Chapter 8 #2
“Old enough to know you should be doing your homework,” Jake retorted.
“I already finished it.” Marley was quick to respond.
He took her word for it. Despite her tendency to get in trouble sometimes, she was an outstanding student.
If she wasn’t doodling in her journal, he’d find her reading a book she’d borrowed from the local library instead. “You know what this calls for?”
“What?”
“Research.” Marley whipped out the smartphone Jake bought for her. It was an older refurbished model, but it had all the capabilities she needed to be a normal teenager.
“Research, huh?”
“Yeah, you know, find out what to call our mission.”
“Right. Of course.”
“Hmm… How to socialize feral cats…”
“Operation Feral Cat sounds fine to me.”
“No, vetoed.”
Chuckling, Jake got up and strode over to his desk. He had a mountain of paperwork to get through. According to his calendar, he didn’t have any more clients to meet for the rest of the day. Grabbing the first stack on his desk, Jake plopped into his seat with a sigh.
He was exhausted.
He got little sleep the night before. Thoughts of Gia kept prancing through his tired mind, doing things to his body they had no right to.
It had been difficult to sleep with a hard-on.
He had to take matters into his own hands to get some relief.
Memories of their last time together flitted through his mind.
While fantasizing about Gia was nothing new, what changed was the picture in his mind of her.
Gone was the eighteen-year-old of his memories, and in its place was the grown-up version.
Her once-baby face had slimmed down, making her look more mature. More like a woman. Her pouty lips and her expressive eyes hadn’t changed. He’d brought himself to climax with thoughts of her lips wrapped around him. The relief was brief, but it had been enough for him to relax and fall asleep.
He should have known Gia would follow him into his dreams. Only instead of pleasant dreams following his orgasm, it was a much different version of Gia visiting him.
The bruises he’d seen on her body only seemed starker and harsher in his nightmares.
She appeared to him like a mirage he tried to follow.
After what felt like hours, he caught up with her, only for her to turn her sad brown eyes on him.
She’d looked at him with such devastation, he could have sworn his own heart broke in his dreams.
He heard her voice in his head, even though her mouth didn’t move.
“Jake, where were you? I needed you.”
The excuses lodged in his throat, strangling him with their inadequacy. He had no answer to give her. He hadn’t been there for her when she needed him the most.
He’d reached for her, but she slipped right through his hands like sand. Even in his own dreams, he couldn’t protect her from whatever haunted her. Black vines materialized around her and dragged her away from him, kicking and screaming. Jake woke with a shout in the early morning hours.
In the hours before dawn, he’d made a promise.
It will be different this time.
This time around, he was older and wiser. He knew what he wanted, and what he’d always wanted was Gia. Safe and in his arms every night. He’d shower her with love and affection until she finally admitted she was worthy of it.
And this time, he wouldn’t be doing it alone. He had Marley. Not for the first time, he thought about how thankful he was to have Marley in his life.
“Hmm… What if we named it, like, Operation Kitty? No, that’s stupid.”
Jake smiled during her monologue. Marley usually talked out loud when she was trying to work through her thoughts. He found it endearing.
“Oh, I got it! What if we called it Operation Tuna Melt? It’s perfect!” Marley punched the air in excitement and leaped out of her seat.
“Where are you going now?” he asked cautiously.
“I need to go talk to Miss Diem and get the ball rolling. We don’t have much time to put things in motion. What if she leaves tomorrow?”
Fear like he’d never felt before seized him. He hadn’t really thought too far ahead, but Marley was right. There was always the risk that Gia would disappear into the night like she had all those years ago, and he’d lose his only shot at winning her back.
“You want me to come with you?”
“Don’t you have work to do?”
“Yes, but this is more important.”
“Okay, then let’s go!”
Not wasting another moment, Jake followed an eager Marley out of his office, gathering his belongings on his way out.
“Julie, we have a mission to complete. Hold all the calls,” Marley instructed the shocked Julie, who stared open-mouthed at the bossy teenager.
“Yes, Julie, what Marley said.” Jake tossed a wink at Julie, who blushed.
“Yes, sir. I mean, miss.”
“All right, let’s start phase one of Operation Tuna Melt.”
“Lead the way.”
