by Jeannie Moon
“Jack?”
“Uh… nothing. Regretting not getting one of those waffle cones for myself.” Obviously, he was a coward, because he avoided the truth. There just didn’t seem to be any point in telling her what he was thinking. Likely it would have gotten him more attitude, or hurt her feelings, and neither was acceptable.
“Oh, do you want some? There’s still plenty.”
Lilly stopped walking and held out her cone. Her large dark eyes were fixed on his and her mouth was shaped in a soft “O”. If he thought about it, everything about Lilly was soft… except her personality.
Jack hesitated, then leaned in and took a bite while she watched. The chocolate was sweet and fluid, a stark contrast with the crunchiness of the cone. Lilly was full of contrasts, too. The sweet and vulnerable part of her fought with a tough and prickly exterior. He could see it all, and it wasn’t because of his training, it was that he knew what made her tick. The familiarity came from their shared history. Their friendship.
Chewing while she watched, the custard slid down his throat. “That’s good.”
“Do you want more? I don’t mind sharing.”
“No, I’m good.” Turning his attention back to Main Street, he pulled the list out of his pocket. “So, what’s left?”
Looking at the paper she’d scribbled out that morning, Lilly glanced up, surprised. “I think we’re done. I just need to stop at the pet store and the market before I head home.”
“Right. You need to outfit your new roommate.”
“Yep. It’s been a few days, I guess he’s sticking around.” Lilly turned toward the pet store at the far end of town. Just off Main Street and set in an old home right on the edge of a residential neighborhood, Lighthouse Pet was a retail space, vet practice, and grooming salon in one. The owner, Doctor Henry Gravis, had been tending to the animals in Compass Cove for at least forty years, and that included all the Miller pets. Doc was an odd bird, to be sure—always had been—but you wouldn’t find a better vet anywhere.
The shop was a crowded, colorful tribute to all things animal. There were leashes, toys, treats—pretty much anything a person needed for a furry companion. Jack had always had dogs, but he understood why a cat was a better fit for Lilly’s life. Of course, he wasn’t a fan of any animal that crapped in the house, but if she didn’t mind, who was he to say. He watched as she wandered around the shop, looking at the various paraphernalia she would need to keep Barney comfortable.
“I wish this store had shopping carts. I need a ton of stuff.” For the first time that he could remember, Lilly looked overwhelmed. “I mean… just the litter box is a major decision. Covered or uncovered? Door or no door? Who knew? Now I have to decide on the kitty condo or scratching post?”
“You don’t have to get everything today.” Jack could see she was inching closer to the ledge. “Get what you absolutely need. Litter, a litter box, food, maybe a couple of silly toys, but don’t overdo it. You live right in town, you can always come back.”
Slowly, Lilly turned her head and her eyes fixed on his. Her expression was unreadable. She didn’t speak right away; in fact, she didn’t speak at all. Lilly just nodded, her face softening, and the look in her eyes let him know for the first time he’d given her just the right amount of comfort. Always a bit guarded, Jack felt as though he’d been let inside the secret door. And what he saw dancing behind Lilly’s eyes was a woman who was keeping her feelings tamped down so tight she might possibly explode.
Without a word, Lilly grabbed a big bag of litter and handed it to Jack. Then she picked up a litter box, with a cover—but without a door—and started to fill it with other items that she had on a list Maddie had given her. After bringing everything to the register, Lilly went back to the aisle and grabbed a cozy tan and Sherpa bed that was sure to be comfortable when Barney decided to have a nap.
Jack held the bag and let her do her thing, happy to stand by and watch. It was nice to see her relax into the task. Barney would be a good distraction for her.
Doc Gravis walked from the back of the shop and watched as Lilly eyed some tubes and bottles on the shelves.
“Can I help you with anything, miss?”
“Oh, uh… I’ve acquired a cat. And my friend said I should get something for hairballs.” Lilly’s button nose turned up when she said it.
