Page 74 of Make Her Mine

I grin. “You’re disappointed that I’m not annoyed.”

“Are you not annoyed just to annoy me?”

I chuckle. “No. I’m actually not annoyed.”

She opens her mouth to respond, but then tips her head, and closes it.

“You don’t believe me?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “No. I’m just realizing…”

“What?”

“I was thinking that if Zach ever comes over again, there should be signs that I’m here a lot. And throw pillows and candles would be signs of that.” She shakes her head again. “But he would never know if I added lotion and towels to your upstairs bathroom.”

I knew she’d added lotion and towels.

“Did you add lotion and towels to my upstairs bathroom just to annoy me?”

“I think in part, yes. But also…just to be more comfortable while I’m here.”

“I want you to be comfortable while you’re here, Harlow,” I say.

She swallows and looks down at the cat in her arms. “And it just hit me…if I was your girlfriend…” She trails off, then looks up at me again. “This is something I’ve always wanted to do, but I can’t at my house, because some of my friends are allergic. I can’t have cats and cat hair on my stuff. But if I had a boyfriend, I could foster cats at his house. Because I would only seriously date a guy who would let me do that.” She takes a deep breath. “And you would be great about it. You’re kind and patient. And you like cats. When you were a kid, you were the one that rescued Pixie. I’m just remembering that.”

Pixie was a stray I had found and taken home, prepared to negotiate and battle with my parents over letting me keep her. But it hadn’t been a battle. They’d been fine. Pixie had lived with us for twelve years. The rest of her life.

“You’ve always known that I like cats.”

“Yeah. I did think about how it might annoy you a little to move all of this stuff in without asking but…I was actually just more excited about bringing the cats here. Tucker and Delaney love to have extra hands and homes whenever they can and I’ve wished I could help out before.”

I nod. I’m very aware of Tucker and Delaney’s animal fostering.

There’s a strange warmth in my chest as I realize that Harlow and I have always had some antagonism between us, that we’ve definitely butted heads, but it’s always been over important issues that really matter to both of us. It’s never been trivial. And it’s always made me like her because I like that she’s passionate.

And there are a lot of ways that we would fit together really well.

I take the cat from her hands. “We can definitely foster cats here. Even after these guys find a home, there’s no reason we can’t keep doing this here.”

I look into the cat’s eyes instead of staring at the beautiful woman who’s getting to me. Very quickly.

“Thanks,” Harlow says softly.

“Of course.”

Okay, so something going on between us is going to keep happening.

I wonder if other things are going to keep happening between us.

And I like that idea way more than I should.

CHAPTER 16

HARLOW

Jefferson’s strawberry jalapeño chicken is amazing.

Because of course it is. The guy really does seem to be good at everything he does.

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