And, really, it’d been Kitty chatting with him.
Not catfishing him. She had been up-front that she was April’s friend vetting prospects for her because April did not know what she was doing.
Except with Jack, apparently.
Her body knew just what to do with Jack. She shivered.
“Do you want me to let Beast know?” April asked, clearing her throat because at that exact moment, Jack trailed his fingertips along her forearm. She felt echoes of those touches throughout her body.
Kitty waved away April’s question. “I’ll tell him. It’ll go over better coming from me.”
April didn’t even want to think about how Kitty would let him know, or why it would be better coming from her…
She knew she would prefer if Kitty left so she and Jack could go back to their de-stress session.
Yes. What she wanted to do was crawl back into Jack’s lap and do more of what they’d been doing before Kitty showed up.
“Hey all,” Simone strolled through the gate.
April let out a noise that sounded a lot likegahand even more likeseriously?
“My thoughts exactly,” Jack said against April’s earlobe.
Her skin reacted by flaunting an entire array of goose bumps.
Given that Jack noticed everything, he pressed himself closer to her. “Cold?”
April shook her head. She was not cold. She loved her neighbors, loved that they took care of her. But she would really appreciate it if they would skedaddle.
He chuckled, low and light and pure caramel candy.
Simone had paused mid-stride through the gate at the sight of April tucked up against Jack’s side. She didn’t move through the entire goose-bump exchange. Finally, she turned to Kitty. “When did this happen?”
“When he pulled into the neighborhood days ago, gumdrop.” Kitty did not turn to leave, as April had really hoped she would. No, Kitty sauntered right over to them and plopped her hot-pants-covered tush on April’s mat.
“You coming?” She gestured to Simone and patted the space beside her.
“I was hoping they’d leave,” April said over her shoulder to Jack.
She didn’t even try to be quiet about it.
Simone moved to stand beside Kitty, but she did not sit.
“This will only take a sec.” Kitty held out a stack of yellow photocopied pages. “Then you two can get back to your hankering for a pankering.” She tapped the top page of the stack of FOUND posters featuring the cat Kitty had apparently named Captain Jack.
The picture featured on the pages was Captain Jack with Kitty while she took a selfie.
Unfortunately, Kitty was wearing one of her more low-cut shirts, so there was a lot of side boob with the photo of Captain Jack.
April gasped. Kitty could not hang these around the neighborhood.
Jack coughed. “Captain Jack?”
Kitty lifted a shoulder. “What can I say? It fit.” She moved into a technically perfect lotus pose while she spoke. “Captain Jack’s in the slammer while he serves his waiting time before I can adopt him. No microchip. No one’s filed a missing report.” Kitty frowned. “I think he was abandoned. And that doesn’t make any sense to me because he’s just the sweetest. Why would anyone abandon him?”
April reached for Kitty’s hand because she looked genuinely distraught.
Kitty never got distraught.
