Page 35 of Autumn at the Cat Cafe

“Meow!” Sir tugged on his leash toward the front door.

Via didn’t bother to yank him back, picking him up instead. She peeked out the small window in the door in time to see Leo’s car back out of its parking space, then drive away. Sir stopped squirming and she let him down again.

Although she didn’t want to, she wondered where Leo was going, then banished the thought. It wasn’t her business and she didn’t care. She had plenty of things to think about other than Leo Brewster. She was sure she wasn’t on his mind at all.

Chapter 8

It was past seven when Leo returned to Pecan Corner. Other than a visit to Needle Drop Vinyl, he’d mostly worked in Earl’s apartment over the past three days. He stopped by the shop on Friday out of curiosity. There were records and a stereo player in the house he grew up in, but he didn’t remember his parents ever playing them. His nannies did, though. A long-dormant memory had surfaced of Edith, his favorite nanny, dancing around the room while she picked up his toys as eighties music played through the speakers.

He had no idea why he was remembering Edith now. He’d had so many nannies because Constance kept firing them for one reason or another. Leo had learned later from some of his classmates that letting staff go for petty reasons was commonplace in their social circles. Just one reason of many why he moved as far away as he could and still be in the same country.

When he entered the shop, a tall, slender man about the same age as Leo, wearing a long blond ponytail, introduced himself as Zander and asked if he could help with anything. Leo listened to podcasts more than music, but they did end up discussing popular groups from the nineties, Zander’s preferred decade. Like Addieand Sherman at the general store and the staff at the Corner Eatery, he was remarkably genial, and not in a salesman type of way. He suspected all the business owners in Pecan Corner were similar.

Via certainly was.

The mess in Earl’s apartment did provide a welcome diversion. He started by going through the numerous stacks of papers that were everywhere and quickly discovered that she’d been right about his uncle refusing to throw anything away, no matter how insignificant. If Earl had a computer, Leo would have just scanned everything, but the man had been a complete Luddite. There was nothing he could do except break down the piles into smaller, organized ones, then go through them again to figure out what to keep and what to discard.

The tedium eventually got to him and by Sunday evening he had to get out of the apartment. But first he called Robert and asked him to overnight his laptop. He didn’t plan to do a lot of work, just check in on a few things and keep tabs on others. Then he took a drive around the area, but it quickly grew dark and he couldn’t see the landscape. That shouldn’t have mattered—just being in his Turismo usually mellowed him. Not this time. As he had so often since their meeting in her office, he started thinking about Via again.

Calling her Smitten Kitten had slipped out, and he shouldn’t have moved so close to her that he could see the flecks of gold in her honey-brown eyes, the almost transparent splash of freckles across the top of her peaches-and-cream cheeks, and those incredibly soft-looking lips.

But he had to put on the brakes. He’d been caught up in the electric teasing between them as he insisted on going camping with her. He still intended to do that and all the other things on her bucket list that he’d committed to. But they barely knew eachother, had spent less than twenty-four hours together total, and here he was thinking about kissing her... again. The magnetic attraction baffled him. Excited him too. It was something he could never act upon, and that’s why he withdrew from her, eager to get away and sort through his confusion alone. He figured avoiding her until they were forced to be together Monday evening in Second Chapter was his only option.

Then Sir had dashed into Earl’s apartment later on Friday, and Leo realized he had a huge problem on his hands. Being apart from her didn’t clear anything up. It only made the attraction stronger when he saw her. Via Dalton was testing his ability to conceal his emotions to the limit. While he enjoyed a challenge, this wasn’t what he bargained for.

He pulled into the parking spot in front of Second Chapter, hopped out with several plastic bags filled with food and other things he needed, having stopped at a big-box store while he was out since the Pecan Corner Store was closed on Sundays. He fished Earl’s key ring out of his pocket and went inside the building, jogged up the apartment stairs... and heard Sir Meow meowing through Via’s door.

Leo glanced at her apartment. He’d never been around cats for any length of time—pets were forbidden in the Brewster penthouse—so he had no idea if Sir’s behavior toward him was normal.

“Sir!” Via’s voice was muffled behind the door. “Shhh!”

She was home. He turned slightly toward her apartment. Had she eaten supper yet? He’d bought enough food to last awhile and had planned to make spaghetti tonight instead of eating a sandwich or canned soup. Nothing fancy—jarred sauce and frozen meatballs. He rarely cooked, but when he did spaghetti was his go-to dish.

He’d enjoyed their dinner together the other night at the cat café. Maybe he should—

Leo shook his head, amazed at how fast his thoughts flew away from him. He shouldn’t do anything where Via was concerned, except keep the commitments he made to her.

He unlocked Earl’s apartment door and went inside, set the bags on the kitchen counter, and slipped off the jean jacket he’d borrowed from his uncle. He found it in the coat closet in the living room, which was just as jam-packed as the one in the bedroom. He was heading to the bathroom when he heard a noise.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

He turned the faucet handle more tightly. Nothing was coming from it, but the dripping sound continued. He opened the cabinet under the sink and groaned. The entire bottom was wet from a leaky pipe. He hadn’t noticed the dripping sound all weekend, but it looked like the plumbing had been leaking for a while.

After going to the kitchen and finding a bowl to put under the drip, he used his phone to search the internet for a plumber. First name that popped up was KD Plumbing Company. They had almost perfect reviews. The leak wasn’t an emergency, so he could make the call in the morning.

He was pocketing the phone when it buzzed. He pulled it out and glanced at the screen to find an unexpected name—Bennett. “Hello?” he answered.

“Hello, Leo.” Bennett’s voice was bright. “Just checking in to see how things are going.”

“They’re... going.” Things would really kick into gear now that Via was involved.

“Good, good. Earl was a borderline hoarder, so I thought you might be getting overwhelmed.”

Borderline? More like certified. “Thanks,” he said, meaning it. “I’m glad you called because I have a question.”

“I’m happy to answer it if I can.”

Leo was starting to like this guy. “Is there anything specific I need to learn for the quiz? I feel like I’m flying blind here.”