Page 40 of Flirting with My Billionaire Enemy

“I would tuck her into my purse, but I’m allergic and I can’t have cat hair all over everything.”

I open the door to the coffee shop, and the kitten travels down my torso, sinking her claws into my side. “Arrgh!” I yell, twisting this way and that.

“Hold on!” Ariana says. “Let me get her.” She untucks the bottom of my shirt, and the kitten digs her claws in deeper, clearly unhappy with Ariana’s attempt to draw her out.

I yowl as the kitten gets me particularly good, and then Ariana cheers in triumph.

“Got her!”

But our triumph is short lived. I may not be getting scratched up by a kitten anymore, but now I have the eyes of the entire Blue Mountain knitting club all focused in on me. They’ve all just witnessed my interaction with Ariana and how she just had her hands up my shirt.

I feel my cheeks going bright red. Normally, my mom would be here with these ladies, if it weren’t for her knee injury. So these are all her very best friends.

And we’ve just given them plenty to talk about.

19

ARIANA

There’s a table of knitting grannies staring at me right now, and my hands were just feeling up Kaison’s torso in a huge way. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that they know who he is. I’m getting that impression from the way they’re looking at us.

I’ve just become another one of his girls. And now the entire town will hear about it. I carefully hand Mittens back to him, but not before she claws my hands. The little puncture wounds are already starting to swell up.

Kaison looks down at me. “Are you okay?”

I nod. “Let’s just get some coffee.”

We walk over to the counter with Mittens perched on his shoulder. I order my coffee black, and he gets his full of all kinds of creamer and sweeteners. It’s too complicated to keep track of what they’re doing to his, but I don’t like my coffee to taste creamy like that. It’s gross to me. Farah can never understand that because I’m such a huge fan of ice cream, but that’s something completely different. Ice cream is ice cream, and coffee is coffee.

When we’ve gotten our coffee and muffins, we settle over to a table, Mittens purring and curled up in Kaison’s lap. We’re there for about two minutes when one of the grannies shows up. This one is wearing an orange floral dress that hangs loosely around her…abundant figure. Her gray hair is permed and teased up into a halo around her head. “Kaison Keith? Where have you been? I haven’t seen you in ages.”

“Hello, Mrs. Angelo. I’ve been in Dubai, actually. I just arrived home.”

“Dubai? I don’t think I even know where that is. Is that in South Carolina?”

Kaison hides a grin. “No, ma’am. It’s a bit farther away than that.”

She waves a hand dismissively. “I’m not very good at geography, so you’ll have to cut me a break.”

Her gaze lands on me, and she inspects me like a piece of produce at the grocery store. “And who is this lovely young lady?”

“This is Ariana. She and I are working on a project together.”

“You were working on something over there in the doorway when you first came in,” she says out the side of her mouth.

He clears his throat. “Well, um, yes.”

“So you’re in town to see your mom? It’s a shame that she was in that car accident. That drunk who hit her belongs behind bars. I can’t believe he got behind the wheel in that condition. But who am I kidding? It wouldn’t be the first time.” She takes a breath and then starts right back into her tirade. When she’s finished, she says, “How is your mom, by the way?”

“She’s not staying off her feet as much as she should,” he tattles.

“That sounds like her.” Mrs. Angelo chuckles.

Two other ladies come up to us. “Sorry to bother you two lovebirds, but we want to know how your mother is doing,” a woman in a blue striped dress asks. She glances over at me.

“Oh, dear. Where are my manners? I haven’t introduced myself to you.” She has white wavy hair and glasses. “My name is Joyce Gregory.” She turns to the woman beside her. “And this is Maybelline Richardson.”

Her companion has a headful of orange curls that clearly aren’t natural. Maybe she’s going for the Shirley Temple look? Either way, the ladies look sweet as can be, and it’s nice that they’re so concerned about their friend. Kaison’s mom must be very well loved in Blue Mountain.

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