Page 12 of A Love Like Christmas Time
Lauren pulls Nic’s back door open and hunches down.
“Oh, hello there,” she coos in a high-pitched voice. I get up with an annoyed sigh and make my way over to their huddle, right as she hands Henry the new animals one by one. First a small orange cat. Then, a completely white one. Finally, a golden retriever puppy.
He takes each of them, but after a quick once-over, he sets them down in a cardboard box that Nic conjured up.
“Come on, if the vet among us deems them non-emergencies, I think we should have food first,” Kieran proposes. “Brains don’t work well on empty stomachs.”
“I think that’s the first smart thing I’ve heard you say today,” I mumble, earning a playful punch to my upper arm from him. I can’t even be mad though, because thank God, someone else has appropriate priorities.
Finally, everyone’s back at the table and I can dig in. My stomach is already grumbling, and if I have to sit in front of this feast any longer without getting to eat, I might start drooling. Like Jensen when you make him wait for a treat.
“Do you want to keep any of them?” Lauren asks Nic, heaving a big spoon of mashed potato onto her plate.
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 onintriguing. 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 canpretty pleasehave a pet.
“I promise I’ll walk him every day!” Okay, apparently, heisa 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.
