A Purrfect Gift E-Book

Jae

• Herausgeber: Ylva Publishing
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Serie: Matchmaking Cats Series
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 92

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

A festive lesbian romance featuring a matchmaking cat. Lena has just moved to a new city with her cat, Scully, so when she finds little gifts on her doorstep every day, she thinks they're from her neighbors. Caroline, who lives next door, can't figure out how her stuff keeps disappearing until she catches a cat in the act of stealing from her. She follows the feline felon home—and meets its cute owner. Despite Lena's best efforts, Scully doesn't seem inclined to give up her life of crime, so she keeps having to go over to Caroline's to return the loot. Soon, neither woman minds the cat burglary anymore. Is it possible that her thieving cat gave Lena the purrfect gift for Christmas? Each book in the Matchmaking Cats Series can be read as a standalone.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Other Books by Jae

Author’s Note

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Epilogue

Other Books from Ylva Publishing

About Jae

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www.ylva-publishing.com

Other Books by Jae

Happily Ever After

Standalone Romances:

Just a Touch Away

The Roommate Arrangement

Paper Love

Just for Show

Falling Hard

Heart Trouble

Something in the Wine

Shaken to the Core

Fair Oaks Series:

Perfect Rhythm

Not the Marrying Kind

Portland Police Bureau Series:

Conflict of Interest

Next of Kin

The Hollywood Series:

Departure from the Script

Damage Control

Just Physical

The Hollywood Collection (box set)

The Oregon Series:

Backwards to Oregon

Beyond the Trail

Hidden Truths

The Complete Oregon series (box set)

The Shape-Shifter Series:

Second Nature

Natural Family Disasters

Manhattan Moon

True Nature

The Vampire Diet Series:

Good Enough to Eat

Unexpected Love Series:

Under a Falling Star

Wrong Number, Right Woman

Chemistry Lessons

Author’s Note

They say the third time’s the charm, right? Well, that’s certainly true for this story. A few weeks ago, I set out to write a short story I could give away for free in the Sapphic Book Advent Calendar I put together.

I had a great idea for a festive enemies-to-lovers story, but as I hit 10,000 words with no end in sight, I realized that my little short story was no longer a short story and that I wouldn’t be able to finish it in time.

No problem. I thought of something else—a second chance romance with a fun fake relationship twist—and started working on character profiles and an outline… Only to realize it wasn’t a story that could be told within five thousand or even eight thousand words.

So back to the drawing board. The third story idea I came up with involves a ginger cat named Scully and the mysterious appearance of gifts. It turned into a hilarious and cute story, but I don’t think you’ll be surprised to hear that at 18,000 words, it’s no longer a short story; it’s officially a novella.

Thank you for reading my not-so-short story number three, and a big thank-you to my beta readers—Trish, Melanie, Anne-France, and Chris Zett—and my editor, Claire, for working their magic within the very tight deadline I gave them!

Chapter 1

It all started with a tyrannosaurus wearing a Santa hat.

When Lena opened her patio door, it sat on the doormat, its tiny arms sticking out of the ugliest Christmas sweater she had ever seen.

“Hi, little guy. Where did you come from?” Was it a welcome gift from her new neighbors?

She bent and picked it up. The stuffed dinosaur was heavier than expected. Lena turned it this way and that, looking for a note, but there wasn’t one. Instead, she found a zipper along its belly.

When she unzipped it, a round tin slid into her hand. She opened it, and the citrusy scent of bergamot wafted up.

Yum. Earl Grey.

It really had to be from one of her neighbors. The people here in Freiburg probably thought that anyone who’d moved to the south from someplace north of Frankfurt preferred tea to coffee—which was true in her case. She would have to ask around to find out who her Secret Santa was.

But first, she had to find her cat. “Scully,” she called quietly, just in case the other people living in her apartment building were sleeping in on a Sunday.

Nothing moved.

The caw of a crow came from the bare branches of a tree at the edge of the property, but other than that, everything remained silent—so very different from her previous apartment, in the most densely populated part of Hannover. It had been weird not to wake up to the rattle of the streetcar going by.

God, starting over in a completely new city, where she didn’t know a soul, just three-and-a-half weeks before Christmas… What had she been thinking?

But she’d needed a new start, and she had fallen in love with Freiburg when she’d visited the city a few years back. Plus the locals were friendly, if her welcome gift was anything to go by.

“Scully,” she called again.

“Caw, caw,” the crow answered.

Lena peeked through the hedge separating her patio from her neighbor’s who lived in the apartment next to hers. She had loved the layout of their building from the start. Each first-floor apartment had its own patio and a tiny garden, separated by a hedge for a little privacy.

But for Scully, the hedge wouldn’t be much of an obstacle.

She craned her neck, trying to catch a glimpse of orange fur.

Other than a knee-high meerkat figurine, a string of lights, and a few random Christmas decorations, the neighbor’s patio was empty.

