Page 44 of Riding High

He’d recognised her number which meant that he had to have her number in his phone… Why?But that wasn’t important now.‘Jed, I need your help.’

‘Are you hurt?’he demanded, tension in his voice.

‘No,’ she quickly replied.Though she might be if she didn’t find Bizzy before Gemma returned.

‘Okay, what’s the problem?’Jed calmly asked.

Eden explained, and Jed chuckled.‘It’s not funny, Jed!I can’t find her.’

‘And are you sure the doors and windows are closed?’he asked.

‘No, I never thought to check that,’ Eden sarcastically replied.‘Of course they are!’

‘Then she has to be somewhere.’

‘I’ve been looking for her for the past hour and I can’t find her!’

‘I thought the kitten was a he,’ Jed mused.

‘Jed!Concentrate!The kitten ismissing,’ she reiterated.‘And I need you to come and help me find her.’

‘You just don’t want to explain to Gemma that the kitten is hiding from you,’ he said, laughter in his voice.‘You’re scared of a six-year-old.’

‘She was channelling Chucky when she told me not to lose her,’ Eden admitted.‘Are you going to come help me, or not?’

‘I can be there in five minutes,’ he told her.‘But I’m in my riding gear and have been working with horses all day, so I might trigger your allergy.’

She so didn’t care.She’d lost a little girl’s kitten.And that was far more important than her skin erupting and her throat closing.‘Just get here,’ she told Jed, now feeling frantic.

She was the worst babysitter in the world.And if she lost Gemma’s cat, then an allergy was the least she deserved.

But where the hell could it have gone?

* * *

‘You’ve lost the cat,’ Jed stated.He stood in the middle of Mick’s lounge and placed his hands on his hips.

No shit, Sherlock.Eden glared at him and stomped into the kitchen.‘But how, Jed?It didn’t just disappear!’

He rubbed the back of his head, looking genuinely confused.‘I have no bloody idea, Eden.’

Great.She had ten minutes, maybe even less, before she had to explain to a six-year-old, and her mother, that she’d lost the newest member of their family.After this, the extended Castle family, and everyone at Elmsleigh House, would excommunicate her.A public execution, if Gemma had her way.

How was she going to explain this?Was there an explanation?Did aliens beam it up?

‘I think we need a drink,’ Jed said, looking hot, flustered and confused.She nodded, brushed past him to head for the kitchen and sneezed.And sneezed again.And her eyes started to water.

Jed joined her in the kitchen, washed his hands in the sink before reaching for her hand and turned her palm over to look at her wrist and her arm.‘No hives?’

She shook her head.‘No, nothing so far.You make me sneeze and my eyes water, but I think the antihistamines and exposing myself to horses, even if it’s just watching them from a distance, are helping to desensitise me.But I’m still too scared to venture into a stable.’

‘So, no hot sex in the straw then?’he asked.

Oh, damn, there was a visual she could get behind.Him bare-chested, shirt open, and the buttons on his jeans undone.Her legs locked around his hips, panties pushed to the side, perfectly positioned to…

Not the time.Or the place.

Jed pulled a whisky bottle from a cupboard and held up the bottle, silently asking if she wanted a belt.She was tempted, but she owed it to Gemma, and Mick, not to be tipsy when she told them she’d lost Bizzy.But she could have a slug of wine.She’d seen a half-full bottle in the fridge when she’d made coffee earlier.