Read Courting Alley Cat Online
Authors: Kelly,Kathryn
Courting Alley Cat
Courting Alley Cat
by
Kat Kelly
Also by Kat Kelly
Contemporary Romance
Lost and Found
Historical Romance
Writing as Kathryn Elizabeth Kelly
Beyond Enemy Lines
Hearts Under Siege
Dear Johnny
Time-Travel
Twist of Fate
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
Courting Alley Cat
COPYRIGHT © 2016 by Kathryn Kelly. All rights reserved.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to others. If you would like to share this book, please purchase a copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Published in the United States of America
Cover design by Linda Boulanger
Kat Kelly
Courting
Alley
Cat
Dedication
For Allen
Contents
Alley Alexandra stared into space and tapped her pencil. The characters she’d created in her head were real… to her. At the moment, however, they refused to cooperate.
Allora so despised Winston. He was young and brash and childish. She never cared if she ever saw him again. In fact, she fervently hoped she would not.
“Come with me,” he said.
“Never,” she insisted.
“Alley.”
She would never go with him. It would be a deadly trek and she never...
“Alley Cat?”
Alley set down her pen and notebook as she felt herself being tugged back into the real world. She got up and followed the sound of her parents’ voices in the next room.
“Yes, Dad?” she asked, still in the fog of her fantasy story.
“I think that’s everything,” Bradley Alexander said, setting down a large box labeled
supplies
and turning to his daughter. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
No, she wasn’t sure, but she would never tell him that. She had struggled with this over and over in her mind for the past several months. But in the end, she had said she would do it, so here she was. She would do it.
“Dad, it’s only for three months,” Alley gave him the wide smile that never failed to melt his heart and to help her get away with things. “It can’t be that bad. After all, you grew up here.”
“That may be so, Alley Cat” he said, tugging her long blonde ponytail. “but you didn’t.”
Alley smiled at the childhood endearment. “What could I possibly get into? It’s got to be safer here in rural Louisiana than it is in Dallas,” she opened a cabinet near the kitchen sink and took out three glasses which she began filling with water from the tap. “You weren’t this bad when I moved into my own apartment.”
Dad stared out the open kitchen window to the street beyond. Alley handed him a glass. “Dad?”
He turned and met her gaze. “I know you’ll be fine. Life is just different here. And you don’t know anyone. If your mother could stay with you, I guess I might feel a little better.”
“Maybe he doesn’t want me to come home,” Alley’s mom Kylee suggested, as she joined them in the kitchen and took her glass from Alley. “Is there something I should know about Bradley?”
“Are you kidding? I want both my girls to come home.”
“But then who would take care of your mom’s house?” Kylee reminded him.
“I guess there is no way I can win.”
“Really, Dad, Granny will be back in three months and Mom and I will both be back in Dallas.”
“Bradley, your daughter is twenty-five, not twelve. Besides, she has work to do.”
“That’s right, Alley,” Dad said, “Write your thesis.”
“And write your novel,” her mother added.
“I know I have lots of work to do,” Alley said.
”Speaking of work, we should get on the road.”
“Yes, we should,” Kylee agreed, “The plants are all watered and should be good for a couple of days. You know where the cat food is. You know what to do with the mail-”
“Mom! Take a deep breath. If I have any questions I’ll call your cell phone. I’m sure you’ll call and remind me of everything anyway.”
Nevertheless, it took two hours for Kylee and Bradley to finally say goodbye to Alley and get themselves into their SUV and to finally back out of the driveway. It would be nearly midnight before they finally got home and Dad had work in the morning. She was sure that Mom would have breakfast with some of her friends and maybe even lunch with other friends. After all, she had been out of town for two weeks, housesitting until Alley could get here. Dad, whose ideal Sunday afternoon was staying home alone watching a Dallas Cowboys football game, would never understand his two gregarious girls.
Alley stood in the driveway and watched them until they disappeared around the corner. Home was only five hours away at the most, a straight shot west on Interstate 20, but Alley didn’t think she could have felt any more lonely if they had dumped her off in the desert of Utah.
Something she would have told her father.
But she had this to do.
This time she would succeed.
She slowly went back inside and stood looking around, rubbing her arms. Granny’s house was not the typical grandparent house. Granny liked to stay up to date and she loved to shop. She had a plasma TV over the fireplace and a leather sofa set in burgundy. The room had built-in bookcases showcasing Granny’s wide reading interests from westerns to the latest chick-lit novels.
Alley could think of worse places to spend the summer.
She went into the kitchen, stood at the sink, and looked out. The house next door was similar to Granny’s. It was a large brick house, like Granny’s, built about fifteen years ago with lots of windows and a well-manicured lawn - very small-town suburban. She knew the people who lived there. It was an older couple named York. The husband was a veterinarian. She could see the discreet sign on the front porch from here.
The Bark and Purr Veterinary Clinic
. She smiled to herself. Discreet, but whimsical.
Her attention was drawn to a guy coming out the front door. She leaned over the sink to get a better look. He sat down in a chair on the porch and stretched out his long jeans-clad legs.
As she watched, a newer model car pulled into the driveway and as soon as the driver got out and opened the back door, a large golden retriever leaped out and rushed toward the man on the porch. The dog jumped into his lap and started licking his face. Laughing, he turned toward the older woman walking toward him.
Alley took a deep breath. Who was he? She tried to lean closer, but she was as close as she could get. Her stomach was shoved against the counter top and her face was wedged between the ivies Granny had sitting in the windowsill. She could see that his face was clean-shaven, but because he was wearing a baseball cap, she couldn’t see his hair. She needed to get a closer look to see if he was half as attractive up close as he was from a distance. Much too soon, he disappeared into the house with the woman and her dog.
