Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 101168 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101168 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
But Friday was Halloween, and that would be the final night of the haunt, as well as one of New Orleans’ biggest party nights of the year. After that, Jamie would have to strike the set, and then they’d have a month off before their holiday bartending gig began. Edgar couldn’t wait.
For the moment though, he consoled himself with cats. There was truly nothing like them for comfort when you were lonely. Before he’d opened the cat café that morning, Edgar had spent half an hour lying on his back on the rug the cats liked best, letting them nuzzle him, bunt him, curl up in his various angles, and lick his hair. Now, as he unlocked the door and flipped the sign to OPEN, Edgar wondered what he should do for Jamie to celebrate the haunt closing.
As he was contemplating this, the door tinkled its opening, and Allie pushed a stroller through the door, Poe close behind. Allie had been making an effort to get out of the house with the baby every day, and Edgar and the cats had been the delighted beneficiaries. Poe hadn’t joined them before though.
“Morning!” Allie called. “Baby, say good morning to your uncle and a whole lot of cats.”
“Morning,” Edgar said. He crouched beside the stroller and wiggled his fingers at the baby. “Hi, Smoosh.”
The baby blinked large brown eyes up at Edgar and followed his fingers intently. Raven hair feathered over their forehead. They wore a black onesie with a white skeleton on it. They looked adorable.
Poe stuck close to the stroller, not acknowledging Edgar.
“What’s up, Poe?” Edgar asked, attempting to elicit some reaction.
“What’s up,” he mumbled.
Then he did something Edgar didn’t expect. He pulled on black leather gloves, tucked the sleeves of his long-sleeved shirt into the cuffs, wrapped a scarf around his neck, and bent to lift the baby out of their stroller.
“C’mere, Bones,” he said and cuddled the baby to his chest.
Edgar cast a look at Allie that asked, What the hell? Last he knew, Allie wouldn’t let Poe touch the baby, for obvious reasons, and Poe had assiduously avoided it.
I know, Allie’s expression said. I guess this is happening?
Poe bounced the baby as he walked around the café. Three kitten siblings had recently been dropped off by a lady who lived down the street and found them inside her garbage can. They were adorable, fluffy white things with blue eyes and extremely sharp claws that allowed them to climb Edgar and stick to him like burrs. They tended to do things in a pack, and now they began to chase after Poe’s feet, batting at the shredded denim where his boots had rubbed the hem to strings.
The baby made a sound between a gurgle and a coo, and Edgar couldn’t help his own mew in response. He and Poe locked eyes in mutual cute appreciation. Then Poe’s expression changed, and he sniffed the baby.
“I’ve got it,” Edgar said at Poe’s wince and took the diaper bag off Allie’s shoulder.
“I got it,” Poe said and snatched the bag from him.
Edgar certainly wasn’t going to argue about that. Allie gave him a look that said, See? Watch!
Poe took a box of rubber gloves from the diaper bag and snapped them on over his leather gloves. He laid the changing mat on the floor and the baby on the changing mat and unsnapped the skeleton onesie. He changed their diaper efficiently, snapped their onesie up, and took off the rubber gloves as if he’d been doing it for years.
“Um.”
“I figured it out. Me and Bones have an understanding. Don’t worry about it,” Poe said. “Right, Bones?”
The baby gurgled, and their eyes rolled wildly. Edgar and Allie raised amused eyebrows at each other.
Then Edgar got back to work, happy to let his family entertain the cats, and didn’t notice anything amiss until Poe let out a surprisingly tiny Eep. Edgar looked over to see that the three white kittens had climbed his jeans and were now attempting to crawl the rest of the way up on the thin material of his shirt.
“This little shit almost pulled out my nipple piercing!” Poe said, making no attempt to remove the kittens.
“That’s William Fitzwilliam,” Edgar said as Allie exclaimed, “You have a nipple piercing?”
But Poe was too busy unsticking claws from his torso to answer. Finally, he scooped the kittens inside his jacket. When he flashed them the lining, three white fuzzy heads protruded from three pockets.
“Allie, take a picture. Poe, don’t move,” Edgar added preemptively. “I need this for the shop’s website.”
Poe glared but let her take the picture.
Two of the kittens soon extricated themselves from Poe’s pockets, but William Fitzwilliam curled up and went to sleep. Poe got to his feet.
“Gotta go. Sis, you can take the truck home. I’ll be back later.”
Allie held her arms out for the baby.