Chapter Nine #2
“Good. For such a tiny town, you sure hide yourself well. It’s been ages since I last saw you.” Theo chuckled. “Tell your dad we really appreciate your company wanting to sponsor our shelter. We get more and more animals every day and donations have been down.”
“Anything we can do to help.” Drew turned to me. “Theo, this is Ellie, my assistant, and my girlfriend. She’s here to help me better understand how our businesses can work together.”
“Ellie, nice to meet you.” Theo shook my hand.
“Nice to meet you, too.” I kept my tone normal when inside I wanted to kick up my feet and swoon over Drew introducing me as his girlfriend again.
Theo ushered us inside. The room opened up to a reception area that had a bench lining the wall and featured a large reception desk towards the back. To the side of the desk, shelves were stocked with various pet care items for sale.
We waved to the young woman manning the desk as we followed Theo to the back area where the animals were kept.
There were two small rooms on our right as we walked down the hall. “Those are the exam rooms.” Theo pointed to the next door on the opposite side. “That’s the kitchen area where we do food prep.”
Theo opened the door after the kitchen, and enclosure after enclosure stood along both walls.
Dogs greeted us in each kennel. Some sat and wagged their tails, their sorrowful eyes asking to be taken home, and others jumped up on their chain-linked doors hoping to gain our attention.
As we passed more and more of those sweet faces and I met their little puppy eyes, I hoped I conveyed how sorry I was that I couldn’t take them all home with me.
As we followed him, Theo often reached into the stalls to scratch behind their ears or offer a kind word. And while the place was clearly well cared for, seeing all of the dogs in their cages broke my heart.
I had to fight the urge to adopt each and every one.
“Are you more of a dog person or a cat person?” Theo asked me as he stopped to greet an affectionate pit bull mix. The dog, Jupiter, according to his tag, whined when we moved on.
“Oh, dog for sure,” I said. We were getting to the end of this row when I noticed three tiny chihuahuas. “Aw, hey little guys! You three are so adorable!”
Theo grinned. “Those three are brothers. Meet Butch, Hulk, and Tank. Want to say hi?”
“Of course!” I tucked my phone into my back pocket.
Theo opened the door and lifted them into his arms. I followed him to a makeshift lawn enclosure lined with astroturf where he set the little puppies down and opened a gate for me to join them.
I entered, plopped myself down, and let them climb all over me.
As I let them sniff, lick, and nip to their heart’s content, Theo discussed the schedule they had for the animals and how they took care of each breed.
He explained how the vet bills alone were expensive even with Marc, Drew’s brother, the town’s vet offering a sliding scale.
After I got my puppy fill, I stepped out and reached into my back pocket. With my phone halfway out of my pocket, the nearby dogs began to bark louder and louder. I threw a confused glance at Theo, not sure if I’d done something to set them off.
“Stormy, you’ve got to stop doing this,” Theo muttered and tried to grab a fast moving ball of fur.
My arms flailed as something bumped into me throwing me off balance. I yelped and lunged toward Drew to get away from whatever was after me. Which was a good idea in theory, but not in practice. It tangled up in my legs and the balance I thought I regained didn’t hold.
An indigent yowl filled the room, and I went down hard on my butt.
“Shit, Ellie! Are you okay?” Drew knelt next to me.
Besides the phone shaped bruise on my ass, I was more embarrassed than hurt.
A loud meow sounded again and then a furry head butted my hand, asking for pets.
One of the biggest cats I’d ever seen was impatiently waiting for me to heed its command.
She was either Persian or part Maine Coon.
Her multi-colored coat was big and fluffy and her golden eyes judged me.
“Well, hot damn.” Theo continued to stare at us with a weird look on his face.
No, wait he was only looking at me with the strangest expression.
“Stormy gets loose all of the time. Either she has an accomplice we don’t know about, or she’s been figuring out the lock system we use on the cage doors. ”
I frowned. Besides being exceptionally smart, it sounded like this Houdini escape wasn’t new. So why did Theo keep tossing me and Stormy looks? If he kept it up much longer, I was about to have a complex. Did I hit my head? Or have something disgusting all over me?
I quickly looked down and checked out my clothes. They seemed fine.
He must have correctly read my facial expression because he continued speaking. “She never approaches strangers. We have to fight with her just to get her back in her cage or to touch her at all. I’ve never seen her interact with someone willingly.”