“Now, now,” the vet stammered, “hairballs are totally normal. It’s just one of those things. If the cat lived in the barn, you wouldn’t even know about it.”
Lilly looked in his direction and raised an eyebrow. That was Doc Gravis—his explanations boiled down to animals acting like animals.
“That’s true, but I don’t have a barn, and the cat’s going to live with me. In an apartment.”
“Hmm.” The vet examined her, taking a second to look in her eyes. Jack had no idea what was going on in Doc’s head, but a few seconds later he yanked a pair of wire-framed half glasses from the mop of curly gray hair on his head and dropped them onto his nose. “Where did you get the cat?”
“He found me.”
“Found you?”
“He’d been wandering around the courtyard by the harbor, behind the new stores, and he found his way into my foyer. He made himself at home.”
“I see.” Doc Graves plucked a tube off the shelf. “Make sure you bring him in for a check-up. He could have parasites or be sick. He’ll need his shots.”
“Oh, um, okay.”
Jack was really enjoying the show. Doc had Lilly’s full attention.
“Sure,” she said. “Shots. I’ve never had a pet.”
“Give him a one-inch ribbon of what’s in that tube once a day. You shouldn’t have any trouble with hairballs. Before you make your purchases, go through that door over there and tell Dorothy, the receptionist, to make an appointment for you and your kitty. Oh, and get a carrier for him.”
“I can call…”
“Go. Do. It’s important.”
“Right. Of course.” Without another word, Lilly put her purchases on the counter and followed Doc’s instructions. All Jack could think was that the cat must be really important to Lilly for her to do exactly what Doc said without so much as a comment. The woman had her own mind, and following directions blindly wasn’t in her DNA.
The entire encounter had Jack alternately amused and puzzled. His job was to read people, and yet, there were things about Lilly that surprised him, even if they shouldn’t have.
But that had been his reality for a long time. Lilly—and the feelings he had toward her—had baffled him since the day she’d kissed him. Jack had traveled to some amazing places and met interesting people. He’d worked at embassies and had been deployed in the middle of an endless desert. Yet no matter where he went, the soft kiss of the girl from home still lingered.
Jack didn’t know how long he’d drifted inside his own head, but he knew the next couple of weeks with her were going to mess him up good. His friends all knew he had a thing for her, and Jack was at the point where he couldn’t deny it.
But he didn’t know what to do about it.
Nothing. He should do nothing. His job alone should be a red flag. He wasn’t going to stay in Compass Cove, and Lilly had given him no reason to think she was interested in any kind of relationship. In fact, she’d pretty much told him he wasn’t welcome in her immediate orbit.
His excuse, that he was protecting her, was just that—an excuse. She could take care of herself, and even if she wasn’t sure about it, Jack was. He doubted Gio Graham would be stupid enough to stalk Lilly on her own turf.
But stalkers and abusers were sociopaths by definition. Anything could happen. So opting to be safe, rather than sorry, was the way he was going to go.
“That your girlfriend, Miller?” Doc Graves was right next to him. The man smelled like an old shoe.
“My girlfriend? Ah… no. Why would you ask that?”
“I’ve been around a while, my boy. I can usually tell when the male of a species has caught
the female’s scent.”
“I’m human, Doc, not a dog.”
“Hmmpf. No difference. The biology is the same.”
“Well, sure, but…”
Doc rolled his eyes.
Right. Jack wasn’t getting anywhere with the conversation because that wasn’t how Doc worked. The man was great with the animals because they never argued. If the animal’s human had something to say, Doc would generally ignore them. In this case, Doc at least had the courtesy to wave him off.
“Whatever. Looks like you’re going to have to learn to love cats.”
Doc walked away without giving Jack a chance to answer, and as much as Jack was relieved, he wanted to tell Doc he was all wrong about him and Lilly. Jack may have thought about her, too much for his own good, but it wasn’t going anywhere.
Lilly returned from the clinic and went to the counter, surveying her purchases one last time. That was Jack’s cue to bring up the bag of litter.
