Page 14 of Forty and Fighting Dirty
“You’re on thin ice, Darling.”
I lifted my palms in silent surrender, then watched the cat limp-hop his way back into Rhett’s path. We approached the staircase, and Rhett grabbed the handrail with one hand while he glared down at the cat currently head-butting his calf. “You’re going to make me trip and break my neck,” he told the ball of orange fur.
The cat purred so hard I swore I could feel the vibrations from the other side of the staircase. Rhett’s face went slightly red.
I’d need to look for a new job, pronto. There was no way I could work for a man who got this worked up over a stray cat. What would he do when something went wrong? He’d blow up at everyone, and I didn’t want to be there to witness it.
But still. I was enjoying myself. It felt like some sort of karmic balance after the coffee shop this morning. Cut in line? Congratulations, you’ve been adopted by a stray cat and can look forward to dead things appearing at your feet on a regular basis.
Rhett clenched his jaw as he stared at the cat, then huffed and started making his way down the stairs, his gaze firmly glued to the path in front of him. The cat hopped from step to step, hurt paw extended so it wouldn’t take any weight, tail gently flicking across the backs of my boss’s legs.
“So,” Rhett said when we reached the bottom, “do you still think it’s possible to have the fit-out of the lodge done by the start of next year?”
The cat sat on his boots. It appeared Rhett was at the ignoring stage of the relationship, because he didn’t even look down.
“If everything goes right, there’s a chance,” I said, holding his gaze. In my peripheral vision, I could see orange fur at Rhett’s feet, practically using his shoes as a throne.
With his gaze still on my face, my boss gently nudged the cat aside, and the animal lifted his butt slightly, then went right back to sitting on Rhett’s boots.
A smile broke over my face.
“Don’t,” he growled at me.
His voice shouldn’t have sent that kind of spark careening through my belly, but it did. I blamed the adrenaline of the morning and the fact that I was almost, kind of, sort of, enjoying myself. “Don’t what?”
“I don’t want to hear it.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“Do you want to get fired on your first day, Darling? Because this is how you get fired.”
His words were harsh, but there was no heat in his tone. I blinked innocently. “I’m not the one sitting on your boots, though.”
“You’re the one enjoying it.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure,” I said, glancing down. “The cat seems pretty happy.”
A grunt of annoyance escaped him, and the cat shifted slightly to lie down across both boots, his tail curled around Rhett’s heels. My boss’s teeth clenched, visible through slightly parted lips. Then he said, “As long as there’s a chance we can make the deadline, then I’m happy. You’ve got my go-ahead to do whatever you need to have this lodge open by the new year. Every week you can claw back from that date, the bigger your Christmas bonus will be.”
I blinked. I hadn’t expected a bonus. “Understood.”
With one final, furious glare at his feet, Rhett shimmied backward and took a big step over the cat, then marched toward the entry doors.
The cat, of course, followed him. And I followed the cat.
“We’ll head back to the office so you can do your onboarding paperwork, and then you can take a look at the design that the previous firm came up with. I want you to hit the ground running.”
“So I take it you aren’t firing me?”
Rhett clicked his fob and unlocked the company truck. He shotme a sideways glance by way of answering, then tripped over the cat and swore.
A tiny little cackle might have slipped out of me.
My boss righted himself and scowled across the hood of the truck at me. “Laugh it up, Darling. This cat is a menace.”
“I think he likes you. I have no idea why.”
His shoulders dropped. “Have I done something to offend you? Why the hostility?”
