“I was trying to! I was making a new friend. A cute friend who probably wants nothing to do with me now that you practically lunged at him from across the pool.”
“I…He was too old for you.”
She snorted. “Oh, I didn’t know there were age limits for who I was allowed to talk to!”
“I’m sorry I upset you, but I’m still your father. Rein in the sarcasm.”
When she opened her mouth to retort, he braced himself, but no scathing reply came. Her tears brimmed over, escalating quickly to actual sobs. She covered her face with her hands.
“What can I do?” Adam asked softly. “We’re together for the next eighteen days, and I don’t want it to be miserable for you. What can I do to make it better?”
She sniffed. “Just give me the room key. Please? I want to go lie down.”
“All right.” He handed over the key ring bearing the Chattavista logo-no modern key cards here. “Lock the door behind you, though. I’ll get a spare from the front desk later.”
“Fine.”
When he turned back toward the pool, he was surprised to find Geoff and Morgan watching through the fence, both their faces apprehensive.
“You guys tired of swimming?” he asked, heading toward them.
Morgan held up her hands. “I’m getting wrinkly. The lady who gave us the checkers game said she had coloring books, too.”
Fifteen minutes later, she was happily coloring pictures of farm animals back on the lodge porch. Adam and Geoff sat at a nearby table, setting up a game of backgammon.
“Geoff…when I told you guys about this trip, did you want to come?”
The teenager flinched. “Th-this trip?”
Adam got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. “It’s okay, son. You can tell me the truth.”
Geoff looked away. “I like fishing. And it would be really cool to go rafting.”
“Do you miss Gina?”
“Well, yeah, I guess.” He seemed surprised by the question. “But, jeez, it’s only been two days. It’s just…most of the other guys are like that bozo back at the pool, working summer jobs to save up for a car. Not to mention cash for the movies and music downloads and stuff. Mom lets me cut lawns and stuff in the neighborhood, but she won’t let me apply for any real jobs during the school year.”
And Adam had thoughtlessly wiped out three weeks of prime earning potential.
Geoff eyed the backgammon pieces. “Do you mind if I take a rain check on this? I think I’m gonna go back to the room and catch the Braves game on TV.”
“Sure. Don’t turn it up too loud, though. Your sister might be taking a nap.”
Deflated, Adam joined Morgan and helped her polka-dot animals. She’d started with a dalmatian and decided to continue the theme with a green-speckled cow and purple-spotted sheep.
“Daddy!”
“Yeah, pumpkin?”
She lowered her voice to an excited whisper. “There it is! My kitty!”
Sure enough, peeking out from the edge of some bushes was a small, charcoal-colored cat. Adam couldn’t get a clear look at it among the leaves and branches, but he could tell there was no collar.
“Here, kitty.” Morgan made some soft noises, a combination of tongue-clucks and kissing sounds.
The feline cocked its head, then took a few tentative steps forward with its front legs low to the ground. Its mew was plaintive.
Morgan’s pale blue eyes lit up with joy. “Daddy, it answered me!” She shot to her feet, then headed down the stairs.
“Now wait just a second. You can’t just go up to strange animals.” Not that the tiny piece of fluff looked feral or rabid.
Even though his warning slowed Morgan-she stood immobile on the bottom step-it did nothing to deter the young cat. It crept forward, mewing again with more volume.
“That’s what I want for my birthday!” Morgan announced. “A
Any other day, Adam probably could have found the willpower to say no, despite her beseeching expression. At this particular instant, after feeling like a failure with both Eliza and Geoff, the best he could come up with was a feeble, “It might already have an owner.”
“But if it doesn’t?” she pressed.
He hadn’t let them keep a dog at his place because he wasn’t there often enough to walk it, but weren’t cats more self-sufficient? “I don’t know, pumpkin. But…”
“But?”
“We’ll see.”
The cat, hardly more than a kitten, had reached the stairs. It propped its front feet on the step and bumped Morgan’s foot with its head. She immediately knelt down to pet it, earning a trilling purr that didn’t sound the least bit melancholy or unsure.
To Adam’s ear, it sounded triumphant.
Chapter Six
“More than Puppy Love, Brenna Pierce speaking.” Brenna sandwiched the cell phone between her ear and shoulder so that her hands were free to put the lettuce in Sheldon’s terrarium.
“Brenna? This is Adam Varner.”
She was stunned. With a dozen clients coming and going from town and calling with last-minute requests or schedule changes, the doctor’s voice had been the last one she’d expected to hear. “Hi. How are things at the Chattavista?”
“Complicated,” he said wryly. “I’m calling about the most recent complication, in fact. I…wondered if we could hire you.”
For what? He’d joked yesterday about being desperate, but the only “children” she babysat were furry, feathered or scaly. “I don’t understand. Unless you’ve suddenly acquired a pet between now and when I saw you last, I don’t think I’m your-”
“We seem to be the proud owners of a cat,” he informed her. “Lydia, the lady working the desk here, said it’s the third young cat to show up around here in the last couple of weeks. There was probably a litter nearby. Morgan’s pushing for us to take it home as a family pet-made that her explicit birthday wish-but even if we do, the lodge allows only service animals in the rooms. I don’t suppose you ever board animals for clients?”
“Sometimes,” she admitted. Josh teased her that she had the sole guest room in Mistletoe specifically decorated for four-legged guests. “But only under certain conditions.” Any animal she took into her home had to be smaller than her border collie, spayed or neutered, on preventative treatment for parasites, housebroken and good-natured. Even though she kept visiting pets in a room separate from where her own dog and cat lived when she wasn’t there to supervise, she refused to take chances with aggressive animals.
“I’m sure you’re busy,” he began, “so I hate to bother you with this. We’ll pay whatever you think is fair.”
She grinned. “Shouldn’t you ask what that is first?”
“No, I’m putting myself completely in your hands. Well, yours and a veterinarian’s. Do you know a good veterinarian?”
Her face warmed. “Yes, very well. I used to work for him.”
“Is there any chance he’s open late on Fridays?” Adam asked on a sigh, sounding as if he already knew the answer.
Brenna bit the inside of her lip. “Actually, they close the office at four-thirty on Fridays, but he works from nine to twelve on Saturdays.”
