My heart clenched.
My ovaries exploded.
“You’ll, um…” I stammered, “have to teach me your tricks.”
“You want to hop into a bath with me…?”
“Yes.”
“And bathe a cat?”
Minus the cat? Yes, right now.
He looked down at Moose. The Bengal cat extended his neck to give Marius a kitty kiss.
Ugh, so freaking adorable.
The man’s and the cat’s eyes were almost the same green-gold color.
I am not thinking about all that shifter-romance soft-core porn I consumed after my breakup.
“I, um… think we should do it tomorrow.”
“The bath?” he asked.
My ovaries started building him a shrine.
“Uh, the confronting of Rosie?”
The toweling of Moose paused.
“If sheisthe murderer, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“So,I think my fertility issues are cured. I felt my ovaries wake up from the infinite boot loop they were stuck in,” I said to Zoe, sitting down across from her at Girl Meets Fig. It was early for the restaurant, but the Santa Claws Café was hopping. The Svensson sisters were excellent at being shop girls and also seemed to be unnervingly good at coercing tips from people.
“You never had fertility issues,” Zoe countered as we shared the leftover twice-baked potato bites from dinner service the previous day. “You had a shitty piece of shit of a husband, and your ovaries were looking out for you. Now that you have a hottie who likes cats and has a job, the baby-making factory is back in business.”
“Marius doesn’t just have a job—he has a smoking-hot body.” I sighed then looked down at my own stomach and thighs. Even when I was at my thinnest, Gran liked to assure me I was sturdy.
“Gran always said you need a working-class guy. She’d advise, like, a roofer or an electrician. They like a girl with some meat on her bones. ‘Honest men like honest women,’” I said, quoting Gran. “Marius isn’t a firefighter or even blue-collar adjacent. He’s used to those New York City women.”
“What guy doesn’t like tits and ass?” Zoe countered. “Brooks is dead, gone, and buried. Don’t let his ghost live rent-free in your head, fucking up your self-esteem. Marius was absolutely flirting with you. He literally asked you out.”
“I don’t know…”
“He was bathing a cat shirtless. He wassodoing that on purpose.”
“He said he doesn’t sleep with clients anyway.”
“He’s a lawyer. He’s probably already found the loophole to exploit. I bet he just wants to make sure you’re not going to freak out and report him to the bar.” Zoe glared at me. “You aren’t, right?”
“I’m not reporting him.”
“No freaking out either?”
“Maybe.” I chewed on my lip. “Maybe I need to just concentrate on clearing my name. I’ve only been a widow a week.”
“Funny,” Zoe said flatly, “because Brooks has been dead to me for the past three years.”
