Page 36 of Broken As Puck

The rest of his actions toward me since the season began could be explained by guilt. But this?

I wasn’t so sure.

“Is he your boyfriend?”

I jolted in surprise and glanced over my shoulder at the young lady who’d approached while I’d been distracted.

“Who?” I asked, hoping she hadn’t seen the photo I’d been staring at so intently.

She pointed to the camera screen. “Him.”

“N-no.” I immediately turned the camera off and hung it from my neck, as if doing so would rewind time, so she wouldn’t have noticed anything. “Why do you ask?”

She looked taken aback and blinked rapidly, her cheeks turning pink. “It’s just that he kept looking at you all day, and I could have sworn…” She shook her head. “Obviously, I read too much into it.”

Huh. I frowned. Perhaps I hadn’t been imagining that emotion on Matt’s face after all. But if not, then what the hell was going on and, more importantly, what did it mean for me?

Chapter Twelve

MATT

I bent to look Wasabi in the eyes through the top of his fancy new carrier. “Do not maim either of my parents.”

The cat stared back at me, unimpressed.

“How about this? If you don’t bite or make either of them bleed, I’ll give you five treats when we get home.”

Wasabi meowed.

I sighed. “Fine, six. You drive a hard bargain.”

Wasabi licked his lips, obviously pleased with himself.

The door in front of us swung inward and my mother crossed her arms over her chest and raised her eyebrows. “Is there a reason you’re hovering on our front porch like a traveling salesman?” She spotted Wasabi and gasped. “Who is this…interesting-looking fellow?”

I narrowed my eyes. “I feel like you were going to say something else just then.”

She shook her head. “He’s so…cute?”

“He’s adorable,” I told her. “Are the windows and doors all shut?”

She looked at me archly. “It’s raining, so yes, I’m fairly sure they’re shut.”

I lifted the carrier with Wasabi inside and he squawked in protest. “Let’s double-check before I let him out.”

Mom stepped back to let me in, and I set the cat carrier inside the doorway. The two of us did a circuit around the inside of the house to make sure there was no way for Wasabi to escape and then, that done, I carried the cat into the living room, where Dad was lounging on the sofa, a paperback book on his lap and glasses sitting low on his nose.

He slipped a bookmark between the pages to keep his place. “What’s this?”

“Your first grand-cat,” I declared, gesturing for dramatic effect. “Since I haven’t given you any grandchildren yet, this is a good-faith gesture.”

Mom snorted. “I hope your actual children have better genes.”

“What are you saying about my fur baby?”

“Er, nothing.”

I smirked to myself. I knew Wasabi was ugly, but he was one of those creatures that was so ugly he was cute. I kneeled beside the carrier and opened the front so he could wander out. He stretched, then strolled over to Dad, who bent and offered him a hand to sniff. Wasabi swatted his hand, turned his fluffy tail, and stalked away.