Блейз Клемент - The Cat Sitter's Cradle

“Well wuth?” I asked, my mouth full of biscuity goodness.

“Oh, please. You don’t order bacon unless there’s something big happening. What is it?”

I sighed. Judy could read me like a book. “I’m just a little nervous is all. There’s a lot going on.”

She slipped her notepad in her apron and sat down opposite me. “Let’s hear it.”

I sighed. “Okay, but you can’t tell a living soul.”

“Got it.”

“Okay. So yesterday morning, right around sunrise, I was walking along the nature preserve with Rufus and we ran into Joyce Metzger, she was—”

Judy interrupted. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down there, Don Juanita. Who is this Rufus and what were you doing with him at sunrise?”

“Rufus is a dog! He’s one of my clients, I was walking him.”

She looked disappointed. “Oh. Okay, go on.”

“We found a woman in the bushes. She had just delivered a baby.”

Judy’s jaw fell wide open.

I said, “I know. A young girl, eighteen or nineteen. She doesn’t speak English, and I’m pretty sure she’s here illegally.”

“What the hell?”

“Yep, that’s how my day started yesterday.”

“Was she okay? What about the baby?”

“They were both fine, considering what they’d been through, but she was terrified, and she didn’t want to go to the hospital. She was living in a cardboard box hidden in the brush, so … we took her to Joyce’s. She’s there now.”

Judy’s eyes widened. “She’s homeless?”

“Well, technically, not anymore.”

Judy cocked her head to one side. “Wait a minute. This was yesterday?”

“Yep.”

“Yesterday, at sunrise?”

I nodded as I slid the plate of bacon over in front of me.

She slid it back. “But you were here yesterday after that, and you didn’t order bacon. What happened between then and now?”

Tanisha’s big round face appeared in the kitchen window, and she rang the pickup bell on the counter.

I grinned. “You’ve got an order ready.”

“Oh, dammit to hell. You’re not getting off that easy. I’ll be back.”

She slid out of the booth and went scurrying back to the kitchen. I reached over and delicately picked up a slice of Tanisha’s bacon. She had cooked it exactly the way I like: extra crispy, with no yucky white spots. I was taking my first glorious bite of it when Ethan Crane walked in the door.

With his long, wide-shouldered body in a dark pin-striped suit, thick black hair falling over the collar of a baby blue dress shirt, he could have been on the runway of an international fashion show. As he strode down the aisle toward me, an estrogen-induced hush descended on the room and the dopamine level of every female in the diner bumped up a little bit. A woman across the aisle from me froze with her mouth open and squirted lemon juice in her coffee.

Ethan has that effect on women.

He said, “I thought I might find you here.”

“Have a seat,” I said, dabbing a napkin at my lips just in case they were coated with grease and biscuit crumbs. “I’m glad you found me.”

He grinned. “Me too.”

“I actually have a question for you.”

Judy appeared with a cup of coffee and silverware rolled in a napkin. As she laid them on the table, Ethan said, “Were you wondering which restaurant we’re going to Friday night?”

Judy shot me a sly look and then turned to Ethan. “Can I get you anything, sir?”

“Not for me. I just stopped by on my way to work, thanks,” he said.

“Oh, you’re welcome, sir.” She turned to me and arched her eyebrows comically. “And for the young lady?”

“Nope, I’m good.”

“Another platter of bacon?”

“No. Thank you,” I said.

She smiled sweetly at Ethan and shrugged her shoulders. “Alright then, just the one today.”

On her way back to the kitchen she looked over her shoulder and mouthed Oh my God! at me. I had to pinch the inside of my arm to keep from giggling out loud. Ethan didn’t even seem to notice. He was probably accustomed to women acting like complete and utter fools around him.

I said, “First I have a kind of legal question for you.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“Well, I have a friend who recently had a baby. Well, it’s not my friend that had the baby, but she knows somebody who had a baby and this friend is sort of homeless, so she’s letting her stay in her house and helping her out until she can get back on her feet. But the thing is, this girl, the one that had the baby … well, she’s an illegal immigrant, or I’m pretty sure she is. So here’s the question: Is my friend doing anything against the law?”

Ethan listened intently, sitting forward with his fingers laced together. I could feel myself getting a little lost in his eyes, and the insides of my palms were getting sweaty.

He said, “Well, does your friend live in Arizona?”

“No.”

“Alabama?”

“No, she lives here in Sarasota.”

“Then she’s perfectly fine. In Florida, it’s not against the law to offer help to a fellow human being, no matter what their legal status. Next question.”

I smiled. Any other man would have wanted to know more. I had expected to get a stern warning and a lecture about getting involved in other people’s business or fraternizing with criminals. But not Ethan, he just sat there, ready for whatever was next, like a puppy waiting for a treat. I liked that he trusted me, that he thought I was smart enough not to go around getting involved in things I shouldn’t. Stupid man.

“Was there anything else you wanted to know? Anything at all?”

I laughed. “Yes, that was going to be my next question. Where are we having dinner Friday night?”

He grinned. “It’s called Yolanda. It’s just next to the bookstore, where the old bakery used to be. You sure you don’t want me to pick you up?”

“No, no, it’s fine. I’ll see you there at eight.”

“Sounds good.”

“And it’s kind of dressy. So … you know. Dress up.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I think I know what the word ‘dressy’ means.”

He touched my hand briefly as he stood up. “I’m looking forward to it.”

“Me too.”

I surprised myself, because I meant it. He looked at me for a second before he turned to go, and the little hairs on my neck stood up and I could feel myself getting lost in his eyes again. If I was going to start spending more time with this man, I’d have to come up with some tricks to stay in focus, like counting backward or reciting the state capitals.

I watched him cross the street at the corner and then head uptown to his office. I tucked a twenty-dollar bill under my coffee cup, and while Judy was busy clearing off a table at the other end of the diner, I snuck out the front door. That was a rotten thing to do on my part, but I knew she was going to ask if Ethan and I were getting serious, and I did not want to know the answer.…

Joyce opened the door with a smile. “ Buenos días! Corina’s teaching me Spanish, and I’m teaching her English. Come on in, we’re all ready to go to the doctor. Oh, and by the way, Corina has a new friend.”

I followed Joyce into the living room, where Corina was sitting on the couch. The baby was sleeping soundly on her lap, swaddled in a pink blanket, and Henry the VIII was dozing on the couch next to her. Perched on Corina’s shoulder, just as happy as could be, was the resplendent quetzal.

Apparently, Corina had a way with birds. Joyce explained it had only taken Corina a couple of hours to get the bird to eat fruit out of her hand, and now it followed her around everywhere she went.

Corina smiled proudly and said, “Hello, Dixie. How are you today?”