Page 30 of Start Your Engines

Senna yanks back her hand and turns away from me as Brad checks the kitten over, examining her ears and lifting her lips to investigate her teeth while asking Senna how she’s been. “I expected a call when I saw it was a race weekend here, but I didn’t expect to be enjoying a different kind of tiger.”

I choke on my saliva.

Senna’s eyes widen as she says to me, “It’s a joke. He calls me tiger in jest.”

I glare at Brad, who scowls back. “Sure,” I grunt and then mumble, although, surely, in this airless examination room, it will be heard, “He’s a fucking hoot.”

My kitten does the cutest yawn. As she opens her mouth, she reveals all her tiny teeth and a little tongue.

“So how do you two know each other, Brad?” I draw out his name sardonically. I’m secretly hoping to get a glare from Senna, but she’s staring Brad down.

He chuckles, and I fist my hands. “Well, Clive?—”

“It’s Connor,” I snap.

“Sure, whatever. Let’s say I’m the one Senna comes to when she’s in Melbourne and she needs to work out some stress.”

“Brad,” Senna warns.

Brad holds up his hands, and even they have muscles. I want to believe it’s from crying and wanking over Senna, who can’t possibly like him. What is there to like?

“We’re friends—good friends who like to spend nights together a couple of times a year,” Brad adds.

I grind my teeth to stop myself from asking more questions. I don’t want to hear about her friend with benefits. I stroke the top of my kitten’s head and scratch behind her ear with one finger, which makes her press her head against my hand. Senna does her other ear, and we smile briefly at each other. I won’t read too much into the way her eyes soften as she looks between me and my furry baby or how she clucks at the kitten like this is a real fucking moment between us.

“Anyway,” Brad says, cutting my happiness short, “we’re going to have to give her?—”

“She has a name,” I add, although I’ve not named her yet.

Brad glares, but it’s Senna’s stare that seeps beneath my skin. She tucks some hair behind her ear as she strokes the kitten. “Which is?”

“Coults,” I say, as if I haven’t that second decided to name her with one of Senna’s good nicknames.

Brad huffs as Coults, the big-eyed kitten, gazes at me, her eyes fluttering with tiredness.

“I like it,” Senna states, stroking one of Coults’s big kitten ears. “Hello, baby. You’ve got quite a name. If anyone is going to kick ass and make the others behave, it’s you.”

Brad shrinks a little, and my heart does a wild dance in my chest. I cover my smug grin with my hand, but it still peeks out because it’s so fucking massive.

The rest of the inspection continues like this. Senna adores the kitten and acts sweeter with me than she has in years, and Brad softens a little and stops flexing the biceps no one’s paying attention to.

Before long, Senna gets in the car as I say goodbye to Coults. I can’t have a cat due to my job, but that doesn’t stop my nose from itching with oncoming sobs. Tears collect in my eyelashes as I whisper goodbye. I kiss her head briefly, and she coos and gives me one last big-eyed stare. If a kitten doesn’t think I’m all bad, maybe there’s hope. A tear slips down my cheek, and I turn my cap back around, keeping the brim low as I mumble, “You’re safe now, Coults.”

Brad takes my number so his assistant can update me on her progress.

He checks to make sure Senna can’t hear us, and then squares his shoulders at me. “You should know that when it comes to Senna, she needs someone to protect her, and I’ve been trying to be that guy for her for a while. I’m her future, so leave her alone.”

“Whatever. We’re just friends,” I reply gruffly. “And I don’t get why everyone thinks she needs protecting. She’s a fucking force.”

“You don’t understand her at all.”

I shrug my shoulders at him and blow a kiss to Coults, who falls asleep as he pops her into a carrier.

“Don’t forget to flea bomb everything you own,” he adds.

As I get in the car, I struggle to relax my furrowed brows. Should I tell Senna what Brad said, but in a chatty, cheery way that doesn’t reveal my feelings? I turn to the window. I don’t want to hear her laughter when she hears that Brad thought there was something between us.

I yawn wide. It’s been a long fucking day. In the last thirty hours, I’ve rescued and said goodbye to the best kitten in the world, crashed, and met Mr. The Only Pussy He Knows How to Satisfy Eats Cat Food Vet, all on no sleep.

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