8. Sadie

S itting outside the Humane Society of Camden County, Georgia, a full forty minutes away from Amelia Island, Sadie took a deep breath and prayed that Wiggles, an eleven-pound orange tabby with a white chest, was really Rhett Butler.

Two hours earlier, Sadie—nothing if not resourceful—had easily tapped into Chloe's computer and found the database of local cats recently logged with the county as strays or lost. She instantly zeroed in on Wiggles, a new arrival overnight, just brought into a shelter on the other side of the Florida-Georgia line.

The minute Chloe's part-time assistant showed to run Rocky's Rescues, Sadie had jumped into her car. She'd been up early making chocolate, so she was able to turn the shop over to the new front clerk she'd hired. Free for the rest of the day, she zipped up to the small town of Kingsland, arriving at a dreary fenced-in animal shelter on a county road.

She hadn't told anyone—and by anyone, she meant Scout—where she was going, but with every mile, she got more excited that this cat might be Rhett Butler.

Or a close match.

They'd been to all the humane society shelters, animal refuges, and pet adoption places in Nassau County this past week. Not only had they not found Rhett Butler, but they hadn't seen any orange cats, which were apparently pretty rare. But they were almost always male, so that helped the cause.

The cause that Sadie refused to lose just yet.

Parking, she tapped her phone to look again at the shelter's website. She peered at a grainy image of Wiggles, who really was the spitting image of Rhett Butler.

She'd only seen Kitty's cat a few times and remembered that he was skittish and preferred to hide under a bed rather than be held, so she couldn't be sure if the match was perfect, but it couldn't hurt to check the little guy out, right?

Please, God, please. Let it be Rhett Butler that some kind soul found on the side of the road and brought here.

An old man at the front desk didn't seem to care who she was, if she had ID, or…anything. When she asked about Wiggles and showed him the picture on her phone, he thumbed down a dimly lit hall, and said, "Cat holding tank is the last door on the left."

She followed the directions, her heart skidding around with each step. It was clean…enough. The place smelled, though, and echoed with distant barks from the canine prisoners—er, dogs.

Not a person was in sight, so when she reached "the last door on the left"—even that sounded like a horror movie—she turned the rusted knob with great trepidation. Was she stepping into the "cat holding tank" or the lion's den?

She inched the door open, cringing as if she could be attacked any minute, and heard…nothing. Well, some snoring and a few soft mews.

The room was lit by an unforgiving fluorescent light in the ceiling, shining milky yellow over a wall of small cages.

"Oh, they really are in prison, the poor babies," she whispered, tiptoeing inside.

She scanned the half-dozen or so residents, most sleeping, one pawing at its cage, and there, at the end, found an orange ball of fur.

"Are you the answer to my prayers?" She took a few steps and huffed out a breath of the stinky air. Definitely not for the faint of heart or nostril in here. "Are you…Rhett Butler?"

She put her hand on the cage door and gave it a little shake, instantly waking the cat.

He stood, turned, and stretched up and down like a well-trained yoga instructor. Then he took one step closer to stare at Sadie with a curious gaze that was, oddly enough, the exact green-gold-hazel of her own eyes.

Then he pressed on the metal of the cage, sticking his little nose closer to her, with a quick flick of a pink tongue that practically pleaded, "Take me out!"

Instantly, she felt a connection.

And hope. She leaned closer and got a better look, almost swaying with shock. This had to be Rhett Butler! He looked exactly like she remembered the cat.

"Rhett? Is that you?"

"Excuse me. Can I help you?"

Sadie spun around at the sound of a female voice, finding a tall, tattooed, twenty-something girl staring back at her in the doorway.

"Oh, hi. I think…I'm not sure, but I think this is my cat." She turned back to the cage and looked into those eyes again.

"You don't know?"

"I'm not sure. And he's not exactly mine. He's, um, my boyfriend's. Actually, my boyfriend's late mother's best friend who is in Europe and he's cat-sitting, but Rhett Butler ran away and we can't find him, but I think…"

As the young woman's face shifted from accusation to amusement, Sadie's voice faded out.

"I suspected he was a stray when some guy brought him in," she said, coming into the room. "Do you live nearby?"

"Down on Amelia Island."

Her eyes flashed with disbelief. "And you think this is your cat? That he could walk, what, twenty-some miles?"

"You just said someone brought him in. Maybe they found him on the road."

