He smelled so good. This wassounfair.
I pulled out my phone again and texted Angelica back, telling herno. I wasn’t about to use my best friend for my own selfish gain.
Besides, what if he said no? I wasn’t sure I could handle that kind of rejection right now.
And it was stupid, anyway. I shouldn’t have had toliefor this.
I’d just… do what Angelica wanted me to do in the first place. That was the only sensible thing.
I pulled up the post I’d made, the one with the photo of Kieran and discovered that it was surprisingly—or perhapsunsurprisingly—popular. Hewascute in that photo.
My stomach turned over as I saw Colin’s handle in the liked-by line. So he’d seen it, too.
Great. Just what I needed. What if he DM’d me about it? The last thing I wanted right now was to talk to him.
A series of thuds sounding in the attic, like a stack of boxes falling over, made my blood run cold and completely wiped Colin’s imagined smug smirk from my mind.
Kieran stopped dead as well.
“You heard that, right?” I whispered, edging closer to him. What if there reallywassomeone up there?
“I heard it,” Kieran said, glancing toward the stairs. “Came from the attic.”
I swallowed.
What if we were about to be in the middle of a horror movie? What if there was some vengeful ghost up there, what if therewasan axe murderer?
Kieran stepped forward, leaving me behind in the kitchen as he headed for the foot of the stairs.
“You stay put,” he said. “I’ll check it out.”
I nodded, feet cemented in place by fear. I didn’t want Kieran putting himself in danger, either, but I couldn’t have moved even if I wanted to.
“Probably nothing,” he assured me with a crooked smile, and then mounted the stairs.
My knuckles turned white as I gripped the edge of the countertop, listening to the creaking sound of the ladder to the attic being lowered and Kieran climbing up it.
Silence.
That wasn’t inanyway comforting.
A yell was finally enough to make me move, and before I knew it I was halfway up the stairs, rushing to Kieran’s rescue, heart pounding in my throat.
… only to see him coming back down the ladder with…
Whatwasthat?
“It’s okay, little guy,” Kieran cooed, petting what seemed like a ball of black fur. “Not gonna hurt you.”
Was that acat?
It definitely sounded like one, purring so loud I could hear it from my position halfway up the stairs.
“Here’s your intruder,” Kieran said, smiling softly. “Must’ve gotten into the attic to hide from the storm.”
I climbed the rest of the stairs, curious, and stopped in front of Kieran, hand automatically extended to pet the cat.
It was a mess, clumps of fur matted together in places, one chunk missing behind its ear, but it was snuggled up close to Kieran, still purring away, obviously thrilled to be where it was.
