Page 76 of Redeeming Harmony

“I’m not sure… it’s complicated,” Emma said.

“Well, it’s a compliment, right? Your shop must be doing well to have offers to buy it.”

“It is,” Emma said with a tinge of pride in her voice. “Yesterday was the first Sunday the shop was closed since tourist season, and I had lots of customers in today who complained about being closed yesterday. Which sounds like it shouldn’t be a good thing, but it is. Having enough business to stay open seven days a week all year round in a tourist town means I’m doing something right.”

“That’s great,” he said. “It must be -”

Shrieks from the two women sitting at the table behind them cut him off. Lucas turned in his seat, staring in surprise at the dirt-stained, bedraggled looking white cat running across the women’s table. It knocked over a wine glass into the lap of one of the women, and she jumped up, brushing at her pants.

“Holy shit,” Lucas said. “It’s Lady N.”

The cat turned her deranged gaze to him at the sound of his voice. With a yowl, she leaped from the table to land on him, scrambling over his head, her claws raking over his face and digging into his scalp. Pain sliced across his face, and he bellowed a curse as the cat jumped down onto their table, stampeding her way through his salad before snatching the piece of chicken off Emma’s plate.

She deftly dodged Emma’s grab for her and jumped to the ground. The piece of chicken jammed into her mouth, she streaked across the patio.

“Grab that cat!” Lucas shouted before standing up and charging after her.

The other diners stared in mute surprise at the cat making a break for the low brick wall that surrounded the patio, and at, Lucas had no doubt, his own crazed, blood-streaked expression as he chased after her. He ran past Monica and the tables, reaching for Lady N just as she leaped up and over the wall, her matted, twig-infested fur blowing out behind her like a sail in the wind, and the stolen chicken still wedged firmly in her mouth.

Lucas planted his hands on top of the low wall and boosted his body over it, landing with a thud. Lady N was already halfway down the sidewalk, moving roughly at the speed of sound, zipping past the people walking on the sidewalk before she turned down a side alley.

He chased after her, pulling up to a stop in front of the alley. It was empty, and he made a pst, pst sound. “Here Lady N. Here, kitty, kitty. Where’d you go, you chicken stealing, lunch ruining jerk cat?”

The piece of chicken dangling from her mouth, Lady N trotted out from behind a garbage can before making a break for the chain-link fence at the end of the alley.

Lucas raced after her, muttering a curse when she squeezed through the bottom fence hole before pausing on the other side to stare at him. Her yellow eyes regarded him with a combination of triumph and disdain before she turned and walked away.

“Get back here, you rotten cat,” Lucas said.

Her tail shot up straight, and she flicked it once in his direction, the cat version of giving him the finger, before disappearing behind a building.

“Dammit!” Lucas touched his face, not surprised to see blood on his fingers, before turning and heading back toward the restaurant.

* * *

“At least youknow the cat’s still alive, right?” Lucas switched his phone to his other ear when Emma approached him. He was sitting on the hood of Emma’s car, and she placed a small first-aid kit on the hood and rummaged through it.

Nathan replied, but between the traffic on Lucas’s end and the barking dogs on Nathan’s end, he could barely hear him.

“Sorry, what was that?” Lucas asked.

The noise of the barking dogs lessened, and Nathan’s voice became a little clearer on the phone. “I said, she’s alive all right. Yours isn’t the first phone call I’ve had about her this morning.”

“Really?” Lucas said.

“Yeah. Mrs. Levinson phoned this morning. She found Lady N in her flower garden, using it as her personal litter box. She also destroyed Mrs. Levinson’s prize hydrangea bush. Just tore it up.”

“I can’t believe she made it out of the park and back to civilization. How did she not get eaten by a bear?” Lucas said as Emma, holding an antiseptic pad, stood in front of him. She pushed lightly on his chin, and he turned his head so she could wipe at the two scratches that ran the length of his face from his temple to his chin. “She’s an indoor cat who’s spoiled rotten and has never had to… ahh, shit! Christ, Emma, that hurts!”

“What’s happening?” Nathan said.

“That deranged cat scratched the hell out of my face,” Lucas said as he dodged Emma’s hand, “and now Emma’s trying to make it worse.”

“I am not,” Emma said. “You need the scratches cleaned.”

“No thanks,” Lucas said, whipping his head back and forth like a little kid avoiding foul-tasting medication. “It’ll be fine.”

“Emma’s right,” Nathan said. “Let her clean it, so it doesn’t get infected.”

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