Just Add Heat (16 page)

“Yes.”

“Why? I
mean, what made you say that? Did you remember?”

“No, not
really. It’s hard to explain. I was looking at you and I couldn’t hold back the
words. I could feel that I love you. Do you know what I mean?”

He shook his head. “Are
you saying you don’t know
why
you
love me you just do?”

That was it in a
nutshell, but it didn’t sound quite right. I didn’t know what
would
sound right though, so I just
shrugged.

“Do you feel bad about
the sex?” Why did he have to ask
that
question? I had tried to put the sex out of my mind for the last half hour, but
I had done a pretty poor job of it.

“I don’t feel bad; I’m
just thinking maybe we should have waited.” He just looked at me. “Like you
said.” I had to add that because he had been right. I
wasn’t
ready. But damn, it had felt good.

He nodded
to me, but he looked disappointed. I wished I could take the last couple of
hours back, to before I demanded a kumquat, but the only way that would happen
without a time machine was with amnesia, and I already had that.

“I’m not
sorry about it, Carter.” I reached out to touch his hand and he turned his over
and captured mine before I could move it.

“I’m not
sorry, either.” We sat there again, not talking but connected. It felt good.

“Do you
want a glass of wine?” I figured some wine might loosen us up with the added
bonus of immunizing me against my mother’s visit.

“That
sounds good. Red or white?”

“White.
I’ll get the glasses.” He grabbed a bottle of wine out of the refrigerator
while I went over to the cabinet and pulled out two glasses. I looked at the
label on the bottle before he opened it. Good choice. I stood there while he
opened the bottle and poured us each a healthy glass. I raised my drink to
toast.

“To
getting my memory back.”

We clinked
and Carter added, “And to surviving Monique for a week.”

I was
surprised that he knew the name of my mother’s cat. “Do you know Monique?”

“Unfortunately,
this isn’t the first time she has stayed with us.” I raised my brow and he
shook his head. “I’ll fill you in later.”

I nodded
and took a sip. I was about to sit back down but Carter put a hand on my lower
back and propelled me towards the living room. I sat down on the couch next to
Lucy and Carter sat down next to me. It was nice and familiar, like we do this
often.

I thought
now might be as good time as any to get some basic answers. “Carter, what did
we do on Friday? That’s when this started. Maybe if I can retrace my steps I’ll
know why I forgot everything.”

“Well, I
went to work, so I’m not sure how you spent the bulk of the day, but I do know
that you went grocery shopping. I also know you posted an update about autumn
vegetables on your blog because I read it while I was at work. Now that I think
about it, you were a little anxious when I got home, but you said everything
was fine so I took your words at face value. Do you think something happened
while I was at work? I guess that could explain the edginess and the fact that
you’re blocking something. Maybe you got a call from someone. I’ll go get your
phone. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before.” He jumped up and went to
the kitchen for my phone.

“Do you
mind?” He held up the phone asking permission to snoop through my calls.

“Help yourself;
I probably won’t remember anything anyway.”

He opened
up my call log and looked through. “Hmm, nothing that I can see. You called me
and Cheryl called you twice.” He set the phone on the coffee table and sat back
with his wine. “Maybe you should call Cheryl and ask her if she can remember
what you talked about on Friday.”

That
sounded like a good idea, and was just about to tell him so when the doorbell
rang and Lucy jumped up barking. Crap. Mom was here with her odious cat. I
looked over at Carter as I got up and he gave me an unenthusiastic look. I was
glad I wasn’t the only one feeling miserable about what was sure to be an awful
undertaking.

Chapter Sixteen

The
doorbell rang again just as I was peeking through the peephole. Mom stood out
there looking impatient and bothered and for a split second I wished I could
just pretend we weren’t here. Unfortunately, I had agreed to cat sit, so there
was no getting out of it.