"It was a local guy," she said. "At least, that's what he said. We don't always deal with the most honest folks in this business."

"That's a shame," Sadie said, turning back to the cat. "Well, I'm being straight with you. I think this could be the cat my boyfriend is sitting."

"You have a picture?" she asked.

She nodded, reaching for her phone to slide through Scout's texts. He'd sent her a bunch of pictures he had taken the night he picked up Rhett Butler. Flipping to them, she looked from the screen to the cage and back again.

"See? It's him!"

The other woman looked at the phone, then the cat, then the phone. Then looked a little skeptical. "The white bib looks different," she said. "And Wiggles is skinnier."

"You would be, too, if you walked twenty miles. And the bib? That's just the angle. I'm sure this is Rhett Butler. Right?" She turned to the cage and put her finger inside. "Is that you, Rhett?"

He meowed and licked her finger.

"Huh." The woman came closer and pulled a card from the side of the crate, reading it. "Yeah, this dude picks up strays, brings them here with fake names, and hopes they have a shot at finding a home. So he wasn't just somebody dumping a cat they didn't want."

Sadie cringed at the thought.

"I'll take him," she said, her lifelong instinct for impulsiveness rising to meet the occasion. But this was the right thing to do, she was sure. And if she called Scout…well, he might try and talk her out of this madness or want to wait. Or drive up here to see Wiggles and if he wasn't Rhett?

He'd talk her out of what sure seemed like a great solution.

"Can I?" she urged. "Can I take him home?"

"Let's see how he reacts to you." She slid the bar of the door up, slowly opening the cage. The cat purred and took a step closer, a curious look in his eyes.

"Hello, Rhett Butler," Sadie cooed, holding her hand to his lips for a sniff. "Remember me? I hang around with Scout."

He licked her knuckles and nuzzled her hand, which would make him…not Rhett Butler. But maybe the trauma of his trip and imprisonment had changed his personality.

"See?" Sadie said, turning to the younger woman. "He knows and trusts me."

She still looked dubious. "I'm not supposed to let you take him without a background check and a mountain of paperwork, but…" She watched the cat rub his back against Sadie's hand, a look of rapture on his face. "Okay," she relented. "I have been dying to get some of these cats out of here before our next inspection."

"Great, I'll take—"

"And you can't bring him back," she interjected. "If he's not your friend's cat, that's your problem. You take him, you own him. And you can't hurt him."

Sadie nodded enthusiastically, tunneling her fingers into maybe-Rhett's soft fur. "I wouldn't dream of it."

It didn't take long for Sadie to fill out some paperwork and pay a fee. She threw in an extra fifty bucks as a shelter donation, which got her a free temporary carrier to safely transport the cat home.

With very little fuss, she was back on the road to Amelia Island.

"I don't know if you're Kitty's cat or not," she said to the cat curled inside the flimsy carrier on the passenger seat, staring at Sadie like she'd hung the moon. "But if you fool Scout, you've got the job. If you don't, then I hope you like living above a chocolate shop, 'cause I got a feeling you're mine…Wiggles Butler."

"Come home. I have a surprise."

Scout didn't respond at first, and all Sadie could hear on the other end of the phone was a soft intake of breath. "You found him."

She laughed. "How do you know I'm not wearing something skimpy just waiting for you?"

"Because— Wait. Are you?" There was a cute little hitch in his voice.

"Which of those two things would be a better surprise?" she asked.

He just laughed. "I'm at the cookie shop. Gimme ten minutes. If it's the cat, don't let him run away again. If it's…skimpy? Um, don't you run away."

She decided not to take Wiggles-Might-Be-Rhett out of the carrier for fear he'd bolt, so she waited on the front porch swing listening to him purr. Before long, Scout pulled in, probably having driven faster than at any other time in his life.

Watching him climb out of the front seat, she squinted into the afternoon sun, knowing he didn't see her tucked away on the covered front porch. He smoothed his T-shirt, finger-combed his always unruly hair, and coughed into his hand to check his breath.

Goodness, she adored him. The man was so unassuming, so unpretentious, so very real. His heart was gold, his soul was pure, and she could look all over the world—and had—and not find a better guy. Was that love? Was that…the thing ?

Now all he had to do was…believe this was Rhett Butler and they could celebrate.

"Sadie!" He spotted her and jogged closer, his face bright with anticipation. She stood up to greet him, and he slowed his step, his gaze slipping over her torn jeans and the Coming Up Roses T-shirt she once borrowed from Rose and never gave back, because she loved it.

