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At a quarter til five, Deanna hangs her apron on the hook on the backside of her office door then turns off the main lights. Just as she’s getting ready to lock the door, she remembers Gavin’s business card.
Chapter Nine
“I’d love to take you to dinner sometimes.”
Deanna clenches the card tightly in her trembling hand. Dinner? Gavin wants to take her to dinner?
Feeling a little lightheaded—talk about things progressing quickly—she gathers her things and hurries out the door. She needs time to process everything that’s happened since early this morning.
“What in the world?” she mumbles and leans down to look at something moving behind the back steps. “Hey there, little fella.”
The tiny gray fuzzball darts from its hiding spot and scurries over behind the trashcans. It occurs to her that the “rat” she’d supposedly seen this morning, wasn’t a rat at all. It had to of been this kitten. Confused as to why he’s out in the cold, she takes a couple steps towards the side of the building to get a better look at it.
“Meow.”
“Where in the world did you come from?”
“Meow.”
“Are you hungry? Would you like some warm milk?” Extending her hand, she snaps her fingers hoping to lure the kitten out.
Daylight is quickly disappearing, but Deanna knows she can’t ignore the fact she has a kitten right outside her door. The poor thing will freeze to death if she doesn’t capture him and bring him inside.
Instead of going upstairs, she unlocks the door and goes back inside the coffee shop. She pulls an opened carton of milk from the refrigerator underneath the counter and pours some into one of the decanters. Using the steamer on one of the espresso machines, she heats the milk until the chill is gone.
She can’t believe she’s going thru all this trouble for a kitten—a kitten that she’ll most likely not even catch!
Slipping her gloves back on, she carries the glass dish outside. “Kitty, kitty, kitty,” she calls out. “Here kitty, kitty.”
Setting it down on the sidewalk, she goes over to the steps and kneels. “I see you hiding back there. Come get some milk before it gets cold.”
Of course, the cat is being stubborn and after a couple of minutes, she begins to get cold. “This isn’t funny,” she explains to the cat. “It’s not funny at all.”
She turns her head when a vehicle pulls into the parking lot. She’d noticed early on that people liked to use the lot for turning around and she supposes this is the case now. Except this time, the vehicle pulls up the building and whoever is driving switches it off.
Startled, the cat leaps from behind the steps and runs off towards the alley. “Dang it,” she cries out.
“Deanna?” Gavin climbs out of the car and hurries over to her. “What are you doing out here? You’re not even bundled up. You’re going to freeze to death.”
She’d wanted to get back to the kitten as quickly as possible, so she hadn’t bothered with buttoning her coat. “You’re not going to believe this,” she says then looks back towards the building. “There’s a kitten running around. I tried to give it some milk.”
“Want me to see if I can catch it?” Slipping his hands inside his gloves, he walks over to where Deanna is pointing.
“He took off running over here.” As if the day couldn’t get any crazier. “Kitty, kitty, kitty.”
“Are you sure it was a kitten?” he asks, a perplexed look on his face. “I don’t see how anything could survive out here. It’s getting down to the teens at night. There’s no way—”
“There it is,” she cries out. “He’s by the steps again.”
Softly tiptoeing, Gavins pleads with the small animal. “Come on, baby. You can’t stay out in this weather.”
As cold as it is, Deanna’s heart melts on the inside. She couldn’t think of anyone else that would go through the trouble. Only Gavin.
As darkness sets in, Gavin is persistent on saving this little guy’s life. Over and over, he continues to go from the steps to the alley.
“Why don’t you go ahead and go inside. I’ll keep trying.”
“I don’t want to leave you out here,” she says between chattering teeth.
