Goddess of Love (Goddess Summoning #5)(6)

"I'll get her," Griffin said.

"She's all yours, Captain."

Griffin started up the ladder and Chloe's low, rumbling growl intensified.

"Chloe! Manners!" Pea called up to the perturbed Scottie. Please, God, please don't let her bite him, she mentally telegraphed over and over.... Until Griffin did something that made Pea's thoughts, as well as Chloe's growls, come to an abrupt halt. He was calling Chloe, but he wasn't calling her like someone would call a dog. He was, unbelievably, kitty-kittying her.

"Come here Chloe, kitty-kitty. It's okay little girl. Come here, kitty-kitty-kitty...."

Dumbfounded, Pea watched her dog's ears lift and her head tilt toward the approaching man.

"Good girl," Griffin murmured. "Good kitty-kitty, kitty-kitty." He held his hand out slowly and let Chloe get a good sniff of him. "See, you smell her, don't you? That's right, kitty-kitty-kitty, come on down."

Pea could only stand and stare as Griffin reached into the tree crevice and pulled Chloe, who was still sniffing him curiously, into his arms and began the descent down the ladder.

"Amazing," Stacy said with a deep breath. "How did he do that? Chloe hates men."

"He's too pretty to hate, Mommy," Emili said.

"Honey, let's keep that for our inside thoughts, shall we?" Stacy said. Then she glanced at Pea and whispered, "Even though it's totally true."

Pea pretended not to hear either of them, which was easy. Her entire being was focused on her dream man striding toward her with her dog - who was actually wagging her tail - held firmly in his arms.

"Here ya go, ma'am." He handed Chloe to Pea.

"Th-thank you," Pea stuttered. "How?"

"How?" he repeated.

"The kitty-kittying. How did you know to do that?"

"Just makes sense. You said she thinks she's a cat, and you have a cat, right?"

Pea nodded.

"That's how you call your cat. Right?"

Pea nodded again.

"I figured she'd recognize the call."

Griffin scratched Chloe on the top of her head, and Pea watched in astonishment as her dog - her man-hating dog - closed her eyes and sighed happily.

"That's just part of it, though," Griffin said. "I was counting on Chloe smelling Cali."

Pea suddenly understood. "Your cat?"

"My cat." Griffin gave Chloe one last scratch, then turned back to his men. "Okay, let's get this loaded up. Have a good day, ma'am." He nodded politely to her and then to Stacy. He winked at Emili, and then he was gone.

"Em, honey, go on inside and wait for Mommy. I'll be there in just a second," Stacy told her daughter.

"Are you and Pea going to talk about how pretty that fireman was?"

"Of course not, honey. Now go on."

"'Kay! Bye, Pea." Emili skipped off to her house, singing a song about lemon drops and unicorns.

"Okay, I'd forgotten how drop dead Mr. Tall Dark and Fireman is. I can definitely understand why you've had a thing for him for ages," Stacy said.

Pea put Chloe down and the dog trotted over to the tree and began sniffing all around the trunk.

"Do not even think about climbing up there again," Pea told her sternly. Chloe glanced back at her and snorted. "I swear that dog understands every word I say," Pea muttered.

"Hello! Sexy, incredible man. We were talking about him and not your insane Scottie."

"She's not insane," Pea said automatically. "And yeah, he's gorgeous and I might have a little crush on him."

Stacy rolled her eyes, which Pea chose to ignore. "But now he's gone. I don't see the point in going on and on about him."

"Like you haven't gone on and on about him before?"

Pea silently chastised herself for the one or two - okay, ten or twelve - times she'd mentioned to Stacy how hot she thought their neighbor was. "Whatever," she said, trying to sound nonchalant and dismissive. "He's still gone, and there's still no point in talking about how gorgeous he is."

"The point is, Ms. Totally Single, that he seemed interested in you."

"Get real, Stacy. He wasn't interested; he was polite. There's a world of difference."

"Bullshit."

"Stacy, he didn't even remember me, and today makes the fourth time we've met. Men like him are not interested in women like me."

"So he has a crappy memory. Lots of guys do. And women like you? What does that mean?"

Pea sighed, and didn't feel up to mentioning that Griffin's memory hadn't failed when she'd walked up. "Women like me - short, plain, forgettable. He belongs with a model or a goddess. He doesn't belong with me."

"You know, that's your problem! You defeat yourself before you even start. I've told you before that all you need is a little self-confidence. You're perfectly fine looking."

Perfectly fine looking. Didn't that just sum it all up? There was sexy Stacy giving her what she really considered praise and encouragement, but the best she could come up with was perfectly fine looking. She studied Stacy - tall and blond with her great curves, fabulous boobs and those cheekbones that made her face look like someone should carve it out of marble. How could she possibly understand what it was to be so average that you went through life being invisible?