Page 48 of The Love Wager

Hallie fell instantly in love with the fattest old cat she’d ever seen, and when she’d put him on her lap, it’d seemed like fate. The cat started purring and pushing his face into her hand and holy shit, it seemed like Hallie had found her animal.

Then batshit-crazy Ruthie made her statement about thefriend compatibility test, and she’d taken the cat from Hallie. The second she cradled him in her arms, he’d lifted one of his mammoth paws and delivered a three-punch smackdown right to her forehead.

Jack had laughed his ass off.

But Ruthie hadn’t let the cat go. She’d professed that she loved his energy and was drawn to his passion, so she sat there while the thing smacked her two more times and then bolted for the door.

Then the girl started sneezing because she was allergic, and once Hallie got the cat back in her arms, he settled right down and went back to purring.

“Come sit down right next to little Hallie,” Hallie crooned, patting the floor beside her. “I want to see if he kicks your ass or not.”

There was something about her face when she was being a smartass. Hallie’s eyes almost twinkled, and he imagined that’s exactly what she’d looked like as a pain-in-the-ass little kid.

“He’s not going to kick my ass,” he proclaimed as he walked over and dropped to the floor beside her. “Because I won’t let him.”

“I’m going to go get some air,” Ruthie said.

Jack looked up at her, and the girl was so scrawny and childlike in her weirdness that he felt somehow protective of her. “Do you want me to go with you?”

She rolled her eyes. “Look at you, Prince Charming, so scared of a cat ass-whooping that you’re going to accompany me to the parking lot. Bugger off.”

“You bugger off, Ruthie,” he replied, which made her burst into her wildly out-of-control laughter as she exited the room.

“Oh, my God—she loves you, Jack,” Hallie said with a grin as she petted the beast. “I’ve never seen Ruthie so sweet to a guy before.”

He gave her side-eye and ran a hand over the cat’s back. “The first thing she said to me was ‘Your car is a symbol of everything that’s wrong with our world.’ ”

Hallie laughed. “Butthenwhat did she say?”

“That at least it didn’t have fuckwit vanity plates...?”

“See? That little aside means she forgives your capitalistic nature.”

“Oh, thank God.” He laughed, and over the smell of animal, he could smell her perfume. He wasn’t sure what she wore, but it always drifted into his awareness in the same way he could always sniff out barbecue when he walked into a restaurant.

“I can’t believe you have an Audianda truck, by the way,” she said, her forehead crinkling. “You must be really good at landscraping.”

“Did you just say landscraping?”

She rolled her eyes and nodded. “I swear I’m sober.”

He reached out a hand and scratched the cat’s huge head. “I should hope so—it’s seven thirty in the morning.”

“Wanna hold him?”

“After witnessing Ruthie’s beatdown?” He looked at her upturned face and fought the urge to trace the line of freckles on her cheek. “No, thanks.”

“Chicken.”

“Listen,” Jack said, watching the cat watch him. “This guy knows that you are his. He has found his person. He doesn’twantto be handed off to someone else now that he’s met you.”

“Do you really think that?” she said, smiling like an overexcited toddler at Christmas.

“I do.”

“You think I’m his person?” she asked, her eyes on his. “That’s kind of beautiful, Marshall.”

He shrugged. “I know, I’m a beautiful fucking genius.”

---