You're Welcome · Love, Your Cat

After an accident takes his lover, Dr. Edwin Blais—a University of Texas history professor—vows celibacy. With only his dead lover’s cat for company, he spends the next eleven years alone before the Maine Coon, Francesca, escapes from her cat sitter while Edwin is at work. The loss shatters Edwin. Desperate, he plasters the neighborhood with Lost Cat signs offering five thousand dollars for her return.

A few blocks away at a body shop, Nasty, an old black Tom cat, adopts Francesca. Forrest James, owner of the shop and Nasty, refuses the reward and strikes up a friendship with Edwin. While Forrest seems like a safe crush for a celibate man because he certainly appears straight, after a couple of drinks he gets a little handsy. After Edwin meets Forrest’s ex-boyfriend, he realizes that his crush may be a relationship and he’s not sure he’s ready for it. Will Edwin get over himself and his lost love before the dreamboat mechanic moves on?

This story is 60k words of pet matchmaking May/December romance that features classic cars and a slow burn

Republished from the original title.