saw me eating them.
