Page 24 of Goalie Interference

Once inside the gate, I took the right turn and saw a Honda in front of the carriage house. There were lights inside the workshop, so there was a good chance it was Sophie’s car. Once the engine was off, I braced myself for the sound of Beast barking.

Silence, broken only by crickets and the faraway rumble of traffic. I got out and knocked softly on the door of her shop. She opened the door just a sliver and waved me in, shutting the door behind me.

I kept my voice low, since she seemed worried about the quiet. “Beast was barking?”

“Yeah. But I found the culprit.” She nodded her head and I saw a scrawny tortoiseshell cat sitting on one of the workbenches, glaring at us, tail twitching. I’d give good odds that this was the thing that had been making those inhuman noises when I got here yesterday. “Meet Goober.”

“So that’s the cat?”

“Cat or demon in feline form, it’s kind of a toss-up. She was in the bathroom making that noise when you picked up Beast yesterday.” Sophie held up her hand, a long red line across the back. “She gave me this when I pulled her away from your dog. Just now, she was sitting at the door to your apartment. That’s why he was barking.”

The cat lifted a paw and licked it elegantly.

I relaxed, since Beast hadn’t been barking out of boredom. “Beast isn’t good with other animals. He was a stray, and his first response to anything new is to attack.”

Sophie turned to the cat. “Not sure what Goober’s story is, but she does the same.”

If they’d been people, they might have bonded over their shared trauma. Instead, they were driving each other crazy. “Sorry about the disturbance.”

“I’m pretty sure this was the cat’s fault. Since I dragged her away, it’s been quiet upstairs.” Her brows furrowed. “I hope I didn’t interrupt anything. I thought you’d want to know your dog was upset.”

“No. I mean yes. I mean, no, you didn’t disturb me, and yes, I wanted to know.”

“Do you have a camera for him?”

“A camera?”

“You can set it up in your apartment and connect it to your phone, so you can check on him when you’re not there. We had to get some for Goober because things were getting messed up at the house.”

Goober lifted her head and stared at us. I’d heard the expression about the cat with the cream, but this was the first time I was seeing it with an actual cat. While I was relieved to know that Beast wasn’t disturbing people constantly while I was gone, if this animal wanted to upset my dog, she’d figure out a way.

“That sounds smart. I’ll look up something. I’ve only had him for a few months, and he was with me at the cottage all summer. We’re working out how to handle regular life now.”

“You don’t have someone else to take care of him?”

I was about to explain about the doggy day care when I realized what she meant. Did I have a partner coming. “Ah, no. Just me.”

She looked down, cheeks flushed. Was I going to be kicked out because she was worried about her cat upsetting Beast? Maybe if she understood more about the dog and what he’d been through.

“I found Beast when I was on holiday, and I didn’t think about details like taking care of him during the season. He…he was in really bad shape, and if I’d left him there, he’d have been put down. I spend the offseason at a cottage in western Ontario, so I brought him back there with me and he got a lot better. I wasn’t sure I was playing this season, so it didn’t seem like having him around would be an issue.”

Sophie shifted. “You do have a plan though, right?”

“I found, well, the team found a dog day care. They can board him when I’m traveling, and I can drop him off for practices and games. I was hoping he’d be okay in the apartment for shorter outings. I’ll get the camera, so I can make sure he doesn’t cause trouble when I leave him here. And I’ll board him at the dog care if I’m away more than a couple of hours.”

“Tonight Goober was the problem, not your dog. But Goober is used to having the run of the place, and she’s not happy indoors.”

“You didn’t want to have a dog here.” It was her brother’s place—all signs were that she hadn’t had a say in it. But shouldn’t her brother have talked to her? If she was used to being here on her own, to suddenly have Beast and me landing above her shop wouldn’t have been fun. “I can look around for somewhere else to stay.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to make more trouble for you. I’ve known Ollie a long time, and I know that your life is busy during the season. We just have to cooperate to make this work.”

It sounded like things had been working just fine before Beast and I showed up. “I’m sorry to have put you out.”

“Not either of our faults. Why don’t we give it a try? You might want a place that’s a little more central once you get to know the city, but you have this for now until you figure out what you want.”

I wasn’t the kind of guy who wanted to be somewhere central. I spent the summers at a remote cottage. And I liked it here. I liked the space and the quiet and I liked my downstairs neighbor. Surely if the team owner had been involved in my housing issue, Otts would know. And Sophie had a car outside—maybe she lived in a more central place.

I comforted myself with those thoughts as I reluctantly said good night and headed up to see Beast. I didn’t want to leave, so maybe I was grasping at straws.

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