the other side of my bed. We lined the bottom of the box with an old towel, carefully lowering in some food, water and a tray of litter. A couple of the bolder ones sniffed around at everything, tentatively taking a few bites.
“Oh good,” sighed Abby with relief, straightening up with a little groan. She looked tired. “We’ll have them fattened up into lazy housecats in no time.”
We heard the scraping of a key in the door and Abby’s eyes lit up, “That must be Dutch!”
By the time we came down the hall he had burst through the door with a couple of boxes stacked in his arms. Ethan stood behind him holding more boxes and wearing an enormous grin. I smiled back, wondering if his father could tell just how eager Ethan was to clear him out of the apartment.
Abby kissed Dutch on the cheek, “Go ahead and put those down anywhere… I already cleaned out the closet and made some shelf space.” She led Dutch into her room while Ethan set his boxes down and came over to me.
“How was your d–”
His lips were on mine before I had a chance to speak, the clean, earthy smell of him making me familiarly lightheaded. I pulled him close, my hands circling around his back.
Dutch made another trip out to the car for some boxes, clearing his throat pointedly as he passed us. I pulled back with a reddening face. When I kissed Ethan it was easy to forget that there were other people around, but we had just been apart for two whole days.
“How was your day?” we both asked simultaneously, and laughed.
“Fine, and you?” he asked, squeezing my biceps, “How are the workouts going?”
“Ouch,” I winced. “He’s tough… but he did let me shoot some guns today,” I grinned up at him. “It was a blast!”
He rolled his eyes at me, running his hands up and down my arms gently, leaning in to murmur in my ear, “I’ll have to give you a massage later.”
I giggled and twisted around, “Come on, I have something to show you.” I crooked my finger at him and hustled down the hall to my room. He pounced on me as soon as I closed the door, making me laugh before kissing me dizzy again.
“Not that!” I gasped when we finally came up for air. I nodded my head to the box on the opposite side of my bed, “Look.”
We stretched across the bed and peered into the box. Three of the little cats were asleep in a pile, but a pair of them sat looking up at us with anxious eyes.
“Aww,” he crooned, “Stella’s beach cats?”
I nodded, describing how they had been trapped today, and explained Abby’s plan to find homes for them. He surprised me by reaching in and snatching one up by the scruff of its neck, bringing it onto the bed and stroking it around its ears and throat until it stopped struggling. I looked at him in wonder as it calmed down and started to purr.
“Wow,” I gasped, “How did you do that? They almost bit my hand off!”
He smiled wistfully. “They just miss their mother,” he said, looking down into the box. “They’ll forget all about her though… you just need to handle them a lot.”
He returned the kitten to the box and leaned back on my pillow, reaching over to pull the paper targets out from under my purse on the nightstand. I wondered what he’d think about my new Taser. He let out a long low whistle and looked up at me.
“These are from today?”
I nodded with a grin.
He shook his head, “You’re scary.”
“Don’t you feel a little safer?” I asked.
He glanced at my purse in alarm.
“No… I don’t have one yet,” I told him. “Paul says maybe next week.”
He sighed, “Whatever.” We’d already had this discussion. Ethan hated the idea of me carrying a gun around. He worried that it was dangerous as well as illegal. I didn’t care. If Edwards or some of his thugs came after me or my family there would be no time to call the police. I needed to be able to fight back.
“So Dutch is officially moved out?” I asked.
Ethan brightened up, “Yep… the place is all ours. I can bring my truck over to start moving your studio after classes tomorrow. Did you get your schedule?”
I did, and it was truly pathetic compared to Ethan’s. I was taking it slow, easing into college while deciding exactly what