Kitten Kaboodle (Zoe Donovan Mystery Book 20) by Kathi Daley

mother, but there were times, like now, when I truly doubted my ability to keep that vow.
     
    It was late by the time we got home from dinner. I had just crawled into bed after making sure all the household animals were safely tucked away in my bedroom when my cell phone rang. My initial thought was to hope it was Nona, who I still hadn’t heard from, but I was just as happy when I saw my late-night caller was Zak.
    “Hey,” I said tiredly as I snuggled down under the covers. “It’s late. Even later where you are. I didn’t think you’d call.”
    “I’m sorry.” Zak yawned. “I wanted to call earlier, but I was in the middle of coding the program and didn’t want to stop. I’m really trying to get finished in time to get home by Friday.”
    “I appreciate that. I’m all snuggled up with the three dogs and three cats, but I miss not having you to snuggle up with at the end of the day.”
    “Yeah.” Zak sighed. “Me too. Every time I have to travel lately I find myself vowing to either sell the company or turn things over to a full-time manager.”
    “You’d probably get bored after a while,” I said.
    “Maybe not. Once the main campus of Zimmerman Academy opens I’m going to have plenty of things right there in Ashton Falls to keep me busy.”
    “That’s true. I guess we can talk about it some more after you get home and your mother is relocated so that we have the house to ourselves.”
    Zak yawned again. I could tell he was fighting to stay awake. He was probably lying in bed like I was. How sad that we weren’t together.
    “How did things go today?”
    “Okay. Salinger let Nona out of jail, but I’m pretty sure she’s still the main suspect. I’ve been working on a few theories of my own that could take her out of the limelight altogether if they pan out.”
    “You aren’t doing anything dangerous, are you?”
    “No,” I assured my worrywart husband. “Not dangerous. I’m just talking to people in public places in the middle of the day.”
    “Maybe you should just let Salinger handle this one. Even when you don’t mean to put yourself in danger you seem to end up in the middle of it, and it worries me that I’m not home to rescue you.”
    “Don’t worry. I’m not doing anything that might lead to anyone needing to rescue me.” I decided it was best to change the subject. I really didn’t want him to worry about my getting into trouble, so I decided to give him something else to worry about. “I had dinner with your mother and cousins tonight.”
    “You did? I figured you would be hiding out at the boathouse with Ellie.”
    “Trust me, I thought of doing just that, but I didn’t want to be completely rude. I did manage to avoid them for the bulk of the day, though.”
    “So how did it go?”
    “Actually,” I turned slightly to make room for Spade on the pillow next to me, “it wasn’t too bad. At first. Darlene went out of her way to act as a buffer between your mother and me, and Twyla managed to control her kids so they didn’t disturb the other diners.”
    “And then?” I could hear the sound of dread in Zak’s voice. “You said at first .”
    “And then your mother informed me that she’d hired a contractor to remodel the guest bedroom next to ours. It seems she thinks it’s time we turned the room into a nursery.”
    “A nursery? We aren’t even pregnant.”
    I could tell by the irritation in Zak’s voice that I had successfully distracted him from my participation in Edna’s murder investigation. “I know that and you know that, but according to your mother we’re behind schedule.”
    “There’s a schedule?”
    “Apparently. According to your mother, now that our one-year anniversary has come and gone, it’s time to begin working on popping out Baby Zimmerman number one. According to her, if we don’t start immediately we’ll be much too old to raise a child once we get to baby number four.”
    “ Four ?”
    “Yup. She has it all planned out.