Page 35 of Karma Kitty Christmas
“It’s worth it,” Luca said, watching Euclid fondly. Give the cat five more minutes and he’d find his favorite sunbeam to napin, and Luca and Jimmy Bob would be able to leave without worrying about Euclid even trying to escape.
“You said he was cute?” Jimmy Bob asked hopefully.
“So cute.” Luca pulled out his phone and found the pictures he’d taken on Saturday, featuring Isaac, Allegra, and his grandparents all sitting in the living room talking. They hadn’t noticed Luca, coming in from the kitchen, and the moment had been so charming. The perfect tea set and all his favorite people in this sunshiny moment of grace.
One of the pictures had been of Isaac, his brown hair curling a little at his crown and in the front, his giant hazel eyes open and earnest as he spoke to Luca’s nonna about something Luca didn’t understand. He was wearing slacks and a button-down, conservative clothes obviously picked out to impress Nonna and Pop Pop, and Luca’s heart had just swelled.
This man—baggage and all—was so pretty. So smart. So kind and funny.
A keeper.
“Nice,” said Jimmy Bob, taking the phone from him and rifling through the pictures. “Oh wow—Luca. This is nice. I mean,Idon’t understand it, but….” He glanced around at the front room, which was so much more Isaac’s than it had been a month ago. “Your guy. Once he finds himself, he’s going to be so worth looking for.”
“I know,” Luca said softly.
“Gonna be aloooongsummer,” Jimmy Bob warned. “Good thing I got a pool.”
Luca grinned at him. “Really? You’d be willing to let us come over?”
“Bring your sister,” Jimmy Bob said. “And not for creepy reasons either—she’s fifteen years younger than me, there should be a law. But because she’s pregnant, and I understand that sucks in the summer. So yeah. Come over. Bring your guy.Let him pet all the cats and play with all the dogs and find himself some more. He’ll be worth it.”
Luca laughed a little. “It was only a sandwich, Jimmy Bob.”
“Yeah, sure. But it was areally goodsandwich.”
But Luca knew it was more than that. Jimmy Bob had chosen animals over people in his personal life. But that didn’t mean he didn’t like people too, Luca’s family included.
LUCA PARKEDin front of the house to drop Allegra—and her clothes—off, and while he was not surprised to see that Isaac had already started dinner for the three of them, he was pleased.
He hauled in random shit and set up her little TV and entertainment system, and then she shooed him out of the room so she could put away her clothes and put her girl stuff on the shelves, and he found himself in the kitchen while Isaac, wearing a plain red apron over his button-down and slacks from graduation, pan-fried chicken.
“That smellsamazing,” Luca praised. “Want me to do anything?”
“Salad in a bag?”
“Salad in a bag,” Luca confirmed, and he went to the fridge to get it. “You’re quiet—too much sun?” Isaac had obviously put sunscreen on his nose and cheeks, but his ears were a little crispy.
Isaac glanced up from the chicken and shook his head, giving a melancholy smile. “No,” he said. “It’s… you know. Anticlimax. Letdown. You work so hard to get them to graduation, to the last week of school, and then boom! All done. And you’re a little lost afterwards. This happens every year.”
Luca blinked. He’d never really thought of what it must be like to have his heart beat in the pulse of the school bell. “What… what do you usually do?” He hated to ask it like this, but… “What did you do with Todd?”
Isaac shrugged. “Well, I used to go out with Roxy, and Todd and Brian would have to come fetch us because we were sloshed. Then she started getting pregnant, and that was out, so… I don’t know. I came home and sort of powered through it.”
Aw!
“What do youwantto do?” Luca asked, pulling the salad out. “I mean, are you in a ‘Go out and dance!’ mood, or a ‘Snuggle and watch movies!’ mood.”
“Todd used tohateit when I watched my end-of-the-year movies,” Isaac said, and then he smiled a little. “Probably because they made me sob like a baby.”
“Catharsis?” Luca asked. Made sense to him!
“Yes!” Isaac said. “You get it!”
“What are your movies?”
“Mmm… they’re all old.Say Anything,Dead Poet’s Society,Stand and Deliver—”
“I have heard of none of those,” Luca said seriously, wondering how bad this could be.
