Page 15 of Daddy's Little Matchmaker

“Not at all.”

He went and stood by the cages and kennels. A meow came from behind him. He turned to see Butch claw at his cage, and reach for him with a paw. Butch meowed again.

“Okay.” Connor unlocked the cage and picked Butch up. The big orange cat butted his head against Connor’s chin, and immediately purred.

There was a three-foot-tall toddler corral in the center of the main room that was made up of eight plastic fence pieces linked together to form a circle with pillows in the middle. Connor walked over to it, stepped in, and put Butch down before he sat on one of the pillows. Butch climbed into his lap and purred happily.

Fifteen minutes later, Tessica was finished with her customers. She turned around, and her eyes opened wide with disbelief as she walked over.

“I swear he’s a different cat with you. Butch doesn’t like anyone else. He hisses at our vet, Gwen. He hisses at me. And he even hissed at the last person who asked to meet him.”

Connor frowned. “This guy? Hissing? He meowed at me as I walked by, and pawed at the cage like he was trying to get out.”

Tessica stood by the side of the corral. “Maybe you smell like his previous owner. Although, come to think of it, everyone I’ve seen him interact with has been female. Maybe he only likes men.”

“You’ll have to introduce him to the next guy who stops by to adopt, and see what happens.”

“Oooor, you could adopt him,” Tessica suggested.

“Me?” Connor shook his head. “My work schedule isn’t pet-friendly. I’d be gone overnight at least once a week.”

“Well, the great thing about cats, especially older cats, is that they’re very self-sufficient. Get him one of those automatic feeders, and leave him home for a couple of days at a time while you’re flying.”

“I’d feel guilty about leaving him by himself so often.” He rubbed a hand down the cat’s back.

Tessica chuckled.

“What?”

“Don’t you know? Cats are like the ultimate introverts. They’rehappyto have time alone every few days.”

Connor thought that sounded a bit like a sales pitch and frowned. “I’m pretty sure that depends on the specific cat.”

“True, but trust me, Butch would be a lot happier alone in your place than he is here at the shelter with all the noise and other animals.”

He supposed Butch would be happier in someone’s home, even if the cat was alone sometimes, and Tessica was only giving him a sales pitch for Butch’s sake. Connor came to a decision, stood with Butch in his arms, and stepped over the wall of the corral. “Tell you what, if no one has adopted him within a month, I’ll seriously consider it.”

“Awesome.”

“That wasn’t a yes,” Connor cautioned. He put Butch back in his cage and clasped the lock.

“Yeah, but it wasn’t a no.” She grinned.

Connor gave her a suspicious glance. She sounded a lot like some of the Littles he’d played with, but he knew he was prone to assigning Little characteristics to everyday people who would be appalled at the idea. He gestured to the clock and switched the subject. “It’s four-forty-five. Want to close early so we can talk about the shelter before you feed the animals?”

“Sure.”

She pulled theFur-ever Friendssign in from the porch, locked the front door, and then took out a piece of paper from under the counter.

He moved to stand beside her.

“This is our total profits and expenses for the month so far.” She picked up a pen and added a figure to the current month. “And that’s the sale I just made. It’s not a big improvement yet, but?—”

He cut her off. “It’s only been a week. I wasn’t expecting much yet. Actually, I wasn’t even expecting to talk numbers thistime. I was just going to talk about what steps you’ve made to improve things.”

“Oh.” She nodded and put the paper back under the counter. “Okay.”

He waved at the shelving unit in the front. “I see you put up the shelves we’d talked about. They look fantastic.”

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