Chapter 6
KAT
Kat spent the next several days actively not calling Cole, and it took a Herculean effort to resist the temptation.
His number was still scrawled on the packaging for the nail gun, promising an easy solution to her many, many problems. But she wouldn’t let herself cave in this time.
She was determined to show him she was not even close to being a “lost kitten.” She was a perfectly competent and capable adult cat.
Maybe even a tiger. A puma, at the very least.
She’d finally gotten a working hot water heater installed in the cabin, so she was able to take a nice, long shower.
When she was all put together and ready for the day, she went to the trailer to start organizing that mess of paperwork.
It was going to be important to put together a reliable budget if she was going to write up a good business plan.
All the doors and windows in the trailer were open to air the place out, and Kat began stacking the papers into what would eventually become file folders. Eventually, she planned to digitize all the records so she could more easily examine and reorganize when she needed to.
Outside, she could hear the rhythmic sound of Tony chopping firewood.
He’d told her it was necessary to keep it up since the woodstove was the only source of heat for the cabin.
Kat had central heating on her list of things to install, but she thought getting the gate and barn taken care of was a higher priority.
Suddenly, she heard a thump, and Tony’s voice cried out.
She dropped what she was doing and ran out to check on him.
“Tony!”
The older man was bent over, and his hand was pressed to his lower back. He let out a stream of curses, which Kat immediately forgave him for. Then, he said, “My back. I think I threw it out again.”
“Oh, no. You should sit down.” She offered him one of the chairs on the cabin’s front porch. “Take it easy.”
He sat as she went inside to get him a glass of iced tea.
By now, she knew what he liked to drink when he took his breaks.
She handed him the glass, and he sipped it.
“Thanks, kid,” he said with a smile that quickly turned into a grimace as his back spasmed again.
“I’ve got to finish chopping this today, though. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow.”
She shook her head. “No way. You’ll only hurt yourself worse. Why don’t you let me take a crack at it? I have to learn at some point, don’t I?”
Tony hesitated but eventually gave in and offered her his gloves. “You’ll want these to protect your hands.”
They were far too big, but Kat tried to wear them anyway.
She figured it would be rude to refuse, considering how thoughtful it was of him to loan them to her.
She set one of the logs down on the chopping block the way she had seen him do.
Then she stood back, aimed the ax, and brought it down.
And she completely missed her target. Tony chuckled from the porch, and Kat turned to glare at him.
“Hey!” she shouted. “Go easy on me, will you? I’ve never done this before! ”
“You’re good. You’re good, kid.” He sat awkwardly in his chair, clearly babying his back. “I’m only laughing because I did the same thing when I first learned how.”
“Suuure you did.” She was sure he was lying to make her feel better, but the thought of this burly old man missing the block made her laugh to herself.
She tried three more times, and it quickly became clear this was not going to be something she was particularly skilled at.
She did eventually manage to hit her target, but the log split quite unevenly, and she wound up chopping away splinters of it over and over again just to get the thing down to a manageable size.
She never was able to split it right down the middle the way Tony had.
From the porch, Tony said, “Why don’t you leave that business to me? I’ll take some time off and make it up when I’m well again.”
Deflated, Kat agreed, took off the gloves, and brought them to the porch. “Sorry, Tony. I guess I’m not great at chopping wood.”
“It’s all right,” Tony said, still holding his iced tea on one knee. “Not everybody can be good at everything. You have talents in other areas. Otherwise, Roy wouldn’t have left the place to you. He wasn’t stupid, you know.”
Kat wiped her now sweaty palms on her pants. “OK. So what else needs to be done? What all do you typically take care of day to day?”
Tony thought a moment. “Well, next I planned to feed Edison and freshen his water.”
“Edison?”
“The emu,” he reminded. “You’ll find his feed in the barn.”
“Got it.” As soon as Tony finished giving her more detailed instructions, she ran to do the job.
There was no way she could get this wrong.
All she had to do was change the bird’s food and water.
How hard could it be? But of course, she should have known.
