Meredith dropped to the floor and crossed her legs, scrubbing each dog before typing again.
Meredith:I also have homemade cookies. They’re on the counter next to your meds.
Juno leaned in and licked her cheek.
Meredith giggled and ran her fingers over the dog’s beautiful face. Both of the wolf dogs were beautiful. Their coats were variations of smoky gray and white, but each had a dusting of gold along their snouts, over their brows, and around their shoulders. Their eyes were a warm maple. And even though their coloring was the same, their markings were distinct. Vulcan had a broad patch of white on his chest, where Juno’s was a mottled gray. Even without that difference, it was easy to tell them apart. Vulcan’s larger frame gave him about fifteen pounds on his sister.
Gray:That’s very kind of you. Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.
Meredith took her hand off Vulcan to type, and the dog lay down against her right thigh. His sister collapsed on her left.
Meredith:I know. I wanted to. They’re good cookies. Don’t let the cornflakes scare you.
A moment passed.
Gray:I’m not usually scared of cornflakes, but your statement has me worried.
She laughed aloud, and then covered her mouth with her hand. Had he heard her?
Meredith:Even though we haven’t officially met, you’re just going to have to trust me. Good cookies.
She settled back against the island with her phone on her knee and a hand on each dog. Gray Blakewood’s house was so quiet. So peaceful. All she could hear was the tick of a clock in the hall and the gentle breath of each dog.
It was nothing like Jamie’s house. The TV was almost always on at the McCormicks’. As soon as Leona woke up, she turned it on.Good Morning, America. The View. Ellen. The Bold and The Beautiful.In any corner of the house, a TV could be heard. Big Jim was just as bad.Fox News. SportsCenter.And when Jamie was home, it wasDuck DynastyandSwamp People.Every conversation had to be held over the noise, which meant conversations were loud.
Everything was loud.
The McCormicks’ house was vastly different from her own family’s. Of course, the Ryans had watched television at night, but their one TV was in the den all the way in the back of the house, and it couldn’t be heard past the kitchen. She and Becca weren’t even allowed to have TVs in their rooms. That hadn’t stopped her from watching whatever she wanted on her phone, but it did make for a quieter household.
Her parents wouldn’t have approved of half the stuff she’d streamed on her Netflix account, but they weren’t ever tech savvy enough to figure that out. In the last few years, they’d gotten so involved with their new church, there wasn’t time for much else.
Becca once told her their devotion to the church had only grown after they threw her out. Instead of going to Lafayette High like Meredith had, Becca now attended Lafayette Christian Academy. For Halloween, the kids couldn’t even dress up. No ghosts. No witches. No Minions. No Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The school, instead, had a Fall Festival, and students could dress up as their favorite saint.
“Go as Saint Denis,” Meredith urged.
Becca’s blank stare almost made her laugh.
“He’s the saint Montmartre is named after,” she explained before licking the whipped cream off her toasted-marshmallow latte. “Saint Denis was the bishop of Paris, and he was beheaded.
“Oh, gross…”
Meredith nodded. “Legend has it that, after he was decapitated, he’d picked up his head and carried it six miles up the hill, preaching the whole time about repentance.” She gave her sister a disapproving frown. “That’s how Montmartre got its name. Mount Martyr.”
“That’s freaky,” Becca said, eyes wide.
“Well, going to school carrying a bloody head would at least make itfeellike Halloween.”
“How do you know this shit?” Becca asked, laughing. They sat in Johnston Street Java. Becca held Oscar on her lap and tried to keep him from grabbing her chocolate Sucre. She was supposed to be seeing a movie with friends, but she’d walked from The Grand to the coffee shop to meet Meredith and Oscar instead.
“AP European History,” she said, smiling at her sister. Halloween was in a week, and Meredith wished Becca could come with her to take Oscar trick-or-treating.
Becca squinted at her. “Didn’t you do really well in that class?”
She nodded. “I made a five on the exam… despite the fact I was the only student in the room leaking breast milk during the test.”
“Wow. Thanks for that.” Becca made a face.
“Anytime,” Meredith shrugged. “I’ve got some childbirth stories whenever you’re ready. Believe what they tell you about the hemorrhoids.”