Page 73 of Falling With You

He cursed under his breath. “I suck at remembering him. I mean, not really, because I’m not a horrible cat parent. But I’m not good at the spur of the moment things.”

“Well,” I squeezed his hand, “if we’re going to keep seeing each other, and if we ever spend the night at each other’s houses, we’re going to have to worry about the cats. So, maybe we should bring Diego over to my place.” I winced as I said it, and Aiden gave me a look of mock horror.

“I don’t know about their safety.”

“What do you mean, their safety?”

“I worry about your four cats.”

“Diego’s a little tiny ball of fur.”

“He is Satan. Satan himself.”

“That kitten is not Satan.”

“I don’t know. If I call him Satan, he comes running right to me.”

I laughed, shaking my head. “You cannot call that kitten Satan, Aiden Connolly.”

“Satan is as Satan does.”

“That is not the same, you weirdo.”

“I can’t help it if he’s demonically possessed.”

“He’s not demonically possessed. He’s just in that kitten stage.”

“And when does that kitten stage end? Is it going to be anytime soon?”

“Well, I think maybe three or four years.”

“Dear God.”

“Well, I mean, the kid stage lasts like eighteen years, and then you have to deal with them as adults, so I guess cats are better than humans in that way, right?”

“You say that, but then when you have kids, you’re going to have to deal with themandyour cats.”

I swallowed hard, purposely not looking at him when he was talking about kids. Because we were so not ready for that. Just because I loved him didn’t mean we needed to talk about kids right then.

“Well, if that ever comes up, I’ll deal with it then. But first, we can try to introduce Diego to my cats. They’re actually pretty accepting of other animals, most of them anyway, I just have to be careful about not actually owning the five at once by myself.”

“Okay, we’ll bring over little Satan.”

“Aiden.”

“Fine. We’ll bring over the baby not Satan, but if he tries to eat your cats, we’ll lock him in one of the bedrooms. Preferably one with padded walls.”

“You never want to give something with claws a padded room. He’ll shred it.”

“Okay, cement walls. And chains. Lots and lots of chains.”

“I never knew you had such a torture side.”

“Well, Satan brings it out in me.”

“Diego. His name is Diego.”

“You say Diego, I say Satan. Tomato, tomahto. We should have named him Diablo.”