Клэр Донелли - Catch As Cat Can

“I wasn’t in,” Neil replied. “Had some business out of town.” He got up and leaned across Sunny’s desk. “I’m really sorry to hear this. Maybe if I had been there—”

“Hey, I was sitting here and didn’t realize anything was going on until Zach Judson began hollering.” Sunny gave an uncomfortable shrug. “He’s the one who saved Shadow.”

“Well, I hope your critter stays safe.” Val Overton glanced over at Will. “Guess we should get on with our business.”

“Me, too.” Neil hustled to the door and held it for Val and Will.

On the way out, Val turned back with the thousand-watt smile. “Good to meet you, Sunny. You, too, Ollie. You’re cute when you squirm.”

4

Ollie Barnstable satopen-mouthed, staring after Val Overton through the window as they set off down the street. Then he chomped his teeth together with an audible click, turning a pink face toward Sunny to reassert his authority.

“Now, about Garret. I want you to keep on him. No way are we letting this turn out like the last tenant.”

“Madman Mel’s Pillow-Mania?” Sunny asked in an innocent voice. “Who would have imagined any problems with that? Although now that I come to think of it, using ‘Madman’ and ‘Mania’ in the name of his store might have suggested he was a bit of a nut.”

Ollie was still squirming, but he tried to look like a hard-line executive. “He had a business plan. I didn’t see any problem.”

He had all his retirement savings sunk into a pillow store, Sunny silently responded. And you saw a chance to get rent for an empty property.

The problem was, Mel wasn’t about to give up on his plan—his dream. He fought tooth and nail to hang on even though the public wasn’t beating a path to his door. As he fell behind in rent, his publicity stunts got more desperate—like heading off to outlet-land to show the world how poorly made the competition’s pillows were. Loudly bad-mouthing the “cheap crap pillows,” he tore several open, showering passers-by with chopped feathers or polyester fill. That got him banned from the outlet malls, but it was much harder getting him out of the store.

After the eviction Sunny feared Mel might return to throw rocks through the windows of his former premises—or the MAX office. It made her glad her boyfriend was a cop—she had plenty of police presence on the block. In the end, though, sadder but wiser, Mel went off to Florida to be a greeter for a big box store. And the space next door had been empty until Neil Garret had come along.

“So are you providing me with a cattle prod, or do I need to hire some muscle to scare him off?” Sunny finally asked. “Val Overton looked capable of handling the job—and I think she’d like having you owe her.”

She could hear Ollie struggling to silence his usual temper. “Don’t blow things out of proportion,” he finally said. “Just catch him sometime each day and mention I’m waiting on the rent until he comes across with a check.”

Or a rock, that annoying voice in the back of Sunny’s head hastened to add.

Ollie turned back to his project, finally gathering up all the papers and locking them in one of the file cabinets lining the back of the room. “I’m off,” he said. “Anybody calls, give them my cell number.”

Sunny relaxed a little. She probably wouldn’t see him for another week.

Ollie stopped in the doorway. “And don’t forget about Garret. A gentle reminder—but every day.”

“Sure, Ollie.” Sunny tried not to sigh her response.

With Ollie out of her hair, Sunny finally got back to work. Troubleshooting the shopping cart software went smoothly after a bit of trial and error. She finally got it to recognize the MAX website and even work properly.

By the time she sat back in satisfaction, it was time for lunch. Sunny got the phone and gave her father a call. “Before I feed my face, I figured I should check in. Do we need to get something for supper tonight, or are we going out with Helena and Abby?”

“Looks as if we’re on our own for dinner,” Mike replied. “But those Martinson girls are coming over for coffee. Helena said she’s baking a cake.”

No wonder he sounds so cheerful, Sunny thought. Helena Martinson’s coffee cake was one of Mike’s favorite things.

“She also suggested that we see if Will would like to come, too,” her dad went on.

“You’re sure you want to let him glom onto a piece of that cake?” Sunny teased.

“As long as he restricts himself to just one.”

She smiled. “Okay. I’ll stop off at Zach Judson’s and get some chicken.” For a moment, Sunny considered going next door for fish instead.

No, she decided. Chicken was quicker . . . less trouble in general.

Sunny said good-bye to her dad and then called Will to check his availability for dinner. He agreed, so she went shopping for three.

The evening meal wasn’t fancy—broiled chicken breasts, boiled potatoes, and mixed vegetables, simple fare that could be prepared quickly after Sunny got home. The doorbell rang, and Sunny moved from the kitchen to answer it. She brought Will inside, took his coat, and led the way into the living room. Will looked around. “Wow. Pulling out all the stops.”

The house looked great. Mike must have been cleaning up all day. He’d even splurged on some cut flowers arranged in a vase on the coffee table.

It had been a while since he’d gotten some flowers . . . and then Sunny remembered why. A gray form eeled its way along the side of the couch, stretched low to the floor in stalking mode, gold-flecked eyes fixed on the vase and the nodding blossoms as if they were magnetized.

“Shadow,” Sunny called sharply.

Her voice must have alerted Mike, who appeared in the entrance to the living room, his vivid blue eyes focusing on Shadow in what Sunny called the laser glare of death.

“Don’t even think about it,” Mike warned the cat.

Shadow paid the voices no attention, padding away in an elaborate display of unconcern.

*

There’s always later, Shadow told himself as he paused at the entrance to the hallway. Sunny and her He sat on the big chair, joined by the Old One who also lived here. Shadow was a little surprised to find Sunny’s He at the door. The Old One had fussed around the house all day, driving Shadow out of several napping places with his dusting and cleaning. He’d never done that for another male before.

And then there were the flowers. During warm weather, the Old One spent a lot of time outside in the yard, digging in the ground and fooling around with bushes—another of those weird things two-legs got up to. Shadow had no problem with bushes. They were good for shade, and when the flowers appeared, they could be interesting. But the only time Shadow played in the dirt was for a specific reason—to cover up things that should be covered. And why should the Old One holler when Shadow tried to play with the flowers on those special bushes?

It was even weirder when the two-legs brought flowers into the house when it was freezing outside. He thought they must be very tough to live out in the ice and snow, but they came apart under a curious paw just as easily as the ones that popped up in summertime. And there was even more hollering when he investigated. Like this time. Both Sunny and the Old One had growled at him.

Then they had sat down right in front of the flowers, so there was no chance after that. Shadow went down the hall to the room where the humans messed with food, got a running start, and leaped to the top of the box that made things cold.

That was another thing that drove Shadow crazy. They had a box that kept things cold, and they’d take food out of that and put it in a box that made food hot. He sniffed appreciatively at the aroma of chicken and spices filling the room. Okay, that wasn’t so bad. But if they wanted to keep their food cold, why not just leave it outside where it was cold already?