I shook my head and smiled at her grumpiness. Why did everything about Julia Ortiz make me feel warm? Like the parts of me that I would never figure out on my own seemed to fall into place like puzzle pieces when she was around.
“You’re right. We’re fine.”
“Completely fine.” I knew she was just talking about the cat, but fuck, it felt like she was talking about my whole life, and for a second, I really believed her.
She dipped her eyebrows like she was still a little worried about my mental state, but she nodded and pointed at a strip mall straight ahead. “We’re almost there.”
Just then the cat let out a little mewl that sounded pretty pathetic and I was back to full alert.
“Good, because Pulga doesn’t sound too good.”
She turned her face fully toward me then, and this time she was working very hard not to laugh. “Did you just call your cat Pulga?”
I shrugged, but could feel a matching grin to hers on my own face. “You called her Pulga first.”
She was laughing now as she eased us into a spot in front of the store.
“You’re a clown,” she muttered, obviously amused by my cat-naming skills. She powered off the car and turned to look at me and the kitten in question. She waved a hand at the basket where the newly named Pulga was lifting her head like she wasn’t sure what all the ruckus was about, but she wasn’t into it.
“I called her ‘pulgosa’ because she looked like she could be carrying more than a few fleas in that fur coat. I didn’t mean for you to name the cat ‘flea.’” She sounded outraged, but her smile told a different story.
I winked and worked very hard in tamping down the flutter in my chest. “I like it. She’s small and a bit of a pest. Pulga’s the perfect name for her.”
Julia’s face did something then that I hadn’t seen before. Her brown eyes widened and her cheekbones popped. She was beaming, because of something I’d said.
It was like the warmth of every ray of the sun was radiating in my chest. I was struck speechless by what that felt like.
Before she turned to get out of the car, she patted my shoulder and tugged on Pulga’s tiny ear.
“You’re right, it fits her.”
Chapter Eighteen
Julia
This man and this filthy cat were going to be my undoing.
We walked into the vet’s with Rocco leading the way, holding the laundry basket full of feline like it was an offering from the goddess.
“Hi, my cat needs help.” He was speaking barely over a whisper, like he didn’t want to startle any other convalescent pets.
How could a man this hot be so fucking sweet?
I was trying hard to tell myself this was the same guy who could send my life and my career in a tailspin if he felt like it. But I couldn’t make it stick. This man who showed up at my door cradling a little cat like it was made of spun crystal and spoke in Spanish to my mother was hard to connect to that reality. There was way too much to digest in that newsflash, so I tried to focus on the issue at hand.
“No, I’m keeping her.” I looked up in surprise and found Rocco sending a very slighted expression at the receptionist.
“What happened?”
“She asked if we were going to send her to the ASPCA,” he said in an outraged whisper, as he clutched Pulga to his chest. Great. There went my Hunter sweatshirt too.
I was caught between swooning and rolling my eyes. When I caught a glimpse of the tech taking the information from Rocco, she looked a little addled by the man too.
Girl, get in line.
Rocco spoke to the tech again and this time it was clear he was not playing. “I want to make sure she gets the shots she needs and someone to take a look at her eye, and I will be taking her home.” He offered Pulga up for a quick inspection of the poxy eye, and then turned to me with a look that said “Can you believe they asked me that?”
I gave him a small smile and tried hard to act like I wasn’t deeply in my feelings in that moment, then turned away to hide my face from him. Because what I really wanted was to get up from the bench, go to that counter, and tell the vet tech with the moony eyes to back off, because this man and his flea-ridden cat were both mine.
