Page 51 of This Time Around
“Allie?”
She turned to see him standing behind her. His eyes were locked on her ass, and he had a funny look on his face.
“Well,” he said, his voice a little strained. “Can’t say I expected to see you on your hands and knees this early in the evening.”
Jack wanted to kick himself for saying something so suggestive to Allie when their connection was still in the realm of tepid friendship. It was the sort of thing he could have gotten away with sixteen years ago, but not now. Not with all this history between them.
Lucky for him, she didn’t seem offended.
“Very funny,” she muttered as she continued scooping papers into a haphazard pile.
“Here, let me help you up.” He reached a hand down to her, half expecting her to swat it away.
But she let him hoist her to her feet by one hand as she clutched a disheveled stack of papers in the other.
“Thanks,” she said. “You startled me.”
“Sorry about that. I knocked on the front door, but when no one answered, I saw that sign telling me to come in.”
“Right, I need to get that taken down.”
“Remind me the next time I’m here with my tools and I’ll get rid of it.”
He watched a hint of color seep into her cheeks, and he wondered if she was thinking about the last time he’d been here with his tool belt. He considered making another suggestive comment when a flash of black and white tore through the room.
“Maple, no!”
The animal—was it a skunk or a cat?—snatched something off the floor and streaked around the corner, its fluffy tail trailing behind like a taunting battle flag.
Allie took off running, which was quite the feat in ridiculously high heels. Jack had no idea what was going on, but he followed anyway.
“What are we chasing?”
“A cat!” Allie yelled back as they tore around a corner and down a hall. “A thieving polydactyl.”
“That sounds like a lesser-known Shakespeare title.”
“The brat stole one of my pages.”
“An irreplaceable page from a bestselling novel you’re writing?”
“What? No, it’s just something I need.”
The fluffy black tail disappeared around another corner and through a doorway, and Allie scrambled after the kleptomaniac creature. Jack followed suit, skidding to a halt as he saw Allie down on her hands and knees beside a bed. She was peering under the dust ruffle, and Jack knew he should probably stop staring at her ass and help. Any minute now. Just one more second and?—
“Come here, you little sneak.”
Jack stepped forward, shaking off the ass-trance. “Want me to grab her from the other side?”
“Sure, or maybe you could just chase her toward me.”
Jack walked around to the other edge of the bed and dropped to his knees, wondering if she felt as awkward as he did about kneeling next to a bed with a person he’d slept with for two years. Probably not. She had other things on her mind, obviously.
He lifted the dust ruffle and peered underneath. A pair of glowing yellow eyes peered back at him, daring him to make a move. The cat clutched a sheet of paper in its teeth, whiskers fanning over the pages like black streaks of ink. The cat stared at him for a few beats, then gave a muffled meow.
“Here, kitty-kitty-kitty,” he coaxed.
“Her name’s Maple.”
