My Fair Gentleman by Jan Freed Read Free Book Online Page A

released his hand and reached for the supplies.
    “Does it hurt real bad, Joe?” Allie’s expression offered an apology for not asking him earlier.
    “Nah.” He grinned and deepened his voice. “I’m a manly ma— Ow-w-w!’
    “It’s only a little iodine,” Catherine said sternly, dabbing his fingers with the stinging liquid. “Quit fussing. Manly men don’t whine.”
    He dropped his chin to his chest and thrust out his lower lip in an exaggerated pout. Allie giggled. Catherine glanced up and snorted. Reclaiming his hand with a shake of her head, she set to work.
    Absurdly pleased, he nodded toward the two cats now vying for Allie’s attention. “What the bell are they doing here?”
    She froze, then continued bandaging his fingers. “They live here.”
    His good humor fled. “Excuse me?”
    “They live here,” she said louder, as if the problem were his hearing, not the cats.
    “Don’t you mean they lived here?”
    “No.” She finished wrapping his last puncture wound and offered a bright smile. “There you are. Good as new.”
    He caught her wrist as she stepped back. “Cats weren’t part of our deal.”
    “Didn’t I mention them?” She shrugged elegantly. “Oh, well, they’re so little trouble it must have slipped my mind.”
    “Catherine…” he warned.
    Her expression sobered, all flippancy gone. “I can’t keep them at the house, Joe. My father is allergic to cats.”
    “So have the house cleaned before he comes back from England.”
    “I tried that after his book tour. It nearly put him in the hospital. He’s severely allergic.”
    “So keep ‘em outside. This neighborhood is a friggin’ cat paradise. All those trees to climb, birds to chase—”
    “Dogs to chase them,” Catherine finished, her tone grim. “Juliet’s declawed. She couldn’t defend herself or even climb a tree for safety. I have to keep her inside. And Romeo is devoted to her. He’d die if I separated them.”
    Joe made a sound of disgust and released her wrist. “Gimme a break. They’re just cats, for God’s sake.”
    Some emotion veiled her face, a vulnerability that said the animals, were much more than casual pets, much more than he could comprehend. The next instant her eyes narrowed, so like the doorstop’s it was eerie.
    “The students who rent this apartment come and go, but Romeo and Juliet stay. This is their home. Ifyou can’t share it with them, I’m afraid our deal is off.”
    Allie moved up and tugged on Joe’s arm. “They won’t be any trouble. I’ll take care of them myself. You won’t have to do a thing. Please, Joe, can we stay?”
    He looked into doe brown eyes and remembered a little girl of six pleading for a kitten, a little girl of eight pleading for a puppy.
    “You said yourself it was only for a month,” she persisted, turning his own words against him.
    He’d vetoed the kitten and puppy. The subsequent rabbit and bird, too. His mother wouldn’t tolerate an animal in the house, and, as she’d told him, he wouldn’t be there to help care for them.
    Before Allie’s imploring eyes grew disillusioned, before his gut could churn with guilt, he cupped her head and rumpled her silky hair. “Okay, pal, tomorrow we’ll bring a load of stuff over and get settled in. But when it comes to those two monsters, forget what I said about us sticking together. You’re on your own.”
    Whether his sudden difficulty in breathing came from Allie’s crushing bear hug or the quiet thanks in Catherine’s eyes, he couldn’t have said.
    F IFTY MILES AWAY , Mary Lou Denton eased behind the counter of Columbus Truck Stop’s diner and tied an apron over her slim black skirt. The luncheon special—chicken-fried steak as big as a hubcap—would keep things hopping for hours yet. She might run the place now, but she couldn’t sit on her duff in the manager’s office while the waitresses up front ranthemselves ragged. She’d walked too many years in their shoes.
    Grabbing an order pad