Medically Speaking

Chapter 33

The moment I pushed the door open, Echo was in the gap, meowing her head off as she did her best to trip us. "What is your problem?" I asked as I danced around her, trying to avoid stepping on her. "I know I fed you this morning."

She followed me through the house, meowing every few seconds, leaving space between them like she was waiting for me to confess my sins, her tail thrashing back and forth in irritation. I dropped the bags in my hands down on the counter and turned to find her standing by their bowls, tail still whipping back and forth. "I'm not feeding you again, you got breakfast, already," I warned her as I went to see what the problem was.

Sitting in their water bowl was a waterlogged toy mouse. I made a face as I bent down to pick it up and from behind me, Luke said, "Yeah. I'd be miffed, too."

Still grimacing, I carried the mouse over to throw out on the back patio to dry. "Mr. Darcy likes to drown his toys," I explained as I shut the door again. "But neither of them seems to like pulling them out once they're wet."

"Cats were once worshiped like gods, and they've never forgotten," Luke said sagely, watching Echo finally get a drink of water. "They're not going to let us forget, either." Pressing a kiss to the top of my head, he said, "You get the stuff in the fridge that needs to be in there, I'll go grab what's left in the car."

After two trips back out to the car, he deposited the last of the bags and asked, "Is there anything you want me to do?"

Looking back towards the pile of stuff we'd brought in, I asked, "Could you move those cases of water into the laundry room? They go in the back corner." My parents had been on me about emergency supplies, again. You just never knew when a hurricane was going to hit. Or a tornado. Or a water line was going to break. Or when zombies were going to crawl out of the cemeteries to attack the living.

Me telling Phil that my disaster plan was to just park my butt at their house and use their supplies wasn't the answer he was looking for. Shrugging and saying that I'm pretty sure Ramon buys extra supplies for me, so I'll just go there instead, was also the incorrect response.

As he carried them towards the laundry room, his muscles straining in a most delicious way from carrying two cases stacked on top of each other, I added, "Can you also carry the green striped bag upstairs? It only has stuff that I need for my room."

"Can do!"

I hummed to myself as I finished up with my fridge and switched to unpacking the stuff for the pantry. I was just about finished when I reached into a bag and found a package of cotton balls. "Dammit," I muttered, annoyed that they hadn't been in the striped bag with the stuff meant for my bathroom.

Looking around for Luke to ask him to take those up and toss them on my bed with the rest of it, I realized that he was taking an unusually long time. I set the bag aside and got back to putting away the rest of the groceries, figuring that he was snooping. No one would be surprised if he was and if it had bothered me, I wouldn't have sent him upstairs by himself.

When I finished and he still wasn't downstairs, I rolled my eyes even as my lips fought against a smile. "Men," I said to thin air because even the cats had disappeared on me. Luke probably got sidetracked by my underwear drawer or something. Lord knew that simply opening my closet door would give him more than enough to waste his time with. So, I grabbed the bag off the counter and set off to find him.

But I'd forgotten something pretty important. When I hit the top of the stairs, I didn't find him rifling through my closet or trying to figure out the combination for my gun safe. He was nowhere near my dresser, and he wasn't even digging through the cabinets in my bathroom. The air was still as I ground to a halt, like time itself was waiting with baited breath for what was going to happen next.