Magnus loved her enough to do all this. To take her crusade to the next level for her. This place was clever and trendy and he’d managed to work his own spin to get people to come in and check things out, all with the goal of saving shelter cats.
It was simply incredible.
And he’d done this . . . for her. She was going to start weeping again in a moment.
Gretchen fed the fat white cat his treats and reached for her coffee. As she did, her phone buzzed with an incoming message. “Let me get that,” Gretchen said, and set down the cat. He looked over at Edie, and she automatically picked him up, burying her face in the soft white fur and scratching him under his chin, the way her cats liked it. She might have sobbed into his fur a little, too. Just a little.
As she looked up, Gretchen had a smug smile on her face as she put away her phone. “Want to go see the transition room, Miss Cat Behaviorist?”
Edie’s heart thumped. Did this have anything to do with the text Gretchen had just received? God, she hoped so. “Of course I do.” She was hoping that when they opened the doors, there would be a green-eyed hero waiting on the other side.
And Edie might just fling her panties at him after all.
They put down their drinks, gave the cat one last cuddle before setting him down, and Gretchen flagged down an employee and explained they were looking for the cat transition room. Gretchen whispered something Edie couldn’t hear, and the employee nodded and waved them forward. “Follow me.”
They followed the employee through a door marked Staff Only and down a hall. “We have two transition rooms,” the girl was saying. “Because cats are territorial, we try to give them familiar smells and sounds before introducing them to the others. We pipe in café sounds twenty-four-seven so the cats aren’t freaked out by the noise, and they’re prepared when they go into the main room. We encourage employees to come and spend their breaks in the transition rooms in order to acclimate the cats to people. In addition, our managers tend to work in the transition rooms, too, so again, there’s always someone around.”
“What about cats that don’t acclimate to the café surroundings?” Edie had to know.
“We have six so far that we call our ‘shy’ guys.” The girl beamed. “The employees are fostering them at their personal residences and if we can manage to get them to integrate into the café, we get a bonus. I’m keeping my little Tucker though. He takes his asthma meds like a champ, and the café pays for the prescription, so it’s no cost to me.”
Edie’s heart clenched again. She had two asthmatic cats and knew how expensive inhalers could get. “That’s wonderful.” He’d truly thought of everything to ensure the cats would find a home. She’d never felt so utterly elated. “Do you guys have a vet on staff?”
“We do,” the employee agreed, pausing in front of a door at the end of the hall. It had a plaque marked Cat Inside! Watch the Door. “All of the cats are checked out and are spayed or neutered, as well as have all shots before we allow them to go into the main café.” She knocked on the door.
“Come in,” called a deep, too-familiar voice that made Edie’s toes curl. “It’s safe.”
The employee opened the door for them, gesturing they should enter. They did, Gretchen’s arm clutching at Edie’s so tightly that she couldn’t possibly run away. The room was a simple one, the size of a small office, with a few cat trees, a box for hiding in, a litter box, and a few motivational posters on the walls. Off to one side was a desk covered in paperwork. In the center of the room sat a man on a rolling desk chair.
There he was. His back was to them, but even from this angle, her mouth started watering in anticipation of his kiss. His touch. Her Magnus. Her sweet, thoughtful, clever Magnus. His broad shoulders were covered in a waffle-weave gray shirt, and as she watched, a tabby cat nose burrowed against his neck. He chuckled, and his hand brushed the long, silky fur of what looked like a Maine Coon cat. “This one’s a snuggler,” he said to no one in particular, his focus on the cat. “One day out of her cage and she’s already desperate for my attention.”
“I know what that’s like,” Edie said softly.
As she watched, his shoulders tensed, his entire form becoming aware of her.
“You know, I think that’s my cue to leave,” Gretchen announced, releasing her death grip on Edie’s arm. “I think I’m going to go chug some coffee and pet some cats. Let me know when you’re ready to leave, Eeeds.”
Edie nodded, her gaze still on Magnus. A moment later, the door shut, and then she was alone with him.
“I’d get up to greet you,” Magnus said, “but it’s taken me an hour to get this lady in my arms.”
“You’re patient,” she commented quietly. “That’s sweet.”
“Not really. I just have a plan of conquest.”
That made her smile. “Is that so?”
“Yup. I bathed in tuna before I got here. All part of the strategy.”
She giggled. “You did not.”
“I didn’t. I was kind of hoping you’d show up at some point.”
Her breath caught in her throat. “Oh?”
Very slowly, he turned in his chair until he was facing her. The man was blatantly gorgeous, even in jeans and a casual shirt. Her gaze moved over him hungrily, noting his hair had grown out from its traditional short stubble. He had a few days’ growth of beard along his jaw, and circles under his eyes.
He’d never looked more gorgeous to Edie.
“Hi, stranger,” he said, smiling at her. His movements were stiff, his hands holding the cat as if he were burping a baby. “This one likes my neck, I think.”
“I see that.” Edie gave him a hesitant smile. “I got the app.”
“About time. I’ve been going mad over the last few days wondering if you’d seen it. I finally had Gretchen install it on your phone to ensure you’d get it.”
“She’s sneaky, that Gretchen,” Edie said. She stared at him awkwardly for a moment, full of longing and not sure how to confess it all. “You’ve been busy.”
“Incredibly busy,” he agreed, a smile in those green-gold eyes. “Putting all this together has been a madhouse since its inception. I’ve had two guys working on the app, sixteen managing the creation of the cat cafés, and god knows how many other people pulled in.” He gave a small shake of his head. “It’s turned into its own little industry.”
Tears blurred her eyes again. “And you did . . . all of this for me?”
“Of course I did,” Magnus said. He gently set the cat down on the floor and got to his feet. He moved toward her, and then she was enveloped by his cologne, the scent of his skin, the heat of him. He leaned in and brushed the backs of his fingers over her cheek. “Don’t you think you’re worth it?”
“No one else does,” she said softly.
“No one else matters but me.”
She leaned into his touch. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed the hell out of you,” he admitted, cupping her cheeks and tilting her head back until she was looking up at him. Tears slipped out of the corners of her eyes. “Why are you crying?”
“A million reasons,” she admitted wryly, dashing her hands at her eyes, her fingers brushing against his.
“Give me a few of them.”
“I’m so incredibly . . . touched at all of this.” Edie gestured at the walls. “The café, the app, everything. I’m humbled at how much good you can do for these cats when all I can do is take them into a tiny townhouse—”
“Be fair to yourself,” Magnus butted in. “There’s a lot you can do with money, and you’ve done just fucking fine on your own. Don’t denigrate your efforts simply because I had extra cash to throw around.”
“—and I’m a little terrified,” she continued. “Okay, a lot terrified. I’m afraid of getting hurt, and afraid of letting you in again, and I’m even more afraid of what happens if I don’t. So here I am, scared out of my wits and desperately hoping that you’ve got a kiss or two left in there for me—”
His mouth swooped down on hers. His lips pressed to her own, and then Edie began to cry again, even as she kissed him with aching, needy little flicks of her tongue against his.