Page 41 of Reckless Harmony

Molly hissed lightly, and Rayna stared at Stark when he grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand away from Molly’s belly.

“You’re hurting her,” he said.

She shook her hand free and petted Molly gently under the chin. She didn’t purr, and Rayna’s worry grew when the cat laid her head on Stark’s bed and closed her eyes.

“Something’s wrong,” Stark said. “I know it.”

She glanced at him, a little surprised to see the worry on his face. She opened her mouth to say something snarky like, “What do you care? You don’t even like her,” but closed it with a snap when Stark stroked Molly’s side lightly. “You’ll be okay, sweetie.”

Holy shit? Was Stark sincerely worried about the cat?

She swallowed her surprise and said, “I think she has mastitis.”

“That’s an infection, right?”

“Yes.” She stood and pulled her phone from her pocket, checking the time. It was just after eight and she called the vet clinic, quickly explaining the situation to Fatima. She ended the call, and Stark gave her an expectant look.

“If I can get her to the clinic in the next fifteen minutes, Nathan can look at her before his first appointment at nine.”

“We can’t move her from the nest,” he said, looking like he might throw up. “The babies will die.”

Guilt rushed through her. She swallowed hard and said, “Yeah, about that… I kind of, maybe, fibbed a little because I needed a foster home for Molly and the babies. She won’t abandon the babies if we move her or them to a new spot or house or whatever.”

She waited for the familiar muscle tick in his jaw, the one that said he was doing everything in his power not to murder her. To her shock, he grabbed his phone and shoved it into his pocket, giving Molly another worried look.

“I’ll drive.”

“Have the kittens lost weight?” Nathan kept one hand on Molly to prevent her from jumping off the exam table as he studied the kittens in the crate.

Rayna glanced at Stark, who was standing on the other side of the table and gently petting Molly’s face and throat.

He shook his head. “They gained less than normal yesterday but still gained. I haven’t weighed them yet today.”

“Okay, that’s a good sign.” Nathan examined each of the kittens. “The babies look good. She’s keeping them clean and well-fed.”

“She’s very attentive to them.” Stark continued to pet Molly. “She only leaves them for a few minutes at a time.”

He leaned down, and Rayna nearly fell over when he scratched Molly’s cheeks and said in a low voice, “You’re a good mama. Yes, you are.”

Molly chirped at him before butting her head against his chin, and Stark gave Nathan an excited look. “That’s a good sign, right? Her chirping like that? Normally, she does it all the time, and she wasn’t this morning.”

“It’s a good sign,” Nathan said before turning to Rayna. “So, I suspect mastitis, but the good news is only two nipples seem to be affected, and I think we’ve caught it pretty early.”

“You suspect mastitis, or you know that’s what it is,” Stark said.

“I’m confident,” Nathan said. “Rayna, the most cost-effective plan is to send her home with some antibiotics and pain meds. The babies are still nursing, so I’ll go with a safe antibiotic, but even still, it might cause some diarrhea for the babies, so you’ll need to keep a close eye on them. If they do get diarrhea, you may have to bottle feed them for a few days.”

“Okay,” Rayna said. She’d taken this week off to finish last-minute details for the fundraiser on Friday, and bottle-feeding kittens every two hours didn’t exactly fit into her plan. But she had no other neonate fosters available. She would have to hope that the antibiotics didn’t wreak havoc with the babies’ stomachs.

“If you do have to bottle feed, you’ll need to express Molly’s milk manually, so her milk supply doesn’t dry up,” Nathan said.

Rayna made a face. “I didn’t have ‘milking a cat’ on my Bingo card for this week.”

Nathan grinned. “Well, hopefully, you won’t have to.”

“Do you really just diagnose this by looking at her?” Stark frowned at Nathan. “That doesn’t seem safe. What if it’s something else?”

“Stark,” Rayna said, giving him a look. She didn’t care how worried Stark was. She wasn’t about to let him piss off her favourite vet in Harmony Falls. Nathan went above and beyond for the rescue, and she fiercely protected their relationship.

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