Page 52 of Play the Game

“You’re my wife. Your whereabouts are absolutely relevant.” He pauses, and I swear he enjoys our little tiff. “Which is exactly why I shared your location with myself before giving you that new phone.”

I gape at him.How dare he?

A line of profanity threatens to explode from my mouth, but then I see his lips twitch, and I glare harder.

“Are you laughing at me?” Heat coats my skin, and I want to stomp on his annoyingly large foot.

His smile takes me by surprise. The bright-white color of his teeth stands out in the dark, and I have every intention of scoffing, but then he begins to laugh, and I’m at a loss for words.

“I’m sorry, but—” He chuckles again. “You’re standing here in a strip club parking lot, yelling at me and acting so self-righteous, but the only thing I can focus on is what looks to be…” Emory’s hand stretches toward my hair, and instead of moving, I stay completely still. He grabs something and inspects it. “Cat food? In your hair.”

I zero in on the tiny piece of Meow Mix in between Emory’s fingers and feel the urge to laugh too.

I don’t, though.

Because there’s no way we’re going to be on the same page.

“Don’t tell me…” Emory clicks his tongue. “You’re a crazy cat lady, aren’t you?”

My scowl begs to flip into a smile. I look away and down the alley that Shutter likes to frequent. I blink to steady my vision and can’t help the relief that spreads along my face from his little shadow.

“God, you are, aren’t you?”

I snap at Emory. “Shh!”

He throws his hands out in front of himself in disbelief but shuts up.

Shutter stops dead in his tracks and eyes Emory like he’s a predator, but when he shifts his yellow eyes back to me, he lets out a tiny meow.

“Hey, you.” My resolve falls, and I forget all about my sparring match with my archnemesis. I walk toward Shutter as he slowly creeps around the side of the building. When I get close enough, he meows one more time and falls to his back, waiting for me to rub his belly.

My fingers sweep over his black fur, and I lower my voice. “You thought I forgot about you, didn’t you?”

He gives me a little love bite before popping to all fours. He scurries on quiet paws to the food I left behind and starts to gobble it up like he hasn’t eaten in days.

I sigh wistfully and watch him eat a few more bites before turning around to head back to my car.

Emory is leaning against my door, and I’m half-afraid a piece of rust will fall to the ground when he pushes off of it. “We’re not taking that cat back to my place.”

I roll my eyes. “As if I’d ever suggest that.”

I shove my key into the lock the old school way and open my door to head back tohis place.Emory grips my door tightly when I try to pull it closed. I peer up at him to wait for his next demand.

“I don’t want you to come back here.”

Seriously?

“I’m feeding a stray cat, Emory. I’m not putting on a skimpy bra and panties to strip like before.”

“The cat will find food somewhere else.”

The nerve.

“You’re not seriously trying to tell me that I can’t come back to feed a stray cat, are you?”

Emory gives me a look like he’s angry but offended at the same time.

“You’re not used to a woman talking back to you, are you?”

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