It Wasn't Me - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,27

softly. “And I’m willing to try if you are.”

His smile was quick but genuine.

“As for your dog and cat? Well, hopefully they get along with mine. Because mine are sweet. They’ll enjoy having someone to play with,” he said.

“How many do you have?” I asked, unsure why I hadn’t asked before.

“Two cats and a dog,” he said. “You met one of the cats already. She stays at my house and my house only. My mom comes over to feed and check on her every couple of days. The other two go to my mom’s.”

“Why?” I wondered.

He grinned. “Because Pickles hates my mom’s cat. Like, super hates. Pickles will straight up attack her cat if it gets anywhere near her, and since Pickles is the intruder, we decided it’d be best to leave her at home and my mom just come there. We tried leaving the other cat at home with Pickles the last time I went out of town, but we came home to Pickles guarding the food bowl and refusing to allow Morton anywhere close to it.”

“Pickles sounds like a bitch,” I shared.

Jonah grinned. “She is. But I still like her. She’s all prickly, kind of like me.”

The smile that crossed my face was nothing short of blinding.

“You can relate to a cat?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Tell me about your animals,” he ordered, bringing his coffee cup once again to his lips.

I started telling him about Hans Solo and Princess Francesca.

“You named your dog Princess Francesca?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I call her Princess for short. But yeah, I did. They’re both rescues. Princess only has one ear and a half tail. She’s kind of rough looking, but she’s super sweet.”

He crossed one of his arms over his belly and continued sipping away, giving me every ounce of his attention.

He didn’t once glance at the table full of bachelorettes, women that kept getting louder and louder as the time went on. Nor did his eyes stray to the band that was set up in the middle of the strip about two blocks down.

Nope, eyes laser focused on me.

I kind of liked it.

“Hans is a Border Collie Sheep Dog mix. She’s all big and fluffy and a mess. I have to have her groomed twice a month so she doesn’t end up in tangled knots,” I said. “She’s all chill and shit. I’ve never met a dog like her before.”

“My dog, Lobo, is pretty chill, too. Maybe they can be lazy together,” he said.

I felt contentment start to sink into my bones, and was about to tell him so, but our food arrived.

“Anything else?” the waiter asked, eyes bouncing back and forth between me and Jonah.

“Nope. Nothing for now,” Jonah said. “Thank you.”

Clearly dismissed, the waiter walked away, this time only taking one glance over his shoulder.

“What happens if someone takes a bite of your food?” he asked. “And why the no sharing rule?”

I shrugged. “I think it stems from always having to share with my sister. I’m a twin.”

He nodded. “I know.”

“I had to share everything with her. My clothes. My toys. My bedroom at first. It wasn’t bad or anything, and I love my sister dearly, but I’m all protective over my food. She can have everything else in the world without a second thought, but not my food,” I expounded.

“What happens if I take a bite of your waffle?” he asked, pointing at my plate with his fork.

I thought about that for a few seconds.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “The thought of giving you a bite isn’t abhorrent to me. Which it would be with anyone else…try.”

So he did. He forked up the juicy middle part that I was about to eat and popped it into his mouth.

Other than the sadness of not getting to eat the middle part that was the best part, nothing else bugged me.

Huh. Interesting.

“I’m not super angry right now like I would’ve been had someone else done it,” I admitted. “Though you just literally forked up the best part on the entire plate. I was thinking you were going to fork off another piece that I hadn’t fixed up for myself.”

He chuckled as he went back to his own plate of food.

And only when he offered me the middle out of his pancake did I truly feel like this was going to work.

If I could allow him to eat off my plate, then we could probably do anything.

Chapter 8

I want to lose weight, but I don’t want to get caught up in one of