Number Neighbors - Emma Hart Page 0,29
up and ran to the kitchen, retrieving two paper plates and some napkins. He smirked at me when I sat down.
“Why not just get normal plates?”
“Because,” I said, handing him a plate and some napkins. “There’s a bunch of flowers in my sink where I would wash the normal plates. I can just throw these out.”
He took the plate with a roll of his eyes. “All right. You win there.”
“I know.” I flashed him a grin and pulled a slice of pizza out of the box. I took a bite off the end and popped it on my plate while he laughed at me. “Who is Snuffles, by the way?”
CHAPTER NINE – HANNAH
Hannah and Isaac Sitting In A Tree
“Snuffles?” Isaac laughed, holding onto his slice. “That’ll be Mrs. Keighley’s hamster.”
“Her hamster?”
He shrugged, chewing. When his mouth was empty, he said, “Yep. She has this tiny little Russian dwarf hamster. She’s smaller than my palm and is constantly escaping her cage, and she’s extra paranoid about her eating something she shouldn’t.”
I licked pizza sauce from my thumb. “That sounds like a lot of hard work.”
“It’s a lot of money for her,” he agreed. “She’s always bringing her in to be checked over.”
“What’s she gonna do when it dies? Don’t they live for like two weeks?”
“About a year.” His eyes flashed with laughter. “This is actually Snuffles three-point-oh.”
“Three-point-oh?”
“Snuffles the Third,” he confirmed. “When one dies, she goes and buys another one and just calls it Snuffles. Her hamsters always seem to stop eating before they die, so I imagine we’ll see Snuffles the Fourth before long.”
“Isn’t that a little strange?” I tilted my head to the side, pinching a potato wedge.
“I think she likes it that way. She’s accustomed to her hamsters, and for the most part, they don’t require a ton of care the way a cat or dog would. As long as she cleans it and feeds it every day, that’s really it. She’s not getting any younger, and I think she likes the company.”
“She has a husband!”
“He still works,” Isaac replied. “She’s alone most of the day. It’s why she’s always in her garden. I think her hamsters give her companionship when her husband is called away.”
“I guess I never thought of it like that.”
“But to answer your question, yes. It’s a little strange.”
I fought a smile and looked down at the pizza slice on my plate. It was weirdly comfortable being here with Isaac, even as the conversation wound down and we both ate. Lucifer got up and left at one point, clearly unhappy that no pepperoni was forthcoming from the pizza.
“How is he doing?” Isaac asked, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “Is the medicine working?”
I nodded, patting the corner of my lips with a napkin. “He’s still a little snuffy and there are snot marks all over my kitchen wall where his bed is, but he’s back to normal and playing with my socks every ten minutes.”
“Sounds about right for a kitten. Has he bitten your toes yet?”
“We’re not here to discuss the kitten, are we?”
“No, but I was just trying to keep you talking.” He grinned and leaned back on the sofa, running his fingers through his hair.
“I’ll talk.” I sat back and tucked my feet to one side. “What made you decide to become a vet?”
“Wow. We’re going there, huh?”
“You’re the one who decided this was a date tonight. This is what I want to know on a first date.”
He inclined his head in my direction. “Fair enough. I guess I decided to be a vet when I was about ten. My grandparents owned a farm in South-West England and when we were there one summer their dog fell ill. The vet could never figure it out, and the dog died. They did an autopsy to determine the cause of death and it turned out one of the workers Grandpa had hired for the summer hadn’t closed the barn door properly and she’d gotten in at some of the poison that was put down for rats.”
“Oh, no.”
He nodded solemnly. “The vet should have realized she was poisoned and moved to help her throw it up. My grandparents were devastated, and I told my grandma then that I was going to become a vet to make sure that didn’t happen to any other dogs.”
“That’s sweet.”
“Also somewhat misguided.” He smiled wryly. “I almost went into human medicine, but then my grandma was diagnosed with cancer and I knew I had to keep my promise to her.