Chapter Twenty
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Sarelia
“Your marriage kitty is so cute!” Heidi squeals as she enters the catio. Millie and I look up from our places on the floor, where we take turns dangling a feather on a string.
I smile, and my eyes move from Heidi to the kitty in question. She is, undoubtedly, the ugliest cat that has ever existed.
Jagged scars mar her long, black fur, making her coat patchy and uneven. She’s missing an eye, a leg, and half of her tail, and she doesn’t appear to have done any personal grooming in the last, oh, five-hundred years.
I love her.
“Her name is Pesky,” I offer. “Pesky Pine.”
“C-U-T-E.” Heidi grins, taking a seat beside Millie.
“You can say the cat is ugly,” Millie says. “We all know she’s ugly.”
“You shut up. She’s cute.”
“She’s ugly-cute,” I declare. “And extremely lovable.”
“You went older,” Heidi notes. “Like Millie and Stryker did.”
I run a hand over Pesky’s ragged fur. “There were a lot of cute-cute kittens there, too, but… they were about to euthanize her, you know? We couldn’t leave her there.”
“Of course you couldn’t,” Millie agrees. “That’s awful.”
Pesky meows her agreement, then trots away to climb a blue cat tower, exploring her new space.
“How long are we exiled for?” Millie asks Heidi, glancing at the door to the house.
Heidi shrugs. “Baz just told me Stryker wanted help. No timeline provided, but I think it’ll be a minute.
Apparently whatever Archie’s been doing to the guy has him stuck to the table?
They’re not sure how to get him off without a bunch of screaming and fighting, but Archie doesn’t want them ‘finishing his project’ here.
I guess he doesn’t have time for ‘extensive clean up.’” She shrugs again.
“Stryker and Archie were arguing downstairs when we got here, but Bazzy banished me to the catio before I could ascertain if it was we’re-making-progress arguing or arguing arguing. ”
“I didn’t need all that information,” Millie groans, looking a little green. “Nobody needs all that information.”
Heidi’s eyes roll. “Do not throw up on Sarelia’s fancy new catio, Millie. It’s rude.”
“What’s rude is you giving me a big run down about ‘whatever Archie’s been doing’ instead of a basic time estimate.”
“I didn’t ‘give you a run down’,” Heidi retorts. “I don’t even have a run down. I have no clue what he’s been doing, just that it’s brutal.”
Millie gags.
“Archie told me that the issue isn’t really the extent of the damage he’s done,” I put in, “but that he hasn’t done more to him.
He’s had to accelerate his usual timeline to get the basement clear before my parents visit and that means his project isn’t at the near-dead state they’re normally at.
” I blink. “At least, that’s what he told me.
I have no frame of reference, really. The man looked pretty near-dead to me. ”
“Excuse me,” Millie grunts before running out of the catio and into the yard, disappearing behind the shed.
Heidi sighs. “Don’t mind her,” she says. “She does this a lot.”
“I do not!” Millie yells. “I do this a completely normal amount!”
Heidi’s lips press together, and her wide, green eyes meet mine. “A lot,” she whispers.
I work to contain my own amusement, certain that making friends does not involve laughing at them the first time you hang out alone with them.
“I’m fine,” Millie calls, making her way back to us. “Not that either of you asked!”
Ah. “Sorry, Millie. Are you okay?” I ask, eying her. She looks okay.
“If you all stop talking about Archie’s job, then I’ll be super duper absolutely okay,” she answers, shivering. “That stuff grosses me right out.”
“We hadn’t noticed,” Heidi replies drily. “Consider it payback for calling Pesky ugly.”
Millie reclaims her spot on the floor. “She is ugly! Sarelia said so herself!”
“I said ugly-cute,” I correct. “But I’m not upset with you for calling her ugly.”
“Yeah, well, I am. We don’t call your behemoth marriage cat fat, do we? No. We call him handsome and adorable, and we thank him for giving us so much surface area to pet.”
“Yeah, well, you should call him fat, considering he is. Do you know I caught Stryker sneaking him treats again? He’s going to experience a kitty heart attack. How a man can be so good about his dog’s health and then spoil the cat into obesity, I do not understand.”
“Dogs are boy,” Heidi says, shrugging. “Cats are girl.”
“My cat is most definitely a boy, Heidi. We’ve talked about this.”
“That’s not what I mean,” Heidi huffs. “Dogs are protector—hunter. Big, loud, and a bit obnoxious. In need of much training if you want them to grow up to behave well. Cats, though? Cats protect who they want to protect, and they hunt if they have to, but are perfectly content to let you do the hunting for them. They’re chill.
They’re observant. They listen if they feel like it, and practice Strong Independent Woman behavior if they don’t.
