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Argh. Now I kind of want to meet her cats. And I don’t even like cats. Or dogs. I’m more of a no-animals-in-the-house type of person because animals mean messes, and I have a nice place.
Tonight, that just makes me feel like more of an asshole, just as how my car did earlier.
I try not to focus on what’s going on down the street, all the houses with blacked-out windows, more with bars, and the people wandering around, looking kind of sinister now that it’s dark out. I don’t want to think about Lindy being alone in this neighborhood with no way to defend herself if something ever happened. As it is, her door frame came apart in my hand. Security is only going to go so far in keeping someone out.
“Well, thanks for trying,” Lindy says when I pull up in front of her house.
Thank goodness there aren’t any shady figures walking past it. Or rather, not at the moment. The whole block is relatively quiet, and at least she has good neighbors. The ones with the kids, I mean. Hopefully, they’d help her if she needed it. The hair on the back of my neck stands when she springs the door and gets out. I get out too because there’s no way I’m not walking her to her door.
She doesn’t appear to mind the neighborhood at all, and her senses aren’t going all haywire. I add brave to the list of qualities she has. She doesn’t say anything and lets me stop at her porch. She’s probably tired and doesn’t think it’s worth the argument, even though I must be giving off some pretty stubborn vibes. She holds up the bag of cotton candy.
“Thanks for this.” I get the feeling it will end up with the neighbor’s kids again, but I don’t mind that at all.
“Yeah, no problem. I’m sorry we couldn’t…um, sorry about this whole thing.”
“That’s okay. If I have to be cursed for a couple of days, I guess it’s worth your granny’s money too. It was an awful lot, and I’m not going to give it back. It just makes me feel like I should have worked harder for it.”
“So you’re doing this out of guilt.”
“Kind of.” Her lips twitch, giving her away. Her eyes dance, too, the light from above the door bringing out the gold motes deep in her irises.
I have the sudden, random, and inexplicable urge to lean forward and kiss her. I think she realizes that’s what I’m going for—maybe I’m puckering all funny—because she steps away fast, punches in the code, and opens the door. There are four felines sitting inside—one big orange and white striped one, one black one, a brown Siamese with blue eyes, and a brown and white tabby. They all let out a chorus of loud meows when they see her.
“Babies!” she croons. “Mommy’s home now.”
She’s a crazy cat lady to the core, and I don’t even find myself minding. Strangely enough, I think it’s quite adorable. She’s quite adorable. She picks up the Siamese cat, kisses it on the head, receives two pink tongued licks that make me imagine its tuna breath, and turns it to wave a paw at me.
“Goodnight, Mr. Cromwell. See you tomorrow at noon.” Suddenly, she grows more serious. “We have one more day to get this figured out. I hope we can find some answers. If we can at least be sure that nothing bad will happen to us if we ignore the necklace completely, it would give me some peace of mind. And I look forward to pointing out all your security system’s weaknesses.” She waves at me with her cat’s black and silky-looking paws, then shuts the door.
I don’t move until I hear the locks engage.
Strangely enough, when I turn and walk back to the car, I find myself grinning like a bloody fool for no reason at all. Absolutely. No. Reason. This whole day has been insane. It started with me getting robbed. Robbed of my possession and sleep. Then I find out that the past few years of work on my new security system means next to nothing. The day just became stranger from there, and tonight, one hundred people failed to get the necklace to glow, meaning the eerie light that comes on when Lindy touches the necklace is very likely soulmate and curse related. There was nothing about this day that I should consider fun or exciting. For a guy who fears commitment and is potentially facing his soulmate, I should be panicking.
Honestly, I started to believe in the curse after it got Ash and Toren. I know it’s real, so I should be freaking out right now.
But surprisingly, I’m not. I slide into my car, and it makes me feel guilty again, but I’m still smiling a little. I want to do something about it—this guilt and neighborhood. I don’t know what, but I’m going to figure it out, and I don’t just mean offering people free security systems to keep themselves safe. No, I want to do more than that.
