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Releasing her hold on him, she moved past him and exited the kitchen. Jackson made his way to the room he had passed initially, where a blonde girl of ten sat with the cat. There was definitely improvements to the cats physical health, especially with the coat. The girl glanced up at Jackson, frowning at up at him. Her off-white t-shirt was full of daisy embroideries, stitched in miniature clusters. It took him a moment to recognize her as Casey, rather than her sister Amanda. He was mildly surprised she wasn't named Kasey with a K.
"Did you name her Will?"
He crouched down, reaching out to pet the cat. "No, Kai did." He blinked, relaying her words in his mind. "I'm sorry, her?"
"The vet said she's a girl."
"Well then she's a girl named Will. About time someone had a good name in this house."
Casey glared at him. "You have a last name for a first name."
Jackson opened his mouth to counter the statement, but he couldn't think of a defence. "Touché."
She watched as the cat flopped onto the ground, bathing in the sunlight. "Is it true that you really, really like my brother and my sister?"
Panic made him instinctively glance behind him, to make sure no one else was listening to their conversation. He looked back at her, wide eyed. "Who told you that?"
"No one. I saw you out there," She moved so that her jean shorts clad legs were cross legged. "You looked like you really liked them. But I won't tell them, if you bring me something."
His lips twitched, trying not to smile. Jackson was well aware that the Parker twins already knew, but for the sake of allowing her to feel like a mastermind, he played along. "You little hustler. What would you like me to bring?"
"Chocolate. I wanna give it to someone at my school."
The Campbell raised an eyebrow. "A crush? On who?"
"None of your business," She answered, a little too quickly. "Make sure it's the chocolates with the pink bunny on the wrapper. That's the one they like."
Jackson nodded, stifling back the urge to chuckle. As he sat cross legged, she decided to ask: "What kind of gifts should I give them?"
"I suppose something heartfelt and handcrafted would be nice to give."
She frowned. "What does heartfelt mean?"
"It means something from the heart. A gift that you really want to give to someone," He paused to think. "You could give them a love letter or a love note. I gave your brother many of those. But I wrote half of them in different ciphers - pigpen, Caesar, Vigenère - so maybe stick to English."
