Seducing the Old Flame (12 page)

“You realize what you’re
doing?
 
That caring for an animal is a
serious responsibility?
 
You can’t just
toss him out when you bore of him.”

“I’m thirty years old, Jason,
not seven.
 
Give me some credit,
please.
 
Now, let’s go find a vet before
they all close for lunch.”

Tabby stood, snuggling the cat
close, and whispering soothing words the entire time.

“A vet?”

“Yeah, you remember, you
mentioned we should get him seen before bringing him home.
 
Surely there’s one open on a Saturday
somewhere around here.”

Jason shook his head in
dismay.
 
A vet.

“Let’s go in and check the
yellow pages,” he said.

“Good idea.”
 
She blessed him with a smile.
 
“I could use a little girl’s room break,
too.”

“There’s only one bathroom, but
it’s relatively clean.
 
More so than the
port-a-potty at any rate.”
 
He stepped
into the trailer, held the door for her, and nodded to the left.
 
“First door to your right.”

She stepped into the office,
looked at the cat, then back at him.
 
“Can you hold He-man for me?”

Him?
 
Hold that cat?
 
The thing would scratch his eyes out.
 
“Do I have to?”

“It would make things easier.”

She was right.
 
Of course, he’d rather offer to pull her
pants down for her than hold the cat, but he didn’t think she’d go for
that.
 
“Okay, hand him here.”

“Be easy with him.”

Easy with him.
 
Right.
 
Because the ragged cat had been pampered up to this point and didn’t
have claws that could rip a man’s flesh.
 
“It’s not as if I’d intentionally hurt him.”

“I know.”
 
She gently handed the cat to him, whispering
words of comfort and stroking the ratted fur.
 
“You’re a big softie when it comes to those less fortunate than you.
 
He-man included.”

“What?
 
I’m not soft.”

“Not in the places that
count.”
 
She winked.

Jason stared down at the cat
who didn’t appear too happy about swapping companions.
 
“Yeah, I don’t blame you.
 
I’d rather be held by her, too.”

Not that the cat could possibly
have understood, but he nodded and Jason looked at the cat with more
interest.
 
Intelligence shined in those feline
eyes.

He tentatively rubbed behind
the cat’s ears.
 
“I’ll make a deal with
you.
 
No biting or scratching and I’ll
see to it you get a decent meal.
 
Not
donuts.
 
I’m talking hamburger meat.”

The cat didn’t blink, scratch
or bite.

“And a bath,” Jason added,
getting a good whiff of the cat’s less than pleasant odor.
 
“If you’re going to be cuddling up next to my
woman, you’ll definitely need a bath.”

Chapter Seven

His woman?
 
Tabby stopped in the doorway, watching as Jason
sweet talked He-man.

He just called her his woman.

Not that he meant anything by
it.
 
She was sure it had been an innocent
comment.

But try telling that to her
racing pulse.

She must have made a noise
because Jason glanced up and grinned.

“Uhm, Tabby,” he said.
 
“I hate to break it to you, hon, but He-man
isn’t a he.”

“Oops.”
 
Tabby’s gaze dropped to the cat.

“He’s really a she-cat.”

“A she-cat?”

Jason dragged his hands over the cat’s tangled fur.
 
“Yeah, kinda like you.”

“Are you saying I’m scraggily?”

“Nope, just that you seduce people just by being you.”

“A seductive she-cat, huh?”
 
She walked over to stand beside him and the cat.
 
“What do you think, babe?
 
You like She-cat better than He-man?”

The cat meowed.

“Well, that settles it.
 
He-man is now officially Seductive She-Cat.
 
She-cat for short,” Tabby said, taking the
cat from him.

Jason brushed fur off his shirt.
 
“Why do I get the feeling you’re going to end up keeping this cat?”

Keep She-cat?
 
She didn’t
need a pet.
 
She didn’t want a pet, did
she?

She-cat watched her, as if she too waited for Tabby’s answer.
 
She couldn’t let her be put to sleep.
 
Wouldn’t let that happen.

“Yeah, I guess I am.”
 
But
how was she going to take care of a cat?
 
She didn’t know the first thing about providing for an animal.
 
“Does the vet’s office sell books on how to
take care of cats?”

“Didn’t you have pets growing up, Tabby?”

“No.”

He looked shocked.
 
“Not a
single one?”

“Nope.
 
Mom was allergic
to fur, so the only pets we could have had scales or slithered.”
 
Tabitha scrunched up her nose.
 
“No thanks.”

Tabby wasn’t sure she liked how Jason watched her.
 
He kept getting that ‘why didn’t I know this
about you look’.
 
Although the same part
of her that had gotten excited when he’d called her ‘his woman’ thrilled at the
look, they had no future together beyond the weekend.
 
To think otherwise would be foolish and
asking for heartache.

Jason’s eyes narrowed and she’d swear he saw straight to her
soul.
 
Her gaze fell and, out of self-defense,
she turned away.
 
No soul-searching
today.
 
Not if she could help it.
 
Unfortunately, she worried her heart might be
dangling from her shirt, just waiting for Jason to pluck it up.

“You ready?” she asked, walking toward the door.
 
She couldn’t breathe and had to get out of
the trailer.
 
Before she started saying
things she didn’t mean, before she begged Jason to say he loved her.