I looked
over at Lucy on the couch with Carter. She was still barking but she wasn’t at
the door. I think she may be psychic. It’s like she knew that my mom was out
there with Monique.

I opened
the door and my mother came breezing in hauling the cat crate and a huge bag.
It looked like a diaper bag, but it was obviously stuffed with things I would
be required to use with Monique.

“Hi Mom.
How was your drive?”

“Hi honey.
It was long as usual. I have to hurry if I’m going to make it to the airport on
time. Oh, hello Carter.” Mom gave a smile as Carter stood up. “Here is her bag
of toys and food, and I brought her bed, it’s still outside in my car.” She
gave me a look that said “go out and get it” but Carter jumped in.

“I’ll go
get the bed, Gloria.” He shot out the door leaving me with my mother.

“Your face looks worse
than it did the other day. You need more concealer.” I gnashed my teeth to
avoid saying anything I might regret
.
“Okay
Justine, I have the list of instructions for her tucked into the bag. The most
important thing is to make sure she doesn’t get outside.”

“You know
I have a doggy door, right?”

“Well,
you’ll just have to keep it closed then, won’t you? And please don’t let Lucy
chase her around the house, she’s not as young as she used to be.” This woman
had balls. She was expecting me to inconvenience my baby so that her cat would
be comfortable? Lucy was old too, and she couldn’t hold her bladder very long.
Was I supposed to take her out every half hour? Carter’s idea of boarding
Monique was sounding better and better.

She leaned down to unlock
the crate and Monique strutted out like she owned the place. Lucy, who was no
longer barking, had retreated to the far side of the couch, as if she knew what
was coming. “Here you go baby, Justine will take care of you while Mommy’s
gone. I’ll be back soon.” She bent down and gave the cat a kiss before
straightening up and giving me an awkward hug. “I’ll be back on Sunday. Take good
care of my baby,”

Why didn’t
she ever treat me the way she treats her cat? Why did I even care anymore? She
was making her way back to the door when Carter came back in carrying a hideous
rhinestone bedazzled, zebra-striped cat bed.

“Oh, are you leaving
already?” He tried to make his voice sound disappointed but it didn’t work. I
could hear the relief in every word. I’d be relieved, too, if it weren’t for
the fact that she was leaving behind a cat that was a real pain in the butt.

“Oh, well, I’ve got to
get to the airport; you know how I hate all this city traffic. I’ll see you on
Sunday. Bye bye.” She walked out the door while we stood there silently. What
the fudge just happened here? Gloria was in and out in less than five minutes
and she didn’t even ask how I was. That sucked. She was my mom even if she was
self-centered. I looked over to Carter, still standing next to the couch still
holding the cat bed.

“I guess that went better
than I was hoping. Faster anyway. She didn’t even say thank you.” He just
looked back at me with sympathy. I looked down at the cat. She was licking her
privates on the floor in the middle of my living room. I glanced up and saw
Carter staring at her with a look of disgust on his face. I wondered what had
happened with Monique before to make him dislike her. Carter loved cats and had
even told me he wouldn’t mind getting one. Shoot, he loved all animals. Oh. I
know that Carter loves cats!

“Carter,
you need to thank Monique.” He looked at me like I was crazy.

“Why on
earth would I need to thank Monique for anything?”

“Because I
was looking at you hating on her just now and I thought that she must have done
something horrible to you to make you feel like that since you love cats.” I
looked at him, waiting for him to understand what I was telling him but he
didn’t. “I remembered you love cats. At least I think I remembered that. You do
love them, right?”

“Yeah, I do.” He smiled
crookedly. “Thanks,
Monique
.” He put
the cat bed down on the floor near the kitchen door before he walked over and
pulled the bag off of my shoulder and carried it into the kitchen. I trailed
behind him and noticed the dinner ingredients still set out.

“Are you
still hungry?” I asked as he put the cat bag on the table.

“I’m
starved.” He looked around before turning back to me. “Juss, your mom didn’t
happen to leave some kind of cat box did she?”

