Page 39 of Morally Gray Daddies

“Yes, Clara was back by lunch. We thought you must have gone to help Jack, but he returned nearly an hour ago.” My aunt shook her head at me as I stepped forward into the room. “What is… oh! You found a cat!”

At her words, Clara’s eyes lit up, and she jumped to her feet. It was only then that I realized the black cat in my arms had blended into my jacket, helped along by the shadowy doorway I was standing in. Now, the light was shining brightly on both of us to make it clear what I was holding.

“Oh, look at him…” Clara said, coming toward me with outstretched arms. Not outstretched to me, of course. To the cat. The other three women were right on her heels.

I ground my teeth as the damned cat took up all of her focus after I’d been the one searching for her the whole fucking day. The damned cat practically leaped for her as she came closer.

“Oh, it’s Faithful!” Clara’s head tilted back, blue eyes widening as she looked up at me in appreciation. “Hello, good boy… hello, sweet kitty, yes, I see you.” If the cat had been friendly to me, that was nothing compared to how he greeted Clara. His purr was like a motor as he writhed in her arms, butting his head against her chin.

“Faithful?” My mother asked.

“Yes, he’s always waiting for me outside the police precinct,” Clara replied, rubbing her cheek against the top of the cat’s head. “Sometimes, he would follow me while I was making my house calls.”

“What a sweetheart,” Aunt Serena crooned, scratching him under the chin.

From behind all three of them, Hailey beamed at me, as though I’d done something laudable. Somehow, that helped soothe some of the restless anger stirring inside me. I’d brought Clara a cat, and it made her happy.

I studied my wife as she cradled the cat, smothering him with compliments.

She’d run today.

Back here.

Back home.

She hadn’t run from me… She’d run to me, in an odd way.

Even though she could have escaped. I would have hunted her down, but she had no way of knowing that.

She’d freed herself, then chosen to return.

She’d chosen me.

The anger that had built up disappeared in a rush as a fierce possessiveness, a hot need, rose up inside me.

Clara

He’d brought Faithful home with him.

Had he been carrying the cat all day?

It only made sense. Unless he’d gone back to the precinct at some point. But even then, he’d brought the cat with him. And Faithful had been more than comfortable in his arms.

Waiting for him, my nerves had been more than a little on edge. Wondering if I’d made the right choice. Wondering if I should have run while I could. Seeing him walking into the room, cradling Faithful, the decision had settled inside me.

“Are you keeping him?” Maria, Gio’s mother, asked, glancing back and forth between us.

I was pretty sure she’d picked up on some of the undercurrents between Gio and me. She’d been curious when I’d returned without Gio, though she hadn’t questioned me. Everyone had assumed he’d gone to help Jack, up until Jack returned. Then she’d been watching me even more closely, with some confusion, until Gio finally appeared.

Now, she was still confused but more relaxed than before Gio had returned.

I looked at Gio pleadingly. I’d always wanted to bring Faithful home with me—I’d wanted all my kitties, but I had the softest spot for Faithful—but Mrs. Cunningham wouldn’t even allow one. And if I could have chosen one, I would have chosen Faithful. He was the one who was most attached to me.

“Yes, of course we’ll keep him.” Gio looked slightly baffled, as if it had never occurred to him to do otherwise.

The rush of emotions that flooded through me made me clutch the cat tighter. Faithful didn’t protest; he just purred harder.

The warmth I felt for Gio… it made no sense. I shouldn’t feel any warmth for him. Not after everything he’d done to me. Not after forcing me to marry him.

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