Her heart plummeted and her gaze fell to the floor. “Just as she could never replace you.”
She looked up.
“I don’t want to spend my life with a replica of Steph. I don’t want a replica of anything. I want the genuine Edith Handelman, one of a kind. Entirely herself. Incomparable to anyone. I love you, Edie. I want to spend my life with you. Please. Please marry me.”
Dr. Edith Handelman was a genius, but it didn’t take a genius to realize there was only one possible answer. “Yes,” she said. And as Jim’s mouth descended toward hers, “Yes, and yes, and yes and y—”
A long time later, breathless and amazed and filled with joy, Edie lifted her head.
“What is it?” Jim asked, nuzzling her neck.
She looked into his eyes, shining as they were with love, and her every doubt was erased by his ardor and his tenderness. “Nothing,” she said, pulling his head to hers. “I just thought I heard a cat purring.”
A Cat’s Game
by Vicki Lewis Thompson
Chapter 1
Kate Archer considered herself a brave woman. She’d skinny-dipped in a river full of piranhas and peed in the jungle while staring at a cockroach the size of a football; yet as she stood on the porch of her sister Maggie’s bed-and-breakfast in the little town of Bisbee, Arizona, her tummy churned.
Maggie was leaving her in charge of the B and B, and Hollywood superstar Jon Ramsey would arrive in less than two hours. She would’ve rather faced a hungry boa constrictor than spend a week with Jon, aka her old high school sweetheart.
“I really appreciate this favor.” Maggie lifted her suitcase and carried it down the steps to the sidewalk. A cool breeze from the recent afternoon rain ruffled her brown hair, cut short for the trip.
“You deserve a vacation, Mags.” Kate liked the short haircut on Maggie, but not for herself. In college, a psych major had told her that she used her dark shoulder-length hair as a shield against intrusive people. It could have been true.
As Kate picked up Maggie’s carry-on, she took a deep breath of Bisbee air, savoring the aroma of cedar and creosote. She loved the summer monsoons, loved watching the storm clouds march in and out from this vantage point on top of one of Bisbee’s many hills.
The Hummingbird Inn was a lovely spot, but Maggie had spent far too much time there since she’d bought it. Her workaholic lifestyle had been Kate’s motivation for saying yes to taking over for a week, and she’d convinced herself that spending that week with Jon wouldn’t be a big deal.
“I deserve a vacation with a man.” Maggie sounded giddy as she walked over to the parking lot adjacent to the inn. “When Ted surprised me with cruise tickets for the same week the Hummingbird Inn will be empty except for Jon, it seemed like fate.”
“Could be.” Kate hoped to hell fate wasn’t involved in bringing Jon back into her life.
Maggie unlocked her truck, which was parked next to Kate’s hybrid. “Looks like somebody’s been out with flyers today.”
Sure enough, a pink sheet of paper flapped from under the wipers of both Maggie’s pickup and Kate’s sedan. They were the only two vehicles in the lot because Jon had booked the entire Hummingbird Inn, as he had for the past two years. So far, he’d managed to keep this hideaway a secret from the paparazzi.
Lowering the carry-on to the pavement, Kate removed the flyer from under her car’s wiper, folded it, and stuck it in her pocket. She’d deliberately dressed down for this reunion with Jon, choosing old shorts and a University of Arizona T-shirt that had faded from red to pink.
She helped Maggie wrestle the heavy suitcase into the passenger seat of the truck and then put the carry-on satchel on the floor.
“Thanks.” Maggie closed the door. “Good thing I’ll be on a cruise and won’t have to lug that suitcase around. I packed my whole damned closet. I wish I’d had time to get a bikini wax, but everything happened so fast.”
“You could probably get one during the cruise.” Focusing on Maggie’s trip helped calm Kate’s butterflies.
“I hope to be way too busy for that.” Maggie grinned and headed for the driver’s side. “In fact, I’m not sure why I packed so many clothes, because I hope not to be wearing clothes all that much.”
“You sexy wench.” Kate wrapped an arm around her sister and gave her a squeeze. “Don’t spend the whole cruise in the cabin, okay?”