She clutched the T. rex more tightly. This had been the first time she’d let Scully outside after moving in three days ago. Had she prowled too far from home and couldn’t find her way back in the unfamiliar surroundings?

“Scully!” she called again, this time more loudly.

The ginger cat shot out from behind a fir and rushed across the lawn that stretched from the patios to the property line. She let out a “mrrrrow” of complaint as frozen grass tickled her belly.

Lena pressed the dinosaur to her chest. “Phew. I was starting to get worried, you little rascal.”

Scully slowed her approach as she reached the patio. As if she had all the time in the world, she even sat and licked each front paw.

“Come on in. It’s getting cold.” Lena pretended to close the patio door so the cat would move faster.

But Scully was on to her tricks. She licked down her chest a few times, then ambled toward Lena as if in slow motion.

Once the cat was inside, Lena quickly closed the door.

She glanced at the stack of moving boxes still waiting to be unpacked, then grinned down at the tyrannosaurus. The moving boxes could wait. First, she’d have some tea.

* * *

Caroline hummed an off-key version of Mariah Carey’s “Miss You Most at Christmas Time” as she waited for the water in the kettle to boil.

Nope. She didn’t miss anyone, least of all her ex. Not even her parents, who had decided to spend most of December on Fuerteventura. She was fine spending Christmas by herself. “Right, Earl?” She turned toward the spot on the kitchen counter where she kept her favorite tea.

That was weird.

Earl wasn’t where he was supposed to be.

She opened the drawers of her IKEA table.

Ah, that’s where the flyer for her favorite Indian restaurant had ended up. Still, no Earl. He wasn’t in any of the drawers on the other side of the table either.

Caroline scratched her head. Wasn’t thirty-one a little young to start forgetting where she’d put things?

Shrugging, she dropped a bag of chai tea into her mug and poured the boiling water over it. The scent of cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom wafted up as she carried it into the living room.

Two steps into the room, movement from the other side of the glass door caught her eye. She paused.

A cat confidently strode across her patio.

For a moment, she thought it might be Muesli, coming over for a visit, but Susanne and Anja’s cat was a white-and-brown tabby, while this one was orange, with white patches along its muzzle, chin, throat, and chest.

Caroline knew most of the cats in the neighborhood—she liked to keep the patio door open in the morning to let fresh air in, even in winter, so most felines took a quick tour of her apartment sooner or later. But she had never seen the ginger tabby before.

It sniffed the mint, then the lemon balm in her little garden patch, but since she’d cut the plants down for winter, they probably didn’t smell of much anymore. The cat stared into the solar lamp eyes of the meerkat, then ignored it in favor of the Christmas lights she’d draped over the hedge that separated her patio from that of her neighbor.

The tabby then turned its attention to another decoration, grabbed a plastic snowman dangling from a low twig, and trotted off with it, as if carrying home its prey.

“Hey, wait! That’s mine!” Caroline set the mug down and slid to the patio door on socked feet. By the time she’d opened it, the thief had disappeared through the hedge, and without shoes, she couldn’t give chase. Great. Mr. Frosty had just been cat-napped.

Chapter 2

By Monday, Lena had come to look forward to the little gifts that someone was leaving on her patio every day. She still hadn’t found out the identity of her Secret Santa. Since the first present had been deposited on her patio on December 1, she figured someone was welcoming her to the neighborhood with an Advent calendar.

So far, all of the neighbors she had introduced herself to had assured her it wasn’t them.

Could it be a child? Santa’s taste in gifts seemed a little strange at times. Yesterday, a pair of well-worn gardening gloves had been left outside the patio door for her to find, and the day before, it had been a pair of fluffy, rainbow-striped socks.

This morning, her Secret Santa seemed to have forgotten to deposit a present for her, though. When she’d left for work, the usual spot on the doormat had been empty, and there was still no gift when she’d returned.

She settled down on the couch, opened the bag of still-warm, powdered-sugar-sprinkled striebele she had picked up from the Christmas market on her way home, and kept an eye on the patio door while she ate.

But her Secret Santa didn’t show up.

Instead, the sound of the cat flap opening and closing announced Scully’s return. She’d had it installed on Friday, and her cat had taken to it immediately.

“Hey, Scully. Did you get cold outside?”

It had snowed last night, for the first time all year. Not tons of snow, but enough for Scully to decide that she’d rather return to the warm spot atop of her cat castle instead of heading outside to check on the neighborhood this morning.

Paws padded across the hardwood floor, then Scully strutted into the living room, head held high, proudly carrying something in her mouth. She deposited it next to the couch and let out an “I brought you something” meow.

A bite of the golden-brown funnel cake slid down Lena’s throat like a rock. Oh no. Had Scully brought home a mouse or a bird? She’d never done that before. Lena shoved the remainder of the striebele into the bag, her appetite gone.

Scully sat watching her, clearly waiting for Lena to admire her gift.

Warily, Lena peeked over the edge of the sofa.

No blood, fur, or feathers. So far, so good.

She took a closer look.

It was an article of clothing.