Chapter 41
LANEY
I woke to the warmth of sunlight pouring through the curtains and a strange pressure on my chest. It felt like someone had dropped a weighted blanket on me while I’d been sleeping, but the blanket was vibrating.
Blinking against the brightness, I sat up slightly and gasped when I found myself staring straight into the eyes of a very large gray cat perched proudly on top of my ribs. “Oh, hello. Who are you?”
I blinked a few more times, half convinced I still had to be dreaming, but the cat didn’t flinch. He also didn’t disappear, which meant that somehow, a real, live cat had made its way into the fortress of a penthouse and decided to take up residence right on top of me.
The cat didn’t move as I stared at it, just sitting there like one of those stone gargoyles on the side of a cathedral.
It was purring like an idling engine, which explained the vibrations I’d felt when I’d woken up, but then, with the most casual sense of entitlement ever, it reached out a paw and tapped me on the cheek.
Almost like it was curious as to what I was doing here, or maybe like it was wondering where I’d suddenly come from. In fact, it was looking at me kind of like I was the one who’d invaded its bed.
If this made any sense at all, it would’ve been hilarious, but considering that I was a million stories up in the air, in a neighborhood not known for gardens and pets, and a cat had magically appeared in Sterling’s bedroom, I was too confused to laugh.
“What in the actual?—”
“He likes you,” Sadie’s voice chimed cheerfully from the door, confusing me even more.
I blinked again and turned my head to see her standing there, grinning like she’d just dropped off a winning lottery ticket.
Perfectly put together again, her red hair was pulled into a sleek ponytail right on top her head, her blue eyes lined with coal, and she wore a gorgeous, floral-printed sundress.
Meanwhile, I’d put on one of Sterling’s shirts and a pair of pajama shorts before I’d fallen asleep. I probably looked like a complete disaster in comparison, but there was a strange cat on my body and a girl I didn’t really know but who had decided we were going to be friends in my bedroom.
I would survive looking like a wreck. The confusion, however, was possibly going to kill me.
“What is that?” I asked, half-asleep and seriously wondering if perhaps I was still dreaming after all. “Where did it come from?”
Sadie strode into the room with that grin still plastered to her lips and perched herself on the edge of the bed. “Laney, meet Jack. He came here with me, but he’s yours now.”
“He is?” I glanced back at the cat, noticing that he had yellow flecks in his eyes and some darker gray tufts of hair on his chest.
Jack blinked slowly right back at me, but I couldn’t tell if it was out of affection or judgment. It felt like it might possibly be both. “Uh, why did you bring me a cat?”
“You needed the company and he needed a home. Plus, he’s gray, like this apartment.” Sadie waved a hand around the room like this was all perfectly normal. “Jack is also as emotionally unavailable as your husband, so I figured they were a match made in heaven.”
I stared at her, wondering if the cat—Jack—would be offended if I sat up a little more. “You adopted a cat for me because he reminded you of Sterling ?”
She leaned against the foot of the bed, entirely unaffected by the chaos she’d potentially just dropped into my life. I didn’t even know if Sterling was allergic, let alone if he actually wanted a pet.
“I mean, why not?” Sadie shrugged and smiled at me. “I asked if you liked animals and you said yes. Plus, Jack likes strong, independent women with minor control issues and gentle voices. That’s you in a nutshell. Him being exactly like Sterling is just the cherry on top.”
I opened my mouth to argue, to ask her if she had any idea whether Sterling was allergic.
Jack shifted his weight on my chest and let out a deep, contented sigh.
I scrubbed a hand across my face before gently lifting him off me and setting him down on the mattress so I could finally sit up.
“He crawled onto my chest like he owns it.”
“Well, he kind of does. At least, you own him now. Legally speaking, that is. I had his chip re-registered this morning, which means he owns you right back.”
I groaned. “Sadie?—”
“Don’t fight me on this,” she said with her eyes going wide just like a puppy’s. “He’s even named after Jack Nicholson’s character in The Shining. Isn’t that still Sterling’s favorite movie?”
