From the sounds coming through the phone, Maddy was as surprised and upset as the calico.
“It’s not a date.” Becca emphasized the last word, even as her cheeks grew pink. “I mean, I do believe he and Gaia are over, but still, that would just be too awkward.”
Becca raised her hand, as if her friend could see her.“Maddy, listen. Gaia told me that she and Tiger still talk, and he told her that he thinks she’s still in danger. And when I went down to tell her about the root, I saw someone hanging around the shop. Lurking, actually. So I want to talk to Tiger, hear why he thinks Gaia’s in danger and if it has anything to do with whatever happened to Frank Cross. I gather he’s not keen to talk to the police, but maybe he’ll talk to me and then I can take it to the cops. Because this guy? He wasn’t doing anything criminal, but he was clearly watching the entrance. It was creepy.
“No, Maddy, I didn’t call 9-1-1. The guy disappeared as soon as he saw me watching him. And I couldn’t just tell Gaia. That’s the problem. I tried to, but when I went back to the store, it was all locked up. No, I think she just she took off. She has a habit of doing that. But just in case,or in case there is some connection to Frank, I want to hear what Tiger has to say. And I want someone who cares about her to know what I saw.”
Chapter 15
“We’ve got to do something.” As soon as Clara slipped into the apartment, she rounded up her sisters. Waking Harriet from a nap was never easy, but the sense of urgency that had set her fur on end had made the calico fierce.“Becca’s getting more involved with this Gaia girl, and there’s something weird going on!”
“I thought you didn’t want us using our powers?” Harriet wasn’t happy about having her nap interrupted.“Don’t let the human know, you always say. Your sister and I have been trying to give you some leeway on this, you know.”
“I know.”Clara dipped her head in a hasty feline apology.“But I’m worried. And if Becca gets in trouble, who knows what will happen to us?”
“Maybe we’ll find someplace better.” Laurel had been sleeping, as well but Clara knew better than to mention it. The slender Siamese liked to present herself as always watchful.“Someone who leads a more interesting life.”
Clara bit down on her initial response and took a deep breath through her bi-color nose instead. Laurel was always cranky when she woke up, she reminded herself.“Part of this trouble might involve a new man.” Clara offered up the half-truth like a small mouse, the kind likely to interest her flirtatious sister.
“I knew it.” Laurel stretched seductively, then began to groom, her customary calm returning.“And this is a problem, why?”
“It’s not the man,” Clara began to explain when Becca came into the room.“It’s something he told—”
“Look at you three.” Becca beamed down at them. “So nice to see you’re not fighting for once.”
“Don’t smirk.”Clara couldn’t help it. Laurel had a way of arching one eye that drove her mad.“Please,” she muted her criticism.“I’m trying to think of what we can do—what we ought to do. I mean, within the rules.”
“Good luck with that,” her middle sister purred and sauntered off, tail high, to the bedroom. Clara knew Laurel was going to get involved in Becca’s wardrobe choices. What she didn’t know was how to stop her.
“This isn’t a date.” She trotted after her sister, her mew softening with a slight pleading tone.“She wants to talk to him.”
“Exactly.”Laurel leaped to the bed without sparing her sister a glance.“And he’ll take her so much more seriously if she would only lose that chunky sweater. I mean, who doesn’t like Angora?”
“Angora?”Harriet lumbered in.“You mean that pink sweater?”She reached up to groom her wide face, revealing a few silky, pink strands stuck in her claws.
“You dragged it down from the shelf.” Clara closed her eyes, but not before she saw Harriet pull the fibers free and swallow them.
“Silly!” Laurel hissed.“I had plans for that sweater.”
“So did I.”Unruffled by either her sisters or the pink yarn, Harriet continued bathing, straining to lick what on any other cat would have been the small of her back and nearly toppling over in the process.“It was very soft.”
“You missed a spot.”Resigned, Clara reached over to hook a tuft of the super-fine wool in her claw.
“Clara! What have you gotten into?” The little calico gave a startled mew as hands reached around her middle, pulling her up in the air. “Is that from my new sweater?”
Unable to explain, Clara could only blink in silent apology. On the bed, Laurel’s blue eyes closed in a satisfied smile.
“I could let her know, you know. Point out that Harriet was the one to pull that sweater down from its shelf.” Laurel’s low feline muttering was too quiet for human ears.“I could also suggest to her that we’re more than she knows. That we are, in fact, royalty.”
“Please don’t.”Clara turned toward her sister in silent appeal. It was too late. Becca was carrying her to the bedroom doorway, and then she closed the door behind her.
With mounting frustration, she waited outside as Becca got ready for her lunchtime meet, knowing full well that Laurel, if not Harriet, would be turning the situation to their own ends. Pacing outside the shut door, and unable to pass through without alarming Becca, Clara fumed, and then began to blame herself. Of course Laurel had jumped on the romantic potential of lunch with a new man. Clara hadn’t explained the situation properly. In part, she had to admit, that was because of her own confusion over what was going on.
For starters, Becca had said that her meeting with the bike messenger wasn’t a date. But even without the astute feline hearing that picked up a quickening heartbeat and a slight shallowness in her breath, Clara knew her person well enough to sense that she was intrigued by the dark-haired man. More intrigued, the calico feared, than she had been by anyone since her longtime boyfriend had broken up with her the previous spring.
That had been touch and go for a while, too. Matt, Becca’s ex, had regretted their breakup, even though he had been the one to initiate it. The computer programmer had, in fact, tried to woo Becca back, and there had been moments when Clara had feared he would succeed. But the puppy-ish programmer had cheated on Becca, and, cute as he was, she knew hecouldn’t be trusted. For a long while after that, Clara had worried that Becca would never again trust any man.
That didn’t mean she wanted her person to just jump into something with this Tiger. And despite what Laurel thought, that wasn’t simply because of his name. Clara knew she was more protective of Becca than her middle sister would like. But Laurel hadn’t been the one who had stayed by Becca’s side after Matt had broken up with her. Laurel and Harriet both knew the faithless Matt had done their person wrong, and they had taken the insult personally, as all good cats would. Still, it had been Clara the heartbroken girl had cried with, cuddling her close as if her soft fur were the only comfort she would ever find. Clara didn’t know if she could find a way to explain how sad that time had been. Laurel might be her sister, but sometimes she felt like she and her littermates were not only not a real family. They were like different species entirely.
Chapter 16
Tiger was waiting when Becca arrived at the coffeehouse forty minutes later. Clara smelled the bike messenger—that mix of sweat, gear grease, and sandalwood—even before she spotted him uncoiling a heavy chain from his bag.
“Tiger! Thanks for coming out.” Becca walked up to him as he squatted to weave the chain between the spokes of his front tire and the body of his pared-down bike. “Are you working?”
“What? Oh, the bike?” Tiger blinked up at her. “No, I ride everywhere.”
As he stood, she noticed a phone-like device attached to his belt.“Is that a pager?”