Jason watched Tabby, her sleeves rolled up, leaning over his
kitchen sink, bathing She-cat.
 
She’d
piled her hair on her head and twisted a pencil to hold the knot in place.
 
Other than the wild strands that dangled
around her face, it seemed to work.
 
Later, he’d pull that pencil out and watch her hair cascade around her
shoulders, would bury his face in her hair and breathe in her womanly
scent.
 
Minus the scent of the cat.
 
A shower was definitely in order.

He held the cat so she could scrub the special shampoo they’d
bought at the vet’s through She-cat’s knotted fur.
 
It would take more than special shampoo to
untangle the cat.

Just as he couldn’t easily untangle the mess of his mind.

Tabby worked her fingers back and forth, stirring up the perfumy
scent of the cat cleanser.
 
At least the
cat didn’t stink anymore.

“It might be easier to shave her and start over,” he mused.

“What?”
 
Tabby flickered
water at him, then cooed to the cat.
 
“Don’t mind him, he doesn’t mean a word of it.
 
You’re beautiful.”

“Beautiful is definitely a stretch of the imagination.”
 
Tabby smiling and talking to the cat could
only be described as beautiful, though.
 
Breathtakingly so.

“Hold her tight, I’m going to
rinse again,” she warned.

How many wash and rinse cycles
did this make?
 
Grinning at the
determined look on Tabby’s face, Jason held the unhappy cat in place.
 
He would have anyway.
 
He’d learned his lesson during the first
rinse and had the scratch to prove it.

The name She-cat fit.

“Okay, girl, here we go.”
 
Tabby baby-talked the cat while she used the nozzle sprayer to wash out
the shampoo.
 
The cat looked pitiful
before they started, now she really did look more like a rat.
 
A drowned one.

“I still think we should have left her with the vet, let him do
this and look out for her this weekend.”

“I couldn’t.
 
I mean, she
wouldn’t understand.”
 
Tabby ran her
fingers through the cat’s fur, making sure she’d removed all traces of
suds.
 
“I know you think I’m nuts, but
she needs me to look out for her.
 
To
leave her at the vets would have been like abandoning her.
 
I won’t do that.
 
She’s already been abandoned one time too
many.”

Jason nodded as if he understood.
 
He didn’t.
 
Tabby hadn’t made it in the world of finance because of a soft
heart.
 
More like that she could turn off
her emotions at will.
 
He often wondered
if she’d done just that at the end of their relationship.
 
Only this time, with this ratty animal, she
hadn’t locked away her heart.

He glanced at the soaked cat with new respect and a tad of envy.

“She’s lucky to have found you,” he said and meant it.

“We’re lucky to have found each other.”
 
Tabby smiled at the cat as if she were a prized
possession.
 
“Hand me the towel, please.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”
 
Jason held
out the white towel and grabbed up the extra one he’d set out.

“White,” she mumbled half-under her breath.
 
He couldn’t make out what else she said, but
apparently she had a problem with his color scheme.

She would.

Jason grinned.

Tabby wrapped the cat inside the fluffy material like a baby,
scooped her up in her arms, and walked to the living room.
 
She eased onto the carpet and leaned against
the sofa.

The cat meowed and meowed.
 
In protest or relief at being free from the grime and mange, Jason
wasn’t sure.

“Now,” Tabby partially unwrapped the cat.
 
“Let’s get you all dried out and brushed.”

“Ouch.”
 
Jason winced at
the thought of the cat brush bristles going through the knotted fur.

“Hey, the vet promised that shampoo would work miracles on her
fur.”
 
Tabby spent a fortune on pet
supplies at the vets.
 
Anything the guy
told her she needed, she added to her purchases.

“Yeah, well, the guy was so busy flirting with you he didn’t
have a clue what was spewing out of his mouth,” he teased.

“He was kinda cute.”
 
Tabby’s lips twitched.

“It was the mustache that did it for me.”
 
He handed her the spare towel.
 
“How about you?”

She patted She-cat with the extra towel.
 
“I don’t know.
 
A man with a mustache can be sexy.
 
Have you ever worn a mustache, Jason?”

When they met he’d worn a mustache and a trim goatee.
 
Tabitha teased him on the night they met that
he looked like her favorite country music singer.
 
Personally, he hadn’t thought so.

“I shaved it off when some chick complained it tickled her
mouth.”

“But I never meant for you to get rid of it.
 
I always thought you looked great with your
mustache and little goatee.
 
Kinda like
that country music singer.”

“Spare me.”

“You did,” Tabitha insisted, massaging the cat’s body dry with
the towel.

He rolled his eyes.

“Oh, come on, Jason.
 
Have
a little faith in me.
 
Would I steer you
wrong?”

“Every chance you got.”

She stopped dabbing the cat’s
fur.
 
“You don’t really believe that do
you?” she asked.

Did he?

At one time, undoubtedly.
 
But what about now?
 
Did he still
believe it?
 
Less than twenty-four hours
couldn’t change years’ worth of opinions about a person, could it?

Her gaze dropped back to the cat and she ran her brush amazingly
easy through the cat’s fur.
 
He could
tell his silence hurt.
 
Hell, he didn’t
want to hurt her.
 
They’d caused each
other enough pain long ago.