Seducing the Old Flame (11 page)

Not something she’d ever
thought about in terms of wanting one.
 
Even now, at close to thirty, she couldn’t wrap herself around the idea
of being responsible for another person all the time.
 
She and Jenny did that with their Mom, and
besides, she wasn’t cut out for a June Cleaver role.
 
Never had been, despite Jason’s trying to
shove her into a Sunday dress, heels, and pearls.

She stood and paced across the
room, randomly touching things she knew were Jason’s.
 
A poster size University of Tennessee
Volunteer football schedule, a photo of he and Lori and his parents at Lori’s
graduation, a framed one-dollar bill, another frame showcasing the Kelly
Construction logo.
 
Little snippets of the
man she’d awakened next to.

A tiny whimper caught her
attention.
 
She looked around the room
and realized the noise had come from outside the trailer.

There.
 
She heard it again.
 
Almost like a child’s cry.

She opened the door and walked
out onto the concrete steps.

The noise came again.

No, not a child’s cry, an
animal’s.

Meow.

A scraggily looking cat of so
many colors he looked like he’d been pieced together by scraps of leftover fur
stared at her with wary eyes.

Tabby lowered and held out her
hand.
 
“Hello, there.
 
What’re you doing here?”

The cat blinked.

“Come on.
 
I’m not going to hurt you.”

As if he understood or just
decided to take his chances, the cat moved closer, just outside Tabby’s reach.

“You sure are a scrawny looking
thing.
 
When was the last time you had
something to eat?
 
Looks like it’s been a
while.”

The cat meowed its agreement.

The doughnuts.
 
Slowly as not to startle the cat, who looked
as if he had reason not to trust humans, Tabby stood and went back into the
office to retrieve the doughnuts.
 
Probably not the best diet for a half-starved cat, but better than
nothing at all, surely.

She carried the box with her,
sat down on the top step, and tore one of the glazed doughnuts into several
pieces.
 
She placed them on the step
below her.

“Here kitty, kitty, kitty,” she
called.
 
The cat eyed her, the food, and
braved a step forward, then another.

“It’s okay, sugar.
 
I’m not going to hurt you.
 
Eat up.
 
Lot’s of good carbs will go to waste if you don’t.
 
Carbs should never be wasted.
 
It’s a sin of the worst kind.”

Keeping his eyes on her, the
cat hunched low and took a tentative bite.

“You poor thing,” she cooed in
a soft voice, seducing the cat to trust her.
 
“I bet it’s been weeks since you ate a decent meal.
 
Too bad I don’t have anything besides
doughnuts.
 
Not that I wouldn’t consider
choosing doughnuts if I only had one meal a week, but you need some protein.”

The cat took another chunk and
scarped it down so quickly Tabitha worried he might choke.
 
Could you do the Heimlich on a cat?
 
“Life’s been rough on you, hasn’t it?”

Forty-five minutes tops had
turned into two hours.

Still, this project was too
important to rush.
 
Jason couldn’t afford
to lose the Savannah Blue project if he wanted to finish his house this
spring.
 
And Bill Banks, the pudgy man
who wanted to discuss this current project yet again before finalizing Kelly
Construction’s bid on phase two of the shopping complex, was the man who could
make it happen.

Too bad Jason had been
distracted all morning by wondering what Tabby was doing to fill her time.
 
Had she gotten mad that he left her alone for
so long and left?
 
It’s what she would have
done two years ago.

Then he would grovel and they
would fight.

Fight loud and with passion.

Then they’d have loud and
passionate sex.

This time that wouldn’t happen.

He wouldn’t fight with Tabby.

If she left, he wouldn’t go
after her.
 
What would be the point?
 
They didn’t have a relationship and their
weekend rendezvous was only scheduled to last one more night.

His stomach roiled at the
thought she might already be gone.
 
Less
than twenty-four hours in her company and already she filled his every thought.

Not that he had any illusions
of them continuing after tomorrow night.

He didn’t.
 
Wouldn’t.

Tabby was the kind of woman you
spent the weekend with, not a lifetime.
 
He made the mistake of trying to turn his goodtime girl into a keeper on
their first go around.
 
This time he
wouldn’t make that mistake.
 
Loyalty,
faithfulness, stability, those were the things he wanted in a life
partner.
 
Things Tabby lacked.

As Bill, Rooster, and he walked
up to the trailer, his pulse sang when he caught sight of Tabby sitting on the
top step.
 
Her head was bent over and she
talked to something in her lap.
 
An
animal.
 
The ugliest cat he’d ever seen.
 
He couldn’t even be sure if it was a really
cat or a large multi-colored rat.
 
Either
way it was mangy and probably disease-ridden.

“Tabby, what’re you doing?” he
asked, causing her to look up, her green eyes startled.
 
She’d been absorbed in talking to the cat and
hadn’t noticed them approach.

“Jason,” she said, looking
pleased to see him.
 
However the cat
looked pissed.
 
Pissed to have Tabby’s
attention off him.
 
The animal also
looked ready to bolt out of Tabby’s arms any second.

She glanced down, spoke to the
cat in soft, soothing words.

Jason couldn’t tell what she
said, but the cat seemed to relax, trusting her to take care of him.
 
Or wanting more of her fingers rubbing over
his fur.
 
Smart cat.

“It’s not a good idea to pick
up stray animals, you know.”

“He was starved,” she said as
if that explained why she held the decrepit looking fur ball.
 
He wouldn’t have thought Tabby would bother
with a mangy stray.

He noticed the empty doughnut
box sitting to Tabby’s side.
 
“And you
fed him glazed doughnuts?”

“What can I say?
 
