The Christmas Cat by Melody Carlson

Author:Melody Carlson [Carlson, Melody]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: FIC042000, FIC027020
ISBN: 9781441246394
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2014-07-27T16:00:00+00:00

For me?” Cara looked truly surprised as he handed her the hooded planter and card.

“Yes.” He forced a nervous smile. “To show my gratitude.”

“Gratitude for what?”

“For sharing Thanksgiving dinner with me,” he said sheepishly, “although I suspect you hadn’t really meant to have me in your home. More than that, it’s to say thanks for encouraging your friends—Beth and Annabelle and Vincent—to adopt cats from me.”

She shrugged. “Oh . . . well . . .”

“I really appreciate you connecting them to me.”

“They just seemed like good candidates.” She made a smirk at him. “Unlike me.”

Garrison felt deflated.

“Sorry,” she said quickly. “I didn’t mean to go there.” She gave him a genuine smile. “Why don’t you come inside? It’s cold out here. And I’d like to see what’s in this package.”

He felt instantly at home inside her house. And he was amused to see that it was actually bigger than it had seemed on Thanksgiving. “You have a really nice place,” he said as she set the package on a coffee table and opened the card.

“Thanks.” She nodded, then held up the card. “And thanks for this too.” She leaned over and peeled the hood from the plant. To Garrison’s relief the delicate pink blossoms were all still intact. “Why, it’s beautiful,” she gushed. “But you really didn’t have to—”

“I wanted to,” he clarified. “I felt like we got off on the wrong foot. And, well, since we’re neighbors and all. And you’ve been such an asset in finding homes for my cats. Even discovering your neighbor David today came as a result of trying to drop this plant by your house.”

“And he really took a cat?” she said with interest.

Garrison explained about Muzzy’s chattiness and how she seemed a good match for Jackson. “I thought Muzzy might get him to relax and talk more . . . you know?”

“That’s brilliant!” She picked up the poinsettia plant, carried it to her dining area, and, just like Garrison had imagined, she placed it on the dark-stained table. “Perfect.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” He smiled. “Now I should let you get back to whatever you were doing.”

“Just putting away groceries,” she said as she went into the kitchen. “There’s this great natural food store down the street from my employer. And since I have to go into the office on Mondays, I usually stock up.”

“David mentioned that you had meetings on Mondays.” He didn’t know what to do, so he followed her into the kitchen. It was small and old-fashioned, similar to Gram’s. Except that it was in better shape.

“Dear David,” she said as she removed an acorn squash from her cloth shopping bag. “I’m so lucky to have him next door.”

“He seems to feel the same,” Garrison admitted.

She studied him as she took out a large red onion. “Yes, it’s nice to have good neighbors . . . don’t you think?”

“Absolutely. I adore Ruby.”

“She is a dear.”

“And it seems obvious that you’ve made lots of friends in the neighborhood.” He watched as she set some really nice-looking tomatoes on the tile-topped counter.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.