Page 55 of With This Ring

No, no, no.

Holding back the sting of tears, she grabbed a flashlight from the utility room and made for the back door. Rain soaked her hair as she pointed the beam around the yard.

“Trouble!” she yelled. “Trouble, are you out here?” Her heart pounded in her ears. “Kitty, where are you?”

She continued to call his name and plod around the muddy yard, searching overgrown bushes for any sign of her precious companion.

“Trouble!” she called. “Please come here, kitty. Please!” she pleaded with the animal.

The whoosh of a sliding glass door sounded behind her, but she kept searching, trying to see over her neighbor’s fence at the edge of her yard.

“What’s wrong?” a voice called, but she ignored it.

She called the cat again.

“Koti, answer me. What’s going on?”

Dakota’s entire body went rigid. She hadn’t heard that nickname in years—seven, to be exact. Only Hudson Garrity had called her by that name.

She spun toward the other side of her backyard. He stood inside her fence while rain soaked his dark hair, blue t-shirt, and jeans.

“H-have you seen my cat?” she managed to ask him. Her voice sounded thin and reedy.

He shook his head. “He’s missing?”

She nodded, unable to speak.

“I’ll help you find him.”

“Th-thanks,” she managed, the word scratching its way out of her dry throat.

Hudson peeked over the neighbor’s fence and then climbed into the bushes lining the back of her house. Dakota moved to the side of her yard, all the while calling her cat’s name.

“Trouble!” she yelled. “Trouble, come on, baby.”

Hudson appeared at her side. “I don’t think he’s out here.” He shoveled his fingers through his thick, wet hair. “And you’ve looked everywhere inside?”

“Yeah.”

He hesitated. “Can I take a look?”

“Sure.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand despite the rain pouring down on her.

His blue eyes seemed to assess her. “You’re soaked. You should come inside too.”

“No.” She shook her head. “Not until I find my cat.”

His expression softened. “I’ll give your house a quick look and then come back out.”

While Hudson jogged toward her back door, Dakota started around her yard again, shining the flashlight toward each shrub and searching behind her air-conditioning unit.

Several moments ticked by, and her hope began to deflate even more. Trouble was surely gone, and her heart began to break.

“Koti!”

She spun toward the back door, where Hudson stood holding Trouble. The cat’s eyes were half-opened, and he yawned before struggling to get free of Hudson’s grasp.

With a gasp, Dakota took off running toward her ex-fiancé and her cat. “Where was he?” she demanded.