Page 59 of Scaredy Cat
Wow.I don’t expect the blow, targeted towards a really vulnerable time in my adult life when I didn’t know where to go and needed help. Madison had taken me in for a month, and had told me I was always welcome with her and Brynn, though I’ve sworn not to go back.
But my mom bringing it up againhurtswhen she knows how much I’ve worked to be out of a phase of my life where I need charity from my friends. I want to change the subject, but all I can do is sit there and stare at her, my expression melting like ice cream in the sun. I don’t knowhowto change the subject, orwhatto change it to. She always manages to change everything to an insult, or to be about her, or about how she suffers more than anyone else could ever possibly suffer. I just want?—
“Is that your mom?” Shiloh’s voice comes from the doorway, and when I look up at him, I find him meeting my gaze levelly,his arms crossed as he leans in the doorway. He knows it is, and his voice is loud enough for her to easily hear, so I know this is an act, though I have no idea what for. When I don’t reply he raises his brows and inclines his head.
“Y-yeah,” I say stupidly, finally sitting up. “It’s?—”
“Persy, you know I’ve been begging you to meet your parents for like, three weeks.” His tone is charming and full of casual light-heartedness as he turns on the light and comes over to the bed to sink down on it beside me. His head goes to my shoulder, his smile beaming and disarming. “Hi Mrs. Gallows!” he greets in the most chipper tone I’ve ever heard from him. Though his fingers drumming against my wrist on the bed are enough to ground me and make me want to act normal.
My mom just stares at him, nonplussed and dumbfounded. “Are you…?” She looks between us pointedly.
“I’m Shiloh.” Somehow, his smile manages to crank up to eleven, until I’m sure the light of God can be seen between his teeth. “She hasn’t really told you about me, has she?” His question is followed by a little snicker and a glance at me that radiates fondness.
“She has not.” My mother, distracted, seems to be a bit mollified by his presence. She sneaks a look at me, as if Shiloh can’t see, before looking at him. “Where did you meet?”
I listen as Shiloh makes up a grandiose story about meeting at a haunt, how his friends had chickened out and he’s latched onto me. I even nod at the appropriate times, until my mother is so charmed by him that his next words are met without opposition.
“I want to take her somewhere special for her birthday,” Shiloh admits, sounding a little shy as he rolls his shoulders. “I thought I’d take her to the shore where my dad used to take my mom before she died.”
Silently I applaud. That’s a very nice, very romantic touch, and my mother is clearly swooning for it.
“Oh.” She smiles, but bites it back. “Oh, of course. We get it. I’ll tell your dad, and he’ll be thrilled for you, Persy. But I can’t believe you hadn’t told me about Shiloh before!” she admonishes playfully, to which I only laugh lightly in uncomfortable agreement.
“Sorry. It’s still sort of new—” Shiloh kisses me on the cheek, surprising me into a real, genuine smile of surprise. I can feel my mother’s approval radiating from my phone, and Shiloh grips my wrist, thumb stroking over my pulse. “We’re going to breakfast. Is it okay to let you go?”
“Absolutely. Tell Madison and Brynn I say hi. I’ll tell your dad the same. And Evan.” Though she pauses before bringing up my brother, so I know he hasn’t had much good to say about me lately. I suspect he’s been stalking my blog and only relaying the bad parts and comments to my mom. Hell, maybe he showed them the picture Miscreant Manor had posted of me with the drawn on ears and whiskers. That’s something he’d do.
My mom hangs up on me after exchanging goodbyes with both of us, but instead of letting me get up, Shiloh moves to pin me down against the bed where he suddenly kisses me with so much affection that my teeth hurt. Instinctively my arms come up around his shoulders, and I find myself drawing him down towards me like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
“How did you do that?” I breathe, my hands carding through his hair.
“Do what?” he asks without pulling away or breaking our kiss.
“Charm her like that. You were so different. Like…like you were playing a character or wearing a mask.”
He chuckles, his kiss deepening. “Because I have a couple of things I’m very, very good at. Charming mothers is one of them.Now.” He sits up and pulls me up as well, his eyes dancing. “Are you going to go get ready?”
My smile falls. “Ready for what?”
“You told your mom I was taking you out for breakfast, remember.” He hoists Arugula off the bed before the cat can climb onto me, letting the cat nuzzle his face. “So let’s go.”
“Oh.” I blink up at him like he’s the patron saint of dating. And in this light, while holding a fluffy cat, he really does look like it. “I wasn’t being serious.”
“I know.”
“And I have like, a lot of concerns about this ‘relationship.’ Since you’re a murderer and all.”
His grin grows, twisting his lips. “I know. But maybe ask me in the car, or when we’re not in public.”
“Yeah?” I get to my feet and look around for a change of clothes that are reasonably clean. “You don’t want me to ask about your body count in the middle of somewhere like The Waffle Wagon?”
His snort has me glancing up at him again, where he’s smiling with Arugula’s paw on his nose. “I think for your sake, you should withhold your curiosity,” he assures me. “If you value your chocolate covered waffles, anyway.”
24
The knockingon my front door has Arugula just as confused as me, judging by the look on the multi-colored cat’s face. He glares up at me, like I’m the one who is to blame for this interruption into his morning self reflection period, when really, I just live here.
“Don’t glare at me like that.” I sigh, reaching out to press my bare foot against his chest. In retaliation, the cat rolls over onto his back, back paws pumping and thrusting my foot back toward me where it belongs. I snort, just as the sound comes again and sends him scampering into my bedroom.
