Page 76 of Loving Kai

“I’m never going to leave the house again with just my wallet, phone, and keys.”

She put a hand on his arm. “Nope.” She looked at Kai hugging the cat. “Is he really attached to that thing?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“We don’t want to lose it then.”

“Ideally, yeah.”

“You need to secure it to the stroller.”

“Like with baby handcuffs or something?”

“Wow. I don’t even want to know why that came to you as a solution. You need a binky holder or something like that?”

“A binky what now? What the hell is a binky?”

“A pacifier. He probably doesn’t use one anymore.” Abe was still confused, and Maggie took his arm, turning him to give her access to the backpack. She opened it and started digging through it. “Oh yes, score.” She pulled out a foot-long strap with a clip on one end and a pacifier on the other. She held it up. “Binky.”

“Oh, right. He doesn’t use one of those.”

Maggie removed the pacifier, then attached the clip to the stroller. She connected the other end to the worn ribbon around the cat’s neck. “Perfect. Dog isn’t going anywhere.”

Kai seemed to accept the situation, so they left the car and headed for the row of food booths. Rocco’s booth was between a street taco vendor and a kettle corn booth.

There was a line waiting for pizza by the slice, and Maggie watched Gentry and Luke working for a moment. “I’ll go relieve Gentry so he can come say hi and meet Kai.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, just don’t let them guilt you into staying.”

She headed around the back of the small trailer. When she appeared inside, next to Gentry, he listened to her for a moment, then looked out and waved at Abe. A few moments later, Gentry came around the trailer and walked over to them.

He shook hands with Abe, then knelt in front of Kai. “So, this is the famous Kai Buchanan.”

Kai grinned at him and held up his cat.

Gentry looked up at Abe. “He’s great, man.”

Abe nodded. “He tends to grow on you.”

Gentry stood. “First time out in the world with him?”

“Yeah. Wish me luck.”

“You’ll do fine. You’ve got Maggie as backup.”

“Which I’m very thankful for.”

“Does this mean…?”

“No.” He glanced at Maggie talking to the customers. “We’re friends. Nothing more.”

“Okay.”

Abe reached over and shoved Gentry’s shoulder. “It’s all I can handle right now.”