Girl Gone Viral (Modern Love #2)(40)

“It’s okay. Most animals don’t like me.”

“What? Zeus loves you.”

“Zeus is a cat. How can you tell what’s love and what’s utter disdain?”

She scratched the rottie behind its short ears and spoke in a high-pitched voice. “We do not enforce terrible stereotypes about cats. Are we a cattist household? No, we are not.”

Jas coughed, but it sounded more like a strangled laugh. “Fine. Zeus loves me.”

She started walking, and Doodle—that was her name, damn it—followed right at her heels. “What a smart pupper you are. Let’s get you some food and water, and then we’ll give you a nice warm bath.” She glanced at Jas in time to catch what looked like utter softness in his eyes.

But it must have been a trick of the light, because he blinked and it was gone. “Before you get preoccupied with the dog, there’s something I need to tell you.”

He’d known she was eavesdropping.

He’d seen Jia’s text.

He knew she wanted to stroke his eyebrows.

He was going to tell her not to hug him anymore.

She stopped, braced for the worst. “Go on.”

“It’s about—” he hesitated.

The hug. My hotness. How little I like you like that.

“The CafeBae thing.”

Oh right. The whole reason they were out here. “Oh.”

He grimaced. “They’re going to be on TV tomorrow.”

“On TV?” Her voice rose on the second word.

“Yeah. Good Morning Live.”

“What the fuck?” Not the most elegant response, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“That was my reaction.”

“What is newsworthy about this? Is there nothing else going on in the news cycle? No one’s won the Super Bowl? Or the National Spelling Bee?”

“The first one is in February and the second one’s in June, so no.” He shrugged when she squinted at him. “I follow football and the bee. They’re both on ESPN, they’re both sports.”

She made a frustrated noise. “I guess we just watch tomorrow to see what happens,” she said. As if sensing her worry, the dog leaned against her leg.

Unfortunately, the dog was big, and Katrina wasn’t expecting the weight, so she almost toppled over.

“Whoa, there.” Jas steadied Katrina by grabbing her arm. “Can you handle this dog?”

“Oh yes. She doesn’t know her own strength, but she’ll learn.” Katrina petted her new companion. “Look, she loves me already.”

“How could she not?”

The kind, too-personal words almost brought a tear to her eye, especially on the heels of learning what she had learned. How could you not?

“Do you need any help? She’s going to be a handful to bathe.”

“Oh no. We’re fine.” The last thing she wanted was Jas being charming and sexy, especially near a bathtub. Let her be in love with one creature at a time. “Go on and finish doing whatever you’re doing.”

Jas looked away. “Oh yes. I’m very busy.”

“Cool, cool. Me too.” She forced a smile.

Handy trick her father had taught her, smiling even while she hurt, but it didn’t fool her new dog. Doodle stuck close by her side all the way back to the house.





Chapter Twelve


IT WAS STILL dark when Katrina woke the next morning, which was quite normal. The heavy weight snoring next to her was not.

She was already smiling when she turned to greet the animal. Doodle was so good and well-mannered, from her potty-training skills to her stoic acceptance of her bath last night. But unlike most dogs, Doodle hadn’t slept at her feet, but right next to her, giant block head on the pillow.

She wrinkled her nose at her dog’s breath. “Where did you come from?” she whispered, and rested her hand on the dog’s back. Doodle stretched, yawned, and continued lightly snoring. Doodle had been curled up in the kitchen next to the stove when Katrina had come upstairs to sleep. “Your sister doesn’t like sleeping with me, so this’ll be nice when we get home, though I do think you have to learn to sleep on the foot of the bed.” It was probably premature to pair up Zeus and Doodle as cool crime-fighting animal siblings in her head, but she couldn’t help it. They’d be such cute friends.

Her alarm beeped and she mentally groaned. She’d set it as a reminder about Good Morning Live, not that she needed one.

She shivered and burrowed deeper under the quilt. If she could stay here, bundled up forever, she’d do it. But that was impossible, and not only because the minute Rhiannon got back, she’d drive up here to check on her.

Without disturbing the dog, she slid out of bed. The weather had turned colder overnight, and her room was chilly.

She grabbed her phone from where it had been neatly plugged into the charger on the nightstand. She had multiple missed messages, and she clicked on Rhiannon’s first.

I meeeeeeesssss you!

She smiled. She replied with a heart eyes emoji and moved to the rest of her texts.

There was a message from Andy, delivered a little over half an hour ago.

Hey Katrina. I know you get up early. Call me whenever you want, if you’d like.

She made a face. It was only a matter of time before Andy saw the CafeBae nonsense. Of course her therapist would recognize Katrina and the café and check in on her.