Лори Касс - Lending А Paw

“Oh, wow. What can I do?”

And they say the youth of today is self-centered. I wanted to hug her. “I don’t want to leave the bookmobile, so if you could find a phone and call our mechanic, that would be a lifesaver.” I gave her the name of the garage that did the bookmobile maintenance.

“You bet. I know the people who live a couple miles up the road. I’ll be right back.”

She took her foot off the brake, but I waved at her to stop. “There’s another phone call to make.” While I didn’t want to scare her, this had to be done. “I need you to call the police.”

“What?” Her mouth dropped open, showing perfectly white teeth. “Why? What happened?”

I gave her as brief a description of the event as possible, and her reaction wasn’t anything close to fear. “Some rotten kid, I bet,” said the girl who couldn’t be much more than twenty. “Stupid jerks. Some of them have nothing better to do than take potshots at anything that moves.”

She eased her vehicle forward a few feet, then braked. “Um, this may sound like a weird question, but is your cat with you?”

My heart did an odd thump-thump. This was Eddie’s real owner. She’d cried buckets over losing him and I was going to have to give him back. I deeply, desperately wanted to lie, but was stopped by an image of my mother shaking her head at me and saying, “Minerva, I am so disappointed in you.”

“Thanks a lot, Mom,” I murmured.

“What’s that?” Surfette asked.

“Eddie’s in the bookmobile.”

She nodded. “Okay, good. Is there anything I can get you?” I shook my head and she pulled away, speckles of rust falling off the wheel wells as she accelerated.

I stood, slump-shouldered, and watched her Jeep vanish into the distance. She was going to take Eddie away from me and I was going to have to be grateful to her for rescuing the bookmobile. And to think I’d started this day happy.

Hands in my pockets, I scuffed my way back to the bookmobile. If I only had a little time left with Eddie, I was going to make the most of it.

I climbed up the steps and found him in the back corner, sitting on a small pile of children’s books he’d pulled off a shelf. Any other day this would have earned him a scolding and a threat of no treats for a week. This time I lay on the floor next to him, stomach down, and laid my head on one arm while I petted him with the other, not thinking, just being.

In what felt like three minutes, I heard the Cherokee’s muffler return. I got to my feet, scooping up Eddie on the way, and sat on the carpeted step to wait.

Surfette knocked on the back door and came on in, all bright smiles and energy. “Your garage guy said he’ll be out as soon as he can. He didn’t see how you’d blown two tires, though. He must have asked me six times if I was sure it was two tires.”

I laid my hand on Eddie’s flank. My friend, my companion. “Did he say how long he thought it would take to get here?”

“Less than an hour, he figured.” She introduced herself as Hannah, thereby blasting the surfer girl image to bits. Surfettes would be named Didi or maybe Jenny. Never Hannah. “He said he’ll bring an extra guy and the big tow truck.”

I nodded. “That’s great. Thanks so much for your help, Hannah. I could have been here all night if you hadn’t come along.”

“Oh, anybody would have stopped,” she said, shrugging. “I must have been the first person by. Just luck it was me.”

Luck. You could call it that. There was a pause that neither one of us seemed in a hurry to fill. “So,” I asked, “do you mind if I ask you a question?” My inquiry came at the same time Hannah asked, “Is it okay if I ask you something?”

We both laughed and I gestured for her to go ahead. “Rescuers get to go first. It’s a rule.”

Hannah giggled and pushed her sun-bleached hair back behind her ears. “You know how I’ve been in here a couple of times looking for a book? Well.” Her voice went low, almost into a whisper. “My fiancé and me, we’re getting married in the fall.”

For the first time, I noticed the diamond ring on her left hand. A very small diamond. Hannah spun it around on her finger, smiling a little.

“Anyway, both our families want this great big wedding. Our parents really can’t afford it, and anyway, Bobby and me don’t want a big wedding. Too much money for one day, and you’re still just as married if you go to a justice of the peace, right?”

My mouth might have dropped open. “Yes,” I managed to say.

She gave a sharp nod. “That’s what I keep telling my mom. I tell her we don’t want them to run up their credit cards for a wedding, but she kind of tells me to go away, that she has to pick out napkins since I haven’t done it yet.” She rolled her eyes. “I mean, it’s our wedding. Shouldn’t we be able to say that we don’t want napkins?”

“Absolutely.”

“So what I was looking for was a book on having a small, cheap wedding. There’s got to be a way.”

I smiled. “I know just the book.”

Her eyes lit up with hope. “You do?”

“Not here, but I’ll put it on the bookmobile as a reserved book and you can pick it up anytime.”

“Really?” She grinned wide. “This is so cool. I thought for sure if I checked out a wedding book, you’d tell my mom—she knows everybody, it seems like. Bobby and me, we’ll figure out a plan first, and then we’ll just, you know, go ahead and do it.”

I looked at her happy smile. It wouldn’t be that easy, but given the firm look in her eye, she probably knew that already. We fell to talking about weddings, easy happy talk that stretched out long.

Finally Eddie gave a wide yawn and said, “Mrrr.”

“Oh, hey.” Hannah snapped her fingers. “That’s another thing I wanted to ask. . . . Um, are you okay?”

I patted myself on the chest, playing at pretending the sharp gasp I’d let out had been something else entirely. “Fine, thanks. What’s the question?”

“Him.” She pointed at Eddie and I thought my heart was going to freeze. “Is he a silver tabby?”

It took me two tries, three, to say, “That’s what the vet said.”

“Cool.” She squatted down in front of Eddie. “He’s a good-looking cat. Bobby and me, we’re breeding boxers, but we’re thinking about doing cats, too.” She squinted up at me. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

My muffled laughter smoothed out into a wide smile. “Eddie was a stray, and he’s been neutered.”

“Oh.” She made a face. “That’s too bad.”

The honking of a truck startled all three of us. We looked through the bookmobile’s windshield to see my second set of rescuers pile out of the biggest tow truck I’d ever seen.

“Well, guess I’ll get out of your way,” Hannah said.

I have her a quick hug. “Thanks again. I’m glad it was you who stopped.”

She hugged back. “Me, too.” Halfway down the steps she turned. “Hey, you wanted to ask a question, too. What was it?”

“You know, I really don’t remember.” I smiled and hugged Eddie to my chest, holding him tight.

• • •

I was averting my eyes from the sight of the front end of the bookmobile being hoisted onto the tow truck when a sheriff’s cruiser pulled up.

The deputy who climbed out looked familiar and I realized it was Deputy Wolverson, the officer who had dripped rainwater all over the bookmobile the day I’d found Stan.

“Ms. Hamilton,” he said, nodding. “Sorry it took so long for me to get here, but I was on another call. What’s the problem?”

“Thirty aught six, I’d guess,” the head mechanic said. He kicked at the shredded tire they’d removed. When I’d ordered the bookmobile, I’d also ordered a spare rim and tire and had it stored in their garage. Ordering two in case someone attacked the bookmobile had never occurred to me.