Number Neighbors - Emma Hart Page 0,17
dark look. “I’m not talking to you anymore.” With that, she turned, gathering her bags, and stormed into her house.
I picked up the cat box and followed her inside. I could wait for an invitation, but since she wasn’t talking to me, I highly doubted that one would be forthcoming.
Sometimes, you had to take matters into your own hands.
I took Lucifer inside, shutting the front door behind me. He mewled inside the carrier, but I didn’t let him out because I didn’t know what rules Hannah had in place.
Besides, I think me being in her house would piss her off enough right now.
I followed her in the kitchen where she was just turning around. She froze when she saw me, her mouth opening as if she was about to say something. She snapped it shut quickly and dropped her gaze toward the cat box.
“I thought I’d bring him in for you.” I set the box down on the floor and put the medicine bag on the kitchen island. “The anti-inflammatory is the one in the little bottle—put two drops on his food once a day. The sachet is the decongestant; use a pinch of it on his food once a day again. I recommend not to use them together in the same meal, so one at breakfast and one at lunch. It doesn’t really matter which way around.”
She looked at the bag then at me. Her throat bobbed when she swallowed, and she whispered, “How much do I owe you?”
I shook my head, pushing the bag closer to her. “Nothing. You’re doing a good thing taking him in. I paid for it.”
Hannah folded her arms across her chest and looked around the room. At anywhere other than where I was standing—or that was how it felt.
“You can thank me, you know, but I won’t take it personally if you don’t.”
She sighed. “Thank you. I really appreciate it. You didn’t have to do that.”
“There. See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” I grinned, then knelt down and opened the cat box, letting Lucifer out.
“It wasn’t, but we’re still not talking about the texts.” She bent down and gave Lucifer some love before she stood back up and dove her hand into one of the grocery bags. “I mean it, Isaac. I don’t want to talk about it.”
I took a page out of her book and sighed, putting my hands in my pockets. “I get that, I do. But we can’t just ignore the fact that it happened. We either need to draw a line so we can move forward, whichever way that is.”
She put a packet of spiral pasta on the island and looked at me with one eyebrow quirked. “What do you mean by that? I assumed we’d agree to never talk about it again.”
“You aren’t curious at all?”
“Curious about what?”
“How much ice you need to make a bucket of margaritas?” I drawled, smirking when she shot me a dark look. “What do you think I’m talking about?”
“Wow. You weren’t this much of an ass in the texts.”
“Well, I didn’t have time. Apparently, I was too busy texting you about slapping your ass.”
Her cheeks flushed again. “Can we not?” She practically dug her head in the grocery bag and pulled out a bag of cat biscuits.
At the sound of the biscuits rattling, Lucifer’s head perked up and a loud, pleading meow interrupted the conversation.
Hannah peered down at him. “I highly doubt you’re hungry, mister.”
“Actually, he probably is. Either that, or he’s been unnecessarily harassing my vet techs all day for extra food. He’s a little flirt.”
She side-eyed me as she grabbed a stainless-steel bowl. “He’s obviously spent a lot of time with you today, then.”
I laughed, finally pulling my hands out of my pockets. “Nope. He’s been in the back charming my vet techs, like I said.”
“You said ‘unnecessarily harassing.’” She put the bowl down and moved before Lucifer could use her foot as a chair. “That is not the same as charming.”
“You don’t have much experience with cats, do you?”
“What on Earth does that have to do with this? On no universe are charming and harassment even remotely the same.”
I sighed. “You have a lot to learn about cats.”
“I don’t need to learn anything about cats. He’s not my kitten.”
“Ah. Do you regularly feed other people’s kittens?”
She gripped the edge of the island. “You’re annoying me, and I think you should leave now.”
“And do what? Text you tonight?”
“You cannot seriously think we’re going to pick that nonsense back up.”
I