“You’re such a pretty kitty!” I scooped her up into my arms, brushed my cheek against her face, and dropped a kiss onto her furry little head. “We’ll bring you something back.” I rubbed the back of a finger under her chin, grinning as she slitted her eyes and purred. “What?”
Wills was watching me with such a tender expression…My cock hardened, and he smiled as if he knew. But all he said was, “Nothing, babe. Got your key?”
I put her down and fished my key out of my pocket. “That reminds me. We keep a spare—”
“Please don’t tell me under the doormat!”
“We don’t have a doormat.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “You’ve got a flowerpot.”
“Yes.” It was a huge thing by the front door. Before Wills had moved in, it had held nothing more than shriveled plants that died from lack of watering or drowned from being overwatered. Now impatiens bloomed in it, and once they faded, he’d replace them with geraniums.
“Do you keep a key in that flowerpot?”
“You know I don’t.”
He gritted his teeth. “Theo! Where the fuck do you have a spare key?
“Come on, I’ll show you.”
Miss Su followed us to the foyer, carrying her mouse. We’d placed a bed under the console table near the door after we’d constantly found her waiting for us and decided she might as well be comfortable.
“Bye, puss.”
“Mrrow.” She settled herself in her bed.
Wills locked the door behind us and followed me down the stairs, grousing the entire time. He was just so cute.
When we got down to the front entryway, I pulled him against me and kissed him.
“That’s not going to get you off the hook, Bascopolis.” But he was looking a little cross-eyed.
“Trust me, babe.” I opened the front door. To the right was the intercom. I made sure no one was in the vicinity, then tugged on the bottom. A small drawer opened to reveal the key.
Wills groaned.
“What?”
“Do you realize how obvious that is? Oh, Jesus, don’t tell me you had that when Mr. Vincent lived here!”
“No. Vince got us the intercom. A cl-friend of Paul’s put the drawer in for us.”
Wills groaned again. “I’ve got to fix this.”
“Okay, worrywart. But in the meantime, let’s go have brunch. I could eat a horse.”
* * * *
Charmaine featured a patio area adjacent to its front entrance, and we chose a bistro table near the wrought iron fence that separated it from the street. Chris, our waiter, had taken our order, and brought our coffee and a basket of sticky buns. He fluttered his lashes—Jesus, here was another one who was going to cause a windstorm!—and then mercifully had to hurry away to wait on other patrons.
I added a sugar to my coffee, poured in some cream, and stirred it. I didn’t want to bring this up, but next week was Father’s Day, and Wills had asked about it. “I’m not sure if I should send Poppa a Father’s Day card.”
“Because of what you found out at Easter?”
“Yeah.” I didn’t forgive easily, not when it came to this. Besides, he’d done without a card for the past thirteen years, and I guessed he could wait another year longer. Or thirteen.
“It’s your call. I’m…uh…I’m sending my grandfather a card.”
“All right. But you know the odds are he’ll probably throw it out without even opening it.”
“Yes, I know.”
“How long will you keep it up?”
He shrugged. “They’ll always be my grandparents.”
“Ah, babe.” I twined our fingers together.
Chris chose that moment to bring out our order, sausage and brie casserole for Wills and the mango and avocado salad with spiced candied pecans for me. Chris studied the table. “Do you want more sticky buns?”
“No, we’re good for now.”
“I’ll just bring the coffee out and refill your cup.” He kept batting his eyes at Wills.
“And Theo’s too. Thanks, Chris.”
“Yes, thanks, Chris.” I brought Wills’s left hand to my mouth and brushed a kiss across the finger that would bear my ring in a couple of months.
Chris frowned at me, but then turned a thousand watt smile on Wills. “Anything for you, brown eyes.” He gave him a saucy grin and sauntered back into the restaurant, an extra wiggle to his butt.
“One of these days, I swear I’m going to—”
“You know you don’t have to worry.”
“Wills, he makes a play for you every time we come here.” And I was getting fucking sick of it.
“Would you rather we didn’t?”
“No, I like this place, and I’ll be damned if I let him chase us away.”
“You know, I think he does it just to get under your skin.”
“Well, he’s succeeding.” I trusted Wills, but I didn’t want someone like Chris…well, anyone, if it came to that…to think my lover was available just for a flutter of long eyelashes. I tightened my grip on his hand.
He stroked the fingertips of his free hand over mine and gave me a sweet smile, one that I would commit mayhem to keep aimed at me. “I’ll never leave you. I promise. Now, let’s eat. I’m starved.”