My Favorite Souvenir(40)

“Three Blind Mice?” Milo answered.

Wyatt smiled. “Very good.”

“They look more like rats,” I whispered to Milo.

“What about this one?” Wyatt pointed to three stuffed cats. “The clue is on the ground.” On the floor, there were several pairs of mittens by their feet.

Milo cleared his throat. “Uh, the three little kittens who lost their mittens—or whatever that one is called.”

Wyatt snapped his fingers. “You got it!”

“Who knew you were an expert in nursery rhymes, Milo?” I laughed.

Wyatt went over to a single stuffed owl. “What about this guy?”

Neither of us knew the answer to that.

“A wise old owl,” Wyatt finally said.

“What got you into this interesting hobby?” I asked.

“Well, since the Mrs. died, I have a lot of time on my hands. I always collected taxidermied animals, but I got the idea to create these scenes one day out of the blue. Started laughing to myself in the kitchen when it came to mind—even startled the cuckoo clocks. Now it’s my favorite hobby.”

This place definitely has its fair share of cuckoos.

He clapped his hands together. “Well, let me get y’all set up in your rooms.”

We followed Wyatt upstairs. As weird as this house was, he took good care of it. A nice oriental runner lined the stairs leading to the second floor. I hoped he had some help cleaning this place. At his age, it couldn’t be easy to vacuum these stairs.

He opened the doors to two adjacent bedrooms. Each had heavy floral wallpaper and a four-post bed. Other than the differences in color themes, they looked identical.

“You know, it’s a shame you don’t get more business,” I said. “These rooms are really nice.”

“From your mouth to their ears, darlin’.” He walked to the top of the stairs. “I’ll let you two be. How about you come downstairs for some stew in ten minutes?”

After the old man left, Milo and I faced each other in the second bedroom.

“Oh my God.” I whispered. “We definitely walked into The Twilight Zone.”

“More like Animal Farm, maybe?” He snorted, and I couldn’t help cracking up. “Do you have a preference on a room?”

I shook my head. “They both look exactly the same. I’ll take this one.”

“Are you sure you want to stay here?”

I sighed. “It’s a mix of sweet and creepy. But harmless.”

Milo looked around. “This stop is definitely one for our memory book. You think I can bum one of the dead animals off him for a souvenir?”

“Please don’t. I’ll have nightmares about it attacking me in the car.”

Milo pointed to me. “You should’ve seen your face down there when he was showing us the animals.”

“You were looking at my face in the midst of all that?”

“Yeah. I look at your face a lot,” he muttered. “Habit, I guess.”

My cheeks heated. Milo looked so handsome right now. It had definitely been a few days since he touched a razor. The more rugged and dirty he looked, the more I loved it. My attraction to him was at an all-time high. Too bad we were getting closer and closer to parting ways. That meant with each passing day, it was more dangerous to do anything about these feelings right now.

Still, as he lingered before me, I got the sudden urge to kiss him. I’d had many urges like this, but never as strong as this one. Maybe it was because the bedroom was cozy and welcoming. It made me want to let loose all of my inhibitions, push Milo down onto the bed, and curl into him while I tasted his luscious lips.

That wouldn’t be happening, but it was a nice thought.

Milo reached out and cupped my cheek. Had he been reading my mind? Crazier things had happened on this trip. The feel of his warm, calloused hand against my face felt amazing. I closed my eyes to relish it.

And then…

“Yoohoo!” the old man’s voice startled us. He peeked in. “Dinner’s ready.”

My heart pounded, and Milo’s hand returned safely to his side. I was both pissed and relieved that Wyatt had interrupted our moment. I would never know where it could have led.

We followed Wyatt downstairs and sat at the dining room table. He served us bowls of piping hot beef stew and poured us some root beer. That was an odd combination, but the root beer brought back nostalgia from my childhood. I used to make floats with vanilla ice cream.

I took a spoonful of the stew into my mouth. “This is delicious.”

“It was Bernadine’s recipe. Never cooked for myself when she was alive. But I’ve been working my way through her recipe cards.”

As weird as he may have been in some ways—okay, in many ways—Wyatt was quite sentimental and sweet.

“I can only hope whomever I choose to spend the rest of my life with remembers me as fondly when I’m gone as you remember your love, Wyatt.”

He looked between Milo and me. “So, you’re already writing off this guy you’re with?”

I looked at Milo. I was just about to tell Wyatt the usual lie, that Milo and I were brother and sister, but Milo interrupted me.

“Unfortunately, I’m not the lucky guy who gets to have her heart. We’re just friends. But even if my intentions were different, she’s mending a broken heart right now. Only a fool would mess with that.”