Passion, Betrayal And Killer Highlights. Kyra Davis

and I ran into the kitchen, pushing Dena aside just as Jack grabbed the Clorox scrub and dumped it onto Mr. Katz. Jack looked up at Leah with pride in his eyes. “Dirty cat.”

      Leah scooped up Jack and I raced after Mr. Katz, who almost sent Mary Ann sprawling as he tried to pass her in the hall. I lunged for him and managed to throw him in the bathtub as he ran his claws down my arm. While I turned on the shower, Mr. Katz hissed and desperately tried to escape. I managed to rinse off the cleaning solution just as Mr. Katz punished me with a particularly painful scratch across the back of my wrist. He jumped out of the bathtub and darted out of the room. I looked up to see my three guests standing in the doorway.

      “I know this might be an inopportune moment to bring this up,” Leah said slowly, “but is anyone else impressed that my son made the connection between Mary Ann’s statement that the cat was dirty and Clorox? It really is an amazing mental leap for an eighteen-month-old.”

      I pressed my hands against my wounds. The only leap I wanted Jack to make was into a playpen for the rest of the night. “You’re right, Leah, the moment’s definitely inopportune.”

      Leah handed Jack to Mary Ann, who took him with no little trepidation. “Let me see your arms.” Leah peered at them and then pulled some cotton balls and rubbing alcohol out of my medicine cabinet. She sat down next to me on the edge of the bathtub and held my arms under the running faucet before patting them dry and applying the alcohol. “Spare me the dramatics,” she said as I gasped in pain.

      I narrowed my eyes. “This from the girl who was voted ‘most likely to overreact’ in high school?”

      “I’ve changed.” She tossed the used cotton balls in the wastebasket. “Besides, you don’t know what pain is until you’ve—”

      “If you finish that sentence with ‘given birth,’ I’m going to have to punch you,” Dena said flatly.

      Leah glared at her. “It’s true. Not that you would know anything about childbirth or anything else that involved any kind of commitment.”

      “I’m plenty committed. I’m committed to my friends, my career, and I’m very committed to my quest to help the women of San Francisco find their G-spot.”

      Mary Ann sighed disapprovingly and took Jack out of the room before Dena could inadvertently corrupt him.