Page 9

Katy

Andrew’s house was exactly as I remembered it, except for one thing.

“Is that a cat?”

I stared at the angry creature hissing at me in the entryway. It looked like a cat, but it was the largest cat I’d ever seen. She – he? it? – was easily twice as big as any house cat I’d ever seen. The cat had long orange hair with stripes of lighter gold running along the flank. It was missing part of an ear and an eye, both on the same side, and its tail seemed to be bent in half.

“This is Goldie,” Andrew said in that voice people used to refer to their small children and favorite pets. “She’s my baby.”

He picked up the massive cat and I couldn’t help but notice the way his biceps bulged with the strain. For her part, Goldie continued to glare at me.

“Say hi to Miss Katy,” he told the cat. As if the cat was going to respond.

My gaze went from the cat to Andrew and back again. Goldie continued glaring. For some reason I wouldn’t have pegged Andrew for a pet person.

“How did this happen?” I asked, leaning forward to look at the cat more closely.

Goldie hissed at me, and I jumped back away.

“Be nice,” Andrew chided the cat before answering my question. “Mom found her hanging out by the dumpster behind city hall and thought she’d be a good companion for me.”

“Does your mother hate you or something?” I asked.

Andrew laughed. “Goldie’s a sweetheart once she gets used to you. Come on, I’ll set up the guest room for you. I wasn’t expecting company, so I haven’t changed the sheets or anything.”

Andrew had kind of a suite on one side of the house. There was a large bedroom with a little sitting room and a bathroom. It was huge, although smaller than the master suite on the other side of the house. We worked together to change the sheets, me using only my left hand, while Goldie glared at me from the doorway.

It was only mid-afternoon but my hand was throbbing, and I was exhausted. Who knew a fracture in a tiny bone could take so much out of you?

“I think I’m going to pop some ibuprofen and take a nap if you don’t mind,” I told Andrew.

He gave me a long, searching look that I couldn’t interpret. He was holding Goldie in his arms again and for some reason that made him even more attractive. It was really unfair that the man was four years older than me and still looked that good. I worked hard to maintain myself and still my body was succumbing to the ravages of age. Like thinning bones, apparently.

“I’ll let you rest,” Andrew finally said. “My mom invited us over to her house for dinner.”

“I, uh…”

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see Andrew’s family, not exactly. I didn’t want to be a bother. And I really didn’t want to get too comfortable with these people, it would make leaving even harder than I already knew it would be. Plus I was willing to bet that Marianne would restart her matchmaking efforts while I was in town since Andrew and Patrick were both still single.

“She’ll just insist on coming over here to see for herself that you’re okay,” Andrew interrupted. “At least this way we have control over our exit. Plus Mom’s making her famous breaded pork chops. You really don’t want to miss that.”

“Okay,” I sighed, then realized I sounded ungrateful. “I’m sorry. This whole thing has thrown me for a loop, and my hand hurts.”

His eyes softened. “I’ll grab you a bottle of water, then you take your pills and rest. Everything will be okay, Katy. I promise.”

A few hours later we walked into Marianne Lawson’s house. Andrew’s mother immediately pulled me in for a hug, rocking us from side to side like I was her long lost friend. I’d spent quite a bit of time with her last time I was here – more than I had with Andrew in fact. Back then she was the mayor’s secretary and had been instrumental in getting her son the mayor to work with Steph to bring the small town of Lawson in compliance with the state requirements for emergency response plans. I’d come up for two days to help Steph with training – and provide a little buffer between her and Christopher.

“You look a little pale, dear,” Marianne said as we pulled apart. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you back to health. I’ll make you some bone broth tomorrow.”

“Please, don’t go through any trouble on my account.”

“Nonsense. Any friend of Andrew’s is family to me,” Marianne said.

“Hey Katy, nice to see you again.”

I sent a grateful glance to Andrew’s younger brother Patrick. He was tall and broad, with nice muscles after his time in Fire & Rescue. Like all three brothers, he had that tousled boy next door kind of look, like in his youth he was the stereotypical captain of the football team who helped his team win the state championship and dated the head cheerleader.

I’d hated those people in high school but then again, I’d always been an outsider. The girl wearing thrift store castoffs and eating sandwiches made out of government cheese and stale bread.