Last Licks

Sunny sighed. “All right.” She picked up the cat, who snuggled in her arms, butting her head against Sunny’s shoulder to demand more head scratching.

Another outfit that will have cat fur all over it. Sunny smiled at the rueful thought. And one of my nicer summer outfits, too.

Still, she did her best to comfort Portia, who finally lay bonelessly in her arms, purring.

Rafe laughed when he returned with Will. “She’s shameless.”

“Which one?” Will asked, shaking his head. “Sunny or the cat?”

He watched with an exasperated smile as Sunny transferred Portia into Rafe’s arms.

“Are we going to go to Ollie’s room?” she asked.

“Sure,” he replied, folding the photocopies in his hand into thirds to fit in his back pocket. “Unless you intend to find another cat to play with. It seems to be turning into a habit for you these days.”

“Hey, come on, Portia was upset. She’s sensitive to things.”

Will rolled his eyes. “She certainly picked up on who was likely to be the soft touch around here.”

As they walked down the hallway to the nurses’ station, they encountered Luke Daconto carrying his guitar case. “Sunny!” He smiled, then grew a little serious. “If you’ve got the time, do you think you could bring Mr. Barnstable to our little sing-along today? I can tell he’s still upset about what happened to Mr. Scatterwell, and, well, maybe we could cheer him up.”

Will just shrugged. “Anything to get Ollie into a better mood,” he said.

“Okay,” Sunny told Luke. “Just give us a few minutes to chat with him first.”

I guess it’s my lot in life, helping out upset creatures—cats, bosses, whatever, she thought.

They arrived in Room 114 to find Ollie sitting in his wheelchair—and nursing a bad mood.

“Are you having pain in your leg from sitting too long?” Sunny gave him a worried glance.

“I’m suffering from a pain in the butt named Stan Orton,” Ollie growled.

“I figured you’d be looking into him.” Sunny shot a See? I was right! glance at Will.

“I found out that he snookered me on that real estate contract.” Ollie sounded really annoyed with himself. “No wonder he kept pushing me to seal the deal. He didn’t own that parcel of land, he only had an option on it, and it was due to expire. If I had known and waited, I could’ve dealt with the real owner and gotten what I wanted for chump change.”

He shifted in his chair with a deep groan. Sunny wasn’t sure if the pain came from his leg or his wallet. “Instead, I just found out that I paid that creep Orton eight times what he paid for the option.”

“Maybe I have something that will take your mind off that,” Will offered. As he told Ollie of their run-in with Alfred Scatterwell and the games he played, Sunny saw her boss pay more and more attention.

“So we need someone to take a very close look at the guy,” Will concluded.

“Like I did with Orton—even if I left it a little too late!” Ollie scowled, but slowly nodded, his expression showing he was a hundred percent on board with the project.

“And if you find some way to make a profit of your own, well, I wouldn’t mind you skinning that cat.” Will looked over at Sunny, who winced. “If you’ll pardon the expression.”

I’m just amazed at the idea of Ollie using his nasty powers for good, her wisecracking alter ego put in. She changed the subject.

“We bumped into Luke Daconto in the corridor,” she told Ollie. “He was bringing his guitar to that sing-along thing he does, and he specifically asked me to invite you to come. Would you like to go?”

Ollie shrugged his heavy shoulders. “I’m already in the wheelchair, and Judge Judy

is just about over.”

Sunny took command of the chair and wheeled Ollie toward the solarium. Will walked alongside. As they came closer, they heard Luke noodling away on the strings, one of those snatches of songs he did between sing-alongs.

“That’s the intro to ‘California Dreamin’,’” Ollie said, glancing up at Will.

“You really know your music.” This was a side of Ollie that Sunny had never seen before. Luke was happy to see them arrive, his white teeth showing through his beard in a smile.

“Since we have a couple of guys here today, what do you say we go with something more manly?” Luke strummed his way into “Show Me the Way to Go Home,” and Ollie picked it up immediately. His singing voice was deep and surprisingly powerful.

“Let’s take it around again,” Luke said, still strumming. Now everybody in the room was singing, even the lady who Sunny had previously seen just beating the time with her hand. When she heard Will chime in, Sunny smiled.

The song ended to rousing applause. “Good singing,” Luke complimented the group, then looked over at Ollie. “Very good singing, Ollie.”

Ollie grinned a little awkwardly, patting his belly. “Back in the day, they used to tell me I had an opera singer’s diaphragm.”