He chuckled.“But I do have customers, and I’ll need to head into town soon.Ahmed will open today, but I need to be in by eleven.”
“I’ve put the coffee on,” said Raven, walking over to the bed to bend over and give him a kiss.
“Come here,” he said, pulling her off-balance so she fell onto him.
“I have to get up,” she said, after they’d shared several kisses.“Must feed the animals.”She tried to lever herself away, but he laughed and pulled her back again.
“If you stay here a bit longer, I’ll make it worth your while.”He rubbed his hand along her back, his fingers doing their best to convince her to stay.“And I’ll help you with the cats.”
“Promise?”she asked, pulling herself away long enough to unfasten her robe.
Loving him felt dangerous.
But not loving anyone felt worse.
He chuckled as he helped her take off her garment, smiled at what he found underneath, and pulled her back onto the mattress.
And proceeded to make it worth her while to delay her departure.
Three quarters of an hour later, Raven, showered and dressed, piled her hair into a messy bun and went to feed Jackie.
“I’ll be right there,” said Lance.
“Don’t worry, I was only teasing.We only have seventeen cats right now, and four of them are still nursing.It won’t take me long to feed them.I’ll clean after breakfast.”
“Take your time.I’ll make breakfast.”He padded out of the bedroom in his bare feet and walked over to the fridge.“How do you like your eggs?”
“Any way they come,” she said.Especially if she didn’t have to cook them.That was what she missed most about living with Roz.She was a great cook.
“Well, I make a pretty good omelet.”He pulled out the carton of eggs and opened a loaf of bread.“I’ll see you soon.”
She slipped her feet into cotton summer shoes and headed out to the Cat’s Meow to see how fast she could feed seventeen cats.Because this morning she had someone to hurry back to, someone very special.
She walked along the cattery, greeting and feeding her feline company, and considered Lance, now cooking in the kitchen where no one else had cooked since Wren had left home.She stopped short.
Had it actually happened?
She reached into one of the enclosures and petted a small tortoiseshell cat they’d rescued two days earlier.“You’ll be okay,” she murmured.“You just have to trust things will work out.”
And it was true.Though she never thought it would happen to her.She had avoided any situation where she might get hurt because getting hurt was, well, painful.And hadn’t she had enough pain in her life?
But she stroked the cat a few more times, telling it that things would be okay, and the cat stepped closer, leaned into her hand, and purred.
“There you go,” she said, smiling.Maybe everything would work out after all.All she had to do was trust.
Which was good, because in that moment she realized that she, Raven Windsong Johnson, at the ripe old age of fifty-five, had finally, impossibly, fallen in love.
ChapterTwelve
“Mom, hurry,” said Riley from near the front door.“We have to pick up Sally or we’re going to be late.”
“Do you have Dash?And your lunch?”
“And my snack, and my gear,” said Riley.
Sarah picked up her bag, keys, and travel coffee cup, and stepped into a pair of work sandals.“I guess we should go.”
She looked around the room to check that everything was off, then stepped outside and followed Riley to the car.