He has good taste.”
 
She flashed a smile and Jason’s heart skipped
a beat.
 
From the look on Bill’s face,
the other man’s heart performed a few acrobatics, too.
 
Tabby’s smile packed a punch.

“You going to introduce me,
Kelly?” Bill asked.

“Tabitha Sterling, Bill Banks.”
 
Jason made the introductions, still amazed at
the woman holding the cat and looking almost nurturing.
 
He blinked.
 
Had to be the way the sun hit her hair causing him to think she looked
angelic, maternal.

She looked at Bill, her eyes narrowed.
 
“Have we met before?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Bill said.
 
“I definitely would remember you.”

Tabby smiled again, dazzling
Bill even further.
 
Jason stared at Tabby
and the cat and waited for Bill to leave.

After listening to several
minutes of idle chitchat between Tabby, Bill, and Rooster, he was ready to tell
Bill to forget the whole deal, fire Rooster, and drag Tabby to the truck.

If he only had one day with
her, he wanted every second to count.

Cause he was counting every
second and he’d already spent more of the day away from her than he preferred.

“What do you think, Jason?”
Tabby asked.

Jason blinked, realized he had
no idea what they’d been discussing, and shrugged.
 
It was either that or admit he’d been
daydreaming while his most important client stood next to him.

“Personally, I think we should
call animal control,” Rooster said.
 
“If
he stays here, he’ll end up ran over.”

Tabby gasped, her arms
clutching the cat closer to her bosom.
 
The cat purred.
 
Jason could hear
it from where he stood.
 
Hell, he’d be
purring too if he was nestled next to Tabby’s breasts.
 
Lucky cat.

“But won’t animal control just
put him to sleep?
 
No one is going to
take that cat home with them,” said Bill.
 
Tabby didn’t seem to like his comment any better than Roosters.

“Fine,” she said.
 
“Jason and I will take him home with us.”

Now that he heard just
fine.
 
“What?”

“We’ll take him, clean him up,
and feed him a decent meal.
 
I’ll find
someone to adopt him.”

“No.”

“Why not?”
 
Her lower lip puckered, not in a pout but in
an irritated twist.
 
“We can’t just leave
him here to die.”

“Yeah, Jason, you can’t leave
him here to just die,” Rooster mimicked Tabby.

Jason ignored his friend’s amused
expression, wished Banks didn’t watch so intently, and took stock of the best
course of action.

Tabby was right.
 
They couldn’t leave the cat here, but Banks
didn’t need to be privy to his and Tabby debating the cat’s fate.
 
Nor Rooster.

“We’ll discuss this later.
 
After I’ve finished business with Mr. Banks.”

“But,” she began, caught his
eye, then nodded.
 
“Okay, we’ll figure
out what to do with He-man here after you’re finished.”

“He-man?” he asked, amazed she
agreed with him.
 
When had Tabby ever
given in on a disagreement?
 
Especially
in front of witnesses?
 
Never
.

“Well, any cat that can take
care of himself in this busy part of town has to be super heroic,” she
explained matter of fact.

“Right.
 
A super heroic cat.
 
That explains a lot.”
 
Rooster scratched his head, then nodded at
Bill.
 
“I’ve got work to do, but nice
seeing ya again, Mr. Banks.”

“Same here.”
 
The man glanced at his slim gold watch.
 
“I really need to be heading out, too.
 
Birthday party for my ten-year-old at
two.”
 
He turned to Jason.
 
“I’ll be in touch next week.”

Jason watched the two men walk
away, Rooster toward where two rodbusters worked on steel reinforcements and
Banks toward just inside the gate where he’d parked his white Cadillac
Escalade.

“Where did He-man pick you up
at?” Jason asked as he sat down on the bottom step, shaking his head at the
hissing cat.

“He called and I picked him
up.”
 
Tabby scratched behind the cat’s
ears.
 
The cat’s eyes never left Jason,
but the hissing stopped.

Clearly the ratty thing didn’t
trust him.

He couldn’t honestly say he’d
ever seen Tabby holding an animal of any kind.
 
She avoided animals, kids, anything that might require emotion and
commitment.
 
Yet, here she was holding a
sorry looking excuse for a cat as if he were her best companion.

And the cat trusted her.
 
Or maybe they’d connected Tabbycat to Tomcat.

“My apartment complex doesn’t
allow pets,” Jason said, not really sure why as he had no intentions of taking
the thing with he and Tabby.
 
Bill had
been right.
 
No sane person would want a
cat as pitiful looking as this one.

“Then I’ll take him to my
condo.
 
I can’t leave him here to get ran
over or to starve to death.”
 
She eyed Jason
as if he were the bad guy.
 
“That would
be cruel.”

Her condo?
 
She’d moved out of her apartment?
 
“You bought a place?”

She nodded.
 
“Last year.”

“Doesn’t owning your own place
tie you down?
 
Cramp your style?”

“It’s not been a problem.
 
I have a great place out toward Strawberry
Plains.
 
The commute to work only takes
me twenty minutes.
 
Not bad really.”

He let that sink in.
 
Tabby had roots.
 
Had grounded herself.
 
What the hell did that mean?

The cat meowed, regaining both
their attention.

The thing did look pitiful.

“Do you think it’s safe to
bring him home?
 
He probably needs to see
a vet.”

“Then let’s go.”
 
She stood, cat in her arms like a baby.
 

The image struck him as
odd.
 
Odd, but right at the same time.

There went that light in her
hair again.
 
Tabby wasn’t an angelic
Madonna.
 
No trick of light would turn
her into one.
 
Even if the image did
funny things to Jason’s insides.