Chapter 10
Chapter ten
Nat
Frustration rolled through Nathaniel as he watched Thea go about her day. Of all the times to turn into a cat, it had to be now—when she had been so close to admitting that she still had feelings for him, so close to letting him kiss her.
He wanted nothing more than to turn back into a human so he could tell her how much he loved her, but it wasn’t happening.
That frustrated him more than anything.
Of all times…did it have to happen now?
He yowled in frustration as he had to skitter out of Thea’s way once again.
“Go take a nap,” she said shortly, side stepping to avoid stepping on his tail. “You’re just making me nervous.”
Nat glared at her. He didn’t want to take a nap. He wanted to kiss her.
“Go.” She pointed to the fireplace.
Nathaniel stalked toward the hearth, growling his displeasure as he did so.
A nap didn’t sound like the worst thing in the world, though. He’d been awake rereading Thea’s letters for most of the night, after Eugenia had asked him to walk her home and kept him there for long enough that the café had been dark when he’d gone back.
He was settling in when a familiar feline appeared.
“What are you doing?” Ginger asked as he settled in. “This is my spot.”
“It’s not your spot,” he said. She never slept on this corner of the rug. He would know.
“Yes, it is,” she insisted. “This is my café.”
“It’s Thea’s café,” he pointed out.
And it was his building.
Ginger came up beside him and rubbed her head along his. “Maybe we could share,” she suggested.
Nathaniel recoiled. “I don’t want to share with you.” Not that way.
“Why not?” Ginger asked. “You’re a pretty kitty.”
Nathaniel fought the urge to laugh at her words, which were so obviously copied from Thea. She echoed them in exactly the same tone Thea did when she was speaking to Ginger.
But this was no laughing matter. “I’m Nathaniel,” he reminded her, getting to his feet and putting distance between them.
“No, you’re not,” Ginger said, attempting to follow him. “Thea named you Baker. She asked me if we should keep you and I told her yes.”
“You’re not keeping me,” Nathaniel said. “I’m leaving.”
Because hopefully he was going to turn into a human again at some point, and Ginger was only interested in his cat form, not his human form.
Though he was planning on sticking around in his human form, too.
“I’m going to take a nap,” he said.
Ginger curled up next to him, reaching over to lick the fur at the nape of his neck.
Nathaniel growled, but it was of no use. She was determined and only snuggled closer.
She was entirely too close for his liking.
“You really need to move on,” he told her, but she was already blissfully asleep.
Nathaniel grumbled and looked over at Thea, who was smirking at him.
Of course she was no help. If only he could transform into a human at will, so he could get away from Ginger—and kiss Thea.
When he opened his eyes again, it was nearing nighttime, which surprised him.
How long had he been asleep? He hadn’t thought it was that long, yet he couldn’t see outside anymore.
Thea was bustling around, cleaning up, and he grimaced at the fact that he had been a cat all day, leaving her to do all the work.
It wasn’t fair. He didn’t want to be a cat in the first place. He wanted to help Thea, but he couldn’t—not in this form.
Frustrated, he slunk over to her as she settled into her chair and gave him a glance. “Do you want to sit with me?” she asked.
Nathaniel’s heart leaped at the invitation, and he quickly jumped onto the chair next to Thea.
He curled up beside her—it was more than he could have asked for to be able to stay with her—and he was grateful for the opportunity, even if he knew that leaving her side would be harder than ever.
But he couldn’t resist the urge to snuggle close while he could.
“Now I know why you were so oddly helpful the other night,” Thea teased.
“You were Nathaniel all along. I wonder what Ginger thinks of you. I’m assuming you can understand her, but perhaps you can’t.
You’ll have to tell me when you turn back.
Do you think it will be soon?” She looked at him and he did his best to nod his head. He didn’t know…but he hoped so.
“I’m glad to hear it. I would hate to find out you were forced to remain a cat for the rest of your life. I’m sure you would, too.”
Nathaniel let out a laugh, which ended up sounding more like a cough.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Thea said with a grin. “This is rather amusing, you know.”
Nathaniel glared at her, and she simply laughed again. She could think it was funny all she wanted, but he couldn’t. It would probably be more amusing if he knew when he would change back, but as it was, he was afraid that he wouldn’t for quite some time—and he didn’t know what to do with that.
They sat in comfortable silence while Thea worked on her crocheting, occasionally pausing to pet Nathaniel, almost as if it was habit. The first time she did it, she paused and looked at him, as if to gauge his reaction. But when he started purring, she relaxed and reached over to pet him again.
Nathaniel was ecstatic, even if it felt a little odd to have Thea petting behind his ears. But apparently, his cat reflexes were stronger than his human sensibilities, because he couldn’t resist leaning into it.
Sitting here, next to her, was the most comfortable he’d ever been.
But all too soon, Thea sighed and got to her feet. “I’m off to bed,” she said. “You’re going to stay down here.”
Nathaniel let out something between a meow and a growl.
As if he would do anything different.
“I won’t be sick in the morning, so there’s no need to come and check on me.”
He let out another noise. The only reason he had gone into her room was because she hadn’t come down, and it had been long past sunrise. It wasn’t his fault she had gotten sick and he happened to be close.
She smiled and scratched him under the chin, and he leaned into it, stretching out his jaw. “Oh, you like that, don’t you?” she teased.
He gave her a disgruntled meow, but he couldn’t stop himself from purring at the same time.
