Game On(50)

“What if I told you I could make your day a thousand times better and you wouldn’t have to do a thing?”

Are you going to take off your clothes and feed me chocolate? I thought. Because that would make me feel great in no time.

Thankfully Nathan didn’t wait for an answer. He flashed me a huge smile and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Put on jeans and T-shirt and meet me downstairs in ten minutes. You won’t regret it.”





Chapter Twenty-One


“An animal shelter?” If I had even attempted to make any guesses to our final location, an animal shelter would have never even occurred to me.

“You’re not afraid of animals, are you?” he asked, coming around to get the door for me. Clearly one of the baseball coaches was teaching those boys some manners. Or maybe it was just Chris and Nathan. Either way, I was more than appreciative of the gesture.

“No,” I told him. “Haven’t had much experience with them, but I’m not afraid.”

“That’s for sure,” he said with a wink. He was being so nice to me. He hadn’t even commented when I came downstairs ten minutes after the ten minutes he had allotted, in jeans and a T-shirt and my tear-stained face scrubbed clean. It was the last thing I needed in terms of my growing attraction to him, but totally necessary in terms of how my day had gone so far.

I paused before we got to the shelter door.

“This isn’t some sort of doggy death row, is it?” The last thing I needed was to see some sad-eyed pooch that needed to be rescued or else he’d be put down. My heart was already feeling tender as it was.

“It’s a no-kill shelter,” Nathan assured me. “No death row here.”

The lobby of the shelter was clean and bright, pictures of happy-looking animals on posters adorning the walls. When I thought of animal shelters, the first thing that always came to mind was the one from Lady and the Tramp—a sad, dark place full of abandoned, downtrodden animals.

Nathan thanked the woman at the desk and came over, two visitor badges in his hand.

“Here you go,” he said.

We put them on and I followed him through a heavy metal door, also decorated with a poster. It read: “Who Rescued Who?” and had a picture of a little boy holding a puppy. It was stupid cute.

“Do you come here every month?” I asked Nathan as he led us down a hall. I kept waiting to hear the whimpering and whining of animals in need, but the place was pretty quiet and calm.

“Every week,” he told me. “It’s how I relax.”

I was about to ask him how spending time with sad, lonely animals helped him relax when we came to another door.

“Ready?” he asked and I nodded, not knowing what to expect.

Nathan rapped his knuckles on the door and I heard the patter of feet on the other side. Definitely not animal feet. Human. Then came the buzz of whispers and one authoritative voice that said:

“Hands up, mouth shut!”

The buzzing stopped and I heard something like a gate open and close and then finally the door opened.

A pretty young woman poked her head out of the room, her face breaking into a smile at the sight of Nathan. There came that annoying stab of jealousy. She looked a little older than I was, but I remember Nathan telling me that very first night we met that he preferred older women. And this “older” woman was very attractive, with a charming heart-shaped face, smooth brown skin and shiny jet black hair.

“Nathan!” she said, opening the door wide. Behind her I could see a small holding area, and beyond that a room where a bunch of elementary-aged kids were gathered, looking at us with wide, excited eyes. “We were wondering if you were going to skip today.”

“You know I would never miss this,” Nathan said.

“Well, it is a few days before an important game,” the woman said, stepping aside to let us through the door.

“Exactly,” Nathan said. “No better way to prepare.” Once we were all in the holding area, the door shut behind us, he gave the woman a hug and kiss on the cheek. Stop it, I told the jealousy monster growling in my stomach. You said no, remember. Over and over, you said no.

“Yvette,” Nathan said, turning to us. “This is Sophie. She’s going to help out today.”

“So nice to meet you,” Yvette said, holding out her hand. “Nathan always brings us the best volunteers.”

“Does he?” I asked, casting a sideways glance at him. He just shrugged.

“Come on,” Yvette said, leading up towards the gate where the kids were gathered. “Let me introduce you to the kids.”

“And what exactly have we volunteered for?” I asked under my breath as Nathan and I followed.

“You’ll see,” he said with a grin. “But I guarantee you won’t regret it.”

He was right. Because on the other side of the gate wasn’t just two dozen charming elementary school students, but an entire room filled with adorable, roaming kittens.

I noticed that most of the children had picture books in their hands. When I asked Yvette about it, she smiled and explained.

“The kids come and read to the cats,” she told me. “It allows them to practice their reading, and it gets the cats used to being around humans, which makes it easier to find them homes. It’s a win-win situation.”