Until the World Stops - L.A. Witt Page 0,17

“You need anything washed?”

“Nah.” I sipped my coffee and hoped I wasn’t blushing. “I’ll do mine next time you’re at work.”

He grunted in acknowledgement and continued into the laundry room.

I closed my eyes and exhaled. Why did he have to be so hot? And so obviously recently fucked? And such a jackass?

It’s only temporary. Just get through school and get the hell away from him.

I got that, and I was going to get through it, but it was tough in the short term and I wouldn’t pretend it wasn’t. Especially since money was about to get tighter.

That thought made me cringe. Casey deserved to know what was going on so we could plan and budget together.

Stomach in knots, I put my laptop aside and went into the kitchen. He was still in the laundry room, trying to reason with Tilly.

“I’ll pet you in a second,” he was saying. “Just let me put everything in the—no, baby. You don’t belong in the washing machine. You don’t like being wet, remember?” He sighed heavily, and a second later, Tilly trotted out of the laundry room.

I chuckled behind my coffee cup, but it didn’t last. That knot was still present and accounted for in my stomach, and whether I liked it or not, Casey and I needed to talk. Good thing this was one of those times I’d remembered to take my clothes out of the dryer instead of leaving them in there. We didn’t need to start this conversation with him annoyed at me.

When he came out of the laundry room, I cleared my throat. “Listen, I talked to my boss. About my hours.”

Casey turned to me, deep crevices between his eyebrows. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. And, um…” I grimaced.

He sighed. “Damn. I was afraid of that. With shit getting cancelled all over the place.”

“Exactly. So, money’s going to be…” I could feel him bristling even from across the kitchen, and I quickly added, “I’m going to try to get the taxes done this week. Maybe that will offset some of the pay I’m not getting right now.”

Casey scowled, but he nodded. He didn’t have to say it out loud. When our W-2s had landed in January, he’d mentioned he wanted to use a chunk of it to get some work done on his car. It was holding up pretty well for something that was like fifteen years old with over 150,000 miles on it, but it needed a tune-up and probably a new timing belt. Back when I’d still been working somewhat regular hours, dog-earing part of the tax refund for that had made sense. Now? Shit.

“Okay. Well.” He pulled a soda out of the fridge. “Let me know what kind of refund we’re getting, and we’ll figure it out, I guess.”

Chewing my lip, I nodded. I felt bad about it. He really did need to put the money into his car, but there was also no telling when I’d have much—if any—income again. So did we put the tax refund into keeping his car running, rather than risk more expensive repairs down the road? Or worse, having to replace the car altogether? Or hang on to the money and pray the car kept running until I was working regularly again?

Damn. And I’d thought being broke sucked when it was just me.

We let the subject drop for now, and Casey made himself some food as I settled back in the living room with the homework I’d been kind of doing. As he came back in, I surreptitiously watched, suppressing a smile as he explained to Tilly why tripping him would not get her any more of his lunch than if she just waited until he sat down.

She jumped up on the couch between us, tail straight up, and when he sat beside her, she started purring loudly and kneading on the cushion. Grinning, he tore a small piece of ham off his ham and cheese melt, and he blew on it until he was apparently satisfied it wouldn’t burn her mouth. Then he offered it to her. Tilly stood up on her hind legs, steadied his hand with her paw, and took the meat from between his fingers.

She was ridiculously cute when she did that, and the way he smiled as he fed her, then petted her—damn, he was ridiculously cute too.

Not that I was surprised. I’d noticed when we’d worked together. I’d noticed when we’d moved in together. I noticed every goddamned time he smiled at our cat or strolled through the house