Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond(113)
Author: Kim Harrison

"He bites!" she protested. "I hate him! You always take his side, and it’s not fair!"

"Ma’am, any bat that lets you pick it up is ill. I have to turn it over to Animal Control," Cooper started, wanting them out of his store but having a legal responsibility, too.

"The bat is a pet," the woman said. "It has never seen the night sky but for today." Her eyes narrowed in a staged severity as she glanced at her daughter. "You and I are going to have a chat, young lady."

Cooper hesitated, and the woman extended a long slim hand for the box. He couldn’t help but notice there was no wedding ring, and her smile held a sly evaluation as his eyes rose from it to find she had seen him look.

"Please," she said, her voice softening. "The bat isn’t ill. I wouldn’t allow my daughter access to disease-ridden vermin. What do you take me for?" She laughed, throwing her head back to show her long, beautiful neck, and the birds fluttered, clinging to the mesh and twittering.

Uneasy, Cooper handed her the box. "A pet?" The woman obviously wasn’t a drunk; she looked thin from aerobics and Pilates, not alcohol. "I think he’s dead," Cooper added, and the woman’s expression fell.

Jerking, she popped the box open, her eyes closing in relief as she brought the bat out and held it for a moment before carefully placing it in her coat pocket. "He’s sleeping," the woman said in relief, shooting an angry look at her daughter, who was now holding the kitten like a baby, rocking back and forth and crooning.

"Please, Mama," she said, her loving gaze fixed on the kitten. "You never let me have anything."

The woman’s eyebrows rose. "Don’t I just? Well, how would you like me giving you a year’s grounding?"

"Mama!"

"Put the cat back and wait for me outside, or I’ll make it two!"

Emily puckered her lips, and Cooper thought he was going see a temper tantrum to end all tantrums, but when her mother cocked her head, the little girl lost her bluster. "I waited and waited," she whined, swaying petulantly to make the hem of her coat hit her legs. "I was patient, just like you said. You never let me have anything!" But it was soft in defeat, and Cooper took the kitten, feeling awkward as the little girl stomped to the door and pushed the heavy door open, the bells making only a dull thud against the glass as she went out.

Cooper shivered in the draft before turning back to the woman. Damn, she was striking, her cheekbones high and her eyes wide and full of a questioning depth as she waited for Cooper to stop watching her daughter skipping across the snowy parking lot to the late-model Jaguar.

"Sorry," he said, embarrassed for no reason he could fathom. He wasn’t the one with the kid running around with a bat.

She smiled to show very white teeth. "Don’t be," she said, reaching to touch his shoulder before turning to the window. Surprised, Cooper froze. "I know how this looks," she said softly, watching Emily dance in a puddle of light with her arms raised to catch the drifting snow, her chiming laughter somehow making it through the glass. "Emily is a precocious thing. I appreciate you not calling the authorities. The bat is part of a well-maintained colony. He isn’t ill, just ill-tempered. Teething."

With a small sigh, she started for the door. Cooper touched his arm, feeling as if her hand was still there. He couldn’t help but watch her legs in her black nylons, gaze rising to her round, very grabbable ass, and then to her thin waist, all shown off by an expensive-looking leather coat. He sighed as well, for an entirely different reason, flushing when the woman paused, clearly having heard him. Poised before the door, she turned. "The snow is beautiful tonight. Are you free?"

"Uh, no," he muttered, suddenly uneasy. Kitten still in his arms, he went behind the counter. The woman was gorgeous, sexy, and sophisticated. What would she want with him?

Hand on the door, she looked to her daughter, a wistful expression on her face. "She misses her father."

"Really." He didn’t know what to say, and he perched himself on the worn stool. He couldn’t help but look. But that was as far as it was going to ever go. Right?

"She’s been watching your store for months," the woman said, her heels tapping a curious tat-a-tat, tat-tat beat as she came back to him. "Her heart has been set on a kitten, but I won’t allow her to take a stray. Must not start bad habits. It’s sweet, really. She thinks you’re immeasurably brave for taking care of dogs. She calls you the dog master."

Cooper nodded, looking at a clipboard of fish inventory as he began cursing himself. A lonely, rich, beautiful woman was coming on to him, and he was looking at fish totals? But with a young child and a dead or divorced husband, she would have enough emotional baggage to ground a plane. He didn’t want to become involved no matter how good the sex might be, even crazy good. "No harm, no foul," he said, jaw clenched.

"Well," the woman said as she stood before him, her hands spaced wide on the counter, "you’re being extremely nice about it. I feel as if I owe you dinner at least."

Cooper glanced up, but his refusal hesitated at the look in her eyes: hesitant, hopeful . . . vulnerable. "No, really. It’s okay," came out instead his intended, "Sorry, I’m busy."

"I insist," she said. "My name is Felicity. My employer is hosting a holiday party at Gateways tonight. That’s where we’re going . . . dressed like this."

Cooper nodded, his pulse quickening. He was cautious, but he wasn’t dead. Gateways was one of the most exclusive dance clubs in the tristate area, having opened six years ago. And, judging by the number of times it made the front page, it had been a problem to the local cops since that time. He’d never been in there.

"He’s got the entire place rented out. Arranged for a band. If I don’t bring a man with me, I’m going to be fending off drunk coworkers all night," the woman said, dropping her elbows on the counter and cupping her chin in her hands, her green eyes daring him. "You’d be doing me a favor."

Her blouse was falling open, and with a herculean effort, he didn’t look-much. But the rest of her bent over the counter like that was even sexier, and Cooper struggled to keep his thoughts on what she was saying. He wanted to go, but he hesitated. She was smart, beautiful, and she didn’t care that he worked at a pet shop. What’s wrong with this picture, Cooper?

"Emily will be there," she coaxed as she stood, and Cooper began to breathe again. "It’s family oriented. We’d love to have you join us."

Cooper thought of his microwave dinner waiting for him at his two-room apartment. Frozen meals, sitcoms, and reality TV were dragging him down, killing his ambition. I’m an ass if I let this slip away. Go get yourself a story to tell!