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“Truly the bane of my existence,” I said, adding it to the growing pile over my arm. “Speaking of, time to hit the dressing room.”

TWENTY-ONE

I ENDED UP WITHtwo different blazer options—the charcoal and a black one—and a new pair of shoes. Considering that I’d effectively found almost half my outfit for the interview and hadn’t broken out into frustrated sobs once, it was a successful trip.

I let myself into the house and hung the clothes up in my closet, automatically clicking my tongue against my teeth the way I did when I was trying to see if Lenore would come out. She rarely responded, but it felt like something I had to do, regardless, aHey, honey, I’m home.

The house did seem extra quiet. It shouldn’t—even if Lenore was there, she’d be under the bed or on the windowsill behind some blinds in my dad’s room, watching the birds through the window. It was her favorite place to be lately, although she’d jump down and scurry into the closet if you came into the room.

I got down on the floor to peer under the bed. No Lenore.

Still making the clicking sound, I walked slowly through the rest of the house, my gaze sweeping every corner. Since we’d moved so much stuff out, there really weren’t that many places for her to go in the common areas. It must be an incredibly boring place for her to hang out, compared to the variety and stimulation of outside. Why hadn’t I thought about that before? Gotten a fucking cat climbing tree covered in carpet or whatever that book had recommended?

She wasn’t on the windowsill. She wasn’t in the closet. Her food bowl was still mostly full. And the more I thought back to that morning, the more I thought about how I’d gone to my car only to realize that I’d forgotten to bring the shirt I planned to wear for the interview, like Alison had told me to. I’d run back in to grab it, and I may have left the door ajar. That didn’t sound like me, especially after I’d read about the Vampire of Sacramento and how he’d never hit up a house with a locked door, feeling it was a sign he was unwelcome. But it had been for only a few seconds, and I was pretty sure I’d left the door open.

Sam’s truck was in his driveway, so I went over and knocked on his door. He opened up almost immediately, giving me a wide, lazy smile. “You don’t have to knock,” he said. “Just come on in.”

Obviously someone wasn’t as versed in the Vampire of Sacramento as I was, but there was no time for that now. “Lenore’s gone.”

His smile fell. “Are you sure? Maybe she’s under the bed.”

“I checked there, and all her usual places,” I said. “I was in a hurry this morning, and I think I left the door open for a minute. Of course she ran—why wouldn’t she have run? She probably saw it as a heroic escape. Like that ‘dead giveaway’ meme,remember that one, after those women finally escaped that guy’s basement in Cleveland?”

Sam reached out to grasp me by the upper arms, massaging my shoulders. “The good news is that she’s a savvy little cat,” he said. “She knows her way around. She’s lived out here for years, and always found her way back to this street. We’ll find her.”

“I’m just going to walk around the block a few times, see if I spot her.”

“Give me a sec,” Sam said. “I’ll come with you.”

I waited for him on the front step, unwilling to take my eyes off my own house next door in case Lenore somehow came walking up right at that moment. But by the time Sam had put on his shoes and locked the door behind him, she was still nowhere to be seen.

“I know this is irrational,” I said after we’d walked a little ways. “To be worried about her, I mean. Like you said, she’s lived in the elements for years. She probably saw a strip of blue sky and was like,My wild heart can’t be tamed!and shot right out that door. It’s my own fault, for trying to pin her down.”

“Are you still talking about the cat, or a cowgirl lover?”

I nudged him with my shoulder. “Shut up.”

It was quiet outside, most people probably in the middle of eating their dinner, and sometimes we passed by houses with open blinds that showed a flickering television inside. The sun had set but it wasn’t dark yet, the dusk making me second-guess every shadow, thinking it could be Lenore.

“Did you have a good shopping trip?”

“It was...” I’d been about to sayfine, the highest compliment I could pay any trip to the mall, but I realized it’d been betterthan that. I’d found some clothes, and I’d ended up having a really good conversation with Alison that had been a long time coming. We’d just had fun, too, going into the novelty gift store to laugh at the inappropriate refrigerator magnets and grabbing orange chicken and chow mein at the food court.

“Yeah,” I said finally. “It went really well. How about your dance practice?”

Sam had met up with Conner and a few of the kids and their adult chaperones at a local playground, planning out the logistics of the flash mob. I’d teased him with a coupleDance Momsreferences, but I’d only ever seen the ads for that show, so I’d run out pretty quickly.

“Great,” he said. “The kids are really excited.”

“And Conner?”

“I saidthe kids,” Sam said, “specifically to be inclusive of your brother. He’s ‘beyond stoked,’ to quote him directly.”

“I don’t know where he gets that shit from. Like he’s a surfer from the eighties or something.”

“He also invited me to play his wedding,” Sam said. “I had to tell him I was out of the live music game, except for the tambourine. If he finds a band that’salmostthere but missing that little something extra, I would come out of retirement.”

As we walked by one house, I saw a flash of fur dart behind a car, and I pulled on Sam’s arm to stop. “Did you see that? Was it her?”


Tags: Alicia Thompson Romance