Legal Seagull

Chapter Six

After being summarily dismissed by Alpha and his flock, Charles and I drove our separate cars to a little diner just outside the Dewdrop Springs city limits. He ordered a coffee, but I sprung for a hot fudge sundae with an extra cherry on top.

“So what’s our plan?” he asked casually, holding the steaming mug between his hands.

Not even the sweetness of my dessert could mask the bitterness of what I realized had to happen next. I pushed my long-handled spoon as far down as it would go in the soda shop style glass and heaved a giant sigh.

“I’ll tell Octo-Cat I can’t take him to see Grizabella. He won’t be happy, but I can take him another time. Soon, even. It’s just that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I refuse to let it slip by. I might never meet my bio grandma otherwise.”

Charles sucked air through his teeth, then regarded me with a frown. “You can’t change your travel plans. It’s too last minute for that. And I know you don’t want to deal with how cranky Octo-Cat will be for the rest of his nine lives if you do.”

I pressed my back against the firm vinyl of the booth. Charles was right, as always. There would be hefty penalties to pay for disappointing Octo-Cat, but I just couldn’t see any way around it. “What choice do I have, though?” I asked.

“You go as planned. I’ll work on things here.” With that, he pulled my sundae to his side of the table and stole one of the cherries from the top.

“You can’t talk to them,” I pointed out, leaning over the table to reclaim my sundae and popping the remaining cherry into my mouth.

Charles smiled. “You use FaceTime with Octo-Cat, right? Can’t we use it for the seagulls, too?”

“But what about your caseload? You’ve been so busy lately. I’d hate to add another thing when—”

“Angie, relax. It’s okay. I want to help. Besides, my girlfriend is going out of town for the week. I’ll need something to keep me busy on my off hours. Might as well be this.” He shrugged and took a slow sip of coffee.

I waited for him to set the mug back onto the table. “Are you sure?”

He reached forward and grabbed both my hands, then wedged his fingers between mine. “Completely. You need this trip, and so does your cat. Besides, I already have a few case precedents in mind that should make winning this thing a cinch.

“You’re too good to me,” I said with a happy sigh. Especially considering he seemed to be quite afraid of the flock, but I didn’t mention that part aloud.

“It’s no big deal. They said they have ten days, and you’ll be back by then. We can deliver the big case together.”

“Sounds perfect.” And it did.

Charles’s features pinched as he leaned back against the red and white vinyl booth. “There’s just one part I’m not sure about. They mentioned that Flock 83 disappeared, but they never said why or where they went.”

I spooned a massive heap of hot fudge into my mouth and moaned with pleasure. “They’re birds. Birds migrate. I’m sure it’s no big deal.”

Charles bit his lip and nodded. “Probably not. Still, I might feel better if I knew for sure. It could help the case, too.”

“I don’t know much about that, but I bet if you could get Bravo to talk to you alone without Alpha there, he’ll be more forthcoming.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Now tell me about what you did today before the run-in with those birds.”

We laughed and chatted until I scraped the last smudge of gooey sweetness from my sundae. It was far shorter than I would have liked, but we both had big days ahead of us tomorrow.

Charles stood and extended a hand to me to help me out of the booth. “I’m going to miss you so much,” he said before giving me a goodbye kiss that would need to last almost a full week.

Despite leaving early that morning with my human-do list, I arrived home after Paisley’s self-prescribed bedtime of eight o’clock. The little dog, who lay snoozing by the front door, lifted her head groggily and thumped her tail against the hardwood floor.

“Are you home now, Mommy? I couldn’t sleep without knowing you’d made it back safe and sound.”

I set my bags on the floor and then scooped her into my arms and gave her a kiss on her forehead. “I’m home, sweetie. Go get some sleep.”

She licked my hands as I bent to set her back down, then raced upstairs to find Nan, her little tail swinging back and forth the entire time.

I could always count on our Chihuahua for a warm welcome. Octo-Cat, on the other hand, did not look pleased to see me.

“Took you long enough,” he spat from his perch about halfway up the staircase. “Did you at least get everything on my list?”

“Other than the stuff Nan picked up, yeah. You’re welcome, by the way.”

“Stuff,” he said with a yawn. “I don’t like you calling my things that.”

He’d demanded everything from a specific brand of shrimp cocktail to that infuriating audiobook. I didn’t know what else to call that odd grouping other than “stuff.”

“Why are you so late?” he asked, running up the stairs in front of me as I trudged slowly after him.

“Something came up. Something with seagulls,” I muttered, really not wanting to get into all that right now.

Octo-Cat arched his back and had the audacity to hiss at me. “You’re not backing out on me. Are you? Because that is the lamest excuse you’ve come up with yet.”

Oh, if only he knew how close I’d been to packing it in. He was lucky I loved him so much and that Charles loved me so much.

“Bright and early tomorrow morning. I’ll be ready.” I really should have lectured him on his poor manners or hurtful lack of gratitude, but I was just too tired to deal with him anymore that night.

“Good,” he said, sashaying down the hallway to his bedroom and slipping through the slightly open door.

I shook my head and continued up another flight of stairs to my tower bedroom.

I was in for a very long week. Our road trip would take us thirty hours of driving each way—and that was without any breaks to eat, sleep, or stretch our legs. Thankfully I’d have Nan to split driving shifts with me, though I didn’t love that she had wanted to take her tiny Audi coupe cross-country rather than my roomier old sedan.

Besides the drive itself, I knew I was in for an awkward time visiting with Grizabella’s owner, Christine. She didn’t know I could talk to animals and I preferred to keep it that way. This meant I’d needed to come up with a farfetched excuse that I’d already planned to be in town and would love it if she could watch Octo-Cat for me while I was off at my fake conference.

She’d bought it hook, line, and sinker. Really, she had no reason to suspect my cover story was a lie. Even though it was a harmless one, I still felt bad. Not bad enough to risk exposure of my freakish—and often troubling—ability, but still.

Despite today’s hiccough with the seagulls, everything would still happen to plan with this trip, whether I spent time agonizing over the details or not. And I definitely preferred not.

I quieted my thoughts, promising myself I’d deal with each new thing as it came. The last thing on my mind before I drifted off to sleep was that I really hoped my cat knew how much I loved him, and that he would at least try to be nice to me for the duration of the trip.

Yes, I still believed in miracles, it seemed.