Page 20 of Talk Birdie to Me

With another grimace, Taylor said, “Yeah, but he hasn’t.”

She aimed a thumb at the side, and an all-too-familiar-now face appeared around the doorframe.

Cody waved awkwardly. “Hi. Sorry.”

Geena pulled her robe tight against her body, assuring it was closed, and everything was covered up.

“What are you doing here?” She looked at Taylor with wide eyes, unable to come up with a single reason either of them should be on her doorstep so late. “What are both of you doing here?”

“I couldn’t very well send him here by himself at this hour.” Taylor smiled as if she were proud of herself.

Of course she was.

“And why is he here?” Geena tugged at her robe again.

Cody frowned at the back of Taylor’s head. “She was supposed to tell you that before I got here.”

Taylor shrugged and smiled some more. “It’s easier this way.”

“Easier for who?” Geena shrieked. Then she counted backwards from five again and lowered her voice. “Someone tell me what’s going on right now.”

“I told you not to be mad,” Taylor repeated. “You know how we’re working on that foster program, but don’t really have it up and running the way we need it to yet?”

“Yes.” The words sank in, and Geena’s stomach sank right along with them. “Oh no. You brought me a dog. In the middle of the night. Taylor, I can’t take care of a dog!”

Taylor put her hands up in defense. “Good news: not a dog.”

A cat, then. She could maybe make a cat work.

She didn’t see a carrier on the porch or in anyone’s hand, though. “Where is it?”

With a nod to the side, Taylor said, “His car.”

Why would a cat be in Cody’s car?

Oh no.

It wouldn’t be in Cody’s vehicle instead of Taylor’s new little hatchback unless it was a big cat. Or even a small one. Zoo cats had feral pee smells.

Then it hit her.

No one ever said this was a cat.

She looked at Cody with her jaw clenched. “You can’t be serious.”

“There was an issue at the zoo. He can’t safely stay there tonight, and I can’t keep him at my place. My landlord will kick me out the second he hears a peep out of him.”

At least he had the decency to look apologetic about his presence on Geena’s doorstep.

Geena’s sister, on the other hand, looked as if she could make this all okay with just that sunshine smile of hers.

“And Tink would lose his mind if I brought a bird into our house. So you’re our only hope,” Taylor insisted. “Gary’s only hope.”

Geena looked back and forth between them, fuming as she tried to find the words to tell them no. Absolutely not. No way in this lifetime.

But she couldn’t.

They needed help, and as much as she didn’t like it, she could help with this.

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