Nothing about her outfit was skimpy, but his smile got even bigger.

"You found Rhett Butler!" He broke into a run up the stairs, coming full stop at the sight of the cat carrier. "It's a miracle!"

All she could do was laugh—and hope—when he threw his arms around her and lifted her off the ground with a bear hug.

"Where? How? Why didn't you call? And what is he doing in that thing? Sadie!" He planted a kiss on her lips. "How much do I love you?"

Love? Her heart tripped. Did he love her? He'd never said that before. He'd implied it, he'd danced around it, he showed it every day, but he never came right out and said it.

She swayed a little.

"Come and see him," she said, assuming how much he loved her was a rhetorical question that didn't need a response. She guided him closer, watching him as he peeked into the carrier.

"Well, hello there you little…" His shoulders fell. "Stranger." He looked at her with a hint of hurt in his eyes. "You can't be serious."

"It's not him?" she asked, disappointment biting at her.

"Sadie."

"Are you sure?" She got closer and unzipped the corner of the carrier. "He was a stray that got brought into the Humane Society up in Kingsland and—"

"Georgia?" His voice rose. "You went to another state for him?"

"Because…couldn't it be him?" She eased the flap open. "If not, it's his twin brother."

Scout let out a grunt of defeat, but his smile didn't completely disappear when he looked at her. "You're so sweet, Sadie."

"But dumb."

He laughed and opened the cat carrier a little more to test the waters with his hand. "Not the least bit dumb. You're well-meaning and good and— Oh!" Laughing, he looked in the carrier. "He licked me."

"Yeah, probably not the move of the Rhett Butler, also known as Ice Man. Has he ever licked anyone?"

Very slowly, he opened the carrier zipper all the way. Instantly, the cat meowed and took a few cautious steps, then climbed right into Scout's lap, looked up with adoring eyes, and starting kneading his khaki pants.

"Whoa, you're a lover, aren't you?" Scout exclaimed with a laugh. "What's his name?"

"Not Rhett Butler," Sadie said with a sad sigh, moving the carrier to the floor to sit next to him. "But he does look like him, doesn't he?"

"He does," he agreed.

"Enough that we could fool Kitty?"

Scout studied the cat, placing his hand palm up and letting him lick it again. "Well, hello there, Mr. Not Rhett Butler and Kitty Will Know It In Two Seconds."

"Wiggles," she said glumly. "His name is Wiggles."

The cat turned at the sound of her voice, gazing at Sadie with grateful, soulful eyes, then crawled closer, nuzzling her, making them both laugh.

"You picked a good one, Sadie."

"I picked the wrong one." She shook her head. "And he's non-returnable."

"Well, that's okay." He leaned back and scrutinized the cat. "I'll hang on to him."

"Or I will," she said. "He's really hard not to like."

The cat meowed loudly, as if to underscore that point, and made them laugh.

"Well, let's get him some food," Scout said. "And let him get used to the place. But not the patio, because I'm sure Rhett got out through the screen." He dropped his head in defeat. "Never to return."

"Never say never," she insisted.

"You're right. We have more than a month before Kitty gets back. Anything could happen."

She reached a hand toward him. "Thank you for not getting mad at me for this. You know I can be a little impulsive."

"And I've discovered how wonderful that is," he said, bringing her hand to his lips to kiss it. "It's one of the things I love most about you."

She tried to breathe, but just held his gaze. "That's twice in the space of about five minutes, Martin Jacobson."

He smiled. "I love when you use my real name."

"And that's three times."

"Sadie." He put both hands around Wiggles, lifting him into the air so they were face to face. "Why is she so surprised, Wiggie?" he whispered into the cat's ear. "Doesn't she know I love her?"

"Oh, Scout." She leaned closer, her cheek brushing the orange fur as she came in for a kiss. "I…"

He smiled, expectation in his eyes.

"I…I…"

"You don't have to say something you don't feel."

"I do feel it," she whispered. "Every time I look at you. Or think about you. Every single time."

"But you can't say it," he said, giving her another kiss as the cat squirmed between them, so happy he couldn't pick a lap. "I don't care, Sadie. I mean, I do, but I can wait. In the meantime, let's bring Wiggles inside and…and…" He kissed her again, longer this time.

"Keep looking on the local pages for found cats."

He just laughed. "Not exactly what I was thinking, but that, too."