Ohno.
“But—”
“And it’d be good for you to keep the same company two nights in a row,” Avery added pointedly. “Do I need to addgirls love catsto this?”
“Why do you want me to take this cat?” I asked, suddenly suspicious.
Avery silently rolled up his sleeve to reveal long twin scratches along his forearm. “Because she likes you a lot more than she likes me.”
I looked between the scratches on Avery’s arm and the vibrating furball curled up against my chest, pushing her head into my hand insistently for more petting, and couldn’t believe that was the same cat.
“But she’s—”
“So sweet, I know, you’ve said.” Avery paused, clearing his throat. “And you’ve been looking a little on the lonely side lately.”
My gut twisted at the pity, but Avery wasn’t wrong. Ihadfelt alone lately.
Carter was around more often, but he was here to spend time with Aiden. Mom was dating again. Devin was working all the time. I didn’t have anyone to hang out with.
The fact that Felix was leaving almost as soon as he’d crashed back into my life wasn’t helping, either.
He’d fallen in love with this cat. I’d seen it in his eyes.
Maybe if he had a reason to come back…
The bitter thought thatIwasn’t enough of a reason caught in the back of my throat. But then, Iwasn’t, was I?
I never had been before.
Hemingway might have been enough of a reason.
Besides, I’d blown any chance I had of settling down in Slow Falls short of a miracle.
Or of discovering you’re a lot more sexually flexible than you want to believe, my brain added. It was determined to be a traitor today.
“They say cat purring adds years to your life,” Avery added, apparently not done trying to convince me.
Unfortunately, it was kind of working.
Felix was leaving. I’d worked my way through a whole town worth of hookups and now that I’d finally reached the point of wanting to just… come home to someone, there was no one left to come home to.
If I was doomed to a lifetime of being alone, maybe a cat wasn’t the worst idea. Maybe I could collect them, like Mrs. Lofton.
She seemed happy. Not necessarily all there, but happy.
“Fine,” I said, cuddling Hemingway a little closer. “But I’m gonna need a care and feeding printout or something.”
13
Felix
The longer Ihovered on Kieran’s doorstep, clutching a bottle of wine and hesitating to ring the doorbell, the more ridiculous I felt.
I hadn’t really thought Kieran wanted arelationship, had I? Not a real one.
He just wanted t0 make out with a guy once, so he could see if he liked it, and he’d clearly decided he hadn’t.
I wasn’t special. Kieran was a try-before-you-buy kind of person, as Bianca told it.