“You think we could get away with doing it out on deck?”
Kate laughed, knowing Maggie would never consider sex in a public place. Neither would she or their sister Jess. A childhood spent dealing with their parents’ tumultuous Hollywood marriage and very public divorce had made them all private people. Kate estimated she was the most private of them all.
Gun-shy about men and marriage, the sisters hadn’t dated much, choosing to concentrate on their careers, instead. They’d all received an unexpected boost in that direction last year when their mostly absentee father had died in a boating accident and left them money. Maggie had paid off the B and B mortgage, Jessica had opened a gym in Phoenix, and Kate had financed her research trip to Brazil.
Maggie pulled her flyer off the windshield and handed it to Kate. “Recycle this for me, okay?”
“Sure.”
Putting her hands on Kate’s shoulders, Maggie looked into her eyes. “You’re okay with staying here for the week, right?”
Kate broke out her trusty “I’m okay” smile. She was almost two years older than Maggie, but sometimes Maggie acted like a big sister. “I’m perfectly okay with staying here.”
“So you’re not still hung up on him.”
“God, no!”
“Well, I didn’t think so. Mom does, but I told her that was wishful thinking on her part.”
Kate rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah. She’d love me to hook up with a big-deal actor like Jon. Did she tell you she invited him to lunch one time when I was over there?”
“No, but it doesn’t surprise me. We’re all a disappointment to her, I guess. We were supposed to have our names in lights by now, or at least marry somebody famous.”
Kate made a face.
“Backatcha, sister. Anyway, I just wanted to double-check that you’re cool with the plan, ’cause you’ve been a little twitchy today. I hope this wasn’t a bad idea, but Jess wasn’t available and I really don’t know whom else I could have—”
“Maggie, it’s fine. Good grief, it’s been ten years. Jon and I are completely different people from who we were in high school. And it’s not as if he’ll be up here promoting his next movie or anything.”
“God forbid! This is where he comes to decompress from all that. As I said, he might want you to pick up some groceries so he can cook. And he’ll hike a lot. You probably won’t see much of him.”
Kate shrugged. “Doesn’t matter one way or the other. I’ll be typing up my notes from my research trip.” She really did have work to do; three months’ worth of notes that needed to be transcribed while they were still fresh in her mind. That should keep her very involved.
“Well, good.” Maggie looked relieved. “He seemed fine with it when I e-mailed him that you’d be filling in for me.”
Kate resisted the urge to ask what Jon had said when presented with that news. Asking would only create more questions in Maggie’s mind. “You’d better go. You don’t want to be late.”
“No, I sure don’t.” Maggie gave her a tight hug. “Thanks again.” She climbed into the truck. “Tell Jon hi for me, and tell him I loved him in Synchronicity. He should’ve won the Oscar.”
“Will do. Have fun!” Kate waved as Maggie pulled out of the parking lot. Then she tried not to panic at her sense of abandonment when the truck headed down the hill toward town. Maggie would have to mention Jon’s last movie, which Kate had avoided at the box office because she avoided all Jon’s movies. But, as always, her mother had sent her the DVD in her not-so-subtle campaign.
Kate wished her mom wouldn’t do that, but asking her to stop sending th
e movies would look like an overreaction, and her mom already suspected that Kate had a love/hate thing going when it came to Jon. Once the movies were in her house, she couldn’t resist watching them.
One particular scene from Synchronicity haunted her, no matter how hard she’d tried to forget it. Jon’s character had just walked away from the woman he loved, for noble reasons of course. He stood on a cliff gazing out at the ocean, his jaw set and his body language communicating loss. He’d never looked more appealing.
The setting sun—or lights designed to mimic the setting sun—had burnished his hair, picking out the natural blond streaks woven into the brown. Anyone who didn’t know his grandfather, Hollywood leading man Trevor Ramsey, would think Jon had spent time in a salon to get that effect. But those who remembered Trevor at thirty said Jon closely resembled him right down to his strong jaw and aristocratic nose.
