Stranded Hearts by Kris Bryant & Amanda Radley & Emily Smith

Author:Kris Bryant & Amanda Radley & Emily Smith [Bryant, Kris & Radley, Amanda & Smith, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781636791838
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2022-07-01T23:36:03+00:00

Chapter Five

Clara couldn’t believe that she’d forgotten about Warren. She jumped to her feet and jabbed the alarm bell.

“Help!” she cried. “We’re stuck! Let us out!”

She alternated between pressing the alarm bell and slamming the metal door with the palm of her hand. Panic coursed through her, mixing with utter disgust at herself for forgetting about Warren.

“Clara, Clara!”

Francesca stood beside her and eased her hand away from the alarm button.

“Breathe,” Francesca said. “You have to breathe.”

It was only then that Clara realized that she was panicking and her breathing was coming in short pants. Francesca took both of her hands and cupped them in her own.

“Look at me,” Francesca said.

Clara looked up. She could hear her heart thudding, deafening her to almost everything else.

“Focus on your breathing.”

Clara did as she was told. Trying to ignore the fact that her shaking hands were encompassed in warm, soft hands that she had dreamed of touching her. She sucked in a shaky breath and then slowly blew it out again. She repeated the process a few times before she felt better and extracted her hands from Francesca’s. To stay in that position would be dangerous.

“Who is Warren?” Francesca asked.

“My cat. I only got him a couple of weeks ago. He’s a rescue cat and now I’m stuck here, and he won’t get his dinner.” Clara felt awful, not only for not being there for her new pet but for forgetting he existed entirely.

Francesca looked relieved. “Oh, thank goodness it’s only a cat. I thought he was a baby or a boyfriend.”

“I’m gay,” Clara said.

“Well, in any case, I’m sure your cat will be fine.”

“It’s taken me ages to build up his trust,” Clara said. “He hated me for a week.”

“I’m sure he didn’t hate you.”

Clara lifted her sleeves and showed off her impressive collection of scratch marks.

Francesca’s eyebrows lifted. “Okay, yes, he hates you. Why did you get a cat who hates you?”

Clara lowered her sleeves. “No one else would have taken him home. He’s this grumpy old man who doesn’t need anyone.”

“Which proves that he’ll be fine having dinner a little late. If indeed that ends up happening, we may be out of here in ten minutes. We simply don’t know.”

“But he’d just started to trust me,” Clara said, knowing that she sounded whiny. “And I’d forgotten about him. You asked if anyone was expecting me home and I said no. Warren would be expecting me home, but I’d forgotten all about him. I’m a horrible cat mum.” Clara sagged against the wall and fell into a sitting position. The day could literally not get any worse. She’d had a terrible morning, been sacked from her job, was trapped with someone who she was currently experiencing a very complicated mix of emotions about, and had now forgotten about Warren. A cat who only last week she had promised to do anything for.

Francesca sat next to her. “When I asked if anyone was expecting you at home, I obviously meant a human who would notice you hadn’t come home and might be of some help to us.

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.