Free Reap & Redeem by Lisa Medley

It figured—they were charmers.
    If they were hers, she’d name them Lucky and Charm.
    How perfect!
    They purred, loud and aggressive in their affection and desire for attention, their entire bodies vibrating with their happiness. Either they didn’t normally get much attention, or they were playing her. She relished their easy company, wishing for the millionth time that things could be different, that she had time to fulfill her bucket list the right way if nothing else.
    She should have adopted a pet long ago. A pet might have helped ease some of her loneliness. It would have given her someone to curl up with each night. Now it was much too late to get a pet. Poor thing wouldn’t even have a chance to settle in before it would have to go somewhere else.
    She liked caring for others—and especially liked feeding them. That’s why she’d put the gourmet-cooking seminar and the baking classes toward the top of her list. Before starting the classes, she took an indefinite leave of absence from her job at the newspaper. Only a couple of coworkers knew she was ill, and only one knew she was terminal—the one who’d suggested the list and the Visa ditch.
    One of the cats climbed into Olivia’s lap. Smiling, she settled down on the forest floor, making a more comfortable bed for it across her thighs as it circled and pawed around before curling into a ball. The other cat climbed in next to it.
    They were so lovely, and she felt indescribably peaceful sitting there snuggling with them.
    Gazing up into the cerulean-blue sky, she closed her eyes as the sun dappled through the canopy of loblolly pines and settled against her face. It felt like heaven.
    Maybe she was already there.

Chapter Ten
    “What the hell are you doing, Olivia?”
    Olivia yelped and jumped, scaring the imps from their lap nap. One bared its long fangs, hissing to show its displeasure as it slid from her lap. Its eyes blinked, closing in a vertical slash. The other scrambled out of Olivia’s reach.
    Kylen tore across the gap between them, grabbed Olivia under the shoulders, and wrenched her back inside the circle of protection, well away from the two imps. He lost his balance, and she landed on top of him with a huff.
    “What’s wrong? My God, I was only playing with the cats!” She pushed off him and stood, dusting pine needles and dirt off of her suddenly ridiculously revealing nightgown. Her pert little breasts pushed against the material and her nipples rounded like two perfect pearls beneath the fabric as she tugged the hem down, hopelessly trying to recover her modesty.
    No amount of tugging was going to make that gown any longer.
    Things stirred in him. Low. Things he didn’t want to think about. He reached for anger instead. Hell, he left her alone for twenty minutes, and she was out here playing with imps?
    “Those aren’t cats, Olivia.” He extended a hand in front of him, indicating that she should return to the house. Her eyes crinkled and a tiny fan of frown lines spread between her dark brows as she stared at him like he was a slow child.
    How much should he tell her? He knew the answer to that—he shouldn’t tell her anything. He should take her home. Wherever that was, and let her…die? Could he do that? Of course he could. What was with this sudden flare of conscience?
    Jesus, he was getting soft in the head. Okay, softer. His eggs were way scrambled already and now it seemed like they were being served up with a side of toast.
    Fantastic.
    “Where were you?” she asked. “I came looking for you. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I want my clothes, I want my list and I want to go home!” Her voice cracked on that last demand, but it was the only sign of weakness she allowed—her eyes flared, her mouth set in a tight line, her hands perched on her too-bony hips.
    The girl needed to eat.
    No sooner did he think it than her stomach growled loudly.
    Confirmed.
She was hungry.
    Instead of hiding in the trailer, he