Well, wasn’t that interesting? She pulled her nose from the window and went about watering the ivies - which promptly spilled over and water ran down the counter. Too late, she remembered her mom had just watered all the plants.
She remembered the Yorks had a son, but he was a geek and was way older than she was. Maybe the Yorks moved. She would have to ask her mom. After wiping up the spilled water, she located a sponge and hand washed their water glasses, keeping a discreet eye on the house across the street. Maybe he was a visitor or maybe he worked for the Yorks. After all, Mr. York was getting on in years, maybe heading toward retirement.
With nothing left to do at the sink, she reluctantly gave up her post and began to assess the house.
The house was lonely without Granny, and especially so now that Mom and Dad had left. But, she reminded herself, that was exactly why she had agreed to house sit for three months. She was too easily distracted in Dallas. Besides, Granny was paying her. Her dad claimed the problem was she had too many friends. Alley wasn’t sure how one could have too many friends. It was a concept she couldn’t quite fathom. Besides, she only had two. Or three. Maybe four. She did wonder, however, how she would ever get her work done with her friends wanting her to do things with them this summer.
First, and most importantly, she needed a place to set up her workstation, she decided, looking around. And soon. Writing ideas and bits of dialogue in a notebook was one thing, but she needed her computer and a workspace to really get going on her story.
She had to find a place she could put her large Apple computer and her drawing table. She decided against the living room. It was just too nice with its fireplace and plasma television. When her friends came to visit, it would be nice to have that space as is. She smiled at what her dad would say about that. Well, he couldn’t expect her to be all work and no play. That would be just plain... well... dull.
She didn’t want to work in one of the bedrooms or in Granny’s office. The older woman’s office space was too personal and she didn’t want to go near it except to handle the important mail. Besides, she liked to work with Fox news channel in the background. And, if she were honest, the back of the house seemed too isolated.
She was so proud of Granny getting to go on a world tour at age sixty-five, she mused as she closed Granny’s office door. Granny, much like Alley and her mom, had many friends and it was great that some of them could travel together.
She found herself wandering back to the kitchen. The little breakfast nook was the perfect spot, she decided. The rectangular dining table was just the right size for a desk. She carefully moved the basket of flowers from the table to the kitchen cabinet and slid the table back against the large picture window.
The large picture window that afforded her a nice view of the Bark and Purr Veterinary Clinic. There was no longer anyone parked in the driveway... or sitting on the front porch. She put her computer on the table, went to grab a box of office supplies and came back to find Charlie, Granny’s white Persian cat sitting proudly in the middle of the table.
“Charlie,” she cooed, picking up the fifteen pound cat and, after scratching his ears, setting him on the floor. He immediately jumped back onto the table.
“Well,” she said with a sigh. “I guess you’re going to be my big helper. I’m not sure Granny lets you sit on the table. If I let you sit there, you can’t say a word about it to her when she gets home. Is that a deal?”
Charlie blinked at her and curled his front paws beneath him as he settled in.
“Ok, then. I guess we have a deal.” She set up her drawing table and desk lamp, plugged in her pencil sharpener, and opened her pack of straight edges. Charlie watched with interest as she set up her scanner and arranged her drawing pencils.
So what if her gaze wandered over to the house next door as she worked?
By the time she had her office space suitably arranged; it was well past time for dinner. She and her mom had gone grocery shopping that morning and all of Alley’s favorites were on hand. She heated up a frozen cheese pizza - she never claimed her favorites were necessarily healthy, and settled in to watch the latest episode of Game of Thrones on television. Charlie, purring contentedly, curled up next to her on the sofa. Then, she spent an hour talking to Mom and Dad on the phone, assuring them that she was alright. That was, she supposed, the fate of being an only child. In the process, though, she confirmed that the Yorks did, indeed, still live next door.
After making sure there was no activity going on at the Bark and Purr, she crawled into bed. Charlie jumped on the bed and curled up on the extra pillow where he stayed most of the night.
She fell asleep with a smile on her face. Wondering why she didn’t have a pet at home. She would definitely have to get one. Or maybe she would just kidnap Charlie and take him with her. He had already proven himself to be not only a companion, but also a conspirator – both necessary qualities in a pet.
Alley woke the next morning at six, at least two hours earlier than she usually woke up. Then she realized why. Charlie was nipping at her elbow.
“All right, I’ll get up. Stop biting me. I hope you don’t always get up this early. It is summer, after all.”
She dragged herself into the kitchen with Charlie softly meowing at her heals. She poured food into his dish and flipped on the coffee-pot, over-riding the timer she had set for eight – fortunately, she’d learned the whole concept of brewing coffee while visiting her grandmother holidays and summers. No Starbucks down the street to pull her out of the house. She then stumbled bleary-eyed out the door to search for the newspaper her mother assured her would be there.
It wasn’t on the front porch. Then she spotted it at the end of the driveway next to the road. Didn’t people understand the idea of
throwing
a newspaper? At home, it was always waiting on the doorstep of her apartment. It occurred to her that she was barefoot, wearing nothing more than the red shorts and camisole set she had slept in, but who could she possibly see this early in the morning?
The concrete was cool on the bottoms of her feet, but the air had a warmth to it. Summer came early in Louisiana, just as it did in Texas. It wouldn’t be long before she would be getting up early to mow the lawn. She’d mowed grass before, when she lived at home with her parents. It was kind of relaxing and satisfying.