Page 7 of Should Have Been Me

Itook back every kind, loving, adoring word I’d ever said about Smoosh. I took it all back. She wasn’t a sweet, perfect cat. She was the fucking devil.

My yellow rubber kitchen gloves were shredded into ribbons, the tattered pieces hanging down my forearms in ruins. I suppose it was my fault. I should have known the material wouldn’t hold up against her claws, but I hadn’t expected her to lose her ever-loving mind and turn into a psychopath at the sight of her kitty carrier.

Until a handful of minutes ago, I had no idea that cats could actually scream. Now I did, and it was a sound that would haunt my dreams for the rest of my life.

My arms stung, the ribbons of razor-thin claw marks stretching up from wrist to elbow, beading with ruby-colored blood as I slowly crept around the back of my couch on my tiptoes. I did my best to keep my voice low and calm, crooning gently in an effort to calm her down. “It’s okay, Smooshy. It’s okay.”

The low, menacing rumble she made caused the tiny hairs on my arms and legs to stand up.

“It’s not the end of the world. It’s a checkup.”

She hissed, sending a shiver down my back as I imagined the evil cat from Pet Sematary. I’d been way too damn young to watch that movie, but when my mom had warned me against it—rightfully so, since I was a gigantic baby when it came to scary movies—my rebellious streak had kicked into overdrive, like it always did. Of course I’d snuck to watch it, and of course, it had given me nightmares for weeks. And thanks to my once-beloved cat giving me that creepy reminder, it was pretty much guaranteed I’d be sleeping with the lights on tonight.

I slowly lowered myself onto all fours, my heart beating like crazy as I sank down to peek under the couch, silently praying that Smoosh wouldn’t lunge from underneath and claw my face off. Her big yellow eyes blinked at me from the shadows. Yep, just like the scary movie.

This was my nightmare.

“The carrier isn’t going to hurt you,” I insisted, reasoning with the unreasonable. “It’s to keep you safe. And the vet is super nice.” She made that terrifying rumble again. I tried smiling, not that it would do any damn good. “If you’re a good girl and stop hurting Mommy, I’ll give you a treat. How does that sound?”

Apparently, it sounded like bullshit to her, because when I tentatively reached out, she batted at my hand, wolverine claws engaged. The furry little asshole.

“Ooh! You little—” I cut myself off, reining in my temper before I could say something I wouldn’t be able to take back. Part of me was convinced that Smoosh could understand most of what I was saying, and in spite of the physical pain she’d exacted, I didn’t want to hurt her little feline feelings.

God, I was ridiculous.

“That’s it. No treats for a week. And you only have yourself to blame, missy. This behavior is totally uncalled for.”

Just then, a brisk knock sounded on my front door. I knew who it was without having to look, and as the knob turned, I could see everything happening in slow motion in my head, like a flip book telling me what was about to happen, but there wasn’t enough time to stop it.

The door opened on the sound of Tarryn’s voice. “Hey, lady. I got your text. You need help with the little furball?”

I shot up from my place on the floor between the couch and the coffee table, my hair whipping above me. “Close the door!” I shouted, but it was too late.

As if sensing her freedom from the cat carrier, Smoosh ran so fast she was little more than a streak of gray and white lightning on her way out the front door.

“What the—?” Tarryn stumbled back at the scream my cat emitted on her way to freedom. It was the same scream she’d used when she’d clawed my arms and gloves to shit when I tried to shove her ass into the carrier.

“Catch her!” I nearly collided with my friend on my way out of the house, panic gripping my chest in a tight fist. There was no way in hell I was going to catch Smoosh with how fast she was running... straight toward the road... that cars were actively driving down.

“Smooshface Prescott,” I called out as sternly as I could, using her full name the very way my own mother used mine whenever I screwed up royally. “You get your fluffy ass back here right this instant!”

Any hope I had of that working went right out the window as she darted across the front lawn, getting closer to the street just as a big, black, Mercedes G-Wagon came around the corner, the shiny, impeccably clean paint job shimmering under the sun.

“Shit,” I breathed as my heart dropped right into my butt. “Shit, shit, shit!” I waved my arms frantically, praying to catch the driver’s attention, but they didn’t appear to be slowing down at all. In fact, I was pretty sure they were going faster than the speed limit as it was.

“Hey! Slow the hell down!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, the air sawing in and out of my chest almost painfully as I imagined the very worst. “Smoosh, get out of the road!”

I let out a started yelp as my cat darted right into the middle of the blacktop and froze like a deer in the freaking headlights in front of the massive car. The sound of brakes squealing filled the air as my heels dug into the ground, stopping me short as I slapped my hands over my eyes. I couldn’t watch my poor little baby get flattened like a pancake.

A tiny scream erupted from my throat as everything went silent. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to hear, but the only sound was my own heart whomping in my ears for what felt like an eternity before I heard a deep, bewildered, pissed-off voice barking, “What the fuck?”

My hands fell from my face, and the first emotion to run through me was relief that my cat wasn’t lying dead in the middle of the road. Instead, it looked like she’d climbed the man from the G-Wagon like he was a tree and was currently clinging to his shoulders like a koala.

The second thing that struck me was: hot dayum, but that’s one sexy hunk of man.

Vaughn

In what had been a series of shitty days since my relocation to Pembrooke, Wyoming, this one was turning out to be at the very top of that shitty heap. You know those days where you wake up and nothing seems to go right? That was the day I was having, and it all started when I woke up at five o’clock this morning, thirty minutes after I was supposed to be out of bed.

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