“Mine,” I tell Theo. “You get her later.”
The kittens meow like they’re offended that I’d claim their human mama. Theo rolls his eyes and heads to the kitchen.
The man sits still about as well as these kittens do.
They’re adorable, even with their super-sharp claws.
And way tinier than my overgrown puppy.
“So, Bean & Nugget,” Laney says, clearly trying to distract me from what just happened with Emma.
“It’s hopeless. It’s all hopeless.”
“Everything’s hopeless with that attitude,” Theo calls.
“Don’t naked-motivational-knitter-advice me,” I call back. “I’m not one of your adoring fans.”
“Anymore.”
“Stop, both of you,” Laney orders. “Theo, more cookies, please. Sabrina, more positive attitude, please. You have a plan. I can smell it.”
“That’s the kitty litter,” Theo says.
Her lips wobble in amusement.
A month ago, she would’ve chewed him out for the joke.
Today, she’s laughing.
And I utterly love that for her.
She deserves all of the laughs. All of the love. All of the happiness.
Meanwhile, I’m just a drag.
“Can you tell me that I should do the thing I’m thinking about doing, even if it’s a terrible idea?” I say while I reach for one of those cookies on the plate on her other side.
“Would you have hesitated three weeks ago?”
“No.”
“Then do it.”
“Will you hate me?”
“Not a chance.”
“Even if you should?”
“Sabrina.”
“The night I met Grey in Hawaii, I was on a mission to do good deeds everywhere I could to balance out my karma.”
“That’s a thing you do?” Laney interrupts.
I huff out a sigh. “I do plenty of good.”
“I know, but not usually in the name of karma. It’s usually just because it’s the right thing to do and you can’t help yourself when it comes to doing the right thing for the Tooth.”
“Fair enough. But I needed to do it for karma that night.”
She nods. “Okay. I get that.”
“What I’m thinking of doing is basically the opposite of that and really pushes some boundaries beyond what any normal, rational person should ever do.”
That might be extreme.
But I don’t actually think it is.
Laney flexes her brows at me. “So this is the nuclear option?”
Basically. And I feel like an ass for considering it when I don’t think Grey’s a bad guy. I don’t know what Chandler did to him, but I know it was something. There has to be another way to make it right besides destroying Bean & Nugget. “The only other idea I have involves blackmailing Kurtis into letting me have his Main Street storefront for opening my own coffee shop, and I really don’t want to piss off the only chiropractor in town.” And yes, that was Grey’s idea, and I know it’s not a bad idea.
It’s just not a good idea.
Bean & Nugget has my family’s blood, sweat, and tears built into it.
And it truly is the best real estate downtown.
Laney blinks slowly. “You have blackmail material on Kurtis?”
“No.”
I say it so fast and vehemently, Theo pops his head out of the kitchen and eyeballs me.
Laney winces.
“Is that no related to you getting off gossip after you told your boss all of the Tooth’s gossip?” Theo asks.
“I told him,” Laney whispers.
“As you should’ve,” I reply. “Don’t keep secrets from each other on my behalf. Also, sorry, Theo, I’m positive he knows that you’re Mr. Snuffleupagus and that you strip at a nightclub in Denver three nights a week.”
“Mr. Snuffleupagus.” Theo grins. “Guy has a long…trunk. I like it.”
“It wasn’t an intentional flattery,” I assure him. “I thought he wouldn’t put it together since Snuffy’s so fluffy and you wax your chest.”
Laney laughs so hard, she almost falls off the couch, which earns me more of a glare from Theo than accusing him of waxing his chest would ever provoke on its own.
“There anyone who needs a warning about what he might know?” he asks.
Like it’s that easy. “I changed details.”
Theo shakes his head. “I don’t underestimate people who make a fuckton of money while saving a little part of the world. Means they’re smart.”