“All true. Go for it.” Josie watched as Eve approached the bar.
“Hi.” Her brown eyes landed on Josie’s. This close, there was something intense, almost intimidating about her stare. “Josie, right? I’m Eve.”
Josie nodded, unable to hide her smile. She’d watched enough episodes ofDo Overto be sure the woman in front of her was the same one who made business owners cower and even cry on a regular basis with her blunt observations and icy demeanor. Josie found herself a bit dazzled and overwhelmingly curious as to how much of Eve’s television persona was truly hers and how much was made for ratings. “You didn’t mention your last name when we spoke on the phone, Eve Marlow.”
Eve’s eyes widened slightly. “I guess I didn’t.” She lifted the bag in front of her. “They’re in bad shape.”
Josie sobered at the reminder of why Eve was here. “Let’s go upstairs, and I’ll have a look at them.”
“You own a bar as well as run a kitten rescue?” Eve asked, falling into step beside her as they walked toward the back hallway.
Josie punched in the code to unlock the door to the stairwell and held it open for Eve, who had her hands full with the bag of kittens. “The bar was my dad’s, and his parents’ before him. He died a few years ago, so it became mine, which is why I’ve had to put my kitten rescue on the back burner for the time being.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Eve murmured as she followed Josie up the stairs to her apartment.
“That’s life, isn’t it?” She paused at the top of the stairs, glancing back at Eve.
“Yes, it is.” Eve looked down at the bag in her hands.
Josie led the way into her apartment. “You can put them here on the table. I warmed up a snuggle pad for them. Were you able to put something in with them for the ride?”
“I warmed up a bag of rice like you suggested.” Eve set the bag on the kitchen table and folded back the sides, revealing the tiny cargo inside. These kittens couldn’t be more than a few days old.
“Oh, wow. They are tiny, aren’t they?”
Eve nodded, resting her hands on the table. “I think some of them are dead.”
“Yeah, it looks that way.” Josie’s heart ached to think of someone throwing these helpless babies in the trash, of their mother wondering what had happened to them, of the fate they would have met had Eve not saved them. She lifted a black kitten, and it let out a pitiful squeak, legs waving in the air. “Hi, there. You’re a feisty one, aren’t you?”
She quickly put the kitten into the warm nest she’d prepared for them before lifting the next one, giving each kitten a quick check as she transferred them. The black one and the gray tabby were the feistiest. The gray-and-white kitten and the solid white one were more subdued. Two tabby mixes hadn’t survived their ordeal.
Josie wrapped each of them in a small cloth and said a few words for them, a ritual she’d had far too much experience with. Her eyes misted over as she tucked the tiny packages into the cooler she’d prepared…just in case. “I’ll bring them to the shelter tomorrow before the bar opens to be cremated.”
Eve watched, her expression unreadable.
“Okay.” Josie blinked away her sadness for two tiny lives she’d never even known, focusing on the next task. She moved around the kitchen, mixing and warming kitten formula. “These guys need to be fed and stimulated to go to the bathroom. You did a good job warming them up. That was the first step in their survival.”
“Show me what to do,” Eve said matter-of-factly.
“They’re so small and weak, we’ll start out offering them formula in a syringe.” Josie put a small amount of formula into two syringes, fitted them with nipples, and handed one to Eve. “Kittens this age don’t have a gag reflex yet, so it’s really important not to put too much formula in their mouths. Why don’t you start with the black one? He seems to be the liveliest. Just squeeze a few drops into his mouth and see how he does.”
Josie lifted the white kitten and demonstrated how to hold them for feeding, waiting until the kitten had swallowed before offering a few more drops. Eve picked up the black kitten, holding him awkwardly. She watched Josie closely, doing her best to imitate her feeding methods. As Josie had anticipated, the black kitten mewled hungrily, sucking down formula with a lot more gusto than the white one Josie held.
Once both kittens were full, Josie pulled out a few paper towels and demonstrated how to stimulate them to pee. “Their mom would lick them to help them go to the bathroom,” she told Eve. “They can’t go on their own yet.”
Eve’s nose wrinkled, but she picked up the paper towel without complaint. “Like this?” She rubbed it over the kitten’s bottom, releasing a stream of pee that splashed across the front of her white blouse. “Jesus,” she whispered, rearing back but not dropping the kitten.
Josie stifled a laugh. “Poor thing. He really had to go.” She glanced at Eve’s blouse, her gaze snagging briefly on the way the top button strained over her breasts and the lace visible beneath it where the wet fabric clung to her bra.
She and Eve finished with the first two kittens, and Josie took a quick peek at them before they went back into the nest. “This white one is a girl, and the black one is a boy.”
They repeated the process with the other two kittens, revealing two more boys. When all four kittens were safely snuggled against the heating pad, Josie released a deep breath, raising her eyes to stare across the table at Eve. She’d been quieter than Josie had expected, so far, anyway, and more cooperative. Not at all how Josie might have expected her to behave, given the circumstances.
She was a small woman, several inches shorter than Josie’s five foot six, her petite frame accentuated by the neat tuck of her blouse into her snug-fitting skirt. Josie dragged her gaze past Eve’s still-wet blouse to her face, where she found herself caught in Eve’s piercing stare. A funny tingle spread through Josie’s belly.
I’m not even sure I remember what sparks feel like at this point…
Oh, she remembered now, not that she had any intention of acting on them, because this was Eve Marlow, host ofDo Over, the show where she went into failing businesses and fixed them. Saved them. The show Josie herself had applied for a spot on earlier this year.
