When he didn't immediately spring back up, they both sat there waiting, watching the edge of the bed for his reappearance.
A minute or so passed and no kitty. "You think he got the hint?" Luc said.
"Seems that way," Julie said, then she looked behind them and started to laugh. "I take that back."
Luc turned to see that the kitten had come up the opposite side of the mattress this time and was sitting behind them. He yawned and licked his paws, content as could be.
Luc sighed and shook his head. "Ideas?"
"Let's wait a minute and see what he does. He's got to be tired from all the climbing."
They sat and watched while the kitten sniffed around the bed for several minutes, nearly toppling over the edge a few times. He made his way to the head of the bed, up onto Luc's pillow, where he curled up in a ball and promptly fell asleep.
"So now what?" Luc asked.
"It's a king-size mattress," Julie said. "There's room for everyone."
It was a little strange at first, making love with an audience, even if that audience was asleep, but eventually Luc forgot he was even there. They stayed on their side and the kitten stayed on his, while Julie "thanked" Luc.
Afterward, as they lay there together, Julie cuddled up against him, the kitten woke up, toddled over and joined them. He flopped down on his back, right on Luc's chest.
"This is the best gift anyone has ever given me," Julie said. She tickled the kitten's belly and he attacked her hand.
They played with the kitten for a while, and then Julie grabbed her phone from the bedside table to check the time.
"Are you getting hungry?" she asked Luc.
He eyed her warily. "When I said cats are delicious, I was kidding."
She laughed and gave him a playful nudge. "It's almost dinnertime. And it's Friday. We should do something."
"We still haven't had that romantic dinner out that I promised you. We could get dressed up and go somewhere nice, just the two of us."
"Or we could see if your mom would like to join us. We could go to the diner. And if she's feeling up to it afterward maybe we could take her to see a movie."
"Are you sure that's what you want?" he asked her.
"She's been stuck at home for almost two weeks now, and she's definitely well enough to leave the house. I would feel guilty going out and leaving her home alone."
Luc grinned and shook his head.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked him.
"You're an extraordinary woman, Julie."
She blinked. "I am?"
He nodded.
"Why?"
"I offer to take you out to an expensive, candlelit dinner, and you would rather spend the evening with my mother."
"She's my friend. I want her to be happy. You know that it's only a matter of time before she gets another infection."
"I know," he said, his heart aching at the thought of losing her. "She's getting more and more fragile."
"So let's have fun with her while we still can."
"What are we going to do with him?" Luc nodded toward the kitten, who had curled up between them on the comforter and was sound asleep again.
"He can stay in here," she said. "As long as he has food and water and a litter pan he should be fine. And we keep the door closed. How much trouble could one tiny kitten get into?"
* * *
They had a nice dinner with Luc's mother, then took her to the theater to see the latest chick flick. Julie knew for a fact that Luc would have picked an action film any day of the week. Frankly, so would Julie, but his mother wanted to see a romantic comedy. It was after eleven when they finally got home.
"I'll help the nurse get her into bed," Luc told Julie. "You should probably go up and check on the fur ball."
She headed upstairs, opened the door to Luc's bedroom and switched on the light. "Here kitty, kitty. Mummy's home."
He wasn't on the bed sleeping, where she would have expected him to be, but then what did she know about having a cat? The most she'd ever had petwise was a caterpillar in a glass jar, until her father saw it there and flushed it down the toilet.
"Kitty, kitty," she called, checking all around the bedroom and the bathroom. "Come to Mummy."
She waited, but when he didn't come trotting out to greet her she frowned. "Where are you, you silly kitten?"
There was no sign of him so she got on all fours to look under the bed. From behind her she heard, "I don't know what you're doing, but I like the view."
She turned to see Luc standing behind her. "I can't find the kitten."
"He's got to be here somewhere," he said. "Did you try the closet?"
"Not yet."
Luc headed that way while Julie crawled over to check under the chest of drawers.
"Um, Julie? I found him."
"Oh thank goodness." She jumped up and darted to his closet door to join Luc. She looked inside and gasped. It was as if a hurricane had torn through. A dozen or so of Luc's clean, pressed dress shirts lay in piles all over the floor like an Egyptian cotton rainbow, while several others hung half on and half off the hanger. From the cuff of one, dangling a good two feet from the floor, hung the kitten, his claw snagged.
"Oh my gosh!" Julie dashed to his rescue, carefully unsnagging his nails and cuddling him to her chest. "You poor baby. How long were you hanging there?"
Luc just looked around, shaking his head. "What was that you asked? 'How much trouble could one tiny kitten get into?'" He spread his arms wide. "Here's your answer."
"He has been busy, hasn't he? On the bright side he'll probably sleep well tonight."
"So I guess I should have listened to Megan when she said that he's mischievous."
"I'm sorry. I hope he didn't ruin them."
"You'll make it up to me," Luc said, and she didn't have to ask what he meant. She helped him clean up the kitten's mess, then spent the next hour or so making it up to him, and what a hardship that turned out to be.
After making love again, he asked her to stay with him all night. She said no, he said please. She couldn't recall him using the word please any of the previous times he'd asked her and hearing the word spoken so earnestly, seeing the earnest look in his eyes...well, she just couldn't tell him no.
"Just this once," she said, settling back against the pillows. "But I'm used to sleeping alone, so I'll probably toss and turn most of the night. I apologize in advance if I keep you awake."
"It's a king-size bed, you won't even know I'm over here," he said, but nothing could be further from the truth. He never even made it onto his own side. He curled up behind her, his arm draped across her hip. And as if that wasn't crowded enough, the kitten, who was clearly exhausted after his adventure, curled up on the pillow above her head. She was annoyed, and utterly content at the same time. She closed her eyes, mentally preparing herself for a long restless night, and when she opened them again, it was morning. Not only had she not had a lousy night's sleep, she felt well rested and full of energy.
Luc was gone, but he'd left a note on the pillow. "Volunteering at the clinic until noon. How about lunch in the hospital cafeteria at 1:00?"
She looked at the clock, stunned to find that it was almost 10:30 a.m. She grabbed her phone off the bedside table and typed up a quick text.
Lunch sounds great, see you at 1:00.
He responded a few seconds later with a happy face icon.
She would have plenty of time to shower and make a trip to the pet supply store.
Speaking of pets...
She reached up over her head to pet the kitten only to realize that he was gone. Here we go again, she thought. She pushed herself up out of bed and threw on the T-shirt and panties she'd been wearing the night before. She looked in the obvious places first. Under the bed, in the closet by his food dish, in the bathroom by his litter. But she couldn't find him anywhere. Had he snuck out when Luc left?
She checked everywhere, every corner and nook. She even checked under the covers, in case he'd been sleeping beside her when she flipped the blanket off.
Nothing. It was as if he'd vanished.
Where the hell could he have gone? she wondered, a feeling of panic building in her chest. How in the world would she find him? In a house this huge it could take days.
She was checking behind the curtains one last time, and was about to initiate a whole house search, when she heard a loud and very unhappy-sounding meow. But it seemed to be coming from above her head. She looked up to find the kitten clinging to the curtain valance on top of the rod, and now that she took a better look at the curtain panel, she could see teeny tiny holes where his claws had sunk in. The little imp had climbed all the way up, and apparently couldn't find his way back down. "You are mischievous," she said, getting up on her tiptoes to scoop him up. "Let's not go up here again."