Melissa: A Hathaway House Heartwarming Romance by Dale Mayer (good book club books txt) 📕

“It’s a purebred Maine coon,” she said, “and he is huge.” The cat just draped in her arms, like a piece of dough, sagging on both sides.

Melissa immediately held out her arms. “Is he friendly?”

“Yep, he’s here several times a year for basic shots and toenail clippings, things like that,” she said. “The owner said that she’d be here this morning but then phoned to say she couldn’t get in ’til the end of the day. So this guy—whose name is Timmy, by the way—was feeling caged, so we brought him out to give him some space.” She dropped him gently into Melissa’s arms.

Melissa immediately hugged him close. The cat looked up at her, rubbed his face against hers, and a massive diesel engine kicked in. “Oh my,” she gasped. “He’s gorgeous.” She nuzzled her cheek against the cat, who just seemed unable to get enough, and she scratched the back of his head and along his neck. She sat here, enraptured, just loving the feel of this cat that had absolutely no intention of going anywhere, as long as there were humans to look after him. “He is just beautiful.”

“Yep, he is. We get a lot of really cool animals in here,” she said with a smile.

Melissa looked up at Shane. “Did you want to hold him?”

“No, thanks,” he said. “It’s all good.” He pulled out his cell phone. “Do you mind if I take a picture?”

“Sure, I’d love to have one too,” she said.

He took several photos of her holding Timmy, and reluctantly, when Timmy looked like he wanted to check out the reception room, she handed him back awkwardly to Robin, who snagged him up. “That’s it, Timmy. Back inside with you now.” She carried him to his cage.

Sad, and yet at the same time feeling almost awestruck with the one-on-one meeting, Melissa said, “I should ask Dani about visiting with some of the animals,” she said. “I feel like I need to do more of that.”

“I’m sure you do,” he said. “Do you want to go outside now or go back upstairs?”

“I think I’d like to go outside,” she said impulsively. She stopped and looked up at him. “I’m not trying to take you away from your work though.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “As I said, I’ve got some time.”

She smiled. “And it’s nice to spend it with you, not in a gym where I’m getting reamed out for not working hard enough.” She chuckled.

“That’s the job,” he said. “This is completely different.”

She smiled. “And I like that,” she said. “It’s nice to see people on a personal level too.”

“For us too,” he said. “Remember that we live here, and we work here. But we also must have relationships and meet people here on their level as well.”

“It’s hard to even imagine,” she said. “I’m here because of the … the condition I’m in. But you’re here by choice.”

“All of us are,” he said. “There’s work in other places in the country, if we didn’t want to be here. But most of us love it and love just helping the people who we have here. It’s a very special place.”

“And again, kudos to Dani for pulling it together.”

“Absolutely. She’s done a bang-up job on it. And we all appreciate it.”

“I’m not at all surprised to hear that,” she said. “I’m really proud of her.”

“Then tell her that,” he said.

“I think we all forget to give kudos where kudos belong.” She smiled. “Another one of those hard-learned lessons, isn’t it? We tend to get so wrapped up in ourselves, we forget that other people have needs and insecurities too.”

As soon as they went outside and down the pathway, she stopped almost in her tracks and said, “And there are the horses,” she said, shaking her head. “So beautiful just to even see them from a distance.”

“Do you ride?”

“No. Never really had the opportunity. They’re so big too,” she said with a laugh. “Not scared of them though, I’m just … in awe.”

“In awe is a good way to put it,” he said, “because they are very special, but they are certainly not an animal that you want to be too complacent about. It’s easy to get hurt just out of ignorance.”

“I wouldn’t want to hurt them either,” she said, “and it feels like I would end up startling them and causing more problems.”

“Possibly,” he said, “I’m not sure how much of an issue that is though.”

“I don’t know. They are just lovely to see.”

They wheeled down the path, the two of them together, quiet, peaceful. He asked out of the blue, “Do you have anybody waiting for you at home?”

“I haven’t had anybody waiting for me in a long time.” She wanted to joke about it but knew it wasn’t a joking matter. “It seems like I’ve been alone for a lot longer than I even thought possible.”

“Did it bother you to be alone?” he asked curiously.

“No. I didn’t really notice it, until I started recovering from all this, and, at one point in time, I wondered what I was recovering for. It was hard to admit, especially to …”

“To yourself,” he said instantly. “Recovery should always be about you. Every decision in life should be about you,” he said, “because, if the other person leaves, you’ve got to be sure that that decision you made is one you can still live with.”

“And I’ve thought about that,” she said. “But, no, there isn’t anybody.” As they strolled along the pathway, she asked, “What about you?”

“No. A lot of relationships are happening here,” he said. “So it’s been something that I’ve been thinking about a little bit lately, just because I’ve watched as there didn’t appear to be any relationships, then all of a sudden a good dozen were coming together out of the blue.”

“That’s lovely,” she said.

“It absolutely is,” he said. “But it was also unexpected. So it’s made me do a little self-analysis, figuring out what it is I want.”

“And that can’t be easy. You spend all your