Not being a cat person, I was on my guard. I tentatively reached out my hand to her with one eye open and the other closed. “Hi, Stormy. Please don’t bite or scratch.”
She stopped headbutting my arm and stared up at me with a look of disapproval on her face. One that seemed to be saying, silly human I would never!
But we both knew the truth. She would.
Then with a shake of her head, she slid under my hand, on board with this petting thing.
I scratched her until she climbed into my lap, purring away. I believed Theo, but either he had the wrong cat, or Stormy was trying to trick me into adopting her. Which, let’s be honest, that’s the way of the cat.
There was something soothingly hypnotic about petting her. I relaxed, and the anxiety that had been stressing me out over the past few days was diminishing.
And I just felt … joyful.
I’d wanted a cat as a child, but my sister Celia wanted a dog, so that’s what we got.
And after a few years, I wondered why I wanted a cat in the first place because dogs were just so adorable.
Now, I wondered if I didn’t convince myself I didn’t want a cat just to protect my heart because it had been so disappointed.
Drew dropped to the floor beside me, suit and all. I had to avert my eyes. Seeing him like this made him even sexier, and I had to ignore the full-on body tingle that swept over me.
He reached out his hand, and Stormy threw him a dismissive glare. When Drew tried again, Stormy hissed and swiped at him.
“See, that’s the Stormy we know and love!” Theo winced when a thin scratch appeared on Drew’s hand. “Crap. I’m sorry Drew. I’ll grab you an alcohol prep pad.”
“No big deal. It happens,” Drew responded good naturedly as he took the first aid kit Theo handed him.
“Bad kitty,” I reprimanded Stormy, knowing it was futile. Although, I swear if a cat could roll her eyes, she just did. Then she went back to smacking Drew’s other hand with her paw, but without claws this time.
We stayed on the floor like that, for a while. Stormy had seemed to claim me. After a bit, I needed to get up so we could tour the rest of the facility. “Sorry sweetie, but we need to move on.” My new kitty friend gave a loud, irritated merp when I stood.
Theo, with another shake of his head, continued on with the tour. He showed us where the small animals were kept, the triage area, and then finally where the cats lived. Stormy followed at my feet the whole time.
We finished the tour with Theo pointing out the areas where they could use help and the long list of supplies they were in constant need of. Drew and I brainstormed how we could position our marketing team to include the shelter and get more money and items donated.
Now that it was time to go, Stormy let me have a quick snuggle before I put her in a cage. Her golden eyes followed me, clearly disappointed that she wasn’t going too.
“I’m sorry,” I crooned. My heart twinged at leaving her behind. “I don’t live here. I can’t take you with me.”
With one last look, she spun in a circle and laid down, her butt facing me.
I had to laugh.
“That was pretty extraordinary.” Theo still hadn’t gotten over Stormy’s unexpected attachment to me.
I tried to lighten the mood. “She probably realized I was a sucker and would keep petting her.” I didn’t want to admit that it was hard to walk away and not scoop her up and bring her home to the B&B.
As if it could sense I was happy, my phone rang. I checked the screen, and of course it was the last person I wanted to talk to.
My sister.
I let it go to voicemail. I didn’t want to admit to her that I hadn’t looked for a venue for her new country-fied wedding.
Part of me hoped by now she’d have changed her mind about coming to Ruby River.
My phone buzzed a minute later when she texted me. Then another text. And another. I needed to silence my phone because its continuous vibrations were starting to rival the vibrator I’d stuck in my luggage at the last minute.
My phone rang again, this time buzzing in my hand. And again I declined the call.
It rang again. Decline.
After the fourth time, I excused myself to answer. I couldn’t type anything with calls constantly coming in. My family was relentless.
“Please tell me this is an emergency,” I pleaded, instead of saying hi. I gave an apologetic smile to Theo and Drew and headed around the nearest corner for some privacy.
“Eleanor?” My mother had perfected the shocked/peeved sounding voice over the years. In one word, she made me feel like I was in the wrong for not answering in the way she expected.
“Yes, it’s me. I’m at work right now. Can’t we just talk later?” I realized my mistake as soon as the words were out of my mouth. I asked her if we could. Which gave her the permission to ignore my question. And that’s exactly what she did.