Wire-rimmed designer shades perched on the bridge of that famous nose, which meant the camera couldn’t lovingly detail his famous green eyes. No matter. Kate knew exactly what those eyes looked like and the sensual power they wielded. So did most of the female population of the country and a good part of the world.
Kate hadn’t yet accepted the surreal concept that after all these years of not seeing him in the flesh, she would be spending a whole week at the Hummingbird Inn with him.
She tried calming herself by taking a deep breath of the rain-scented air as she returned to the porch. Monsoon season brought rain nearly every afternoon in the summer, and the Hummingbird Inn, perched at the top of one of Bisbee’s many hills, had a ringside seat for storm watching. Gazing out from the porch over the valley, Kate caught a glimpse of Maggie’s truck on the road as it curved down into Brewery Gulch.
Some people called Bisbee a miniature version of San Francisco—minus the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. The former mining town lay nestled in the hills, a jumble of crooked narrow streets, steep concrete stairs that linked those streets, and weathered brick storefronts transformed into art galleries and antiques shops. The venerable Copper Queen Hotel served as a focal point for the community, and renovated mining cabins clung to the steep hillsides.
Seeing Maggie’s truck on the road that eventually climbed out of the canyon and led to the highway set Maggie’s tummy to churning again. That was the same road Jon would use to drive into Bisbee. According to Maggie, he’d be at the wheel of an inconspicuous sedan that he’d picked up at the Executive Terminal in Tucson after landing in his private jet. Maggie said Jon usually let his beard grow a little to make himself less recognizable.
Kate shuddered. What a way to live. She couldn’t imagine how Jon stood the pressure of that constant spotlight, but then again, he’d chosen that path a long time ago. He’d been marked for stardom from the moment he’d taken his first film role, which he’d landed during the six-month period when they’d dated their senior year.
That role had signaled the beginning of the end for them. He’d wanted fame; she’d wanted obscurity. They’d fought about it, each trying to convince the other to change.
But that hadn’t been the worst part. Even at eighteen, Jon had already attracted the attention of the paparazzi, and pictures of their angry split, which took place rather publicly at the prom, had shown up in a tabloid. Kate could have died of humiliation. She’d vowed never to let that happen to her; yet because of Jon, it had.
At least his fame wouldn’t be an issue this week. But now came the tough part—suffering through the hour or more of waiting until he showed up. Kate headed back toward Maggie’s lovingly renovated Victorian. Maybe she could lose herself in her work.
Once inside, she pulled the folded flyer from her pocket and added it to the one in her other hand. Then she walked into the kitchen where Maggie kept her recycling bins. She’d started to toss the flyers inside when she saw that the border was made up of cats and hearts. She loved cats and paused to look at the flyer.
Scanning the page, Kate quickly figured out it advertised a shelter less than a block away. The text of the flyer intrigued her.
Cupid Cats Shelter:
Bring a little magic and love into your life
Adopt a Cat
As far as Kate was concerned, all cats were magical. She’d grieved mightily when her tabby, Cheeta, had died at the age of fourteen. She’d intended to adopt another cat, but she’d started dating a guy who was allergic. When they’d broken up, she hadn’t been terrifically sorry to see him go, because she wanted to have a cat again.
She would have adopted immediately, except the research trip to Brazil had become a reality. The trip had been great and she hoped to return, but she had no idea when she’d be able to do that. Grant money seemed to be drying up these days.
She really did want a cat. And Jon wouldn’t arrive for at least another hour.
She couldn’t take a cat today, of course. The Hummingbird Inn was filled with all sorts of breakable and scratchable antiques; yet she had an irresistible compulsion to walk down to Cupid Cats and take a look, anyway. What could it hurt? And it sure beat hanging around the B and B waiting for Jon to show up.
Grabbing her purse and the Hummingbird Inn key ring, she locked up the house and started down the street. The cat shelter was easy to spot once she knew what to look for. She’d noticed the pink house with white trim on her way to the Hummingbird Inn two days ago.
