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A second later, a FaceTime request popped up on Paige’s phone, and as soon as Jules’s face came onscreen, she demanded, “Tell me everything.”
Chapter 72
The Sunday after New Year’s, David asked Paige to join him and Jacob for lunch, then go to an animal adoption event at their local shelter and help pick out a cat.
Because the outing was going to be casual, Paige wore loose, gray slouchy cargo pants with wide legs that still managed to make her butt look really good, the Barenaked Ladies concert tee with a long-sleeved shirt underneath, a pair of navy Chuck’s, and a jacket.
David picked her up and as he gave her a quick kiss on her cheek, he gently tugged her shirt. “That really was one of the best nights of my life,” he told her softly.
“Mine, too.”
After getting situated in the car, she turned and exchanged greetings with Jacob, then took a few moments to take in how happy he looked. While she figured it was partly due to the anticipation of getting a cat, Paige also attributed most of it to the removal of Liam and Ashley from his life, and even though it hadn’t been finalized in court yet, it was on the horizon.
After a quick lunch, they headed over to the shelter and once inside, got sidetracked in the canine section, because Jacob kept stopping to pet every dog.
“This is what it’s like at the grocery store,” David whispered to Paige, after a dozen stops.
“It’s fine,” she replied with a laugh. “We have all day.”
“Good, because it’s probably going to take all day.”
“He’s a kid in a building full of animals. I’m not surprised he’s stopping at every kennel.”
After what seemed like an hour, they finally made it back to the cat room. There were a lot of kittens, which immediately had Jacob enthralled, but since David wasn’t interested, he didn’t want to linger for too long.
“Kittens always get adopted,” he told Jacob. “I think we should get an adult cat, because they get overlooked.”
With reluctance, Jacob allowed himself to be led over to the cages holding the older cats. Paige, following behind, watched as David lifted Jacob up to look at cats in the higher cages, admiring the picture father and son made in their matching gray shirts and jeans.
After looking at numerous cats, David stopped and said, “Now, this is what I’m talking about.”
She glanced over to see a good-sized black cat in a kennel, silently looking at them with dark, golden eyes. According to the information card, his name was ‘Blackie’ and he was approximately one and a half years old. He’d been purchased for a child two Halloweens ago, but the child had lost interest and the parents had surrendered the cat.
“Stupid people,” she murmured.
David began rubbing the cat under its chin and was rewarded when he started purring. “What do you say? Want to go live with a cool dad and his cool son?” David asked, making Jacob laugh. “In their cool loft?”
“Hmm, he doesn’t look completely sold on that. You might have to sweeten the deal with a cool name, too,” Paige teased.
“That goes without saying. Let me know what you come up with.”
“You want me to name your cat? That’s rather lazy of you, don’t you think?”
“I prefer to think of it as being smart.”
“Smart?”
“You’re the Name Whisperer, aren’t you?”
“The ‘Name Whisperer’? What are you talking about?”
“You came up with Spook and Sputnik, right?”
“Right.”
“And we can both agree those are good names, right?”
“Obviously.”
