Page 22 of Passionate Hearts

The cat stuck her head out of her cat bed behind Allison’s desk. Her eyes were now tiny green slits. Her gray fur was scruffy, and her whiskers were crooked. She was the most terrifying cat Brianna had ever seen.

“She’s. Well, she’s…”

Brianna let her words trail off.

“Scary,” Allison offered.

Lulu gave a low grumble, no doubt angered by Allison’s insolence.

Brianna nodded.

“She’s mostly harmless.”

Allison glanced back and met Lulu’s eyes. Brianna was almost positive she saw Allison break eye contact first.

“Taylor had to travel for work. She’s pitching a project. And Lulu doesn’t travel well. So, she’s staying with me.”

“That’s sweet.”

Brianna had no idea what to say. Spending her days with a cantankerous cat didn’t appeal to her personally.

“Jordan should be here in a bit. We’re going for lunch if you want to join?”

“I’d love to. But I think I’m going to take your advice and go talk to River. Jordan’s been kicking my ass during Krav Maga classes though.”

“Oh, I’m sure. She’s pretty feisty,”

“That’s an understatement,” Brianna chuckled.

“I’m glad you’re going to go ahead and talk to River. I hope it goes well.”

“I think it will. We’ve always been good at working things out.”

Brianna rose to her feet and stretched. Lulu glowered at her from her cat bed, she let out one final low growl. Allison rolled her eyes at the cat.

“Let me know how everything turns out,” Allison smiled.

“I will. And thank you for the pep talk.”

“Anytime. I don’t think you really needed it. You knew what you needed to do.”

“You might be right. But it’s always nice to hear someone else say it.”

“You’re right about that. I can’t count the number of times I’ve just needed to hear Jordan or Taylor say something. Good luck, friend.”

Brianna smiled warmly at the use of the wordfriend. She gave one final wave and walked out. Allison was right. There was no reason why she and River couldn’t talk things through with one another. She pepped herself up the entire ride home.

But when she opened the front door, it was clear that no one else was home. River was out, which was odd. Brianna figured that Willow had probably come to pick her up. She sat down on the couch and glanced over at the empty spot beside her. Her mind flashed back to the night River had confessed her feelings to her. Brianna had been on the receiving end of some magnificent crushes in her life. But she’d never felt fireworks from any of them. Yet here she was reliving one of the briefest and most powerful moments of her life.

Brianna smushed her face into a couch pillow and screamed silently into it. None of this felt fair. To have a girl as wonderful as River say those things to her but knowing that it could never be more than that. They were just words. What if that really was all it would ever be? Brianna had struggled for two weeks trying to figure out if she could go back to the way things used to be. She guessed she wouldn’t know until she had her conversation with River.

Chapter 9

River pushed her food around her plate with her fork. Across the table from her Willow had an expression of concern on her face.

“Friend, I get the impression that something might be wrong,” Willow said, keeping her tone even.

“What do you mean?” River asked.

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