Page 39 of Wynter

“Geez.” Mini sighs. “Look, I’d offer a cookie, but I ate them all.”

“You can’t offer me anything. This is my house!”

“You keep telling yourself that,” Mini says cheerfully. “Hey, you want me to order some pizza?”

The mention of actual food does a good job of distracting me, and I smile. “You know what? Sure. Pizza sounds nice.”

“Want me to put it on your credit card? Or do you have cash?”

“Seriously?” I groan. “You don’t have any money?”

“If I did, I wouldn’t be living here, now would I?”

“You don’t live here!”

“Do too.” The bed squeaks. “Don’t listen to her, Snowball. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Yes, you are. Snowball, come here!” I glance over the back of the couch, and my pet stares back at me with large, unblinking eyes. “I’ll order you steak from Bob’s. You love steak from Bob’s.”

Snowball glances at Mini apologetically and then rolls off her lap and onto the bed. The poor guy doesn’t have legs, so he keeps rolling, bounces onto the floor and then rolls across the room to the foot of the couch.

“Good boy,” I say as I scoop him up.

Snowball snarls and snaps at my fingers. He stops just short of breaking skin, but he’s definitely not happy with me.

“Girl,” Mini says pointedly. “I told you Snowball is a girl.”

“How would you even know? He’s literally a ball of fur.”

Snowball snarls.

“See?” Mini plops onto the couch next to me. “And I know because she told me.”

“Because you can talk to fuzzies? Yeah, right.” I roll my eyes and try hard not to laugh at the beehive on her head.

“I can talk to animals, period. Just don’t tell anyone, okay?”

“You’re seriously telling me you can talk to animals? Why wouldn’t you want anyone to know?” The agency would kill for a power like that, and instead she went to an academy for wonky magic with Amber and Julian? Like I would ever buy that.

“It’s unclean,” Mini recites in a high-pitched voice. “No Montgomery would ever lower themselves like—” She stops mid-sentence. “Not you, Snowball. That’s just what my mom says. You wouldn’t like her.”

“I’m surprised anyone likes her,” I mutter. “No offense.”

“None taken. I don’t think anyone does.” She scratches the top of my pet’s head. “Don’t know why I bother keeping it a secret anymore. She’s already cut me off. She won’t even speak to me. All because I couldn’t lock down Julian.”

“Lock down Julian?” I snort. “Wait, she seriously said that?”

“She got it into her head that the Montgomerys and Wades should be joined through holy matrimony or whatever, yada yada. You don’t want to hear about my problems.” Mini reaches into her jean pocket—my jean pocket—takes out a stick of bubble gum, and starts chewing. “So, what’s going on with you? Did something happen? Or are you just hangry?”

“I’m not hangry,” I snap, and my stomach growls.

Mini raises an eyebrow. “See?”

“Fine. I’ll order food.”

“Can you get some more of that pasta?” she says cheerfully.

“I’m not ordering you food,” I snap at her and take out my phone, only to realize it’s still dead.