Page 30 of Burn With Me

“I’ll come back tomorrow to see if more are out here. But there’s no way I’m leaving this precious baby out here for another night.”

He’s going to think I’m impulsive just taking this stray cat home.

I chew my lip as I turn to him. “You don’t care if we stop at the pet store on the way home? It’s early enough that we can stop and grab some stuff. Wait, are you allergic to cats? If so, I can have Pam come and get me.” I stop talking when I realize I just told him I’m bringing this cat home in his truck without actually asking him.

“I’m not allergic, sweetness. I just want to make sure you know what you’re doing. Of course we can swing by the pet store,” he says as he grabs some blankets from the back of his truck.

We work together to get the kitten settled into the blanket on my lap, and we head off to the pet store.

I’m suddenly nervous about this drastic change of plans. “I’m sorry this put a wrinkle in any other plans you might have had for us.”

He reaches over the console and grabs my hand, bringing it to his mouth to kiss the back of it. “I had no set plans. I’m just happy to spend time with you.”

Once he pulls into the parking lot, he quickly parks the truck and hops out. He comes around to my side and opens the door. I hold onto the kitten as he helps me down. He puts his arm across my shoulder and pulls me closer as we walk into the pet store.

I settle the kitten in a cart and head to the cat section, where I load it with double of everything I can think of: litter box, litter, wet food, bowls, treats, toys, a cat carrier—which I put her in—a cat bed, and a medium-sized cat tower. Every time I throw something new in the cart, Luke chuckles at me.

He thinks I’ve gone off the deep end, but I’m not going to leave her alone at home when Penny and I go to the farm. She’ll come too.

“I don’t think when this cat woke up today, it knew it was going to get so spoiled by the end of the night. How do you think Penny will act?” he asks.

“She loves cats. I have to drag her away from the cat area when we come here if there are cats in the cages. I’ve been thinking about getting one for about a year now,” I say as we check out. “Oh, that reminds me, I need to shoot an email to my vet to see if I can get this little one in tomorrow to get the first round of shots and such.” I go to grab my phone before I forget.

After the cashier rings us up, I press the donate button and finish checking out.

Luke loads everything into the truck, and we take off for my house. This isn’t what either of us expected, and I’m thankful he didn’t get upset about the change of events.

Not allowing myself to think too much about it, I reach over and grab his hand. Giving it a squeeze, I say, “Thanks again for this evening and for the semi-change in plans after mini golf.”

He squeezes my hand back and shoots me a smile. “It’s been a great night.”

After pulling into my driveway, he turns the truck off and grabs the cat carrier, and I follow him to my door.

He steps to the side with his hands full. “I’m excited to see Penny’s reaction to the cat. Are you going to give it a bath tonight?”

“I think I’m going to let Penny do some sniffing through the carrier, but I’m going to set her up in the bathroom just in case she has any accidents. But also because Penny has no sense of a personal bubble. But yes, after all that, I’ll have to give her a quick bath tonight since I’m sure she has fleas,” I say as I put the code in the door to open it.

We walk in, and I call Penny because I want her to go potty before she gets distracted. Penny’s nails pitter-patter against the floor as she gets closer. She pauses for a second, and then her tail starts to wag.

“Go potty, then you have a surprise.”

She bolts out of the house and does her business faster than I’ve ever seen her.

“Luke, can you put the carrier on the floor?” I ask.

“Um, yeah,” he says, sounding nervous, but he sets it down next to him.

He watches the carrier closely as Penny comes barreling back to the house.

“Penny, sit.”

She sits with her tail thumping on the floor, but she’s looking at me.

“Okay, go sniff,” I say.

Happily, she trots around the carrier until she reaches the front, and she lies down, peering inside. Slowly, the little kitten comes up to the screen and starts to investigate. Penny leans forward and licks the front of the carrier screen, which makes the cat just look at her and purr.

“Holy shit. I would have never guessed that’s how this would go,” Luke says, amazed. “I’m going to grab the rest of the stuff real quick and bring it in.”

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