“Don’t you worry about a thing, sweet Bianca. You leave everything to me.”

“O-okay.” She made her voice wobble and flicked the pink fingernail polish chips away.

“We’ll be together soon.”

“Good,” she told him. “I have to go. I’m thinking of you, of course, my sweet Levi.”

“I’m always thinking of you, Bianca.”

“Bye,” she said, and hung up before it could turn into a long, drawn-out session of good-byes. Then, humming, she pulled out a bottle of nail polish so she could fix her nails.

If only everyone were as easy to manipulate as Levi.

***

Edie cuddled the blind Persian cat in her arms. “He’s very sweet,” she told the lady nearby. “Wouldn’t harm a soul. All he wants is to be loved and have a safe environment.” She stroked the soft white fur of the cat. “Why don’t you pet him?”

“Oh, I couldn’t,” the woman said, and began to retreat from the table. “I have two children at home and I’m not sure a blind cat is for us. Do you have any kittens?”

“There are always kittens at the shelter,” Edie said brightly, trying not to judge the woman. She understood, she really did. Kittens always found a home. It was the elderly cats, the ones with issues, the ones that weren’t as cute and charming, that never seemed to find their forever home. Pressing a kiss to the blind cat’s head, she continued to pet it as the woman went to examine the cages full of kittens. The cat had relaxed in her arms and was responding to Edie’s attentions, a far cry from the terrified, trembling thing it had been this morning.

And even though she really couldn’t fit another cat into her house, she was not going to let this baby go back to the shelter. She pressed another kiss to its fluffy, fluffy head.

The Harvest Festival was full of people, with parents holding foam cups of apple cider, children eating candy apples, and people hauling red wagons filled with pumpkins and other crafts. Balloons dotted the air, tied to the wrists of costumed children. It was a cute festival, but Edie wasn’t sure it was the right place for setting up a cat-adoption booth. They’d gotten a few dollars in donations but most people weren’t interested in taking a cat home with them that day.

“This is kind of a bust,” Edie told Peggy, who sat next to her in the booth.

“Told you we should have dressed the cats in costumes,” Peggy said with a sniff.

Edie bared her teeth and snarled at Peggy. You didn’t dress cats in costumes. Not when they were already terrified. She ignored the other woman’s idiocy and continued petting the Persian.

Bianca got up from her folding chair gracefully, tucking her phone away. “Well, things are slow. I’m going to go do some shopping.”

“Fine,” Edie said.

“I’ll be back by . . .” Bianca glanced at her phone screen again. “Five.”

“Go.” Edie’s mood was getting worse by the moment.

As she snuggled the cat in her arms, people passed by. No one stopped at their booth. Fine. Whatever. She’d make sure the cats felt loved today, and then she’d figure something out. Even as she thought of ways she could possibly squeeze a few more lonely cats into her tiny house, a shadow fell over the table. Edie looked up . . . and groaned. “You’re kidding me, right?”

Magnus grabbed the chair Bianca had abandoned a short time ago, flipped it around, and straddled it, sitting next to her. “Nice to see you, too.”

“Is this a setup?” The cat in her arms tensed, reacting to Edie’s body language, and she forced herself to relax, petting the long hair.

“Of course not.” He grinned over at her and her heart gave a pathetic little flip in her breast. “You said you were busy, I happened to be not busy, and here I am.”

She made an unhappy noise in her throat. “You have a hard time with rejection, don’t you?”

“Nope.”

“Yeah, you do. Try rolling it around on your tongue. Get used to it. Ree-jec-tee-onnn.” She exaggerated her mouth’s movements, and then clamped it shut when she noticed he was watching her lips with something other than detached interest. Okay, that wasn’t the reaction she wanted, but now that she got it, she couldn’t stop thinking about anything else. She remembered his mouth on hers, firm and decisive, and she wanted to kiss him again.

Stupid Bianca and her stupid rules about not kissing.

“So what is this?” he asked. “I’d say you were playing hard to get, but the cat on your lap tells me otherwise.”

She jerked, startling the cat in her arms. It was like he knew what Bianca had been saying to her. Edie’s eyes narrowed. “I told you I was volunteering.”

“Which is great. I can keep you company.” He scanned the busy festival. The only people even remotely near their booth were children sticking their fingers in the kitten cages. No one was approaching her end of the table with the elderly cats, even though she had a sign that said Adoption Fees Waived Today. Magnus leaned in closer to her. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but your scowl is keeping people away.”

Edie gave him a startled look. “What? It’s not me. It’s the fact that they’re elderly cats with issues.”

“No?” He nodded at the white Persian in her arms. “That one looks fine.”

“It’s eleven years old and it’s blind.”

“Oh.” His mouth lifted in one of those huge grins. “Well that explains why it’s not intimidated by your scowl.”

She bared her teeth at him.

“Or that.”

“People don’t want an old blind cat,” Edie said, ignoring his teasing. She pointed at the other two in cages. “That one has diabetes. And the other one only has three legs.”

“So what happens if no one adopts them?”

“They go back to the shelter and wait some more.” She stroked the sweet cat in her lap. “This one’s coming home with me, though. She gets too scared at the shelter.”

“Don’t you already have a lot of cats?”

“A few,” she said defensively. “There’s always room for one more.” There wasn’t, really, but she’d figure it out somehow.

“You have a soft heart, don’t you?”

She ignored his gentle, teasing words, focusing on the cat in her lap. “This cat was loved and cared for by someone for eleven years. Then, because of one small defect, she’s suddenly abandoned by those she loved as not good enough? Thrust into a new scary world where no one loves her and that’s full of frightening noises, and she can’t understand what’s going on because she can’t see? I’m not sending her back to that.”

His gaze focused on her face. “Something tells me it all isn’t about the cat, is it?”

Psychoanalysis? From him? Please. She gave him an irritated look.

He ignored her withering expression and put his arms out. “Can I hold it?”

“Do you even know how?”

“It’s a cat, not a porcupine. I’m sure I can figure out the basics.”

“You’ll let her get away.” She leveled him an unhappy look. “I can’t chase her down if you let her get away.”

“She won’t go anywhere. And I’ve been practicing my cat mojo with Lady Cujo.” He winked at her. “Got her purring at the touch of my fingers.”

“It’s a cat, not a hooker,” she sniped at him. “Don’t make it sound so lewd.”

He clutched his chest with a mock-shocked look. “You’re just jealous that I’m talking about her and not you.”

Edie rolled her eyes at him. “I’m not jealous of a cat.”

“Then let me hold that one.”

And because she couldn’t think of a good reason to deny him, and because Peggy was watching her closely, she lifted the cat toward him so he could take it.

Magnus took the cat from her with gentle hands and cradled it against his chest, scratching its back idly. He gave her a triumphant look as if to say See? Which made her just shake her head, biting back a smile. Then he nodded at her. “Looks like you only gave me half the cat.”

She looked down at her black sweater and groaned. White long-haired cat plus black sweater meant tons of cat hair. “It’s a look I’m used to,” she admitted, plucking at a few of the worst tufts. “And it’s a look you’d better get used to if you’re going to keep holding Purrletta.”