“Want to talk about it?”
“Not really. About your cat, though, I honestly think she’ll come back in good time. Maybe she’s in heat. You know how cats wander when it’s that time of the month.”
A laugh startled out of me. “She’s not a woman, Liam. Besides, she’s spayed.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know that much about cats. Remember that when you and Sully get any crazy ideas to let me pet sit while you go on vacation.”
“You’ll learn.”
I drowned out his protests that he didn’t want to learn. When we got home, I made another sweep of the property in case she got stuck somewhere like up the tree in the backyard, but no Cinnamon.
“Did you want something else?” Liam asked as he looked in the fridge. “Sully seemed to have stocked up before he left.”
“Other than to find Cin? No, not right now.”
I got a bottle of water from the pantry and sat at the island. I needed to come up with a Plan B now that going around the neighborhood hadn’t helped us find Cinnamon.
“Maybe we should make some flyers and post around the neighborhood,” I said.
“Doesn’t she have a collar?”
“Yes.”
“Then if someone finds her, they’ll call you.”
“Or they’ll be cruel to a three-legged cat. I’m getting some flyers made. I’m going to need you to post them around.”
Meow.
I stood stock-still.
Meow.
Cinnamon entered the kitchen as if she owned the place.
“Oh, thank god!”
I scooped her up and kissed her, stroking her back. She stiffened, and I loosened my hold on her. She leaped onto the island and gave me an unimpressed look, then turned to groom herself.
“See? There was no need to have me driving around the neighborhood looking for the cat. She’s perfectly fine.”
I rubbed a finger behind the cat’s ear. “Maybe I overreacted by calling you.”
“Or maybe you wanted to talk about something else, like Sully.”
I stroked the cat harder. “I don’t want to talk about Sully.” Nor how much I missed him, although he’d been gone for barely a day.
“Are you sure?”
“It’s just that…”
“You can talk to me.”
“I worry about him.” There, I’d said it. “I know this is his job, and I told him I was okay with it, but I don’t like when he’s gone like this. If anything happens to him, how will we even know?”
“Believe it or not, I understand how you feel.”
I gaped at him. “You do?”