“Open it up and see for yourself,” Fort stares down at me. He smells like the outdoors and the brown cowboy hat on his head shows a film of dust.
Tye hasn’t left his perch on the bed. His knees are planted wide apart and he props his elbows on his thighs as he watches us with obvious delight. The white t-shirt he wears barely stretches over his muscles and I see evidence of a tattoo on his left bicep.
They’ve come here alone. The door is wide open and the hallway is empty. At least Getty is nowhere in sight. But Julian isn’t here either.
Fort won’t move but he allows me to step around him. I pry the top off the shoebox and let out a gasp. Though I’ve never been a fan of cowboy boots, the ones in the box could have been personally designed just for me. The buttery brown leather on the bottom contrasts beautifully with the magenta shaft adorned with artfully embroidered flower shapes. If someone were to turn me loose in a boot store and order me to choose a pair, I would run to these. I’m surprised to see they are exactly my size.
“They’re beautiful,” I breathe, my fingertips tracing the intricate stitching. “Thank you.”
“Julian’s idea,” Fort says. “He figured you wouldn’t have any durable footwear.”
“Julian picked these out?” I ask with a peculiar tickle of pleasure in my belly.
Fort shrugs. “Something like that.”
“Go ahead and get dressed,” Tye says. He leans forward and his eyes gleam. “We’ll stay and tell you if you’re really ranch wife material.”
There’s an unmistakable sexual nuance in his voice. I’m mulling over a response that’s a little more diplomatic than “Go fuck yourself” when there’s a ruckus from beneath the bed.
A ball of grey fur streaks out the open door.
“Shit,” Tye says. “Mel needs to know there’s a mouse on the loose.”
“That’s a cat,” Fort corrects him.
“No, it’s not,” Tye says.
“Yeah, it is,” Fort argues.
“I know a mouse when I see one.”
“Clearly, you fucking don’t.”
I can’t hear how their dumb argument ends because I’ve run into the hallway, frantically shouting Louisa’s name.
But she’s not in the hallway. There’s no one at all in the hallway, which looks like a dim corridor from a horror movie.
If I was an escaping cat, where would I go?
Outside, most likely. Louisa isn’t in the habit of running away at home, but then again I’m always very careful when I open the apartment door. All this recent upheaval might be too much for her and she’s panicking. I’m panicking too.
And I’m so frazzled that I can’t remember which way is the staircase. I randomly veer right. This feels wrong after a few steps so I about-face, crashing right into Fort.
“Whoa.” He steadies me and frowns. “Take it easy.”
“I have to find her! She doesn’t know her way around.”
“Neither do you,” Fort points out. “Leave this to me. I’ll find your cat.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“No.” He swivels to look into the bedroom and snaps his fingers at Tye. “You need to make sure she gets ready.”
“Ready for what?” I ask but Fort has already moved on. I watch his broad back and cowboy hat disappear around the corner before returning to the room where Tye is still hanging out on the bed, waiting to be entertained.
“Hey there.” Tye waves. “You know what’s funny? I totally forgot you had a cat.”
My head is starting to hurt. I hate the idea of Louisa huddled with fright somewhere in the bowels of this murky castle.
