All I Want(36)

“It’s okay. I mean, I’m sorry I didn’t get to go. I know you paid for the trip, but me and Henry got to sit in the backyard. Mom made us hot chocolate.”

“How’s Henry?”

“Great! He got moved from the gardening department to inside! He gets to sweep the store every night before it closes! The whole store! He’s got the best job ever. So when will you bring me a kitty?”

Parker wanted her to get everything her heart desired. She deserved it, but he wasn’t going home again anytime soon, and when he did, he wouldn’t bring her a kitten unless it was parent-approved, which it wouldn’t be.

“Please, Parker?” she asked. “Please come to see me. It’s been like a year.”

“It’s been two weeks,” he said with a laugh. He’d slipped into town and visited her at work, and then vanished again like smoke just before coming to Idaho. Although, granted, it had been six months before that since his last visit.

The truth was, his parents made visiting difficult and uncomfortable, and selfishly he let that keep him away from Amory. He’d have loved to show her the world in person instead of through pictures, but that wasn’t going to happen. For years their parents had said she was too young, but more recently, after he’d brought danger to their front door, the subject had been dropped completely.

And he got it. He got it all too well. It had been a year since someone—Parker suspected Carver—had shown up on his parents’ doorstep asking for Parker.

With a gun.

The police had never figured out who it was, and it hadn’t happened again, but it was yet another reason to stay away. Zoe might call him Mr. Mysterious, but the truth was he was just extremely cautious. Borderline OCD cautious. He had to be.

He got that it kept people from getting too close to him, that it was a big turnoff to Zoe and just one more reason not to get involved.

But he’d already opened up to her much more than he should have, certainly more than he’d ever intended. More than he’d ever done with another woman.

“I’ve texted you every day, Amory,” he reminded her.

“Not the same thing, Parker!” she said, imitating his tone and making him smile. “Oh!” she said suddenly. “I can do a free throw now, just like you taught me! You need to come see it!”

His chest ached at the beseeching tone in her voice. She missed him. Yeah, she had Mom and Dad, but they’d continued to hold the reins just a little too tight. Their hearts were in the right place and they operated from fear for her, that she’d get hurt or worse, with absolutely zero intentions of abuse or neglect, but Amory was starting to chafe under their constant supervision.

Or at least Parker would be chafing. Hell, he’d be going insane by now. “I’ll come by soon as I can,” he promised.

“Today?”

“No,” he said, wincing when she let out a sound of distress.

“Tomorrow?” she asked.

“Soon as I wrap up this thing at work I’ve got going on, okay?”

“But that could be a very long time,” she said. “Right?”

“Right,” he said. “But hopefully not.”

“But maybe!”

He sighed. Amory didn’t have a good sense of time; she never had. Last year he’d bought her an iPhone and had taught her how to schedule in all her work shifts and anything else important so that she wouldn’t miss anything.

She’d put in her entire life on that calendar, and his. She was forever texting him asking about his upcoming appointments so that she could program them into her calendar. “Maybe,” he conceded. “I’ll tell you when ahead of time and you can put it on your phone then. You’ll be the first person I come see, okay?”

“Promise?” she asked.

“Promise.”

“Pinkie-swear and hope to die?” she pressed.

“Never hope to die, Amory.”

“It’s a saying! And it means you have to keep your promise!”

“Fine.” He caved with her. He always did. “Pinkie-swear and hope to die,” he said dutifully, wincing again at the happy squeal that nearly pierced his eardrums. “Gotta go, Am.”

“Love you, Parker.”

“Love you back.”

“See you next week!” she yelled.

“Am—”

But she was already gone. Parker slid his phone away, the movement causing the kittens to get a second wind, mewling and climbing on top of each other to try to get up his body. He set them back on the floor, where they immediately once again began to try to crawl up his legs.

With their claws.

He nabbed one in each hand before calling Oreo back in.

Oreo came sliding into the bathroom, panting in happiness at being needed. At the sight of the kittens still there, he suddenly stopped short, skidding on the linoleum, eyes wide in terror even though they were smaller than his paws.

“They’re just silly little babies,” he told Oreo.

He whined unhappily and tucked his tail between his legs.

“They’re not going to hurt you,” Parker said, and set the kittens down in front of him to sniff. “See? Harmless.”

The tabby stalked underneath a mistrustful Oreo and stopped between the dog’s legs, eyeing the long tail with a curious eye. Then the kitten crouched low, wriggled his butt, and . . . pounced.