“No problem. I’ll be here and I’ll be ready.”
He reconciled himself to letting her go. Turning for the outer door, he doled out necessary info as he led her along the hall to the front of the house. “It’s a four-car garage. You can have the bay on the far left. Before you go, I’ll get you a garage-door remote, a house key and the code for the alarm system...”
* * *
At her apartment, Elise parked in her space by the Dumpster and entered the building through the back door. The hallway and the stairwell smelled of donuts from the donut shop in front. She’d grown to hate that smell, mostly because it tempted her constantly. There was something so perfect about a donut, after all. Flour and fat and sugar, deep-fried and glazed or frosted. The purest sort of comfort to a desperate woman’s soul.
Well, bye bye, temptation and hello, jetted tub. So what if she had to type Jed Marsh’s book for a living? She’d have a bath every night and make buckets of money. Life was looking up.
Mr. Wiggles was waiting when she opened the door. “Mrow?” he asked.
“Wigs!” She scooped him up, all twenty-plus superfluffy pounds of him. He was orange, with a huge, thick tail and a deep, loud purr. She buried her face against his lionlike ruff. “We are moving today,” she told him. “We’ll keep this dump for now, I think. And reevaluate our crappy living situation once the job is over.”
“Mrow, mrow,” Wigs replied, as though he understood every word she said. He butted his big head against her cheek to let her know how much he loved her. She gave him one more kiss for good measure and then set him down to start packing.
Her cell rang as she was piling clothes into three suitcases spread open on the lumpy bed.
It was Nellie. “Well?”
“Nailed it.”
“You got the job! I knew you would.”
“I have to live there, in his house.”
“I built that house and Chloe designed the interiors.” Chloe was their brother Quinn’s wife. “You’re gonna love it.”
She thought of the bathtub, of the king-size bed. “Oh, yes, I will. And the money is good. Really good.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear. What about Jed? Seriously, you think you can put up with him?”
“He’s not so bad. A little weird. A lot intense.”
“Sexy, though, right? In a club-you-senseless-and-drag-you-to-his-cave sort of way.”
For some unknown reason, Elise felt a hot flush rush upward over her cheeks. “Don’t even go there. He’s my boss now and we’re keeping it strictly professional.”
Nell’s naughty laugh echoed in her ear. “You have way more scruples than can possibly be necessary—and we have to celebrate. I’m buying the drinks.”
“Rain check. I need to get moved in over there tonight. The job starts early tomorrow morning.”
“He gives you crap you can’t handle, you call me.”
Elise’s cheeks were still burning. She could almost smell cinnamon. And what about that crazy thing he’d said? Unfortunately, I find you sexually attractive. “Oh, I think I can handle him.”
Nell laughed. “There. That’s what I’ve been missing. You’ve got your attitude back.”
She felt all misty-eyed suddenly. “Thank you, Nellie.”
“Hey. What’s a sister for?”
“We, um...we’re all right now, you and me. Aren’t we? I mean, I know I was a total bitch to you back in the day...”
“Back in the day? You and Tracy treated me like crap right up until Clara’s almost-wedding to Ryan.” That was nearly two years ago now. Clara hadn’t married her best friend, Ryan McKellan, but she had somehow succeeded in healing the lifelong breach between Elise and Nell—and Nell and Tracy.
Elise defended her absent bestie. “Don’t be too hard on Tracy. She always just followed my lead.” But not anymore. Tracy was forging her own way now.
Nell laughed again. “You’re right. It was all your fault. But I did get my licks in, too. Remember that time I put bubblegum on your breakfast-nook chair?”
Elise started laughing, too. “I loved those yellow shorts. They were never the same.”
“It’s what you get for messing with me.”
“I know. You’re so scary.”
“Oh, yes, I am. And don’t you forget it.”
“Never. And I guess what I’m asking is, do you forgive me for all the mean things I did?”
Nell gave a soft sigh. “You know I do.”
“I’m so glad.”
“Leesie? You’re not getting sappy on me, are you?”
Elise swiped at her damp eyes. “No way. Gotta go.”
They said goodbye and Elise made quick calls to Clara and Jody, to tell them she had a job typing Jed Walsh’s newest book and wouldn’t be in at the café or Bloom the next day.
Then she finished packing and dragged her suitcases down to her car, followed by all the cat gear and, last but not least, Mr. Wiggles. He rode in the front seat, sitting up tall beside her, watching the world go by and making those cute little chirping sounds, his own personal brand of kitty conversation. He loved the car and he never got in the way of her driving, so she’d given up on making him ride in his carrier.
She took the space in the garage that Jed had assigned to her and carried Mr. Wiggles in first, pausing in the utility room to check the alarm. As it turned out, Jed hadn’t armed it when she left, so she didn’t have to mess with it right then. She went on down a hallway and then through the kitchen and great room and down that other hall to her bedroom suite, finding no sign of her employer along the way.
Which was just fine. She had a lot to do and she didn’t need the distraction of dealing with her big, crabby boss.
In her room, she put Wigs down in front of the window, promised him she would be right back and went out to start hauling everything in, taking care to shut the door as she left so he wouldn’t get out. Jed had said he hated cats. No reason to test his patience right off the bat.
By seven, she had everything put away and her stomach was growling. Wigs, meanwhile, alternately circled his empty food bowl, chased the cleaning robot she’d started up a few minutes before and made a big show of scratching at his three-level activity center.
“Okay, okay. I’m on it.” She’d stored his food in the utility room, which had seemed the most logical place for it. She scooped up his food bowls—for wet and for dry—and went out the door again.
The hallways and great room and kitchen were empty. Very odd. Her first night in his house and Jed had vanished into thin air.
She considered peeking into his office, or even looking for him upstairs.
But the thought of wandering through the unfamiliar house trying to track him down made her even more uncomfortable than not having a clue as to where he’d gone. So she went ahead to the utility room to dish up Wigs’s dinner. She was pulling the top off a can when she heard music.
She shouldn’t snoop.
But really. Where was he? And, no, wait... A better question was why did she care?
Well, she cared because...
Okay, fine. She had no idea why she cared.
She set the opened can on the counter and stuck her head out into the hall. Yep. Music.
She