Page 49 of The Love Wager

That made her laugh and smack his arm. She said, “I suppose we should probably go to work now, huh?”

He stopped petting the cat and wondered if her building actually even allowed cats, or if she’d even thought to check. He said, “Probably.”

“If I pay you,” she said, climbing to her feet with ginormocat in her arms, “will you swing by here after work so I can take him home?”

He stood. “I guess, but only if you’re paying me.”

She gave him a look and said, “Add it to my tab.”

After she returned the cat and filled out all the paperwork, Hallie got a text from Ruthie as they exited the building.

“O-kay.” She read the message and shook her head as they walked toward the parking lot. “Ruthie says that she got bored and grabbed a ride home, and also that she’s throwing an adoption party for me and Purr Anthony Hopkitten this weekend.”

“You’re not seriously naming him that, are you?”

She grinned and shrugged. “I have a hard time telling Ruthie no.”

“You tell Ruthie that I already named him and you have a hard time tellingmeno.”

She gave him a snort-laugh. “What’s your name for him?”

He hit unlock and she pulled open the passenger door of his car. “Umm... Tigger.”

She got in the car and said, “I might not hate that,” before slamming the door closed.

When he got in and buckled his seat belt, she was grinning and looking at her phone. “Alex says he likes Ruthie’s name.”

Why did that make Jack want to steal her phone and toss it out the window?

“Sounds like Alex is a moron.”

She rolled her eyes and laughed. “You’re not getting the baseball, you jag.”

She texted Alex back as Jack drove his car a little too fast, and the way she grinned and made tiny noises frustrated the shit out of him. It was annoying. When he finally pulled up in front of her office, she looked up and said, “Wow, I can’t believe we’re here already.”

“Right?” he managed, irritated by how sucked into her phone she’d been.

“Well, thanks for this morning. I’m so excited to go back and get Tigger, if you’re still down.”

“Sure. What time do you get off?”

“Five, but whenever you can get here works. Also, would you mind if we swing by Target first, so I can buy things like cat litter and an adorable cat bed?”

“Let’s at least be honest with ourselves here,” he said, getting distracted by the curl of her eyelashes as she blinked and listened to him. “If we go to Target for cat stuff, you know we’ll end up leaving with a million other things, like, ten hours later.”

“I know,” she said, sounding excited as she opened her door. “I promise it’ll be fun. We’ll try on outlandish clothing and put on a fitting room fashion show.”

That wassoher. He said, “That’s fun?”

“It will be when we do it.” She climbed out of the car, andonce she was out, she leaned on the door and said, “Thanks for being so cool, Jackie boy.”

“See you at five, Piper.”

He was smiling as he pulled away, but when he met his sister, Olivia, for lunch a few hours later, he was not.

“So she texts me to tell me thatAlexis going to take her to get the cat instead.”

“So?” Olivia looked at him like he wasn’t making any sense as she squirted ketchup onto her burger.

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