those last two bites because you don’t want me to think you’re still hungry despite having polished off everything else.”
Damn. I picked up the last token bite or two I’d left because he tended to keep feeding me until I couldn’t finish off my plate. “Better get me two,” I mumbled.
“I’ll get three so I can have one since watching you eat yours will make me hungry for more sea bugs, but I’ll give you half of mine because I can’t inhale food in quite the same quantity.”
“You’re the best husband.”
“You deserve the best.”
While I polished off every scrap from my plate and began the tedious work of convincing our pets they could finish their treats and bones in the SUV, after we put down a sheet to mitigate how much of a mess they made on the leather, my husband fetched the tools of coffee containment from our vehicle and ordered too much food to go, including the fries I’d drooled over but had skipped out on in favor of the healthier salads my husband liked.
I hid a twenty dollar bill partially under my plate, and then I repeated the process with my husband’s plate, making sure he didn’t catch me in the act of over-tipping, as he always tipped at the counter. Once I finished my naughty work of tipping extra, I gathered our pets’ leftovers into the cardboard containers the waitress had left for us and joined my husband while the animals did their best to trip me.
“It’ll be about ten minutes, my beautiful. Do you want to handle their walk while I finish in here?”
I nodded. “I’ll make sure the snow is out of their fur before setting up their travel palace.”
Walking the three pets involved a lot of leash dodging and untangling, and all three of them handled their business like champs, although I wished Avalanche didn’t insist on burying hers, which added to the complexity of properly disposing of their messes. I almost made it to the SUV when Quinn came out of the restaurant burdened with several bulging bags with the waitress following carrying a tray with our coffees. “So much coffee,” I breathed with wide eyes.
My husband laughed and kissed my cheek. “Try not to enter orbit drinking most of it. Retrieving you would take a lot of work.”
The waitress laughed. “While I was making your coffee, he told me about how you had rescued two of your pets!”
I recognized the signs of hero-worship, as I indulged in such behaviors at least once a day with my husband. At a loss of what to do about it, I picked up Avalanche and held her out. “If I could have rescued her mother, I would have. This is a very lucky kitten.”
Quinn opened the passenger side front door and put the bags on my seat before taking the tray from the waitress. “That is my wife’s way of saying you should hold the exotic kitten and make friends with her. Avalanche loves people, which is a good thing, as she won’t be a candidate for release back into the wild. Sunny was a gift from my relatives, although I have come to understand the gift is also a prank against her father.”
“We have the best families, and their feuds are cordial, hilarious, yet surprisingly intense.” Once the waitress had both hands free, I gave her Avalanche. “I found Blizzard in a dumpster outside of a police station, and he’s quite possibly the best husky puppy on Earth. He limits his protests to when we do something particularly heinous. We were late with his breakfast this morning.”
“That is particularly heinous,” she agreed, and she smiled, cuddling with Avalanche, who was happy to work her charms as usual. “I’m Bethany.”
“Bailey. He’s Sam.”
“He looks just like that police chief out of New York.”
“That’s because he is that police chief out of New York,” I replied, unable to contain my giggles. “He’s shockingly normal outside of work. He’s recently taken up the mantle of tour guide for me.”
Bethany’s eyes widened. “You’re her.”
Uh oh. A thousand possibilities crossed through my mind, all of which involved me having been deemed a villainess or terrorist of some sort. “I’m her?”
“The cindercorn!”
Oh. I dug into my purse and retrieved my NYPD badge so I could show her my species label. “They even officiated it on my badge! It’s new, and I didn’t notice the designation until recently.”
“She becomes very excited about her status as a cindercorn.” My husband chuckled and herded