Free Fuzzy Logic by Susan C. Daffron Page B

you’ll feed me if I start to starve.”
    Joel leaned back away from her on the couch. “You’re kidding, right?”
    Kat picked some dog hair off her jeans and threw it on the floor. What was this about? “Have I ever asked you for money? Let me answer for you. No, I haven’t.”
    Joel crossed his arms across his chest. “Of course you haven’t, because you just inherited money. Why would you?”
    Sensing dissent, Tessa stood up and put her golden snout on Kat’s thigh. Kat rubbed the velvety fur. “It’s okay, Tessa. We’re talking about money.” She turned to Joel. “And it seems Joel is going to be weird about it.”
    “I don’t think it’s weird to say that you should have savings. In case things don’t work out.”
    “What things do you mean, exactly?”
    “Well, the dog-boarding business. Or writing. Things. You’ve only boarded one dog so far. What if you hate owning a kennel?”
    “Don’t you think I’ve thought about that? I boarded one dog and she immediately escaped. So far my track record is not good.” As if she weren’t already insecure enough about starting a business, she’d been bested by a fat Labrador retriever. How pathetic.
    The hard glint in Joel’s green eyes softened and he leaned over to kiss her gently. “I’m not saying you can’t do it. Just that it’s good to have a back-up plan. And that requires money. When I lost my job, it was a good thing I had some money saved up and that I’d paid for The Shack in cash, so I’d have a place to live.”
    Kat tilted her head. “So how much money do you have? Are you secretly a gazillionaire?”
    “Hardly. But I have savings.”
    “You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
    Joel narrowed his eyes and leaned away from her again. “So do you want to look at my bank statements?”
    Kat shook her head and raised both hands in surrender. “No. I’m not suggesting anything. You brought it up. I’m not some gold digger trying to get into your wallet. It’s your money.”
    “Okay.”
    Kat got up off the couch and the dogs all stood up expectantly. “Okay.” But she was pretty sure it wasn’t okay.

    In bed, curled up with a book and her black-and-white cat Murphee, Kat listened to the sound of feline snoring and tried to get into the plot of her novel. It wasn’t working, because she kept reliving the conversation with Joel in her mind.
    Because he spent daylight hours working on repairing the house, Joel usually spent a few hours at night working on various projects on his computer downstairs. He was a night owl and whatever he did was something nerdy related to programming circuit boards. Kat wasn’t entirely sure. The geek factor was way too high for her to even want to know.
    Was he feeling like she was taking advantage of him? After his money? What money? His last girlfriend had been a super model. She didn’t need money. Since Kat had gotten her inheritance from her Great-Aunt Abigail, she now had money, too. Not super-model-level money, but some money. Maybe his negative reaction to her joke about money was a male ego thing. Being the breadwinner? Maybe underneath it all he was a complete cheapskate. But it didn’t seem like he was most of the time. She loved Joel, but he could be pretty close-mouthed about a lot of things. Annoying herself with her endless circular thoughts, Kat sighed and flopped over onto her back. Murphee squalled loudly, expressing her displeasure at being squished.
    “Sorry Murph. You could move, you know.” The cat stood up, stretched, and walked across Kat’s stomach to find a warm spot. Kat closed her eyes and tried to will her brain to shut up.
    She stirred when Joel crawled into bed. He wrapped his arms around her and pushed her long wavy hair aside so he could nuzzle her neck. Kat turned her head to look at him. “I guess you’re not mad at me anymore.”
    “I wasn’t mad. And you’re all warm. I’m not really thinking about that anymore.”
    “So it seems. But I