The paint job made it stand out, but it was cheerful rather than garish, with pots of petunias hanging from the front porch rafters and a neat green lawn divided by a brick sidewalk. Until now, Kate hadn’t taken a close look at the sign out front. She’d assumed the place was a gift shop or another B and B.
The pink and white heart dangling from a post in the front yard said CUPID CATS in large letters. Underneath that lettering was a white kitten sporting angel wings and brandishing a tiny bow and arrow. Below the logo was a slogan—FALL IN LOVE WITH A CAT.
She might just do that, but even if she found the cat of her dreams, she wouldn’t be able to take it with her until after her week at the Hummingbird. Hoisting her purse more firmly onto her shoulder, she climbed the porch steps and rang the doorbell. It played the opening bars of “Love Is in the Air.”
A plump blonde in a purple caftan opened the door. Kate didn’t recognize her from other visits to Bisbee, and she would have remembered this woman with her sparkling purple eye shadow and bright red lipstick.
New Age music drifted from inside, along with the scent of incense.
“I saw your flyer,” Kate said. “I’m Kate Archer, Maggie’s sister.”
“Ah, yes. From the Hummingbird Inn. Are you looking for love, Kate?”
For a moment Kate wondered if she’d stumbled upon another business entirely. Then she remembered the marketing angle from the flyer. “Yes,” she said. “And I have a special fondness for cats. But I’m not ready to adopt one today. I’d just like to look.”
“Of course, of course. Come in. I’m Esmeralda Fitch. I run the shelter.”
“By yourself?”
“Yes.”
“That’s very ambitious.” Kate walked into a living room filled with rainbows. Sunlight streamed through a west-facing window, and at least ten crystals hung from the curtain rod. She glanced to the other side of the room and noticed the east window treatment was the same. Yep, she was in Bisbee, all right. Crystals, incense, and flutes in the background were part of the local flavor.
“So you’re not from Bisbee, then?” Esmeralda asked.
“No. I’m on a six-month sabbatical from the U of A in Tucson.” The dancing rainbows swirled over the furniture, which was upholstered in a variety of fabrics. Kate searched for a sign of cats but didn’t see any. Maybe they were in another room.
“And your area of expertise is?”
Kate turned to her with a smile. “Monkeys. I’m a primatologist.”
“How fascinating!”
“I happen to think so. So where are the cats?”
“Right here.”
/> “I don’t . . . Oh, wait.” Temporarily ignoring the rainbows, Kate finally saw them. A black Manx jumped down from a black suede easy chair and strolled to a window ledge. A black and white spotted cat stood and stretched before settling back onto a black and white spotted ottoman.
When Kate peered more closely at a tiger-striped sofa, she found three tiger-striped cats lying there watching her. It was like playing a game of Where’s Waldo.
She glanced at Esmeralda. “Did you teach them to lie on the appropriately colored furniture?”
“Not exactly. I just encouraged their natural instinct toward camouflage. Makes cleanup easier.”
“And they all do this?”
“All except Darwin.”
She had Kate at the name Darwin. Surely a cat with that name would be perfect for a woman who studied monkeys for a living. “And where is this Darwin character?”
“Back here.” Esmeralda led the way through a small dining room and turned down a hallway. “He likes my bed.” She stood aside so Kate could peek through the bedroom door.
Esmeralda obviously enjoyed sleeping in splendor. She’d draped her canopy bed in dark purple velvet, with a lighter purple duvet and cushions in various shades of violet. Darwin, a silver and black tabby, reclined amongst the pillows like a king.
Kate felt an immediate connection and then tried to rationalize it as simply admiration for a striking animal. Darwin’s black swirls and stripes looked finger-painted on, and one spot on his right haunch was heart-shaped. How appropriate to find a cat like this at a place called Cupid Cats.
As if sensing an admiring stare, Darwin opened his eyes, and Kate fell in love. His eyes were an amazing shade of turquoise.
“He’s leash trained,” Esmeralda said.
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope.” Esmeralda walked to the bedside table, opened a drawer, and took out a black harness and leash decorated with silver stars and bits of turquoise. Darwin’s ears perked up.
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