The Cat Caper

Chapter Seventeen

I couldn’t have slept even if I’d wanted to. Anticipation at finding my long-lost feline friend gripped one side of me, and excitement for this private time with Charles grabbed hold of the other.

For so long I’d wished that he would just break up with Breanne already, and now he had. Might he also see that it had always been the two of us who were meant for each other? I’d tried to put my feelings for Charles aside for months now, but nothing ever worked.

He’d defended Cal against that double murder charge with everything he had. He accepted my ability to speak with animals and never made me feel weird because of it. He’d taken in two homeless, traumatized cats after they’d accidentally killed their owner. He’d just always been there, always been good and kind.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked me now.

I yawned to buy myself some time. “Just sleepy.”

“You better not fall asleep on me,” he teased. “Your shift is coming up soon.”

“Pull over. I’ll take it now.” Driving would be a nice distraction from all the thoughts fighting to take center stage in my mind.

Charles glanced toward me, then back to the road. “You sure about that?”

“I’m awake, I promise. But if it makes you feel better, I’ll shotgun another one of these coffee things.” I picked up one of the small blue and brown cans and gave it a good shake.

“Okay, but after that you’re cut off.” He turned up the music and shuffled through a few songs before landing on one of my favorite ’80s hair metal jams.

“It’s a myth, you know,” I said while bobbing my head along to the heavy, soul-filling beat.

Charles stopped singing along with the track and risked a quick glance my way. “What is?”

I shrugged. “That too much caffeine will either stop your heart or make it explode.” As it was, my heart was still beating wildly like a caged animal rattling against its bars. No amount of coffee would change that, either.

It was all Charles, my dream guy. Heaven help me.

When the song ended, Charles put away his air keytar and pulled onto the side of the road so we could switch seats.

“Are you sad?” I asked him when a slow jam took over the speakers and he had to put away his air keytar for a second time. “About Breanne?”

“Angry, more like.” He flipped through his playlist again, and this time chose something hard, angsty, and most definitely not from my favorite musical era.

“Do you think you’ll forgive her? That the two of you will get back together?” I yelled over the shouty, migraine-inducing music.

He took the hint and lowered the volume. His eyes stayed firmly fixed to my profile as he asked, “Do you think we should?”

I felt a flush rise to my cheeks and hoped he didn’t notice. “No,” I answered honestly.

“Yeah. Neither do I,” he said, crossing his arms and leaning his face against the cold glass of the window with a sigh. “We were never really right for each other anyway.”

“Then why’d you stay together so long?”

Yeah, I was most definitely being nosy, but I also needed to know where things stood, and Charles seemed more than willing to share. Plus we had a lot of time left to kill before we reached Anne’s Boston-based bungalow.

“That’s a good question,” he answered after a short pause.

When I glanced over toward him, his eyes were closed, and he wore a subtle smile on his face. “You don’t have to answer, if you don’t want,” I offered, hoping like heck he wouldn’t accept.

He sighed and shifted in his seat, his brow furrowed in a pained look. “I think I was just lonely after having moved so far away to start my new life in Blueberry Bay. I was trying to put down roots.”

“Like with the house and the cats,” I suggested. See, there are other ways to build a life. No Breanne Calhoun required.

“Yeah, and the firm. I never thought I’d make senior partner so fast or that we’d have so much turnover with our associates. It’s kept me very busy. Perhaps too busy to really pay attention to what was going on with me and Breanne.”

Well, this was a fresh, new perspective. “What do you mean?”

“I guess that it was just easier to keep dating her, to maintain status quo, you know?”

“No,” I answered honestly. “I really don’t.”

He took a deep breath and squinted over at me for a moment before pressing his eyelids shut once more. “I always liked spending time with Breanne. I know she hated you, but she was always nice to me. I enjoyed being with her, and that was the crucial part. I enjoyed it. It was nice. Fine. Not something I craved. I never counted down the hours until I could see her again. I never let it distract me from work or anything else I had going on in my life. She filled a hole in my life, but didn’t overfill it, I guess.”

“That’s what she said,” I muttered when I sensed the mood was getting too serious.

Charles chuckled softly but stayed on topic anyway. “Maybe I was unfair to her, letting it go on as long as it did. I’d feel guilty if I weren’t so furious about what she did to you.”

“Don’t worry about me,” I said. “I’ll be just fine.”

“I know you will be. You’re the strongest person I know,” he said softly as another rush of heat flooded my cheeks.

Was now the time I should confess how I felt about him?

It seemed he had just offered me the perfect segue, and this was the first time in our relationship I actually could share my feelings without it getting in the way of a shared case at work or having an angry girlfriend to answer to. We were both free to explore what had been there between us from the very start.

Now was as good a time as there had ever been. I needed to be brave. This was it…

“Charles…” I mumbled, glancing over toward him. There was so much that needed to be said.

But now wasn’t the time, seeing as Charles was fast asleep.

I’d never been great at city driving, but luckily we reached Boston before the sun even had its chance to rise for the day. I woke Charles right around the time the GPS informed me we had five minutes left in our drive.

“Why’d you let me sleep so long?” he exclaimed with a groan.

“It seemed like you needed it,” I said with a smile. I’d been so close to revealing everything, all my secret longings and wishes. Thank goodness he had nodded off and saved me—saved both of us—from myself. I needed to focus on Octo-Cat right now. We both did.

Charles straightened in his seat and slapped his cheeks a few times to wake himself a bit more. “So, what’s the plan?”

Luckily, I’d had a lot of time to think things over as I drove with only Charles’s eclectic playlist to keep me company on the long, lonely road. “I thought you could be the one to approach her. Make some excuse about the estate and the arbitration. Use a lot of legal terms, and I’m sure she won’t question you.”

He nodded, then rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Okay. Then what?”

“Get her to invite you inside. Excuse yourself to use the bathroom. Then see if you can find him.”

“That’s all a good plan, but…” He sighed and stretched his legs out in front of him, then turned back toward me. “Don’t you think it will be suspicious that we’re doing all this before six a.m.?”

“Yeah, probably,” I admitted. It looked like we’d just fallen into a hurry up and wait trap. I hated those.

Charles seemed unbothered by the inconvenient hour. He smiled over at me and asked, “Don’t you think it would be better if we grabbed some breakfast first and then came back at a more reasonable hour so we can sell our story better?”

“Yeah, probably,” I agreed.

His smile widened, and he pointed at a big, bright sign diner just down the road. “Then, c’mon. Let’s load up on eggs and bacon. My treat.”

I nodded and turned into the parking lot, wishing we would have timed this a little better but happy we were at least making some form of progress.

Charles held open the door for me, which was a small thing but felt monumentally huge. “Ladies first,” he said.

And I blushed.

Me and my stupid crush.