I closed my eyes and tried convincing myself that it was fate. Jack was so ugly that he was cute and I really did like animals. She’d also mentioned that he’d needed a home, which meant that if I didn’t accept him, he wouldn’t have anywhere to go.
“It is still his favorite movie.” I opened my eyes and looked at her again. “You wouldn’t happen to know if Sterling’s allergic, do you?”
“Oh, he’s definitely not. I used to pick up any stray kitten I found on the way home from school, and sometimes, he helped me carry them. He is going to hate it, though.” She grimaced. “For some reason, he’s not overly fond of cats.”
I glanced at Jack and reached out to scratch behind his ears.
When he started purring again, I smiled and turned my attention back to her.
“Nah, Sterling’s going to pretend to hate it but get emotionally attached within the next thirty-six hours.
He’s going to have built Jack a custom window seat before the end of the week. ”
Sadie pumped her eyebrows at me, looked smug as hell. “Exactly.”
Jack stretched languidly and settled against me as I kept scratching behind his ear without really thinking about it. His purr went from an idling engine to full-on revving.
Sadie’s entire face lit up with her smile as she flicked her gaze between the two of us. “I knew it. I told you that it was meant to be. You’re soulmates.”
I couldn’t deny that it felt pretty good having him at my side, but that didn’t mean she’d done the right thing, bringing him here. This wasn’t exactly a good time. Although Sadie and I really didn’t know each other that well, I decided to level with her, knowing I needed to be honest.
“I have a husband I barely understand, a company under siege, and now you’ve brought me a cat named after a character from a horror movie.”
She nodded. “The cat is like, the best part of what’s happening in your life right now, but admit it, you’re thriving.
You and Sterling have faced your first real obstacle together as a married couple and you overcame it together.
Your company was under siege, but it’s not anymore, and now, you’re at the part where there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
It’s not really where you are that matters, Laney. It’s how you look at it.”
I gave her a flat look in response, but the corners of my mouth were fighting to form the shape of a smile. “Okay, fine. He can stay, but I’m going to have a shower. Don’t let him eat my phone or something while I’m gone.”
“He’d never do that.” She giggled. “Don’t worry about him. I’ll babysit and whip us up something to drink for when you’re done.”
I shuddered to think what she meant by that, but I nodded and got up, striding over to the bathroom and shutting the door behind me. After I turned on the water, I stripped but then just stood there for a moment to catch my breath.
As I stared at my reflection in Sterling’s massive mirror, I realized that I looked marginally better today. Still tired, maybe still a little raw, but not quite as broken. I glanced at the shower, but since I didn’t see any steam yet, I looked around to familiarize myself with the space I was in.
Up until today, I’d never even been inside the master bedroom at the penthouse. I’d avoided this level of the place like the plague, at first not wanting to intrude on his private space, but later on, because I hadn’t wanted to be tempted to wait for him naked in his bed.
We’d moved past that now—to the point where he’d asked me to move in here.
I hadn’t done it yet, but I had brought the bag I’d packed when I hadn’t known how long we’d be staying at his parents’ place up here.
At least that meant I had some clothes in the room that I could change into when I was done in the shower, but still.
Officially moving into his bedroom was a big step.
But I wasn’t scared. It felt too right to be wrong.
Sterling and I had taken several big steps over the last few days and all of them had brought us closer together.
We were married—literally for better or for worse, for now—and I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could get.
Kind of like somewhere along the line, we’d become actual newlyweds. Maybe Jack was part of that too, Sterling and I slowly building our lives together as a couple.
By the time I emerged from the bathroom, the gray ball of fur was curled up in the middle of the bed like a Viking who’d claimed it as his territory.
I didn’t know how Sterling would feel about a cat sleeping on his bed, but I didn’t try to move Jack either.
He looked so comfy and at home already that it felt like it would be criminal to disturb him right now.
Instead, I padded softly around the bed to my bag, got dressed, and then followed the scent of coffee to the kitchen.
What I walked into, however, didn’t look anything like Sterling’s usually immaculate, polished space with every surface wiped down so there wasn’t a crumb in sight and every dirty dish immediately placed in the dishwasher.