Michigan. That put us a little less than halfway into our journey, which also meant that despite our best attempts, we were making terrible time.
I shot daggers at my cat, realizing that for all the anger he had toward me right now, I had far more reason to be upset with him. “All this screaming and fuss was about an aquarium which wouldn’t even be open at this time of night. Seriously? You have an aquarium back home!”
“It’s not the largest one in the state, though. I want to see this one.”
“Not a chance.” I whipped back to face front. Ouch, my poor neck. “You’ll be lucky if we even still get to see Grizabella at this point.”
“Nooooooooooo!” he screamed, launching himself into my lap, claws still extended. “You can’t do that to me.”
“Ouch. Bad kitty!” I spat as I grabbed him off my lap and returned him to the back seat. My neck twisted in pain.
“Nan,” I nudged, noticing her still hunched over the deployed airbag, stroking the car’s dashboard. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, but my poor girl is a wreck.”
“It’ll be okay. This is what insurance is for,” I offered with what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “We need to focus on getting some help. Should I look up a tow place on my phone?”
“No,” she said with another sniff and a sob. “I have a friend in the area. She’ll come and get us.”
“Okay, but you should probably call now. We don’t know how much damage has been done to the car or how long it will take to get it road-ready again.”
She shook her head and a fresh rivulet of tears ran down both cheeks. “I’m so sorry about this, dear. I should have asked you to take over, but I didn’t think I was that tired.”
“It’s okay. Really. Accidents happen,” I said, although I couldn’t ever remember when one had happened to me. “We’re all fine. That’s what counts.”
Nan unbuckled her seatbelt and got out to observe the damage.
I followed suit, my feet sinking into the spring mud with a squelching sound.
“I don’t know what happened,” she muttered, staring at the immobilized vehicle with a dumbfounded expression. “I wasn’t even that tired. I—”
What had happened couldn’t be changed. Now it was up to me to keep Nan from descending into a vicious spiral of guilt.
“You don’t have to explain,” I assured her, coming to stand at her side. “I understand, and it’s going to be okay. But we need somebody to come get us. Here. Give me your phone.”
She reached into her front pocket and took it out, then handed it over to me.
“Thank you. Now what’s the name of your friend who’s going to come get us?”
“Melissa,” she said with a small sigh. “She usually goes to sleep pretty early, but she gave me her night owl husband’s number for emergencies.”
“Well, I’d definitely say this qualifies.” I thumbed through the contacts until I found Melissa and then Melissa’s Husband.
I’d wait until later to ask Nan why she had the number of some guy way out in Michigan as an emergency contact. Because whatever her reason for taking such a strange precaution, she’d definitely been right to do it.
Chapter Twelve
Nan’s friend appeared about forty minutes later with her whole family in tow. “Climb in,” she said, pointing to the cluttered back rows of the giant SUV. “Sorry about the mess.”
I got in beside a little girl who was fast asleep with a glistening bead of drool dribbling off one pouty lip.
“Couldn’t leave her at home,” Melissa said, watching me while Nan stood with Melissa’s husband inspecting the damage from the accident. “Nan called me, but I don’t actually drive, so we all had to come.”
“I’m not getting in there. It smells like dog,” Octo-Cat informed me from outside. His nose wrinkled in disgust, and once again, I was more than a little relieved that other people couldn’t understand him.
I sighed instead of answering. He knew I couldn’t talk to him in front of people who didn’t know my secret, but that never stopped him from complaining, endlessly complaining.
“Aren’t you worried your cat will run away?” Melissa asked, glancing from him to me with a worried expression. Both tall and thick, she was a big woman, but the biggest part of her was the earnest smile she wore as she greeted me.
“He’ll be fine,” I said for both of them.
That was when Paisley ran over, tail wagging wildly, to say hello to the new arrivals.
“Oh my gosh!” Melissa cried in such a high-pitched voice it made my ears rings. “Who is this sweet angel baby?”
“That’s Nan’s dog, Paisley,” I supplied.
“Well, of course it is.” Melissa scooped the happy Chihuahua up into her arms and let Paisley lick her face. I noticed that her baggy T-shirt read Crazy Chihuahua Lady in big blocky letters. No wonder she and Nan were friends.
“Oh, you are the sweetiest-beatiest,” she squealed. Both she and Paisley seemed to shake with happiness. Was this woman so obsessed with Chihuahuas that she had even started to act like them? Funny.
“I like her,” Paisley said with a happy bark.
“She looks just like my Sky Princess,” Melissa informed me with that ever-present smile. “You’ll meet her when we take you back to our place for a rest while your car is being worked on. See…” She motioned toward the banged-up sports car. “This is why I don’t drive.”
Nan returned with Melissa’s husband, and they climbed into the SUV.
“C’mon, Octo-Cat,” I called and clicked my tongue.
Thankfully, he decided it was better to listen to me than to be left alone on the side of the road and complied.
Melissa leaned forward from the back row and bumped my shoulder. “Wow, he really listens. Almost like a dog.”
“A dog!?” Octo-Cat shrieked. “That’s it. Let me out of here. I don’t want to spend another second with this crazy woman.”
“Hush. It’s fine,” I murmured, the weight of my fatigue weighing heavily now that I was sitting back down.
Melissa gasped but said nothing for the rest of the drive back to her home more than half an hour away.
When we arrived, we were greeted by the loudest chorus of barking I’d ever heard in my life. A moment later, five dogs ran outside to say hello.
“You have five dogs now?” Nan asked with a chuckle, scratching some kind of mixed breed with multi-color eyes behind the ears.
“Seven, actually,” Melissa corrected. “The Chihuahuas are inside because they’re not strong enough to push through the dog door on their own.”
“She’s insane,” Octo-Cat choked out. “Certifiably insane. I refuse to step paw into that house.”
“It’s already the middle of the night,” Nan said with a sigh. “I do appreciate you coming to our rescue, but I hope we don’t have to wait until morning to get someone to look at the car.”
“C’mon, there’s at least twenty mechanics within ten miles of us. I’m sure someone will be open and able to take us,” Melissa’s husband said after he’d returned from taking his daughter to bed.
“I’ll be back,” Nan told me before climbing back into the front seat of the enormous SUV and disappearing.
“So…” Melissa said, her eyes wide and mischievous. “You’re Nan’s granddaughter, right?”
Leave it to Nan not to properly introduce us. “That’s me. My name’s Angie.”
She dropped her voice to a whisper as we climbed the twisty steps toward the front door. “Are you the one who can… you know? Talk to… well, you know?”
Anger flared in my chest, but I did my best to swallow it back down. Was Nan seriously entrusting random people across the country with my biggest secret? It seemed like she wasn’t even all that close with Melissa, given how surprised Melissa had been to meet Paisley and how Nan couldn’t even remember exactly how many dogs these people had.
“You don’t have to say anything,” Melissa said with a conspiratorial grin. “Your secret’s safe with me, by the way. I would never tell anyone. Well, except for my husband and daughter, of course. I tell them everything.”