Thea laughed. “I’m off to bed. I’ll see you in the morning. Hopefully you’re a human again, and we can discuss what happened between us—and why you’re turning into a cat.”
He watched her leave, carrying her yarn with her, slowly ascending the stairs. Nathaniel settled in by the fire, letting out yet another disgruntled noise when Ginger came and nestled against his side.
How was he going to convince Ginger that he wasn’t interested?
What if he stayed a cat forever and had to fend Ginger off for the rest of his life?
He just wanted to be human again.
***
Nathaniel stretched and opened his eyes. Every part of his body hurt—because he was lying on the floor in front of the fireplace, once again a human.
Oh, thank goodness.
He needed to figure out why he kept shifting back while he slept, but at least he was human again.
Being human was better.
He stretched his arms and rotated his head around, trying to work out the crick in his neck.
He missed sleeping in his bed.
But perhaps now, he could finally kiss Thea again.
He got to his feet and made his way to the kitchen. Since he was here, he could do something he’d been wanting to do for ten years: make Thea her morning tea.
He boiled water and pulled out a blueberry muffin, left over from the day before, placing a dough scraper next to it. If he had the chance to tease her about calling her a wingleplucker again, he would. It had been far too long since he had.
Footsteps sounded on the stairs, and Thea appeared, poking her head around first to look at him. He took a step forward, hiding her breakfast behind his back.
Her smile when she saw him was worth every bit of pain he’d suffered from sleeping on the floor. “You’re back to your normal form,” she said, her voice not at all betraying that she was excited. But he could see the twinkle in her eyes.
“I am,” he said with a sigh. “I don’t know for how long, though, so we shall see.”
“Hopefully it will be permanent this time.”
“I hope so, too,” he said, the words heavy. What if it wasn’t? That had been the longest he’d stayed in his feline form.
“Cheer up,” she said with a smile. “You never know what will happen.”
He raised an eyebrow. Thea being optimistic? That was usually his job. Apparently he’d fallen farther than he thought. “You mean I never know when I will next transform?”
Thea shrugged. “I’m sure it’s not all that bad. You seemed to enjoy it last night.”
Nathaniel turned red at the reminder. “I’m only so much in control of the cat reflexes,” he muttered.
“I thought it was cute,” she said.
“Because cute is just what I want to be.”
“Cute is good.”
“You make it sound like I’m turning into a puppy.”
Thea’s eyes sparkled as she stepped closer to him. “Isn’t a kitten the same thing?” she asked.
“I’m not a kitten,” he said, with as much dignity as he could muster. “I’m a fully adult cat, thank you very much.”
Thea’s lips were twitching in amusement.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you,” she teased. “You’re a very pretty kitty.”
Her words were far too close to Ginger’s last night.
“I appreciate the apology,” he said, with as much dignity as he could muster. “I don’t like any of this.”
“I can’t imagine why not,” she teased, not helping. “I apologize. It’s not every day you find out that the man you love is turning into a cat on a regular basis. I don’t really know what to do.”
“It’s not regular,” he began, but then his brain caught up to what she had said.
Wait.
“You love me.”
Thea laughed a little. “I thought that would be obvious,” she said, sarcasm dripping from her words. “Was it not?”
Nathaniel could hardly find words.
“I made you breakfast,” he said, stepping to the side to reveal the steaming mug.
He needed a moment to gather his thoughts.
She loved him.
After all this time, all the years of avoiding him, all the time spent waiting for her…she loved him.
Thea’s eyes began to fill with tears as she took in what he’d prepared for her. “You remembered,” she whispered, taking a step closer.
“Shall I cut your muffin with the wingleplucker?” he asked, reaching for the dough scraper. He smiled, but he wasn’t focusing on what he said, his thoughts a million miles away.
She loved him.
“Nat,” Thea said, turning to him, his name catching in her throat.
“Thea,” he said gently.
After so many years of waiting and wanting, being this close to Thea seemed to have short-circuited his brain, and he didn’t know what to do or what to say.
She took a step closer to him. “You and I have more in common than anyone. You understand me, you know who I am, and you are the man I have wanted for...”
“Ten years,” he said.
After ten years of missing her and wishing he could do something about it, Nathaniel found himself completely frozen as she closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“I don’t want to miss another moment,” she said, looking into his eyes. “Whether you’re a human or a cat.”
“I want that, too.” He wrapped his arms around her waist. “But I don’t know what will happen, if I’ll be turning into a cat for the rest of my life, or if someday it’ll become permanent and I’ll never be human again.”
“I don’t want you to be trapped with me in that way, but there is nothing I would rather do than spend time with you in any form, and we’ve already wasted too much time.”
“I agree,” Nathaniel said, a smile tugging at his lips as he pulled her closer, her body fitting against his like she belonged there. “You’re sure about this?” he asked softly.
“More sure than I’ve ever been,” she said.
All his dreams were coming true—except for the part where he randomly turned into a cat.
But he’d worry about that later.
“I love you,” he said quietly. He had to make sure she heard it, too.
Thea’s eyes sparkled as he reached up to cup her cheek, slowly leaning in, giving her a moment to change her mind.
Then—THUD! A thunderous knock on the door made Nathaniel jump, his fur—no, his hair—standing on end, a small hiss escaping his mouth.
Thea burst into laughter as she pulled away from him. “Apparently, your cat reflexes don’t go away when you’re human.”
Heat rushed to Nathaniel’s cheeks as Thea made her way to open the door.
Once again, interrupted.
But at least now he knew that she loved him.