Page 48

Otis raised his bushy eyebrows at her and laughed again. “Sounds like she’s the klutz.”

“I still won’t turn down the help. Thanks again.”

“Enjoy the pizza.”

Paige thanked him, slipping inside and letting the door bang shut. She tapped down the metal staircase in her sneakers and snaked through the shelves to the back corner housing Dewey’s nest.

“I’ll be in shape in no time,” she said as she continued spiraling up the stairs.

Winded, she arrived at the top and pushed through his door into his living quarters.

“Made it! I stopped for the pizza so we wouldn’t have to wait the typical forty-five minutes for delivery.”

Dewey sat with a large book on his lap and a pen in his paw. He stared at Paige for a moment before he shifted the book from his lap and flew upward. “Paige! You came back!”

Paige wrinkled her forehead as she crossed to the kitchen counter and slid the pizza boxes onto it. “Of course I did. Sorry, I’m later than expected. I had a minor mishap with Dickens’s dish.”

Dewey darted around the kitchen retrieving plates, napkins, and silverware. “I thought maybe when you left to feed that cat, you weren’t actually going to come back.”

“What?” Paige asked as she slid the two boxes of breadsticks onto their own stack to access the pizza. “Who would do that?”

She pulled the root beer from the bag and set it on the counter.

Dewey shrugged as he struggled to tug open the freezer drawer on his French door refrigerator. “People. You know, you come in tomorrow and say you fell asleep on the couch or something.”

“I would never do that,” Paige insisted, tugging open the freezer for him. “Well, unless I really did fall asleep on my couch, but I rarely do that, so no worries.”

Dewey dug around in his freezer and pulled two frosty mugs from within. “I always knew I’d use these one day.”

“Wow!” Paige cooed. “Look at you with the frosty mugs for the root beer.”

“I haven’t had soda in years. I keep the mugs in here just in case.”

Paige filled the plates with two slices of pizza and two breadsticks as Dewey filled the steins with ice and poured the frothy root beer over the frosty cubes.

Paige collected the food, napkins, and silverware and delivered them to the living room area. Dewey followed with the drinks. He settled onto his chaise as Paige eased into the large armchair.

“Mmmm,” he said as he bit into a breadstick.

Paige suppressed a giggle as his little back feet kicked against his chair with delight at the food.

“So, what happened with your cat?” he asked after polishing off an entire breadstick.

“Oh, nothing. When I got home, I couldn’t find him. I searched the apartment and found him staring out a window. By the time I found him, I got a splitting headache and dropped his bowl. He didn’t care, but it made a mess all over my hardwood.

“So, I had to clean that up. Then I decided to change and grab the pizza. Otherwise, we’d probably still be waiting for it.”

Dewey polished off his pizza and remaining breadstick before he jetted back over to the box and dropped four more breadsticks onto his plate along with another slice of pizza. “Can I get you anything more?”

“No, I’m still working on my first piece! Otis wasn’t kidding.”

Dewey settled back on his chaise. “Otis?”

“He said you eat a lot.”

“Oh, right. Good old Otis.”

Paige swiped her napkin across her lips before biting into her breadstick. “I was surprised he knew about you.”