kitten in question was currently exploring her office after being evicted from the patient care area by Jillian. “He hates the cage and his crying is getting the other patients upset,” she had said when she’d deposited him on her desk an hour ago.
Absently, Cassie balled up a piece of paper and tossed it in front of the cat. Thrilled, the tiny predator pounced on it, rolling head over heels in his enthusiasm.
Once upon a time, she’d been that carefree, that eager to chase adventure. But she’d been knocked down too hard to be willing to risk tumbling end over end again. She almost envied the kitten its bravery. He’d nearly frozen to death last night and yet he still seemed fearless. Meanwhile, she was afraid of her own shadow most days.
Having her ex leave her had made it hard to trust people, but the aftermath of the car accident she and her father had been in certainly hadn’t helped. Naively, she’d assumed that the drunken deputy who hit her would face jail time, that he would pay for his actions. Instead, he’d gotten what seemed like a slap on the wrist. She’d tried to push for more, pointing out Jack’s obvious alcoholism, but the department had closed ranks around him. According to them, he’d made a simple mistake and she was just stirring up trouble. A few people had even suggested the accident might have been her fault, despite all evidence to the contrary. Logically, she knew they were wrong, but that didn’t make the nightmares or the guilt any better.
“Hey, Cassie?” Mollie, her friend and the clinic receptionist, spoke over the intercom. “Emma’s here.”
Cassie glanced at her watch. How was it already five o’ clock? “Send her back and let her know her little friend is still here.” Her daughter had fallen in love with the kitten when she saw it this morning. She’d be thrilled it hadn’t been picked up yet.
“Mommy!” Her daughter flew into the tiny office, tossing her backpack down to give Cassie a big hug. “Mollie said he’s still here! Where is he?”
Cassie laughed and pointed to the wastebasket in the corner of the room. “Look behind the trash can. I think he’d hiding back there.”
Emma, always excited by a new visitor to the clinic, scrambled out of Cassie’s lap to check it out. “Found him!” she whooped, clutching the kitty to her chest.
“Careful. Don’t squeeze him too hard.”
“I know that, Mom. I’m not a baby.” The indignation on her little face was better suited to a teenager than a preschooler, but she did have a point. Emma had grown up with foster animals and convalescing pets around the house and knew how to handle them.
“Well, this one is a bit of a troublemaker, so just be careful.” Even as she gave the warning, the little guy was trying to climb out of Emma’s arms and to scale the mini-blinds over the window. Delighted at his antics, Emma gently untangled him.
“You sure do get into trouble,” she scolded the kitten. “That should be your name—Trouble.”
Cassie laughed. “I think you’re right. That’s the perfect name. I’ll have Mollie put that on his chart.”
“Will the policeman mind that we named the kitten without him?”
“I’m sure he won’t mind.” Time for a change in subject. “So did you have a good day at school?” Emma had started half days at the preschool affiliated with their church only a few months ago.
“Oh, yeah! John Baker brought a snake into school today for show-and-tell.”
“A real snake?” She shivered. There was a reason she hadn’t specialized in exotic medicine, and that reason was snakes. Professionally she knew they were legitimate pets, but personally she found them cringe-worthy.
Her daughter nodded with glee. “Uh-huh, a baby one. He had stripes and was really pretty. Can we have a snake, too? I’d take really good care of it.”
“Absolutely not. No snakes.”
“But you said we could get a pet ages ago and we still don’t have one.” She stuck her lip out in a perfect pout.
“We will when the time is right.”
“When will that be?”
When? When her father was able to work again? When the nightmares went away?
“Soon.”
Emma shot her a disbelieving look and went back to snuggling the kitten.
Great, just one more way she’d let her daughter down.
Alex had overslept, then cut himself in his hurry to shave and shower. Now he was standing in the pet food section of Paradise’s only grocery store, still bleeding, and confused as heck. Was growth food the same as kitten food? Or should he get the special indoor formula? Or sensitive? What did that even mean, sensitive? And then there were all the hairball options. By the looks of it, half of America’s cats were fighting some kind of hair trauma he had no desire to understand.
Dabbing again at the cut on his jaw, he decided on the bag marked Growth, mainly because it had a picture of a kitten on the front. That had to be a good sign.
Taking the smallest bag, he added it to his basket, which already contained a box of protein bars, new razor blades and the chew bone he’d promised Rex this morning. Thankfully, the checkout line was short, and he was in the car and tearing into one of the protein bars in a matter of minutes. He washed down the makeshift meal with some bottled water and nosed the vehicle south on Lighthouse Avenue. A few quick blocks later and he was pulling into the small parking lot.
Rex woofed hopefully.
“All right, you can come in.” He got out and then let Rex out, snapping on his leash. The dog trotted at his side, nose working the breeze. The K-9 was probably picking up a full buffet of smells from all of the pets that had been through there recently.
Once inside, Rex honed in on the treat container in the reception area, sitting prettily directly in front of it.
“Hi, handsome!” The pretty brunette behind the counter, Mollie, according to her name tag, smiled at the panting dog, then turned to Alex. “You must be the man that rescued the kitten this morning, right?”
“Guilty as charged. Although really Rex was the one who found him. He deserves all the credit.”
“I’m not sure credit is the word.” She made a wry face. “Maybe blame would be more accurate. That little guy has been driving everyone nuts all day. They had to move him into Cassie’s office because he was getting the other patients all worked up with his yowling.”
Alex winced. “Sorry. I probably should have taken him with me, but I wasn’t exactly prepared for a surprise kitten at six this morning.”
“Don’t be silly. It’s not your fault he’s so rambunctious. And Dr. Marshall’s daughter is in love with him. She’s back there playing with him now.”
“Emma’s here? Surely her mother doesn’t bring her to work every day?”
The receptionist tipped
