AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I feel hopeful as I duck under the garage door after Parker, and then follow him across the driveway. Did he spot Queenie outside or something?
He squats down and aims his phone, flashlight app on, at a patch of dirt between two shrubs. “Check it out.”
I crouch down next to him. There, on the dirt, are four dainty paw prints. For the first time in hours, I smile. “Queenie!”
“She’s here somewhere, I bet. I checked all around the driveway when I got home today and there were no prints. Then, about a half hour ago, I noticed these.”
“Oh my god… so, she’s close!” I bounce up to my feet and yank my own cell phone from my purse. I pull up a light and aim at the line of shrubbery that extends along the pavement.
“Queenie, baby?” I call out, gently and softly. The last thing I want to do is spook her.
“Maybe if we put her food out here…” Parker says. “I mean, she’s around. That’s really good. All we have to do is—”
“There she is!” I grip Parker’s arm and point excitedly up toward the roof over the garage. “Oh my goodness, she’s here!”
My ecstasy at seeing my furbaby takes over and I barely stiffen as Parker loops his arm around my shoulder and rubs my arm. “See? Told you she’d come back.”
He’s so warm, and his tall, hard body feels comforting next to mine. I find myself leaning into him. “You did! And there she is… But how are we going to get her down?”
“I got this, Gem.” He gives my arm one last warming rub. “Keep an eye on her. I’ll be right back.”
As I stand in the empty driveway, listening to the mechanical whir of the garage bay door go up, it occurs to me: we just hugged.
I got happy, and I hugged Parker, and he hugged me back. And when I was tucked up against his side I breathed in his scent. He smelled exactly like he always did after working out. I hate myself for this, but I actually love the smell of his sweat.
My phone rings.
I keep an eye on Queenie, who is now parading along the rain gutter as if walking on log cabin roofs is a specialty of hers, and answer the incoming call. “Carly? Oh, thank god.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Er…” I bite my lip and watch Parker emerge from the garage, a ladder hooked over one shoulder.Your brother’s pheromones. That’s what’s wrong.
Plus, he still has abs of steel, and he says things to make me smile, and he’s rescuing my cat as we speak.
“Everything,” I mutter into the phone. Then I hold the device away so I can talk to Parker. “Should I go up the ladder, you think? And try to get her? She’s really skittish.”
“I got this. Trust me,” he says.
On the phone, I hear Carly pipe up. “Was that Parker? What are you guys doing?”
“Queenie got away, and Parker’s…” I fall silent as I watch Parker climb rung after rung. Annie was right. His caboose is still as cute as ever. He reaches the eves and hops up onto the slanted green-metal of the roof.
“Gem?” Carly asks. “You there?”
“Sorry…. Queenie got away and Parker’s going to try to get her back.”
“Got away where? At the ski house?”
“Yeah, last night.” I hold my breath as Queenie, at the peak of the garage roof now, sits down on her bum and eyes Parker. He lowers himself down onto his haunches and mirrors her stillness.
Is this going to work?
“So, you’ve got Parker there with you, then?” Carly asks. “That is a bad,badidea. You two there together, I mean. If he flirts with you, tell him to quit it, okay? Stick cotton balls in your ears and do not—I repeat—donotlet him fool you. He’s a pig. Seriously.”
My pulse quickens as Queenie stands, her face tilted Parker’s way. He has his back to me, and I can’t believe how still he’s sitting. If I didn’t know better, I’d think there was a stone gargoyle sculpture up on the cabin’s roof, not a warm-blooded, very-much-alive man.
Queenie takes a tentative step toward him.
