Page 12 of My Inherited House Might be Haunted

Uh.

Why was…I couldn’t be seeing that right. I blinked, looked again. No, I was. Rhett’s black cat was on the window bench, where she had one paw curled around the Brownie and was giving it a tongue bath. The Brownie did not look the least bit alarmed about this, but rather was leaning shamelessly into the cat with their eyes at half mast, like it was some kind of wet massage.

Um, okay? I whispered, “You all right?”

Brownie waved me away.Shoo, you’re interrupting the moment.

Right, so, cat was DEFINITELY a familiar because otherwise that whole scene would not be happening.

You know what? I’d deal with that later. Yup, that became a Later Me problem. Right Now Me didn’t have the bandwidth. As long as those two were having a good time, who was I to interfere?

“Calix, you back?” Rhett called from the bathroom.

“Yup!” Right. Priorities. I had a hot man and a dirty dog who needed my attention.

I dropped everything but the shampoo next to the door, then went into the bathroom. Rhett sat on the bathroom rug, working on tangles. He’d made good progress while I was gone. Dog didn’t look quite so matted. There was also dirt absolutely everywhere on the floor.

“Sorry for the mess,” Rhett apologized. “I’ll clean up later.”

“Naw, don’t worry about it.” I had a Brownie. Dirty bathrooms no longer scared me. “Here, I’ll start water going. I picked up bowls and a can of wet dog food, too.”

“Thank god. All I had to feed him was beef jerky, which probably wasn’t the best thing.”

“Yeah, he’ll feel better with real food in his stomach. Not that he probably had an issue with jerky, did you, bud?”

Dog wagged his tail at me. I swear, this dog was smarter than some people I knew. Then again, if the cat had brought the dog in, odds were good the dog wasn’t a normal dog either.

Seriously. Rhett was more special than I gave him credit for if he had two familiars. I really had to figure him out better. Because unless I was mistaken, his aura had gotten a little stronger?

I shook the thought off and got the water running in the shower.

Rhett got the worst of the tangles out, but honestly, the dog needed a professional groomer. Best we could do was get himmostly clean. He wasn’t too keen on getting into the shower, but then, most dogs weren’t fans of baths. Still, he went, and we gave him lots of praise while soaping him up.

Now, anyone who’s had a big dog knows, a bath involves the whole family. No one escapes unscathed. I promptly got wet, shrugged, and ditched my shirt because there was no point in having that on.

When I turned back from tossing it into the hamper, I realized Rhett was checking me out while pretending he wasn’t checking me out. The blush kind of gave him away. Now, I take pride in my physique, as I do work out to maintain it, but it wasn’t so much pride as interest when I realized he liked what he saw. Oh yeah? You gay, honey? Because I can work with that.

“Feel free to ditch your shirt too,” I encouraged with a wink. “It’s see-through anyway now.”

He glanced down at his shirt, which was wet and plastered to him, and grimaced. “Um, yeah, might as well.”

“You can borrow something of mine.” It’ll give me an excuse to flirt with you again later.

“You’re seriously helping me out, Calix.”

“My pleasure.” Could be both our pleasures if he’d agree. Must work on that.

I slid in closer to him, pulling the hem of his shirt up, and he allowed me to take it completely off. I made sure to do so with fingers grazing his chest. The tinge of pink on his cheeks deepened, and he couldn’t quite seem to meet my eyes.

Oh honey, if you keep looking at me like that, you’re going to end up in my bed very, very soon.

Focus, me, got a wet dog to deal with.

I took one side of the dog, he took the other, working water and soap into the thick fur. I maaaay have let my hands bump into Rhett’s every now and then, fingers overlapping, and I got a shy smile every time it happened. Oh yeah, he was interested.Not sure why he wasn’t taking a hint. Maybe I should hint harder. I had to get this man on a date somehow.

The dog turned his head and gave my chin a kiss.

“Aww, aren’t you a sweetheart?” I booped snoots back, still lathering away. “What are you going to name him, Rhett?”

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