‘Bella’s not had an easy life, Noah. Since she left home, and apart from very recently when she’s been living with her friend, she’s never had the security of a permanent place to live for more than a few months at a time. If you’re offering her something now, be very sure that you’re not going to suddenly take it from her again.’
‘I can’t guarantee how long it’ll take,’ Noah replied, ‘but, knowing the market as I do, it could be a while.’
‘Well, all you can do is put it to her.’ Mollie rose from her chair, signalling that their meeting had come to a close. ‘Best of luck, Noah. I hope it does work out, for your sake, and Monty’s.’
‘Thanks, Mollie.’ Noah glanced at his watch. ‘Um, can I pop in and see the old bugger while I’m here?’
Mollie smiled. ‘Of course. Bella’s around somewhere, too, if you want to talk things over with her.’
‘Oh, I completely forgot she worked here on a Saturday morning,’ Noah replied. Perhaps he’d get the chance to run his idea past her sooner than he’d expected. He wasn’t seeing the foam contractor until midday, so it would be good to, hopefully, get things settled before then. ‘Can you give me a sec, Mollie? I need to get something from my car.’
‘Of course.’
A couple of minutes later, as he followed Mollie through the hallway towards the cattery, he ran through his thoughts again in his head. He’d won Southeast Regional Salesman of the Year a couple of years back for his impressive numbers in the London area. If he could sell houses to Londoners, how hard could it be to convince Bella of his plan?
27
‘Here you go, love.’ Mollie opened the door to Monty’s enclosure, and, to his surprise, he found Bella was already in there. His heart gave a lurch when he saw her. Whether it was nerves about the conversation he was about to have, or the fact that she had swept her red hair off the back of her neck into a messy bun and he could see, to full advantage, her striking bone structure, he wasn’t sure. Every time he saw her, he saw something new that he liked about her. He tried to steer his thoughts away from that direction: if Bella got any inkling that he fancied her, she’d turn down his proposal point blank. He had to play this one straight. This wasn’t about getting closer to her; it was about helping her out. And Monty.
‘I’ll leave you to it.’ Mollie left the enclosure and Bella looked about to do the same.
‘No, please, stay,’ he stammered. ‘I know we agreed to meet later, but if you’ve got a minute, I’d love to talk to you now.’
‘OK.’ Bella gave him a guarded smile. ‘I have to admit, I’ve been racking my brains all week, wondering what you could possibly have to speak to me about, so I’m more than happy to have my curiosity satisfied.’
‘Curiosity? Isn’t that what killed the cat?’ Noah quipped weakly.
‘Not this week,’ Bella replied with a smile. ‘He’s right as rain, now.’
Noah felt his heart lift with relief as Monty jumped down off the second tier of his perch and padded towards him, those green eyes seeming to evaluate every inch of him.
‘It’s almost as if he knows what a lucky escape he had,’ Bella murmured.
‘If he did, I think he’d be coming at me, claws out!’ Noah joked weakly. Monty didn’t seem to have suffered any ill effects from the near-death experience.
‘So, what are you planning on doing with him?’
Noah reached out a hand and ran it down Monty’s spine, feeling apprehensive about making eye contact with Bella. The cat arched his back, and his tail rose, curling around Noah’s hand as it did so.
‘Well, as a matter of fact, that’s what I wanted to talk toyouabout,’ he said, his eyes fixed on Monty.
‘Me? Hasn’t Mollie been through the options? Re-homing? Long-term boarding?’
Noah nodded, and, straightening up again, he finally met Bella’s gaze. ‘Yeah, but neither of those is the answer.’
‘Then what is? And why do you want to talk to me about it? It’s not as if I’m in any position to adopt Monty – I told you.’
‘I know.’ Noah ran a nervous hand through his dark hair. ‘I know you can’t adopt Monty… but what if Monty adopted you?’
Bella burst out laughing. ‘I wasn’t serious about moving into his enclosure, you berk!’
Noah smiled back at her. ‘That’s not quite what I’m getting at. To be honest, I don’t think he’d be happy sharing his bed.’
‘Then what?’
‘Well,’ he began, ‘I’ve found out recently that Grandpa’s cottage needs a fair bit doing to it before it can be put on the open market. So much, in fact, that unless my brothers and I were to find a cash buyer, and even then get rid of it below market value, there’s no way it’s saleable right now.’
‘Work? Like what? Is the place dangerous?’
