Jas shook his head. “That’s ridiculous, I see them all the time,” he said, even as he thought back to Bikram’s visit yesterday.
She must be pretty special.
He frowned.
Katrina waved a spatula. “Something to think about before you see him next.”
“If he doesn’t respond in the next couple hours, I’ll take the dog to the vet and see if she’s chipped or if they know anything about a possible owner.” Though that would entail leaving Katrina alone, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to do that.
“Well, if the vet doesn’t know anything, you could get a temporary tag for her, just in case. It’s Doodle with two o’s, one l.”
Jas didn’t particularly want to do that, on the off chance Katrina couldn’t keep Doodle, but he didn’t want to crush her hopes either. “We’ll see. What are you making?”
“Peach cobbler.” She nodded at the windowsill. “I made a couple of pies earlier. There were so many peaches. You could perhaps take a pie over to your brother and any of the other workers?”
The men and women would be delighted. Everyone who worked on the farm carted home the non-sellable fruit, but an out of season pie was next level. “How long have you been up?”
“A while. You know I’m an early riser.” She gave him a wry smile. “No newspaper here, so I did a bit of reading on this new start-up I found, and cooked.”
That sounded more like her schedule, except . . . “You’re not listening to any music here.”
She swiped her hands on the towel tucked at her waist. “My headphones block out noise. I don’t know this place well enough yet.”
“Ah.”
“How do you feel about a nice fruit salad for breakfast? Maybe a yogurt parfait. Something quick.”
“Sounds good. Do you need help cutting anything?”
She waved him off. They were silent as she chopped fruit and assembled the parfait in little glasses she must have found in the cupboard, Doodle patiently sitting at her feet ready to gobble any fallen scraps. “Bikram did a great job stocking our fridge,” she remarked.
Jas poured them both orange juice and coffee. “Let me know if anything’s missing. I can place another grocery order.”
“I’ll do a proper inventory later.” She placed the parfaits on a tray and cocked her head at the living room. “Shall we eat on the couch? The show’s about to start.”
He raised an eyebrow, and her gaze slid away from his face, though he didn’t know why. “You want to watch the Good Morning Live segment?”
“Of course. Don’t you?”
He’d planned on watching it, if only to keep up on what was happening. “Yes. Which is why you don’t need to put yourself through that.”
“Don’t be silly.” She sailed past him, and he had no choice but to follow.
“Katrina . . .”
“It’s fine, Jas.” She sat on the couch and switched on the TV. Katrina patted the place next to her. “Let’s watch.”
“AND NOW WE’RE going to turn to CafeBae and the viral romance that has captured the nation.”
Katrina placed her spoon down. Next to her on the old floral couch, Jas rested his orange juice on his knee.
Now that this moment had come, she felt oddly disassociated, like she was standing outside her body, watching this show. “You know, I was on Good Morning Live once,” she said casually. The camera panned over Ross in what she assumed was his house. The voice-over gave a summary of the nightmare, with the same rom-com spin, as Ross puttered around a kitchen shirtless and sat down with a staged plate of eggs and bacon. She knew it was staged, because only a masochist would cook bacon shirtless.
“When were you on Good Morning Live?” Jas asked.
“When I was maybe sixteen. It was a calendar that was being promoted, Teens against Tetanus.” She shrugged at his puzzled expression. “Yeah, I don’t know. I got groped by a correspondent during the segment. I told my agent, she told me to play nice, and I guess I wasn’t nice enough, because they never asked me back.” She’d also told her father, who had yelled at her to not make up stories. The joy of show business.
Jas placed his glass on the coffee table with a loud clink. “Where’s the correspondent now?”
“Fired.”
“Thank God.”
On the television, Ross leaned against the railing of his balcony and laughed at something the interviewer said, and it cut in their audio. “Why do you think you went viral?” the reporter asked.