The Perfect Child(54)

I could tell she already had her mind set on the idea, but I wasn’t so sure. “How about we get her a goldfish?” I asked. Unlike her, I wasn’t so keen on adding another being to take care of to our list.

Hannah burst out laughing. “A goldfish? What is she going to do with a goldfish? Just sit and stare at it while it swims in a bowl? That will last all of two minutes before she’s bored with it. We need to get her something that she can take care of. Something new that’s just for her. What about a cat?”

I frowned. “I’m not really a cat person.”

She punched me in the arm playfully. “We’re not getting the cat for you. We’re getting it for her. Think about it. They’re easy to train. You don’t have to worry about any of the house-training stuff; just plop them in the litter box, and it’s done. It’ll be something she can sleep with. I think she’ll love it.”

“As long as I don’t have to sleep with it.” I smiled.

That weekend we trekked to Petco for their kitten adoptions. We didn’t tell Janie where we were going or what we were doing because we wanted to surprise her.

“I don’t wanna go shopping,” she whined when we pulled into the mall parking lot.

“Just wait,” I said, opening her door. “You’re going to like it.”

“I hate shopping,” she said with a scowl, but she got out of the car and followed us inside.

There was a line wrapped all the way through the store. Apparently, everyone had had the same idea as us.

“Wow,” I said. “Why don’t I grab a number and wait in line while you take a look around? I bet Janie would love to see the turtles in the back. What do you say—you want to see the turtles?”

“Turtles! Turtles!” Janie squealed.

They skipped off while I waited in line. The line went much faster than I had thought it would. Most people just wanted to cuddle and play with the kittens, but they weren’t interested in taking one home. I texted Hannah when I was close to the front. They scurried from the back of the store to join me.

“We saw turtles and snakes and puppies! Can we get a puppy? Please, can we get a puppy?” Janie bounced up and down.

I smiled down at her. “You can’t get a puppy. Not today. But . . .”

“No puppy?” Her eyes filled with tears. “I want a puppy.”

“How about a new baby kitty?” I asked.

Her tears instantly disappeared. “A kitty? I love kitties! I can get a kitty?”

“You can,” I said, ruffling her hair.

She stood on her tiptoes, trying to see inside the room where they had the cats. Hannah lifted her up to give her a better look.

“Kitties! I see them! Look, Mommy, look. There’s kitties.” She pointed to the kittens tumbling over each other in the separate crates. They were so tiny and cute. My heart swelled like it did every time she got excited. I loved experiencing the world through her eyes.

“I see them too. It’s almost our turn,” I said.

It was only a couple more minutes before they called our number, and we stepped inside the room. There were four different litters. Janie immediately went to the litter closest to the door and started picking each kitten up. She held them up one at a time and looked in their eyes. “Nope,” she’d say and then drop the kitten back in the bin before picking up the next one. She picked up one of the black ones with a tiny white spot on the end of its tail. “This one. I want this one.”

“Are you sure that’s the one you want? You don’t want to look at any of the other kittens?” I asked. There were three more crates filled with kittens.

“Nope. This one. This is the one I want.” She cuddled it against her chest.

I looked at Hannah and shrugged. She smiled back at me.

Janie and I went through the rest of the store and gathered the supplies we’d need for the kitten while Hannah filled out the adoption paperwork. Janie held the kitten while we shopped and ran through a list of names, changing her mind every three seconds until she settled on Blue.

“Blue. Yep. Her name is going to be Blue,” she announced proudly.

“How come Blue?” I asked.

She held her out for me to see. “Her eyes are blue just like me.”

She carried Blue on her lap during the drive home, and I’d never seen her look so happy. She was fascinated by Blue, even when she was trying to jump out of Janie’s hands because Blue was terrified of the car. I made sure Hannah carried Blue inside, though, because I was afraid she might freak out and jump out of Janie’s arms when we stepped out of the car.

Janie spent the rest of the afternoon chasing Blue around the house. I couldn’t stop snapping pictures because the two of them were so adorable together.

“It was a great idea,” I whispered to Hannah as we watched the two of them together cuddled up on the couch. Blue had fallen asleep on Janie’s lap.

“And she didn’t get in trouble all day,” Hannah whispered back.

Later that night, Janie and Blue were playing in her bedroom when suddenly we heard awful squealing sounds. We rushed into her room. Janie was sitting on her rug. Pathetic meows came from underneath her bed.

“Where’s Blue?” Hannah asked.

She looked up at us. “She ran away under my bed.”