Legal Seagull

Chapter Twelve

Nan’s friend appeared about forty minutes later with her whole family in tow. “Climb in,” she said, pointing to the cluttered back rows of the giant SUV. “Sorry about the mess.”

I got in beside a little girl who was fast asleep with a glistening bead of drool dribbling off one pouty lip.

“Couldn’t leave her at home,” Melissa said, watching me while Nan stood with Melissa’s husband inspecting the damage from the accident. “Nan called me, but I don’t actually drive, so we all had to come.”

“I’m not getting in there. It smells like dog,” Octo-Cat informed me from outside. His nose wrinkled in disgust, and once again, I was more than a little relieved that other people couldn’t understand him.

I sighed instead of answering. He knew I couldn’t talk to him in front of people who didn’t know my secret, but that never stopped him from complaining, endlessly complaining.

“Aren’t you worried your cat will run away?” Melissa asked, glancing from him to me with a worried expression. Both tall and thick, she was a big woman, but the biggest part of her was the earnest smile she wore as she greeted me.

“He’ll be fine,” I said for both of them.

That was when Paisley ran over, tail wagging wildly, to say hello to the new arrivals.

“Oh my gosh!” Melissa cried in such a high-pitched voice it made my ears rings. “Who is this sweet angel baby?”

“That’s Nan’s dog, Paisley,” I supplied.

“Well, of course it is.” Melissa scooped the happy Chihuahua up into her arms and let Paisley lick her face. I noticed that her baggy T-shirt read Crazy Chihuahua Lady in big blocky letters. No wonder she and Nan were friends.

“Oh, you are the sweetiest-beatiest,” she squealed. Both she and Paisley seemed to shake with happiness. Was this woman so obsessed with Chihuahuas that she had even started to act like them? Funny.

“I like her,” Paisley said with a happy bark.

“She looks just like my Sky Princess,” Melissa informed me with that ever-present smile. “You’ll meet her when we take you back to our place for a rest while your car is being worked on. See…” She motioned toward the banged-up sports car. “This is why I don’t drive.”

Nan returned with Melissa’s husband, and they climbed into the SUV.

“C’mon, Octo-Cat,” I called and clicked my tongue.

Thankfully, he decided it was better to listen to me than to be left alone on the side of the road and complied.

Melissa leaned forward from the back row and bumped my shoulder. “Wow, he really listens. Almost like a dog.”

“A dog!?” Octo-Cat shrieked. “That’s it. Let me out of here. I don’t want to spend another second with this crazy woman.”

“Hush. It’s fine,” I murmured, the weight of my fatigue weighing heavily now that I was sitting back down.

Melissa gasped but said nothing for the rest of the drive back to her home more than half an hour away.

When we arrived, we were greeted by the loudest chorus of barking I’d ever heard in my life. A moment later, five dogs ran outside to say hello.

“You have five dogs now?” Nan asked with a chuckle, scratching some kind of mixed breed with multi-color eyes behind the ears.

“Seven, actually,” Melissa corrected. “The Chihuahuas are inside because they’re not strong enough to push through the dog door on their own.”

“She’s insane,” Octo-Cat choked out. “Certifiably insane. I refuse to step paw into that house.”

“It’s already the middle of the night,” Nan said with a sigh. “I do appreciate you coming to our rescue, but I hope we don’t have to wait until morning to get someone to look at the car.”

“C’mon, there’s at least twenty mechanics within ten miles of us. I’m sure someone will be open and able to take us,” Melissa’s husband said after he’d returned from taking his daughter to bed.

“I’ll be back,” Nan told me before climbing back into the front seat of the enormous SUV and disappearing.

“So…” Melissa said, her eyes wide and mischievous. “You’re Nan’s granddaughter, right?”

Leave it to Nan not to properly introduce us. “That’s me. My name’s Angie.”

She dropped her voice to a whisper as we climbed the twisty steps toward the front door. “Are you the one who can… you know? Talk to… well, you know?”

Anger flared in my chest, but I did my best to swallow it back down. Was Nan seriously entrusting random people across the country with my biggest secret? It seemed like she wasn’t even all that close with Melissa, given how surprised Melissa had been to meet Paisley and how Nan couldn’t even remember exactly how many dogs these people had.

“You don’t have to say anything,” Melissa said with a conspiratorial grin. “Your secret’s safe with me, by the way. I would never tell anyone. Well, except for my husband and daughter, of course. I tell them everything.”

Great. So at least three other people knew, and one of them was just a kid. First or second grade, tops. Kids had no filters. Not exactly the best people to trust with secrets.

Melissa flung the door open with a “ta-da,” and I glanced into the dark house, expecting to see her dogs lined up to greet me.

What I actually saw was far, far worse…

Octo-Cat must have crept up the stairs behind us because he now let out a mighty growl and jumped—literally jumped—into a thin tree that lined the front stairs.

“It’s my worst nightmare come to life,” he howled.

I wanted to tell him that we wouldn’t be here long, that he had nothing to worry about, but I honestly didn’t know how badly busted Nan’s car was or whether Melissa’s husband was right about being able to find a mechanic at this hour. So instead I left him clinging to the tree as Paisley and I followed Melissa into the house and shut the door behind us.

Hopefully his worst nightmare wouldn’t also prove to be mine.