“Um, not
unless it’s stuffed in the bag.” I knew it was unlikely that there was some
tiny portable cat box in the bag but I walked over and started dumping the
contents anyway. “Nope. Nothing here.”

“Well, I
guess I should run to the store and get something.” This was getting worse by
the second.

“All
right, you do that and I’ll get started on dinner.”

“No.” He
practically yelled it at me. He just told me he was starved, so you would think
he would appreciate me getting a jump on the food. “Just wait for me, okay? I
won’t be gone long, I’m sure they have something at the drug store down the
street.”

“Sure. You
do that and I’ll finish my wine.”

He grabbed
his keys and kissed me on the cheek before he left. It made my whole face
tingle and I’m sure I was smiling like a loon until I realized I still had to
cat proof the house. I was feeling resentful. All this upheaval when I’m not
even myself just wasn’t fair. I went back to the living room to pick up my
wineglass and saw Monique up on the couch. Lucy was nowhere to be seen, so I
walked down the hall to my bedroom.

When I
looked at the bed I felt a wave of heat wash through me. I couldn’t help but
remember what had happened there just a little while ago. When I saw Lucy peek
out of the covers and look at me, though, all feelings of lust flew out the
window, replaced with my protective motherly instincts. Monique had obviously
scared her off of the couch and out of the living room altogether. I walked
over and scooped her up, snuggling her under my arm and marching back into the
living room to pick up my glass and carry it with me to the kitchen. After I
took a big gulp I figured I might as well take Lucy out to do her business
since Carter didn’t want me starting on the food.

I was
still in the backyard watching Lucy sniff around when I heard Carter tap on the
door from the inside. He was holding a cat box under one arm and a bag of kitty
litter in his hand.

“Do you
want it in the laundry room again?” he asked while motioning to the door.

“Oh yeah. I guess that’s
the best place, out of the way and all that.” I let him take care of that while
I went to Monique’s bag of crap. I pulled out her food and her bowls and fixed
her up. The last time I watched her I had to put her dishes up on my buffet
table so that Lucy wouldn’t eat it; I guess I had to do that again, but I just hated
having the cat on my buffet. It seemed so dirty. After I was finished with that
I went into the laundry room to see how Carter was doing with the kitty toilet.

I could
hear him cussing under his breath when Lucy and I walked in. It made me feel
good, like he was a real person, not just the person I had been seeing since
yesterday. I mean, someone can’t be sweet and helpful all the time, right?

“Hey. Can
I start dinner now?” I sure hoped so, I was getting pretty hungry and the wine
on an empty stomach was making me feel sappy. I could just imagine a cozy scene
like we shared earlier happening every day. Man, that would be awesome. I
needed to ask Carter how much time we spent together, usually. For all I know
we might do our own thing every evening. I hoped not. I much preferred my
mental image of us.

The
thought of puttering around the house doing nothing was incredibly appealing.
Maybe he was wearing me down, after all. I had to admit that I enjoyed spending
time with him. I liked him. I loved him. I still hadn’t processed that fully. I
pulled myself out of my daydream when I realized he was talking to me.

“I’m
sorry. What did you say?”

“I said,
“Yes, I’m ready for dinner.” Give me a minute to clean up.”

“Oh, okay.” I turned
around and went back to the stove to turn on the pan for the rice while he
washed his hands behind me.

“Okay boss, what do you
want me to do?” I looked over at the garlic that he hadn’t gotten around to
chopping and pointed to it. He went to work while I pulled the bottle of wine back
out of the refrigerator. He brought his pile of garlic over to the stove and
stood next to me. It felt good, like we were a team. I didn’t even feel the
usual nervousness that attacked me when I was around a good looking man. And
seriously, Carter was possibly the hottest guy I had ever actually talked to.
Oh, there was the waiter Jeff, at work, but he was gay so it didn’t really
count.