“I think I have everything. What do you think?” She asked him. “Anything I’m missing?”
“You’re asking the wrong guy. I’ve never had a cat. We were a dog family.” The Millers were a big dog family. As in large. Golden Retrievers, Labs, Collies. Jack couldn’t think of one dog they ever had that was less than seventy-five pounds. Her cat was ten. Maybe. Soaking wet.
“Pffft. Figures you’d be no help.”
Jack saw her eyes twinkle as she said the words, and a little smirk ticked at the corner of her mouth. She was sassing him.
“Such a brat. Haven’t changed at all.”
Lilly stilled and shrugged slightly. “I’ve changed too much.”
Not knowing how to respond, Jack watched her face for a cue, or something to signal when it was safe to talk again. Nothing. He wanted to ask her what she meant, how she’d changed, how he could help, but he sensed she’d just slap him back, retreating behind her personal shield.
As expected, she buried whatever she was feeling, taking a deep breath and moving the items around the counter. Jack stepped back, wishing he could do more than be her pack mule. Not that he minded, but he found where Lilly was concerned, his sense of duty went beyond errands.
A few minutes later they were back on the street, Jack lugging the bags of litter and food, and Lilly with a litter box filled with everything else. He thought cats were independent, but Lilly’s cat was going to be spoiled.
“I think I should get the kitty condo, don’t you? I mean, he’d like that, right?” Lilly was glancing back toward the pet shop, and Jack felt the grin break across his face.
“I think you can wait a couple of days on the kitty condo. See how he likes the new place. He seems pretty happy with your furniture.”
“You’re picking on me. I’m just trying to do the right thing.”
“I know. And really, that’s not picking. Ask Nat about picking.” The way his sister told stories of their childhood, she was positively abused by her older brothers. “If I had to guess, the cat is going to own that big ass chair in your living room.”
“That and my bed. He was cuddled next to me all last night. It was nice to have the company.”
Bam. Without warning, Jack’s mind flooded with thoughts of Lilly curled up in her bed. He’d kick the cat right off, and cuddle up with Lilly himself if given the chance. He’d actually want to do more than that, but the thought of pressing himself into all that softness shot his hormones straight south. His dick twitched to attention immediately.
Great. A hard-on. He had a fucking hard-on in the middle of Main Street. Shifting the bag of kitty litter so it shielded the protrusion at his crotch, Jack wondered when the hell he’d lost his mind like this.
This was Lilly. They were friends. He didn’t get hard over her…
Of course he did. Who was he kidding?
Great.
“Are you okay?”
Jack looked up to see Lilly was a good five paces ahead of him. “Uh, yeah. I just got… distracted.”
“Distracted?”
“Yeah, I was thinking.”
“About?” she asked, her eyes fixed and inquiring.
Shit. What was he going to say? “About… Adam’s bachelor party. I guess I have to organize something.” Jack caught up to her and regained his wits. “Any suggestions?”
Lilly gave him what could best be described as a side eye. She didn’t buy it.
“Hmm. Right. Well, nothing involving naked women or alcohol.”
Crossing the street, they entered the courtyard that fronted Lilly’s apartment. “Duh. Not my brother’s style anymore. Not since Mia.”
“Disappointed?” Lilly put down the brown paper shopping bag and inserted the key into the lock.
Now it was her turn to get the look. “It’s not my style either, Lilly. I was thinking we’d take him to the city for a really good steak dinner and a stop at a cigar lounge. That’s all he’s interested in.”
Jack had outgrown strippers and booze his first year out of college. His dating habits were nothing like his football star brother; in fact, since he’d joined the FBI, he tended to go for long periods without dating. It wasn’t that he liked it that way, but the job made getting close to anyone difficult. There’d been a lot of first dates, even some second ones; there’d been a woman whom he’d had a comfortable friends-with-benefits relationship with, but she’d relocated to a Dallas a year ago. People might believe Jack was a playboy, but there was nothing to back it up. If anything, he lived like a monk.