Jake followed a bouncing Marley out the door and to his parked car, where they both climbed in.
“Let’s see. I think the community center is still open, so we can start there and then go over to the Willowbrook Inn,” Marley instructed.
“You got it, boss.”
Marley laughed. Jake didn’t miss the way she preened under the praise.
“Okay, so I found a chart that might help us figure out our GP,” Marley announced as they pulled up to the community center.
“GP?” Jake asked as he pulled the car into a front-row parking spot.
“Yeah. Game plan. GP. Duh.” Marley shook her head in disappointment.
Jake suppressed a smile. “Right. Okay, what did you find?”
“Okay, so according to the internet, Gia is actually in her prime years if we’re going by the kitten equivalent of her age.”
“Prime years?” Now he was definitely lost.
“Yeah, so, she’s what?” Marley’s lips pursed thoughtfully, her fingers moving as she did some calculations.
“Twenty-eight years old? And in this chart, that’s the same as being a three-year-old cat.
The life stage she’s in is called prime.
So, yeah, she’s in her prime years. Got it?
” She turned to Jake with eyebrows raised hopefully.
“Got it.” Jake nodded. “How is this helpful?”
“Great question. I’m glad you asked.”
Jake smiled and turned the car off. Turning to Marley, he gave her his full attention and gestured for her to continue.
“Okay, so I also found this cat socialization guide.”
“You found all of this information on the short drive?” His finger tapped against the steering wheel as he waited for Marley to get to her point.
With a finger raised in the air, Marley stated matter-of-factly, “The internet is a powerful tool, my friend.”
Jake bit back another smile. “I guess so.” He loved it when Marley latched onto a subject. She went into everything with all of her energy. “Okay, so what does this guide tell you?”
“The skinny is you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you.” Marley’s face turned serious, as if imparting a warning.
“Yeah, I know the odds are stacked against me.” His lips pressed together in a grim line. “But I’m ready to do whatever it takes.”
“Good.” Marley nodded in satisfaction. “Okay, so the younger a kitten is, the easier it is to socialize them. With Gia being in her prime, it’s going to take more work.”
“Right. You mentioned that.”
“It says here older cats will be fearful, stressed, and anxious, especially in an unfamiliar environment and with unfamiliar people. I’ve never seen Gia around town before, and it seems like she’s been gone a long time, so Willowbrook is basically unfamiliar to her.
We need to get her comfortable in the town. Butter her up.”
“Okay…” Jake nodded. It made sense, of course.
“So, you need to remind her why she loved Willowbrook.” Marley whirled her finger in the air. “Show her around town and what’s changed since she left.”
“Sounds easy.” Maybe too easy.
“Now, the other part is we’re all practically strangers to her, so we need to desensitize her to us.”
Desensitize? Sounds difficult. “And how do we do that exactly?”
“Easy.” Marley clapped her hands together. “You always show up wherever she’s going to be.”
Like a stalker? “Right…”
Marley gasped, vibrating with excitement. “Oh my God, I just thought of something.”
Jake chuckled. “I’m scared to ask…”
“So, you know I’ve always hated how small this town was? Everyone is always in each other’s business?”
“Yes, you’ve mentioned it a few times,” he replied drily.
“We can use this to our advantage!”
“How are we going to do that?” This can’t be good.
“We get the town in on our plan too. Duh.”
Jake paused as he thought about how this could go down.
Regardless of whether they recruited the help of the town, no doubt everyone would get to talking soon about Gia’s reappearance.
What he didn’t want to happen was for news to get out that she was back, which would bring her and Willowbrook unwanted attention.
“If we do that, we have to be strategic about who we ask.”
“Obviously.” Marley rolled her eyes at him. “I’m not going to ask Gossiping Gertrude to help us.”
“Gossiping Gertrude? You mean the old lady who lives on the corner of Maplewood?”
“Yes, her. She is the worst gossiper ever.”
“Okay, so who do we trust?”
“You let me handle that part.”
For whatever reason, Jake trusted Marley. She seemed to read people and their intentions well.
“All right, let’s get inside and talk to Miss Lina about organizing a charity event. We’ll pretend Gia’s also on board so she can’t turn it down.”
“Okay, kiddo. Lead the way.”