Page 23 of Ink & Snow
And I’m not that person anymore. Don’t ever want to be that person again.
I finished about half my coffee in silence while Amory thought, stopped thinking, looked at me, went right back to thinking. I couldn’t tell if he liked the silence or if he was hoping I was going to fill it or force words out of him.
I wasn’t going to. Much like Elias could bait me all he wanted, I’d give Amory time to feel comfortable around me. I thought he did, but clearly he wasn’t in the place where he trusted me with his innermost thoughts yet.
Which was a place no one had ever been in with me if I was being honest. I’d fooled myself into thinking Cecil had, of course, but I’d been wrong. And an idiot.
When we were both done with our coffees, I collected the mugs and headed back over to my shop, extracting a promise from Amory to close up and head home so he could rest his hand.
Before I left, I pointed at his male Medusa and Perseus drawing. “I like that one. I don’t know much about art, but it looks like you are really talented. See you around, Amory.”
My words stunned him into blushing speechlessness. Seeing him like that filled me with satisfied warmth.
Chapter Seven
Thewarmthfadedfastwhen I discovered how badly shoveling snow sucked.
Half an hour ago, Amory had walked past my shop, his pink pom pom hat bobbing. He’d waved a shy goodbye, and ten minutes later, I’d located the shovel and gotten to work.
“Fucking hell,” I said, addressing the snow, the shovel, and the sidewalk, because they were a united front against my efforts.
In addition, it was also getting dark, because of course it fucking was, and the baby cat upstairs would need to be fed again soon. It was also still snowing, or snowing again. Really, there was just too much snow.
I hung in there until it looked like I had done a proper job. When I was about to call it a day, I heard the noise of an approaching snowplow.
Deciding I’d show the sheriff what a good little townie I was already, I went over everything again with my shovel. The plow approached, but it didn’t pass. It stopped, double parking next to my car like Sheriff Dwayne seemed to like doing.
The man himself got out and raised a hand to me in greeting. I did the same. He got something out of the back of his plow and walked toward me. In his gloved hands, he held something that looked suspiciously like a cat bed.
He scratched the back of his head. “I was out, clearing the road to Hillford. They have a pet store there. I thought the kitten might like this.”
He held the bed out to me.
“You bought my foster kitten a cat bed?”
He nodded. “Got a discount. Felt only right after I saw her siblings. Is she doing okay?”
Unless I was mistaken, the sheriff had a hopeful look in his eyes. Yeah, there was a reason people of all ilk liked watching damn cat videos on the Internet.
“She is. Due for another feeding soon. You want to take that upstairs?”
He cleared his throat. “You take it. I, uh, got some toys as well.”
Of course he had. Maybe this was a good thing though. It couldn’t hurt to have the sheriff think I was the kind of guy who saved kittens and cleared snowy sidewalks.
“To get the discount?” I asked diplomatically.
He took that, nodding.
So I grabbed the cat bed, and for the second time in one day, I had an officer of the law come to my apartment without a warrant. If Cecil knew, he’d declare I’d need seventy-two hours of observation in the psych ward or a deprogramming expert to take a crack at me.
And maybe that was true. I just didn’t give a fuck anymore about what Cecil thought.
I spent the next few days unpacking, cleaning, learning how to build a fire and feed a baby cat milk from a syringe. Settling in, basically. Cherry was fine with the cat bed as a place to play, but fuck if she went to sleep there.
No, the little furball decided there was no other place to sleep but my bed. I only allowed it because of those pitiable meows and because she’d be gone soon.
There seemed to be a schedule the townies stuck to when visiting my shop and introducing themselves. The high-achieving teenager with the bad eyeliner stopped by to examineeverything, literally picking up all the things for sale until she deigned to buy a single fucking cactus in a ceramic mug.
