“Give me a second, Mom.”
She nods, and I walk a few feet ahead of her.
“Hello, Liam Leslie!” Sage smiles through the screen and she no longer looks like she was attacked by a beehive which is refreshing.
“Dory.” I keep my eyes on her, and her smile widens, her pretty dimples popping.
“You know, I feel like you’re calling me Dory because I’m calling you Liam Leslie, but jokes on you because I like the new nickname, and it’s not going to make me stop calling you Liam Leslie.” She holds her chin higher, and I raise my brows at her.
“Right.”
She so clearly bites back as a smile.
“Well, if you enjoy being compared to a dumb blue fish–”
“She’s–”
“She’s not dumb, and neither are you.” I finish for her, and when her face scrunches, I bite back a smile. “Itwasdumb for you to smother a cat when you’re allergic to them.”
“Iforgotthat I didn’t have my medicine.” She tries to defend herself, but she doesn’t have a good case.
“Yes, Dory.Iremember.”
She burst into a laugh, and I shake my head at her. “I’ll see you later tonight.”
“Wait, do you still have the kittens with you?”
“Maybe.”
“Can Imaybesee them?”
I glance at the blanket and my mom still has all of them on her lap. I almost tell Sage no, but when I look back at the screen, she’s watching me all hopefully with her big green eyes.
I let out a sigh and walk over to the blanket. “Let me see them for a second?”
My mom smiles up at me and gestures to her lap. I place them a few feet from her and give her my back before flipping the camera.
Sage awes at them and takes a few pictures through the call. “You’re going to take them to the vet, right?”
“Sure.”
“You mean yes.”
“Sure.”
“Liam Leslie!”
“Yes, Dory. I’ll take them to the vet. Goodbye.”
She makes mepromise,and only after I do does she let me hang up. When I turn back around, my mom is watching me with a weird look.
“What?”
She shrugs and looks back down at the puzzle with a smile.
“I think you do know.” I push, and she looks back up at me, her smile still present.
“Who was that?”
