Chapter 4 #2
She explained that her and Nic tried different recipes they found online, some because they sounded delicious, some they found intriguing.
I’m not sure which of the categories these chewy and weirdly stretchy mashed potatoes are, but I’d bet on intriguing.
I’d say it sounds more delicious than it is.
It appears I’m on team ‘traditional recipes’.
“As much as I’d love to…” Nic nods toward a corner of the living room where one of her cats is sleeping. The smaller orange cat is meowing loudly at the box containing the furry newcomers. “I’ve got my hands full.”
“I’m calling dibs,” Kieran announces, more excited than Jensen if you ‘accidentally’ drop a bit of food, then gathers himself and schools his face. “Can I have the puppy?”
His eyes are wide and glistening with excitement, as he glances at everyone around the table. He reminds me of a child asking their parents if they can pretty please have a pet.
“I promise I’ll walk him every day!” Okay, apparently, he is a child asking for a puppy.
“No objections from my side,” Nic says with a shrug and pierces a piece of turkey with her fork. The others at the table don’t object either.
“But we demand pictures,” Lauren declares and reaches for the cranberry sauce.
“Oh, hell yes,” Kieran assures her with a vehement nod. “My camera roll is going to be full of that little guy.”
He leans down and scoops the dog, presses a kiss against the top of its head and puts it into his lap. The golden retriever is utterly unimpressed. He yawns and then curls up into a fluffy ball that makes Nic go ‘Aww’.
“Oh my God! Is there anything more adorable?” Kieran immediately reaches for his phone to snap the first picture.
Just as he’s angling it, he freezes. “No. After dinner. His first picture needs to be a group picture with all of us.” His eyes widen, and he looks around the table.
“Do we finally have a reason to make a group chat? Hell yes!”
He swipes around on his screen without even waiting for an answer.
“Then I’ll take the cats,” Lauren grins at Nic and takes out her phone too. “I told you. Your ghost cat would have me covered.”
Seriously? The ghost cat again? I’m about to voice my skepticism when I sense something sneak along my calves.
I do my best to remain poker-faced. I can see all the animals from here. Nic’s cats are both now sleeping, and the two newcomers are still in the cardboard box, far away from the turkey and the rest of our food.
There’s no way.
Subtly, I glance down, only to see… nothing. Jensen is curled up on Nic’s couch, so it couldn’t have been him either.
When I lift my eyes again, I meet Lauren’s amused gaze. The corners of her mouth twitch before she quickly looks away again.
“Chaos is an animal dealer.” Nic giggles. “I’m giving it five more months until she’s bringing me a stray horse or something.”
“Oh my God, Nic, just imagine: an otter!” Lauren’s eyes twinkle.
Nic and Henry are getting into a heated discussion about whether otters are even native to the area, as Lauren unlocks her phone.
Suddenly, her expression freezes. The smile slowly slips off her lips, and a crease forms between her eyebrows.
Nobody else seems to notice as they chatter about the new additions to this chaos group. But I notice. Her shoulders sag. She slowly lowers the hand holding her phone until it disappears under the table, her gaze still glued to the screen.
Then suddenly, she takes a deep breath, subtly shakes her head and straightens her spine, jumping right into Nic’s and Kieran’s conversation about the perfect names for otters.
“Come on, I’ll help you get these two home,” I tell Lauren gruffly when the time to leave announces itself with more yawns than conversation.
After eating until we were about to burst and regretting every movement while putting away the food, we spent the rest of the evening trying not to throw up from overeating. Nic and Lauren gave the stray animals a flea bath, and then we watched them play while sitting on the couch or the ground.
Despite my initial aversion, it was a nice evening. Kieran played with his new dog, while throwing the wildest names for him out there. For example, Droolius Caesar or Barktacus. Then he thought about adding another actor name.
“If he’s Jared Padalecki, it’s the perfect duo,” he’d said. “Then again, Jim Beaver also has a nice ring to it.”
His ideas got wilder and weirder. Admittedly, I’m curious what name he’ll end up with for the poor creature.
Henry and Nic were joking along with him, but Lauren… she got quiet. Appeared lost in her thoughts as she let the two kittens climb all over her, gently running her fingers over their fur.
“Really?” Lauren’s face lights up the tiniest bit.
“Oh my God, thank you. I had no idea how I was going to carry all of this.” She points into a corner, and my eyes widen slightly.
“Nic lets me borrow some essentials for the kitties until I can order my own stuff. I was going to ask Kieran, but I didn’t think he and Henry would leave earlier.
