“Oh,” said Dooley as he thought about this for a moment. It was obvious she’d given him food for thought.
“Odelia?” asked Max.
“Uh-huh,” she said, parking the car in front of the house.
“Is Chase going to be living with us from now on?”
She’d extracted the key from the ignition and now sat poised, not expecting this particular question. At all. “Um…”
“I mean, he’s been sleeping in your bed for the past four nights. And he’s got his toothbrush and his toothpaste up in the cup in the bathroom and his underwear on that shelf you cleared for him in the bedroom closet, so…”
She blinked and turned to face her cats. They both looked at her expectantly.
“Um…”
“He seems nice,” Dooley commented, that sandbagged look slightly waning.
“Yeah, he seems very nice,” Max added. “And he killed a flea.”
“Two fleas,” said Dooley. “He’s a hero. A flea-killing hero.”
“Truth is, guys, I don’t know. I like Chase. I like Chase a lot.”
“And he likes you,” Max offered.
“It would appear so,” she said with a laugh. “It’s just that… we’re taking things one step at a time. I wish I could tell you what the future will bring, but I can’t. You see, human relationships are like puzzles. Sometimes you know all the pieces will fit from the moment you dump those pieces out on the table. Other times? You just don’t know. Maybe things look good for a while, and then suddenly you discover the puzzle company decided to short you a piece and without it you can’t complete the puzzle. Other times you get bored laying that puzzle halfway through or things are just too hard and complicated and you give up.”
Max and Dooley were frowning seriously. The puzzle analogy probably wasn’t the best one she could have come up with, but there was some truth to it. She liked Chase, and she liked the way he made her feel. But it was early days, and she had no idea if he was a keeper or not. And neither, probably, did he. At any rate, things were going great, and she had no intentionof taking them further by making big promises or launching big ambitious plans. Plans had a way of backfiring on her. Big time. So she wasn’t going to jinx anything at this point when everything was humming along fine.
She gave them both a poke in the tummy.“You guys sit tight and I’ll pick up Harriet and Brutus, okay?”
As she slammed the door, Max and Dooley were still brooding. She smiled to herself. Sometimes, she thought, her cats were almost more human than most humans she knew.
And a heck of a lot smarter, too.
Chapter 9
Chase and Chief Alec took a seat on one of those plush overstuffed chairs in the hotel lobby. With the fire marshals going over Burt Goldsmith’s room with a fine-tooth comb, trying to figure out what exactly happened there, the techies wrapping up Burt’s body and transferring it to their van, and Alec’s people talking to staff and guests, they took a respite.
“Do you really think your mom had Burt Goldsmith’s son?” asked Chase.
Chief Alec patted at the few remaining strands of hair on his wide dome and groaned.“I don’t know what to think, buddy. You would imagine a woman would know if she popped out a second son at some point in the past.”
“She says she doesn’t remember. Which doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
Alec gave him his best scowl.“Wipe that grin off your face, Chase. I’m begging you.”
Try as he might, though, Chase could not comply. The situation was simply too outrageous.“Could be that your mother is one of those women who don’t even notice they’re pregnant, then pop out a newborn without paying attention and go on about their business without a second glance.” At least that was the story Grandma had told them.
“I find that very hard to believe. And I find it equally hard to believe Scarlett Canyon would have the exact same story to tell. About the baby just suddenly… being there, I mean.” He waved his hands about a bit. “I mean—how can a baby just… pop?! That’s impossible!”
“And yet it happened, if your mother is to be believed.”
The Chief groaned some more. The big man was clearly in the throes of some extreme emotion. It’s not every day that a man discovers he has a secret brother who’s the son of the Most Fascinating Man in the World. “You wanna know what I think?”
“I definitely do, Alec. I definitely do.” Alec gave him an extremely dirty look and Chase laughed, clapping the older man on the back. “I’m sorry. It’s just funny is all.”
“Maybe for you it is. For me this is like a nightmare and I just can’t seem to wake up.”
“Tell me, big guy. What is it you think?”
Alec took a deep breath.“I think that Mom decided she wants some of those Goldsmith millions for herself, and by pretending to be Burt’s son’s long-lost mother, she just might get her hands on a big chunk of it.”
“You dare accuse your own mother of being a gold digger?”
“As a matter of fact I do. I think Mom is sick and tired of having to ask her son-in-law for handouts and now that she saw her chance clear to topping up her bank account with a nice fresh pile of cash she’s not going to let that golden opportunity slip through her fingers.”
Alec had a point. Grandma Muffin liked to spend money like water. If she wasn’t buying online beauty treatments she was being duped by scammer apps on the App Store and maxing out the credit cards Tex Poole kept giving her. The lady liked to live big, and since Tex had taken away those very credit cards, she wasn’t happy.
“I think this whole thing will shake out just fine,” Chase said, leaning back and watching the goings-on in the lobby of this fine hotel. His grandfather had stayed here, though not in Burt’s room, and as his thoughts turned to the old man, a sense of wellbeing spread through him. He might be a simple cop in a small town, but he had big plans. And those big plans involved starting a family with a particular feisty blond-haired reporter. If only this particular reporter felt the same way about him as he felt about her.
Alec must have sensed this shift in his mental processes, for he eyed him intently.
After a moment, Chase laughed and said,“What?”
“You haven’t been home a lot lately, have you?”
“No, sir, I haven’t.”
He’d been bunking with Alec since arriving in town, something for which he was still mighty grateful. In the process, he and the chief of police had struck up a fine friendship, and he had a feeling the older man was about to abuse that friendship by giving him a piece of advice. He didn’t mind. He could use all the advice Odelia’s uncle cared to dispense.
“Been sleeping over at my niece’s place?”
“Yes, sir, as a matter of fact I have.”
“You like that girl, don’t you, son?”
He smiled widely.“You got my number, Alec. I do like your niece. In fact I don’t think it’s too much to say that I love her.”
“Oh, bringing out the L word, huh?”
“Yes, sir. Only the L word will do for what I feel for Odelia Poole.”
“Well, let me give you a piece of advice, son.”
Here it came.
“The way to Odelia’s heart is those damn cats of hers.”
He looked up. Huh?“Say what?”
Alec poked a finger in Chase’s chest for emphasis. “Shower those cats with love and affection and she’ll look upon you differently. That’s my piece of advice for you.”
For a moment he thought the other man had lost it.“Odelia’s cats.”
“Max, Dooley and Harriet. Focus on those three. I don’t know about Brutus. He’s something of an interloper.”
“Like me.”
Alec didn’t laugh. “Maybe you are, maybe you ain’t. Too soon to tell.”