Page 101 of Moonshine Kiss
I probably should have told him I wasn’t coming home last night.
Jonah: How long do you wait before you report someone missing? Unrelated can I have your blender if you’re dead in a ditch somewhere? It makes great smoothies.
I fired off a response as the cats meowed in an obnoxious duet at my feet.
Me: Sorry. All is well. I’m willing to discuss blender custody. Be home soon.
I wasn’t a fan of lying or omitting. Technically I was home. I was under my home’s roof. But I’d made a deal with Cass, and I wasn’t going to give her reason to regret it less than twelve hours later.
“You already have food,” I said accusingly, pointing at the matching cat bowls piled high with dried food.
The cats looked at my finger and blinked.
“Look. This is food.” I reached into one dish and stirred the kibble with my fingers.
That was good enough for George. He attacked the bowl like his last meal had been a week ago. Eddie was still skeptical. I stirred the food in the other bowl. Eddie sniffed.
My phone pinged.
Jonah: You’re not rotting in jail because Devlin is out of bail money?
Me: All is well. Be home soon.
That should be enough to curb any more questions. Bodine men, even the one who hadn’t grown up with the rest of us, didn’t much care to get too personally involved in things like where our brothers spent the night.
Jonah: We’re out of coffee. Pick some up on your way home?
Well, shit.I glanced toward Cassidy’s coffeemaker. She was the prepared type. She probably had to go cups around here somewhere.
Me: No problem. See you in a bit.
I made a move toward the coffeemaker when the smaller cat darted in front of me. I tripped over him and knocked over a dining chair.
“Eddie, you fuckwit!”
Both cats, ears back, flew out of the room.
“Everything okay?” Cassidy called down on a yawn.
“Just fine,” I yelled back.
Jonah: You know I can hear you over there, right?
“Damn it.”
There was a tap on the door in the hallway by the kitchen. Reluctantly, I opened it a crack.
Jonah was standing there, smugly drinking a cup of coffee.
“I thought we were out of coffee.”
“I thought you were dead in a ditch.”
“I thought we were keeping this quiet,” Cassidy said, grumpily from the stairs.
“Morning, Cass,” Jonah said. “Sleep well?”
“You better swear him to secrecy, Bowie Bodine,” Cassidy said moving past me to stab buttons on the coffeemaker.
