Page 35 of Enemies in Paradise

I spend the next few hours coaxing all the cats out of the shop with a couple dozen cans of food. There are more than a few cat fights in the parking lot, but I’m hoping in the morning they’llfind their way back to their regular homes. Or at least to the fields behind the shop.

I try not to think Catman may be really mad over me setting a dozen of his cats free. Even if he is, the city may thank me. His house has to be a health hazard.

Once the cats are outside, I go to work on the inside, starting with the Mustang. I find a shop vac and clean every square inch of the thing of cat hair, then I do the same with the rest of the shop. It takes most of the night, and I’m ready to collapse in bed by the time I finish.

That’s when I see the vase of flowers Bear had with him tipped over on a tool chest. I set the vase upright and wipe up the water that’s spilled. The flowers are a little damaged, but still beautiful. Bright red roses, because, I realize, it’s February fourteenth. Or, at least, it was yesterday. I noticed the signs in the floral shop window next door, but I was too busy plotting against Bear to care.

There’s a cute pink bear hugging the vase, wearing a t-shirt that saysI’m sorry.And I get another peek at Bear and his vulnerability.

He’s a man willing to apologize. I haven’t seen a lot of that in my life and I wonder if I’m wrong about him being a class-A jerk.

I also wonder who the flowers are for. A girlfriend he’s had a fight with? Someone he’s met since last summer when he wanted to ask me out?

For half a second, I wonder how things might have been different if Bearhadasked me out. If he hadn’t spilled on me or I hadn’t snapped at him.

But I quickly brush away those thoughts, along with the hope that maybe the flowers were for me.

Chapter 12

Bear

The next day, myeyes are still red, and an angry rash covers my arm from trying to pick up one of the cats. The Benadryl Cassie sogenerouslysent home with Dad helped me sleep, but it didn’t clear up the after-effects of her cat attack any more than it made up for what she did yesterday. Maybe she told Dad the truth when she said she didn’t know “how allergic” I am to cats, but that’s not a denial that sheknewI was allergic before she filled the shop with them.

On my way home from work, I stop at Zach’s office to show him the evidence of my face-to-face encounter with death. Georgia’s the one putting the hard sell on Cassie to buy the shop, but Zach’s the agent on the deal. He needs to know what kind of client he’s dealing with. Cassie is so much worse than thetypical Californian who shows up here, wanting what we have in Paradise, but also wanting to change it.

Cassie’s willing to go to any length to get what she wants, including using cats.

Which is exactly what I tell both him and Georgia when I walk into his office and find both of them there, Georgia on his lap. Gross.

But I’m also reminded that I didn’t actually give Cassie her flowers.

I don’t feel bad about that.

When Zach—who’s as allergic to cats as I am—doesn’t react with enough alarm, I tell him the whole truth. “She tried to kill me with cats.”

Maybe it’s a slightly exaggerated truth, but they need to understand the seriousness of the situation.

“What do you mean she tried to kill you?” Georgia asks without even pretending to believe me.

“I mean, she found out I’m allergic to cats and filled the whole shop with them.” I let out a cough as evidence of my ordeal, then sink into a chair in front of Zach’s desk.

“How would she know you’re allergic?” Zach asks.

I look straight at my sister-in-law. “I don’t know. How do you think she’d know, Georgia?”

Her eyebrow shoots up. “Are you accusing me of telling her? Because it sounds like you’re accusing Cassie and me of plotting against you.”

I raise my hands, palms up. “I mean, you’re the one who’s pushing her to buy the shop even though you know I want it. If you didn’t help her, she found out somehow and used the information to make sure she wins.”

Georgia and Zach both stare at me until Georgia says, “Okay. Let me get this straight. You think Cassie did some superhero-movie-level investigating to find out your greatest weakness,then lured you to a shop full of cats to kill you via anaphylactic shock?”

Zach’s lip tugs into a smile. “I think you mean anaphy-cat-lic shock.”

He and Britta have a weird thing for puns. Sometimes they’re funny.

Not today.

Georgia stifles a giggle, and I stare them both down until their smiles disappear.

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