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I sigh at him. I can’t help it, I’m in love with this cat. I pull him into my lap and say, “I missed you, floofy boy. Did you miss me too? You better have.”
Sebastian blinks at me, then makes one of his trilling sounds. When he rubs his face against my hand, I give him a scratch beneath his chin. “Speaking of missing people, you don’t happen to know where your dad is, do you, floofy boy?”
I nearly fall off my stool when I hear Jack’s voice in my ear. “I’m right here, ciaróg.”
When I turn, I find him lowering himself onto the stool beside me. I hug Sebastian close to my chest as I tip from my stool and into his arms. I tug the beanie from his head and run my fingers through his dark hair. And when he grins at me with those clear blue eyes and that easy expression, I decide that I was right, this cat is lucky, because without him, who knows if Jack would’ve sat beside me the night I first walked in here.
Jack props an elbow on the bar, posture confident and casual because he owns the place. He’s sex on a stool, and I know he knows it. I take in the swoop of hair that falls into his eyes, the black peacoatand black jeans and black wingtip boots, and, damn, this sophisticated-bad-boy look still does it for me.
“I like your everything,” I say.
He pushes the hair from his eyes and looks me over. “I like your everything too,” he says. Jack nods to Sebastian. “He missed you terribly. Isn’t that right, Princess Ugly?”
“And you?”
He shoots me a playful smile. “Oh, I missed you horrendously. And tremendously. And dreadfully.”
I fantasized plenty of times about meeting a cute local and falling into a whirlwind travel romance, but I never imagined it would actually happen. I never thought it would begin with a cute local catching me in conversation with a cat.
When Sebastian chirps at Jack, he gives the cat a scratch between its ears, then eyes my phone on the bar. “Let me guess, it’s dead.”
I grin at him, and he sighs. “Do you need the phone charger?”
I tap my fingers along the screen of my dead phone with a sigh. “Nah, my fiancé is here, and he’s the only one I want to talk to anyway.”
“Lucky him.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Are you flirting with me?”
Jack laughs. “Definitely. Do you mind?”
“Not at all.”
He holds out his hand, and when I place mine in his, he eyes the ring on my finger. “Wow, your fiancé has great taste. What an elegant and sturdy ring, well-suited for travel.”
He flips my hand over so that it rests palm-up on top of his.
“This again?” I say.
“Hush, it’s a good move.”
“I’m starting to think it’s your only move.”
“Now, now, ciaróg, you know that isn’t true.”
The way he looks at me makes me blush. “Oh, all right.”
“Let’s see...” His index finger drifts lightly along the center of my palm. “Well, that’s not good.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “What’s not?”
“Says here that you are very bad at Jenga.”
“Oh, come on.”
“I just say what I see. Don’t shoot the messenger.” He looks at my hand again, then frowns. “Mm.”
“What?”
