Chapter 6 - A Place to LandTwo weeks later, the living room looked completely different.
The Dallas job offer had been answered—not by packing up and leaving Austin, but by negotiating a remote hybrid schedule that let Ethan keep his roots right where they were. On the floor beside the couch, a makeshift recovery zone had been set up with soft fleece bedding, low-rimmed food bowls, and a tiny litter box.
The kitten—officially named Splash, thanks to a unanimous vote by Ethan and corroborated by Boone's enthusiastic tail wags—was currently in the middle of mastering the art of walking with his blue fiberglass splint.
With a clumsy, hopping gait, Splash marched across the Persian rug, his tiny striped tail held straight up in the air like a question mark. His leg was healing cleanly according to Dr. Vance’s latest X-rays, and the haunted, terrified look in his eyes had been entirely replaced by the fearless, arrogant curiosity unique to a kitten who believes he owns the entire universe.
Boone lay stretched out in a massive black circle right beside the recovery zone, acting as a living perimeter wall.
Ethan sat at his coffee table, signing the last of his overdue invoices, the background noise of adult life finally feeling manageable, quiet, and right.
Splash stopped his march, wobbled slightly on his three good legs and one blue-cast paw, and decided that Ethan’s left knee was the highest mountain in the room. With a determined little grunt, the kitten scrambled up Ethan’s jeans, claws digging harmlessly into the denim, until he reached Ethan’s lap.
He didn't curl up immediately. Instead, Splash walked in a tight circle three times, bumped his head against Ethan’s pen-holding hand, and then flopped flat on his back, exposing a soft, pale belly to the open air.
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Boone ambled over, rested his heavy chin right across Ethan’s shins, and let out a deep, contented sigh that rattled the floorboards.
Ethan set his pen down, wrapped one hand gently around the tiny, purring bundle of stripes, and used the other to scratch Boone behind his velvety ears. Outside the window, the evening sun was turning the Austin sky gold, spilling warm light across the floor where a dog, a cat, and a man had all finally found a place to land.
