Marriage of Inconvenience(Knitting in the City Book #7)(75)

Dan: I shit you not, I just saw a fucking kangaroo hopping down the fucking street! Holy shit.





Dan: Good night.





Kat: Good morning. I can’t believe you saw a kangaroo hopping down the street!! :-O That’s crazy. I did a little research last night and Australia is supposed to have all the poisonous and dangerous animals, and spiders the size of dinner plates. I WANT TO GO SO BAD!!!





Kat: My boss just got back from her business trip and is so jet-lagged. I went into her office to bring her some reports and she was passed out, forehead on her desk. I didn’t have the heart to wake her up, so I canceled all her meetings this afternoon and rescheduled them for next week and I finished her financial report for the division heads meeting for tomorrow morning. I thought about covering her with a blanket, but it felt like crossing a line.





Kat: Good night. Thinking of you.





Dan: Thinking of me? Were you in bed as you typed that? What were you wearing?





Dan: Just read your text about your boss sleeping on her desk. You’re a good person. If it had been Quinn, I would’ve woken him up with a police siren.





Dan: Here’s an Australian joke for you: Why did the manager hire the marsupial? Because he was koala-fied.





Dan: Flying to Brisbane. Miss you.





Kat: Good morning. I miss you, too.





Kat: When you come home I’d like to take you out on a date.





Kat: That joke was very punny.





Kat: Please send me a picture of yourself.





Kat: I know you’re asleep, but I am feeling like my last few text messages aren’t coming across as I’d intended. I’m sorry if I make everything weirder than it needs to be.





Kat: Good night. I’m thinking of you, in my bed, wearing my TARDIS pajamas.





Dan: I love waking up to your messages. You make everything both weird and better.





Dan: You want me to pick the place? Sandra has me hooked on that Indian restaurant. I can’t get enough of the butter chicken. Glad she moved out of that building. The neighborhood is nice, but her building was shit. Your old building wasn’t great either. It only had that one security door and your apartment door wasn’t reinforced.





Dan: Here is a picture of me next to their snake terrarium. This guy behind me is a tiger snake and is one of the deadliest in the world. Send a picture of you.





Dan: Good night. Thinking of you in your bed, wearing your TARDIS pajamas.





Kat: Good morning. Thank you for the picture. I’m missing you today.





Kat: This is a picture of me in front of The Bean on my way to work. I’m supposed to see Janie and

Desmond today, so I’ll send another one later.





I paused a moment here, as I’d been doing since she sent the photo. I liked how wide her smile was, how her eyes were big and happy. I couldn’t wait to see her again, the real her. She was probably in my apartment right now. Maybe she wasn’t waiting for me, but she’d be there when I got home.

My stubbornness refused to admit her being there and her waiting for me weren’t the same thing.

Kat: Here I am with Desmond. Stan took the picture. P.S. Stan thinks Desmond is cute, so he must be cute. As we know, Stan is the baby expert.





I paused here, too. Chuckling at her text, but also liking the way she looked holding a baby. The shitty feeling in my chest had become something else as soon as she’d sent this picture. Something good. Something I would miss, probably mourn, if I never saw her again.

Kat: Time for bed. I hope you have a good day. <3





Dan: Thanks for the pictures. Sweet dreams.





Kat: How was your day?





Dan: Hey, I’m just finishing with a meeting, and I was thinking about you. Have you heard from Eugene? Anything new going on with your cousin? We should call that guy by the code name Tiny Satan.





Dan: I’m on my way to a dinner thing. Day was good but long. These people make fun of the way I talk, one guy asked if the letter “R” was against my religion. Cheeky fuck.





Dan: These people can hold their liquor. I switched to water an hour ago and these guys are still going, and one lady is drinking them all under the table. She doesn’t appear to be affected yet, liver of steel on this one.





I wasn’t yet finished going through our messages—I still had four days’ worth—when a new message flashed on my screen. The number wasn’t one I recognized, but that didn’t matter because the sender announced himself right off the bat.

#: This is Eugene Marks. Please call me ASAP. Use this number.





There was only one reason Eugene would use ASAP, and that one reason was Tiny Satan.

The plane landed, just touched down. Certain in the knowledge that I’d be stuck on the runway for a few minutes as we taxied to the hanger, I leaned forward and returned his call, a spike of adrenaline waking me up.