Page 47 of Strawberry Cake

She hummed in agreement and curled back up.

With Mr. Grumps on his lap, he went to the kitchen and returned his mom’s call.

“Hi sweetheart,” she answered right away.

“Hi.”

“You sound sleepy. Did I wake you?”

“Yeah, but it’s fine. Everything okay?”

“Yes. I just wanted to go over our vacation details.”

Oh, shit.With all his focus on Hope the past few weeks, he’d nearly forgotten his upcoming family vacation. It was an annual thing: booking a resort for a few days to make sure they all spent some sort of time together since everyone had moved out.

As his mother went over the details of flights and suites, he started the coffee machine and fed Mr. Grumps.

Shit.

Mr. Grumps!

How could he have forgotten?

“Mom?” Decan started in that tone that usually meant he’d done something wrong.

“Yes?”

“I did a thing, and I may have forgotten about our vacation while doing so.”

“Oh no, what have you done?”

“I adopted a cat.”

There was a long pause, then a laugh. “Since when are you a cat person?”

“Well, Mr. Grumps had a spell on me.”Shit. He couldn’t just leave the poor cat. “I’m so sorry, Mom.”

Another laugh as she relayed the message to his dad. “That will make things a little more complicated. So will I see a picture of this mysterious new friend you’ve made?” He quickly sent one from the hundreds he’d taken since bringing the cat home. “Ah, I see why he’s called Mr. Grumps.”

“I’ll see if Marco can watch him.”

“Well let us know if you figure it out.” And with another disbelieving laugh, she hung up.

“Shit,” he mumbled.

“What happened?” Hope yawned, stepping into the room.

“I forgot about our annual family vacation when I adopted Mr. Grumps and now I don’t know what to do.”

She crooked her brow at him and started the coffee machine for her own hit of morning caffeine. “Youforgotabout a vacation?” Then she laughed. “You truly are a trust fund baby.”

Decan glared at her, but he’d never let on that it bothered him. “Thanks.”

With a grin, Hope leaned down and kissed his cheek. “I’ll watch him.”

“Well…” he started, unsure of continuing after the trust fund jab. “I was going to ask you if you would like to come too.”

“On your family vacation?”