So Stryker sees dogs, and he treats them as boys who need training and discipline.
He sees cat, and he says, Ah, yes, another girlie pop to spoil rotten. ”
“That’s logic,” I agree.
Millie considers. “With notable exceptions.”
“Such as?” Heidi asks, a skeptical brow raised.
“Greyhounds.”
Heidi sighs. “Okay, well, yes. Greyhounds can be cats. And shih tzus.” She turns to me. “You pick one, too, so it’s fair.”
“Oh, um…” I parse through the catalogue in my head of dog breeds I’ve researched for book pets. “Papillon?”
Heidi’s brows furrow. “What’s a papillon?”
“They kind of look like chihuahuas,” I answer. “With big, fluffy ears and a fluffy butt.”
Millie pulls out her phone. “I’m looking it up. One moment.”
We wait as she tap taps, then swoop slides, then taps some more.
“Ooo,” she says. “These are adorable!”
“Let me see,” Heidi demands, squishing in next to her to look at the screen. “Ooo,” she echoes. “These are adorable.”
“And cat?” I ask. “They seem pretty cat to me. Their personalities are supposed to be chill.”
“Cat,” Heidi confirms.
“Totally cat,” Millie agrees.
On the other side of the door to the house, a loud bang sounds, followed by several men’s curses.
“Should we–”
“Don’t come in here!” a low, grouchy voice orders through the door. “Stay on the patio!”
“It’s a catio!” Millie yells back.
Stryker curses again. “Just stay on it!”
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Heidi says, shrugging over the distinct whines of a whimpering man.
Archie pokes his head out the door, grinning. “Hello, ladies. Heidi.” He focuses on me. “We’ll be done in just a few, my love, and then Stryker’s invited us all to his home of his own accord without any pestering for a movie night. Are you interested?”
“Um.” I glance at Pesky, biting my cheek.
Archie’s eyes soften as a door slams somewhere in the house beyond him, followed by a grunt. “We can have the movie night here, instead,” he offers. “I have a theater room.”
“You have a theater room?” Millie asks, nose wrinkling. “Then why are we always doing movie night at my house?”
Archie’s eyes slide to her, then narrow. “Because if we have it at your house, then I don’t have to clean up after you messy heathens.”
“I’m not messy!” she protests.
He gives a disbelieving hum before moving his attention back to me. “Would you like us to host movie night, love?”
A blush steals over my face. He’s so… so…
Archie.
“I’d love that,” I answer. “Do we have a bed we can put in there for Pesky?”
His eyes crinkle. “Dearest, you bought twenty different beds. I’m sure we can spare one for the theater room.”
“Your house has a lot of rooms,” I defend. “So many that I also did not know there was a theater room.”
“I’ll give you a tour of our house,” he promises. “When everyone is gone.”
“I’ll bring my notepad,” I decide. “So I can write down how many beds we actually need. We can donate the excess to Pesky’s shelter.”
Brown eyes shine soft on me. “That sounds perfect,” he replies. “Stryker and Baz should be back in… oh, twenty? Maybe thirty. If you ladies—and Heidi—could stay out here while I tidy up a little, we can commence movie night when they return.”
“Will you stop that?” Heidi snaps.
He spares her a glance. “No.”
Millie snorts.
“Do you need any help cleaning?” I ask.
“Not from you, my dear. A princess may partake in the fun, but the nasty work of clean up falls on her servant alone.” He winks. “You may, however, blow me a kiss, that I might hold it close to my heart and remember you through my perilous task.”
I giggle, then toss a kiss through the air to him. He tilts his face, catching it on his cheek before disappearing into the house with a promise to let us know when we can enter.
“You know, even when he’s been sweet or kind, he’s never been like that,” Heidi says, staring thoughtfully at the door. “I can’t pinpoint what it is exactly. He’s always been playful and clever and surprisingly kind, but he’s never been…” She trails off, turning to Millie. “What is it, Mill?”
“He’s never really been open,” Millie says.
“His kindness is hidden behind mischief, and his cleverness is often marked by an ambiguity that makes it nearly impossible to tell if he’s using his powers for good or for evil—and he’ll never tell you which.
He lives in his mystery, actively and happily causing as much chaos and confusion as he can as he flits from scheme to scheme.
” She looks at me. “With you he’s just… Archie.
He’s not trying to hide anything or make you wonder, and because of that, we’re getting to see parts of him that we’ve only ever had in glimpses before. ”
Heidi hums an agreement. “It’s fascinating to see him interact with someone that he wants to know him through and through.”
My heart aches, just a little, remembering Archie’s words about how we love differently—about how we can’t expect the same type of love we hand out to be returned. The other people in our lives can’t even see what we need, let alone act on it.
I frown.