Лори Касс - Wrong Side Of The Paw

“It was the summer before you went to college,” he said quietly, coming even closer.

“You remember that?”

“Don’t you?”

And I suddenly realized that I did. I remembered it exactly. I looked up at him, amazed, and he pushed back one of my curls. “I’ve loved you since the first time I saw you,” he said, “back when you were twelve and not much shorter than you are now.”

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?” I whispered.

“I’ve wanted to for years, but you weren’t ready. I thought after you got rid of that doctor, it might be time, but then you go and start seeing Ash.” He smiled. “Have to say, that worried me a little.”

“No worries,” I said, smiling back with my whole heart. “Not today.” Maybe not ever.

“So you’ll try this?” he asked, so very gently that I almost cried. “See if we have a future together? Help me with cabinet colors and towels? All that?”

Instead of saying yes, I leaned into the kiss I’d been longing for. His arms circled me, and I felt as if I’d finally come home.

• • •

“So what do you think?” I asked.

It was hours later, and Eddie and I were getting ready for bed. Rafe and I had spent a fair amount of time talking, then not talking, then talking again, but since we both had to work the next day, he’d walked me back to the boardinghouse at midnight.

“Mrr,” Eddie said.

“What are you doing? You’re not going to fit, you know.”

My cat had his head underneath my dresser and was squirming his way farther in. Weird didn’t begin to describe him. “Anyway, I think you’re going to like it at Rafe’s house next fall.”

But it wouldn’t be just Rafe’s house any longer. It would be our house, and the thought made my skin tingle with anticipation. “It’s big, and it’s close to the marina, so you’ll be familiar with the territory.” The houseboat details would be worked out later.

“Hang on a minute,” I murmured. Rafe and Aunt Frances had met at the post office and she’d told him about the future of the boardinghouse. Had she known all along how he’d felt about me? Had she known how I’d felt about him? Had she played matchmaker for me?

I tossed the idea around for a bit, wondering how I felt about that likely possibility, then decided I didn’t care. Rafe and I were together and that was what counted.

“Anyway,” I said, “you’ll be happy living with Rafe. Remember him? He’s the one who puts your back foot in your ear, which you seem to enjoy.”

“Mrr,” Eddie said.

Or at least that’s what I thought he’d said. It was hard to tell, though, because he was now all the way under the dresser.

“What are you doing under there?” I asked. “You have something and I’m guessing it’s not a cat toy, or at least it wasn’t a cat toy when it was manufactured.” Eddie had a penchant for turning everything into his own possessions, and that included toothbrushes, short pieces of rope, and brooms.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something shoot out from under the dresser, skitter across the floor, and come to rest underneath the bed.

“Nice,” I said, getting down on my hands and knees and reaching. “Having cats is a great way to keep limber. Did you ever think of . . . got it.”

I sat on the bed. Eddie’s plaything had been a pencil. “So this is where it went,” I said, spinning the yellow pencil between my fingers. “I was unpacking the other day and—”

My words stopped short. This pencil was decorated with Eddie’s teeth marks. This was an Eberhard Faber pencil. This Eberhard Faber pencil was what he’d yanked out of my hand that night on the houseboat when I’d been talking to him about Dale Lacombe’s murder.

Eberhard Faber.

Simon Faber.

As I stared at the pencil, Eddie squirmed his way out from under the dresser and made one long leap onto my lap. He flopped down and started purring.

I looked at my cat. Looked at the pencil. Looked at my cat.

Could he really have been trying to tell me something? Was it possible that his cat brain had known something I hadn’t and he’d been trying to communicate with me?

“Were you?” I asked.

Eddie turned his head and looked deep into my eyes.

“Mrr.”

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