“The deal is I have to help,” I say. “And they’re using my old bedroom as a cat room. It’s equipped with kennels, cat toys, and litter boxes now.”
“Are we talking about the cats?” Charlie asks as he and Jack join us at the table with drinks.
“Yep,” Dad says. “You’re going to come help too?”
Charlie grins at me then at Dad. “You’ve got Chelsea and Ray and Del. They’re going to be thrilled to have all those cats. You don’t need me.”
“How long will socializing take?” Ty asks.
“Could be a few months,” I admit. “They’ve been wild strays for a while. It takes time to win their trust. Prove that they’re safe. Get to the point where they’ll let you touch them and take care of them. Definitely a while until they’re ‘family pet ready’.”
“Definitely going to need a lot of hands,” Charlie says.
“You should ask Mia to help,” Jack says. Looking directly at me.
I widen my eyes and say, “Why would I do that?”
Has Jack been drinking? Is he about to out me and Mia?
“She’s a librarian. Ask her for some research material about taming stray cats and I bet she shows up and helps out. That’s what I did about manicures and look at this party.” He gestures around the yard at large.
“That’s true,” Charlie muses. “She’s very hands-on for a librarian. Or are they all like that?”
He directs the question to Scott.
I might kill my brother.
“She does love to research and try new things,” Scott says, nodding.
I almost swallow my soda wrong. I cough. Charlie gives me a huge grin.
“That’s very…adventurous of her,” he says.
Yes, I’m definitely going to kill him.
“Damn. We really are causing you a problem,” Scott says to me, pulling my attention from the kind of research I’m going to need to do to make Charlie’s death look like an unfortunate accident.
I shake my head. “It’s my job.” It is. Moving animals around so that they can live alongside people with everyone safe and happy is a big part of what I do. Even with stray town cats.
Scott and I give each other a long look. We silently acknowledge that we both know what’s going on. We are trying to extend olive branches and it is uncomfortable and unusual for us.
But it’s nice to be trying.
“But you are relocating the bees, right?” Scott asks. “Next week?”
“Yeah. Monday is the plan,” I confirm.
“Bees?” Ty asks. “Like bumblebees?”
“Honeybees,” Scott says. “Turns out there are some beehives down there in part of the old shelter. No one really knew what to do. It could’ve been a huge problem, for obvious reasons, tearing into the space they’ve taken up. Not just for the workers but also for the bees.”
“No kidding,” Ty says he looks at me. “You’re gonna go in and kill all the bees?”
I look at him with wide eyes. “I am not going to kill all the bees. I’m going to remove them. We’re going to set them up somewhere else where they’ll be safe and won’t bother anyone. You don’t kill honeybees, Ty.”
Tyler laughs and shakes his head. “Okay, man. Better you than me.”
Scott shrugs. “Well, yeah. It’s why people like David are so important.”
