I turn to face her. “Keep what?” And I see that she’s holding a tiny kitten in her hand. It’s not much bigger than a small can of soup. “Where did you get that?”
“We found it in the woods. It just walked right up to us,” Eli explains.
Sam passes it to me, and I hold it up to look into its eyes. They are green and bright. And the cat lets out a meow to end all meows as it stares at me.
I hand the cat to Eli. “I’d like to see you keep this alive for the next month.” I pull Sam in front of me and lay my hands on her shoulders. “Sam can help you.”
“You want me to keep it?” Eli squawks.
“For a month.”
Eli stares at me. “For a month?”
I shrug. “Call it a test run.” I glare at him until he gets it.
“A test run,” he says slowly. “For a month.”
“One month.” I hold up a single finger.
“Then what happens to it?”
“That’ll be up to Sam.”
Sam claps her hands and dances in place. “I’ll help you take care of it.”
“Well, you had better,” Eli says. “It’s your cat.”
Sam dances in place again. “What do we feed it?”
Eli raises an eyebrow at her. “You want to go google it?”
“Can we?”
“I think we probably should.” He motions for Sam to follow him. He still has Miles strapped to his chest, but he looks pretty content. They leave together.
Kerry-Anne is with Trixie and Katie. Sam and Miles are with Eli. “I’m hungry,” I say as I start to look through Jake and Katie’s cabinets for food.
“Toaster pastries are in the other cabinet,” Mr. Jacobson says. He points to the left.
I reach up to get one, rip open the package, and take a bite. “It doesn’t taste like ass,” I say around a mouthful.
“I kind of like the taste of ass,” Mr. Jacobson says with a grin.
“Now I know where Jake gets it from,” I mutter and swallow. But I’m also smiling as I sit down at their kitchen table to finish my toaster pastry.
“Feel better now?” he asks after a few minutes of silence.
I don’t give him more than a nod. Katie walks back into the room.
“I was a jerk,” I blurt out.
Katie freezes. “Okay.”
“I’m sorry.”
She gives one sharp nod of her head. “Okay.”
“Thanks for letting me sleep in.”