Just that fact made him feel wary about his reaction to Lilly. She was a complete package, and took none of his nonsense. But he also hadn’t been with a woman for a long time, and he wondered if just being around a gorgeous female, this one in particular, jacked up his libido.
Still, as he watched Lilly move into the stairwell, he couldn’t help but be affected by what he saw. Her bronzed skin shimmered from the heat and humidity, and wispy tendrils of hair curled around her face, defying her attempt at a more comfortable ponytail. The bright pink knit of her dress swished around her legs silently, with an occasional movement giving him a glimpse of the curves beneath.
With only the slightest bit of makeup on her face, Jack couldn’t deny that Lilly was a true beauty. He realized this fact when he held her in his arms all those years ago in the boathouse, the soft swoop of her body pressed into his. It was unlikely he would ever get the image, or the feel of her, out of his head.
The past week had been a special kind of torment. Since he’d read her case file, every proprietary feeling he had concerning Lilly fired full blast. No matter how many times he told himself a relationship with her was out of the question, the idea of it niggled in the back of his mind. He liked her space. Her scent. She was comfortable. She was easy to be around, even when she was difficult. The woman was a walking oxymoron.
“Why are you smiling?” From the top of the landing, Lilly was glaring down, her key in her hand like a weapon.
“Ah, no reason. Just thinking about…”
“Stop it. You weren’t thinking. You were staring at my ass.”
“No.” That was a lie.
“Liar.”
“I am not a liar!” About this, he was. He was totally scoping out her ass, and it was spectacular.
“Right.” Lilly’s eyes met his, and in them he saw fire. Blazing fire. Yeesh.
With her key still clutched between her fingers, Jack felt the bile churning in his stomach. Whatever attraction he felt, the woman also confused the hell out of him. If he was smart, he’d drop the litter and go. At least it would give him a chance to regroup.
But Jack wasn’t smart, at least not at that moment, because he followed her inside like a puppy and kept hold of that fucking cat litter. What was his problem? He’d done his good deed, it was time to make tracks.
But watching Lilly and the cat purr over each other was a whole different level of attractive.
“Where would you like me to put this stuff?”
Picking her head u
p from the human-kitty lovefest, her brown eyes shifted to the bag in his arms, then to him. “Oh, right. The hall closet. It’s right outside my bathroom. There should be space on the right side.”
Jack did as she asked, surveying the contents of the closet like a good cop. There was nothing unusual: a plunger, some cleaning supplies, a small tool kit, girly things and towels. Exactly what someone would expect to see in a hall closet. And there, on the right side of the floor, was some open space. He deposited the litter and closed the door.
The closet didn’t tell him anything about Lilly except that she was compulsively neat and showed a preference for color-coordinated containers. And everything was labeled. The idea that she was dangerous, like his boss first claimed, was laughable. She was a control freak, and over-organized, but she was no threat to anyone.
His ears picked up Lilly chatting to herself, or she could have been talking to the cat, and he found it oddly appealing. The woman was a prism, multifaceted, with the ability to project light and color wherever she went. Jack didn’t know if she had a handle on her power, if she understood how she affected people. He consciously thought about his next move, so he wouldn’t make any missteps. Returning to the living room, he found Lilly ass-end up, pulling a wooden bowl out of the kitchen island. If he hadn’t looked at her rear coming up the stairs, there was no avoiding it now. After placing the bowl on the counter, she unpacked the vegetables she’d brought home from the market.
“Got plans for all that green stuff?”
“Yes, I’m having dinner with Abuela and my father tonight, and I’m bringing the salad.”
“Lucky you. I love your abuela’s cooking.”
“I know. That’s why you’re coming with me.”
*
Damn. Jack looked like she’d hit him with a two-by-four. “I mean, if you want to. But she did mention that she’d like to see you.”
Abuela had been the Millers’ cook years ago and the kids all loved her, especially Jack, who—according to her grandmother—spent a lot of time in her kitchen. “Jack?”