I mean, it’s nice of Henry to offer him a spare dog bed and food to tide him over until after the weekend.
There’s no way I can carry all this alone in one trip, though. ”
It's a whole mountain of items, from small cans of cat food to toys and a cat bed, blankets, and toys. Then of course the cardboard box as a makeshift pet carrier. She puts on her jacket and scarf, then lets Nic hand her the box, while I reach for the bags containing everything else.
Nic and Lauren say their goodbyes, while I opt to wait outside. The cold air is nice, refreshing, and I take a deep breath, sucking it into my lungs greedily. Fuck, I’m full. And exhausted.
Luckily, Lauren’s house isn’t too far from Nic’s. I remember the way from when I steered her home after our post-autumn fair campfire. Though back then we walked along the lake shore instead of this creepy little path through the forest patches separating their properties.
It sure was a challenge to keep her from running off, while having Kieran flung over my shoulder, praying he wouldn’t throw up. Lauren is much more sober today than she was that evening.
“What the…?” I stammer as her house comes into sight between two particularly weather-beaten trees. “Are you trying to announce the new Messiah? Because at this rate you’ll have three wise men showing up at your house.”
It’s lit up so brightly in the night that I think she’s trying to be seen from space.
She has fairy lights strung along her rainwater pipe, hanging down from her roof like icicles.
Above that is a thick, cluttered fairy light string.
All the trees surrounding her home have fairy lights going up their trunks.
I’m ninety percent sure that the only reason that there are no lights in the branches is a lack of a proper ladder, not ambition.
Every window has thick, cluttered lights around its frame, with more icicle fairy lights dangling on the inside.
The only thing that’s missing is a ten - foot snowman in her yard, but knowing her, that’s still in the works.
“Shush,” she says and giggles. It’s good to see her in a more cheerful mood again. “It’s only Christmas decorations.”
I lift an eyebrow at her. “Before Thanksgiving?”
“On Thanksgiving,” she corrects me with a grin. “I put the lights up this morning.”
“You did all of that…” I nod toward it, not sure whether to be in awe or confused, “this morning? And you can’t put bookshelves together?”
“Those are wildly different logistics,” she points out with an eye roll.
“One is simple: take a hammer, put some nails in there, hang up the lights, then plug it in. Boom. Finished. The other is more complicated than a ten-thousand pieces puzzle.” She lets out a deep sigh that turns into a white cloud in front of her face.
“But I’ll get there. And I’m far from finished with the Christmas decorations. ”
The closer we get to her home, the more decorations come into sight. Wreaths on several windows, of course also with lights. Fake candles in her windows. Her entire porch is wrapped in fairy lights and pine garlands.
“What more decorations are you trying to put up?” She opens her mouth to answer, but I shake my head before she can. “You know what? I don’t think I want to know.”
It’s probably a ten-foot snowman.
“You’re not a fan of Christmas, are you?” She studies me with wide eyes, and I shake my head.
“Can’t say I am.” A sharp pain shoots through my ribcage as memories flood my mind.
Breathe, Caleb. I clear my throat and swallow my emotions down.
“Well, you know what?” When I glance at her, there’s a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “Maybe I can convert you.”
“I doubt it,” I say gruffly. The time leading up to Christmas holds nothing but bad memories for me. I usually try to ignore it’s happening and pretend Christmas doesn’t exist. Yet my answer only seems to spur her on.
“Never say never.” Her grin widens. “Stranger things have happened than converting a Grinch to a Christmas fan.”
Silence stretches as we reach her porch, and I’m trying to contemplate whether that was a promise or a threat.
“Thank you for helping me.” She walks up the three steps to her porch and sets down the box containing the two cats while she unlocks the door.
“Of course,” I carry the bags into her hallway and set them down where they won’t be in the way.
When I turn around, she’s right in front of me. Close. Her face only a breath away.
“I should-”
“Maybe I-” we start at the same time.
For a moment, I freeze. All I can do is stare at her.
The subtle freckles I’ve never seen before since I’ve never been this close, the way her cheeks slowly turn pink, and her eyes dart over my face.
The way she pulls her lower lip between her teeth, that makes me want to capture it with mine.
Her soft hair that I want to bury my hand in, feeling it run through my fingers.
The sudden urge to kiss her runs over me with the force of a fucking tsunami.
“I should go,” I whisper and quickly take a step back, before something happens that I can’t take back.
Because people leave.
“Okay,” she whispers, then clears her throat and steps aside to let me through. “Get home safe.”
I nod and quickly walk past her, the scent of her vanilla perfume burning into my mind.
Fuck.