Page 41 of Tempted By Her

Clementine just puked on the floor, is that normal?She sent.

I was going to need more information, so I called her.

“Hey,” I said. “Is he acting sick?”

“No, he’s just doing his thing. He puked and then ran under your bed for a few minutes, but now he’s at the window yelling at the birds like normal.” Her voice was panicked, as if she was on the edge of tears. “I cleaned it up, but I don’t know what to do. Should I take him to the vet?”

“I’m sorry to ask you this, but can you describe the consistency of the puke?” I asked.

For people who weren’t used to cats, them getting sick could be really alarming the first time, but sometimes, kitties just ate their food too fast, which I was pretty sure was the case with Clem. I couldn’t blame him, I got excited about food too.

Lark calmed down a little, and I told her to call me back with video so I could see Clementine for myself. She did and he was at the window, trying to attack the birds and didn’t seem to be suffering any ill effects from getting sick, so I told her to monitor him for the rest of the day, give him fresh food and water, and update me if he stopped eating or drinking, or started acting sick.

“Okay, okay, I will,” she said, coming back on the video. Her forehead was pinched with worry, and all I wanted to do was reach through the screen and smooth it away with my fingers before kissing her until she felt better.

It wasn’t going to happen, and she’d said she didn’t want anything like that, so I just thanked her for taking care of Clementine and told her I had faith in her.

“Okay,” she said, sitting on the couch. “I’ll keep my eye on him and update you if anything changes.”

“Sounds good. I’ll talk to you later,” I said.

“Bye,” she said softly before ending the call.

I sat back in my chair and let out a breath.

“Everything okay?” a voice asked, and I jumped as I realized both Layne and Joy had been eavesdropping on my drama.

“Clementine got sick and Lark panicked. I think he’s fine, but I wanted to check in and make sure,” I said, setting my phone down on the windowsill.

“Oh, poor Clem. Tell Lark to give him a kiss for me,” Joy said. “I’m going to convince Ezra to get a cat because I miss having one around.”

“Honor has said no cats, but I think I might be able to sell her on a dog,” Layne said. “Lark sounded really stressed out.”

“I know,” I said, chewing my lip. “I hope she’s not too worried. It’s not her fault my cat is an idiot. He’s orange, it’s in his nature.”

“I’m sure it will be fine,” Joy said, rubbing my shoulder as if I was the one who needed comforting.

“Yeah, I know,” I said, looking outside as a bright red cardinal landed on the birdfeeder. “I just wish she wasn’t so stressed.”

I looked back over at Layne, who was typing on her phone. “I’m going to have Honor drop by.”

“She doesn’t have to do that,” I said. It wasn’t as if Honor knew anything about cats.

“Too late, she’s on her way,” Layne said.

I huffed. I wasn’t mad that Honor was going to check on Lark. I was upset I couldn’t be the one to do it.

“I need more chocolate,” I said.

“You know,” Joy said with a sly smile. “We did buy some Kahlua to add to our hot chocolate.”

“I’ll handle this one,” I said. That way I could pour generously.

“Don’t forget the whipped cream!” Layne said as I made my way to the kitchen.

* * *

The three ofus got a tiny bit wasted on the adult hot cocoa drinks, so we all ended up heading to our rooms for naps before dinner. When I woke up, I found Layne in my room with a glass of water.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com