Last Licks

Sunny nodded. With a name like Sonata, it hadn’t always been easy when she was younger. Kids are the ultimate conformists, and anything even a little bit different tended to get picked on. But she’d come through reasonably all right. It’s too bad I lost Mom just when I was finally getting comfortable with the name, she thought. She’d thank her for it now.

“So she knew your friend Gardner, too, huh?” Sunny said. “You know, there’s a fourth reason for people to hang around in front of a band—groupies.”

“I think that’s why Gardner got into music,” Mike told her. “I had to give him a poke in the snoot when he started sniffing around your mother while she was going out with me. It’s definitely what broke up the band.”

“Dad!” Sunny couldn’t believe what he was saying.

But Mike merely nodded and gave her a shamefaced grin. “I’d forgotten about all that when I saw him today. It was almost fifty years ago, for the love of mud. I’d just hear about him in passing. Seemed as if he was always going off places, sometimes for years at a time. Mexico, Nepal . . . I suppose he could tell you some stories.”

“Well, at least you seemed friendly enough now,” Sunny said. “I guess the two of you have gotten older and wiser.”

Mike just shrugged. “Older, at least.”

He got in his truck, she got in her SUV, and they both headed home.

*

Shadow had checked

all the rooms in the house—all except one, where the door was closed. So he’d given up for the time being and come back downstairs. He woke from a nap at the rattle of keys in the lock and strolled over to investigate the newcomers. Would it be Sunny—which would be cause for a warm welcome—or the Old One, her father, who would just get a cursory sniff?

It turned out to be both of them. He twined around Sunny’s legs as they headed for the room where the two-legs kept the food.

Shadow’s nose told him that Sunny and the Old One had been in the same place. Some of the smells clinging to them were familiar—they reminded him of scents he’d encountered when he’d been taken to be treated for sickness or hurts. But he also got a whiff of many Old Ones, smells of sickness.

When Sunny knelt to pet him, Shadow detected another scent on her hands. He smelled cat!

For a second, he was disconcerted and nearly pulled away. Instead, he found himself avidly sniffing her fingers as she gently stroked through his fur. Sunny made happy sounds and spoke to the Old One, who grumbled in reply. His rumbling only got louder when Shadow approached to sniff at him, too, though he quickly returned to Sunny when he didn’t find the interesting cat scent on the other human.

Even when Sunny stopped playing with him and began preparing a meal, Shadow stayed close, breathing in the dissipating scent. Definitely a She. Strange. He’d smelled plenty of cats in his wanderings. What made the scent of this female so interesting?

*

Shadow acted a bit oddly during supper, climbing several times into Sunny’s lap to sniff at her hands.

“You did wash ’em before you touched the food, right?” Mike asked.

“Dad!” Sunny gave him a look.

“Well, the furball keeps checking them out. And you said it was a female cat you were petting.” Mike’s bright blue eyes fixed Shadow with a dubious stare. “Are you sure he’s been, like, fixed?”

“It was one of the first things Jane Rigsdale checked when she became his vet,” Sunny assured her dad. “I don’t exactly think Shadow could fake that.”

“All right, all right, just asking.” Mike switched the topic. “I’m glad we invited Helena over. Be nice to see her.”

Sunny knew her dad had been missing his lady friend, who’d been out of town over the weekend visiting her daughter in Boston. And, of course, Sunny knew Mike had an ulterior motive. Helena Martinson was sure to bring her award-winning coffee cake. “You’re just glad to have some dessert tonight,” she scolded. “Don’t go crazy on the cake.”

Mike raised his hands in mock surrender. “Okay, okay. The food police have spoken.”

“Speaking of police, I invited Will over, too,” Sunny tried to sound casual. That date for pancakes had never materialized over the weekend. Will had been preempted for something on Saturday morning, and he stayed out of touch on Sunday. Since he’d switched to the day shift this week, she’d invited him over tonight. “Don’t worry,” Sunny assured Mike. “If there’s not enough coffee cake to go around, he can share my piece.”

That sort of mirrored her problem with Will. Just like the coffee cake, there weren’t enough available males to be found in a small town like Kittery Harbor. Sunny should be glad to be seeing a guy like Will. But she wondered if it wasn’t getting a bit . . . well, dull. Pancake breakfasts, coffee cake. It didn’t sound like a healthy diet, for the body or for the soul.