“Come here,” he muttered, and wrapped her in his arms and kissed her slowly on the lips. It was a while before he let her go. Then he turned and almost ran into me.
“Oops,” I said, pretending I’d just walked in. “Sorry. Just me, looking for a cup of coffee. Hey, you’re not leaving, are you?”
“Yes, he’s leaving,” Savannah said calmly, though her arms were crossed tightly in front of her. “Get out of his way, Brooklyn.”
He took one look at me and said, “Perhaps I can squeeze in one more cup of coffee.”
I heard a noise and turned. Derek stood watching me from the hallway door. I knew what he was thinking—that I was going to take Dalton’s departure worse than Savannah would. He was right. At least Savannah had prepared herself for Dalton to go. I hadn’t.
I didn’t know who to go to first, but Dalton was closer, so I walked straight into his arms. He hugged me tightly and said, “I’ll miss you.”
“I’ll miss you, too.”
“Are you sure you have to leave us?” I whispered foolishly.
“The man has a job and a life elsewhere,” Savannah said, her tone crisp and practical.
I wanted to tell her that Derek had had all that, too. And yet he’d left his home and traveled thousands of miles to be with me. But that would’ve hurt her, and really, who knew how Dalton truly felt about my sister? He seemed to like her a lot, but they hadn’t had enough time to really get to know each other. Perhaps they would meet again sometime soon. I hoped so.
I felt Savannah’s hand on my back. It was meant to comfort me, and didn’t that just say it all? As predicted, I wasn’t handling Dalton’s departure half as well as Savannah was. And she wasn’t just losing Dalton. I thought of the close friends she’d lost over the past few weeks and wondered how she could be so strong.
Time to activate that stiff upper lip, I thought, and eased away from Dalton. Giving his arm a light punch, I smiled brightly. “Well, that’s it, then. Don’t be a stranger. Travel safe. Off you go now.”
“Jeez, Brooklyn, easy on the clichés.” Savannah rolled her eyes at me. “You forgot to tell him not to let the door hit his ass on the way out.”
“Did I?”
Dalton laughed. “I won’t.” He turned to Derek and gave a quick nod. “Do you have it?”
“Yes, right here.” Derek disappeared from the doorway, but emerged a few seconds later carrying a cardboard box. He crossed the room and handed it to me. “We thought this might ease the pain of Dalton’s departure.”
Mystified, I stared into the box—and gasped. “It’s a…Oh.” Wrapped up in an old towel was a tiny white kitten.
I set the box on the bar and reached for the little creature.
“What is it?” Savannah said. Then, “Oh, it’s a kitty.”
I cupped it in my hands and examined it. Its fur was long and silky and it was snowy white from head to toes. I held it to my chest and rubbed my chin along its fragile backbone. Its fur tickled my skin and its mews sounded like the tinkling of a delicate glass bell.
“How did you…when did you…”
Derek smiled self-consciously. “I’d mentioned to Dalton a few nights ago that I wanted to try and get one of Bootsie’s kittens for you.”
“So we drove over there at the crack of flipping dawn this morning to find the cat,” Dalton said. “Wasn’t easy. She’d managed to squeeze herself into the tightest crawl space in that alleyway.”
“How did you find her?” Savannah asked as she ran her finger around the kitten’s tiny ears.
“We heard the mewing,” Derek said. “Ten kittens and one big cat make a lot of noise.”
“Ten. But…you just took this one away? Will it be okay?”
“We ran into Bootsie’s owner as she was emptying her trash,” Derek explained as he moved closer to pet the kitten. “Her name is Eileen and it’s fine with her if we keep this little one. But she did suggest that after you’ve had this visit with the kitten, we bring it back to stay with the mother for a few more weeks.”
“That’s a good idea.” Although I hated to let her go. I was already in love with her. The kitten caught a strand of my hair in its eensy claw and became entangled instantly. I laughed softly. “You ding-a-ling.”
Savannah said, “Awww.”
I looked up at Derek. “Thank you. I love her. It’s the sweetest thing you ever could’ve given me.” And then I burst into tears.
Savannah sniffled, too. Naturally.
Dalton elbowed Derek. “Time to go.”
Derek laughed and grabbed me in a warm hug. I watched him stroke the kitten’s soft fur, and then he took it from me and placed it back in its box. “I’ll return the cat to Eileen on the way back from the airport. I’ve got her number, so we’ll keep tabs on the little one’s progress and have her back in a few weeks.”
I nodded, unable to speak.