Because the second anyone has the thought, How hard can it be?
something is bound to go disastrously wrong.
In this case, she got a bucket of food and hauled it into Edison’s enclosure without making sure Edison was fine with the intrusion.
As it turned out, he wasn’t. A low rattle sounded in his throat, and all the feathers on his long neck stood up.
While Kat had never spent time with an emu before, it was pretty clear, even without experience, that Edison was furious.
If he could have said, “How dare you?” he would have.
Instead, he kicked up a bunch of dirt and started toward her, dodging an invisible opponent all the while.
There was no way she could predict what he was going to do next, but the one thing she did know was that she wasn’t going to stand a chance in a fight with an angry emu.
Without waiting to find out how she’d fare, she jumped the fence and backed away. “OK, OK, I’m leaving. Sheesh, bird. I’m not gonna mess with you today.”
Sheepishly, she returned to her own front porch and asked Tony, “How long do you normally take to heal when you throw your back out?”
He shrugged. “It could be anywhere from a few days to a few months. But don’t worry, kid. I can push through it. I’ve done it before.”
She waved her hands in front of her face. “No, no, no. Let’s not make it worse. You need to see a doctor and take their advice, OK?”
He laughed. “Now, I don’t think I’ve ever tried that one before.”
“I can handle everything,” she assured him and herself at once. The problem was, while he seemed to have faith in her ability, she wasn’t able to convince herself. “I might need a little help, though.”
She hated to admit it, but Kat was not the type of person to avoid asking for help after realizing she really needed it.
It was a side effect of her practicality, and practicality always won out over pride for her.
What she craved was success, and she’d do what it took to obtain it, even if that meant swallowing her pride and calling an infuriatingly arrogant jerk from the hardware store to grovel and ask for his help.
“Howdy, kitten,” Cole said when he answered.
She rolled her eyes at that. “My name is Kat.”
“I know that,” he said. “It’s called a nickname. Most women who don’t take themselves too seriously enjoy them. I thought you would, too, since—you know—you seemed like someone who wasn’t uptight like that.”
She snorted. “I am absolutely uptight like that, and you know it. I also take myself way too seriously, as I’m sure you’ve already guessed.”
He hummed in disappointment. “Too bad. It was the perfect nickname. All right, Miss Kat. How can I help you?”
“Are you still in a motel?” she asked.
“Yep.”
“Does that mean you’re not sticking around for long?”
She could almost hear him shrug over the line. “Not necessarily. I go where I’m needed… like a superhero, you know?”
“This would be easier to discuss in person, I think. Can I buy you lunch?” Buying lunch was a tactic she used a lot in her professional life.
It usually got a business relationship off to a good start.
The two of them had gotten off to such a bad start, she was determined to pull out all the stops to professionalize their interactions.
The truth was, the man was extremely frustrating.
His personality clashed with hers in the worst way, but she couldn’t deny that he seemed to have more knowledge than she did.
He was obviously physically strong if his muscular build was anything to go on, and he had experience.
If he really had kept those boards for her, she thought that would be a sign he was at least a little trustworthy.
Her whole life, Kat had been an excellent judge of character, and while this guy was more arrogant than she might like, she got the impression that arrogance came from experience and that it wasn’t entirely unearned.
“Hmm…” Cole thought a moment. “How’s this? I’ve been getting breakfast at a diner across the street. It’s called The Corner Kitchen. Do you know it?”
“Sure, I do,” she answered. “It’s been around for years.”
“Can you meet me there at two?”
“Yep.”
“OK, then. See you there, Madam Kat.”
He ended the call before she could criticize him for being weird with her name again.
“Fine, fine,” she muttered to herself. “Time to butter up the arrogant jerk. Like he needs it.” That was what she said aloud, anyway.
But anyone watching her would have noticed how carefully she chose her outfit, how many different options she tried on before finally settling on one, and how concerned she was with her hair and makeup.
Anyone watching would have come to the conclusion that she cared deeply what this man thought of her and that, no matter how much she protested, she was desperate to impress him.