Black Cat and the Accidental Angel (Black Cat Mysteries Book 3) (18 page)

Cindy stroked Angel’s head, then put her fingers under her chin and tilted her face. “Miss Boopkins? Is that your name?”

Black Cat stalked to the door, reached up and scratched. He couldn’t bear to watch Angel recognize that absurd name. His stomach did back flips
. I have to get out of here.

He stepped off the porch and headed across the yard. With each step, a mixture of woodsy scents like moss and pine and the faint odor of Manzanita and wild flowers drifted up from the pine needles. Every time he came out the door, the pleasure of being in the woods was as exhilarating as the first day he woke up in John’s pick-up truck.

I’m not going with her. Now, I have to face life without Angel
… He’d never come into the yard again without remembering their walks through the woods and the vineyard and down by the stream where they first saw the men messing with the dirt in the riverbank. Over yonder lay the woodpile where he’d pouted when he first heard about the kittens. Bile rose in his throat, just thinking about that day.
I need to chew grass. I think I’m going to be sick.

Across the yard, the Emus prowled around their enclosure, thrumming their odd calls and picking at bugs in the fresh straw John spread several days ago. Just beyond the enclosure, stood a stack of soiled straw John raked from the yard. Steam rose from the hay as it dried in the sun.

One of the papa Emus rose from his nest and flapped his stubby wings.
Yark! Yark!
His long neck lunged forward and back.

Several hens scuttled closer to investigate.
What’s going on in there?

Something had upset the papas. Had someone put something in the enclosure that could harm the birds? Better check it out. With Cindy so upset, John wasn’t likely to come out again for a while.

Black Cat’s fur puffed out. He walked stiff-legged toward the enclosure.

Chapter Twenty

B
lack Cat crept closer to the fence and sniffed. What was going on? Was there a snake in the water pan?
He shuddered.
Hope not. Hate snakes
.

A hen rushed toward the fence, tipped her head and planted one huge eye to the wire.

Black Cat stood on his back legs.
Well, will you look at that?
Three of the Emu chicks had hatched! The three spotted chicks struggled to stand amidst broken shells scattered in the nearest nest. Another chick lay on its side, still damp, its body curled, moving its head and stretching its little wings. Several other eggs showed cracks where the babies struggled to break free of their oval prisons.

John! Gotta get John!
Black Cat raced back to the house, scratched at the door and howled.

Cindy opened the door. “What’s the matter, Black Cat? Are you hungry?”

He ran to John and pawed at his leg and then ran back to the door. Aren’t humans supposed to be the most intelligent animals on earth? Black Cat ran back and pawed John’s leg, then raced to the door again.
Why is he so totally clueless when I need to communicate something important? The chicks are hatching!

John stood and sauntered to the door. “I think he wants me to go outside with him.”

Duh! Do ya’ think?

“What’s happening?” Angel left her babies on the blanket and ambled toward Black Cat.

“The chicks are hatching. I’m trying to get John to come and see.” Black Cat reached up toward the doorknob. “He’s as slow as moss growing on the north side of a rock.”

Once outside, with Black Cat in the lead, John picked up the pace and jogged toward the bird enclosure. “Is something wrong at the enclosure?”

Angel trotted along with Cindy close behind. Angel sat beside Black Cat while John unlocked the gate and hurried to inspect the newborn chicks. “Oh, yeah!”

The papa bird stepped aside and allowed John to approach the nests.

The chicks stood about ten inches tall, with spotted heads and covered with striped light
down
.

Black Cat twitched his whiskers, imagining the papa’s walnut-sized brain assessing the situation.
Eh? …red shirt man…good man… Eh? Eggs broken…chicks…leave nest…hungry…leave nest…eat…eat…hurry…must get back to chicks…

The papa bird pecked his way across the yard like he hadn’t eaten for weeks—which he hadn’t!

“Angel. Cindy said the papa sits on the nest the whole eight weeks while the eggs incubate. He doesn’t eat and rarely leaves the nest, drinking only the morning dew he can reach with his long neck. He survives on body fat, built up prior to incubating the eggs. Can you imagine going that long without food?”

“Bet you’re glad you didn’t have to work that hard to be a papa. And, it’s obvious that you haven’t missed any meals either, while I did all the work. At least now, the papa can get back to his life.” Angel craned her neck toward the chicks.

“I’m not fat. I’m portly. There wasn’t exactly a way I could help you carry kittens, was there? As for the papa Emu, according to Cindy, now he has to raise the chicks. They’ll follow him around. That’s how they’ll learn how to eat.”
These guys sure aren’t doing a lot for my ‘father’ image.

“
Huh!
I’m practically raising our kittens on my own, thank you very much. A little help with pottying and bathing your youngsters wouldn’t kill you, would it?”

Black Cat hung his head. “You never asked—”

“Should I
have
to ask?”

The chicks milled around the nest until the papa returned from his initial forage, and then followed him around the yard like the Pied Piper as he demonstrated how to peck through the straw at insects and grain.

Angel looked over at the mama Emus, standing clustered in a corner, looking as if they were engaged in a gossip session. “What about the mamas? Don’t they do
anything
to help? What am I missing here?”

“
Umm.
It’s even worse than you think. The mama may have already taken up with another fellow and laid another clutch of eggs…” Black Cat turned away, not wanting to risk meeting Angel’s eyes.

“Oh, good grief! I can’t listen to this heresy of motherhood another minute.” Angel spun on her heels and turned her back on Black Cat.

Cindy hopped up and down, clutching the wire.

“The other chicks should hatch over the next several days,” John said. He turned on the hose to fill their water containers. “Now, if enough of them hatch, I’ll contact my buyers and we can get the eleven I’ve pre-sold shipped off before the end of the week!” His smile lit up his face. Probably mentally paying bills with the proceeds.

“You have to ship them so soon? Won’t they miss their mamas?” Cindy picked up a stray Emu feather and ran it back and forth across the wire.

John shook his head. “Best to ship them when they’re three to five days old and they can grow up with their new owners. They grow so fast, if I wait more than a few weeks, the airlines won’t take them.”

Angel looked back over her shoulder. “They are kind of cute, aren’t they?” She leaned against Black Cat’s shoulder as the chicks followed their papa around the yard, darting left and right to keep up with him. “I’m not really mad at you, dear.”

Black Cat nodded. “Better look quick. They may be cute now, but within six months, they’ll be five feet tall.”

“Don’t think I’d want to meet up with one of them in the dark!” Angel shivered.

“Angel. Come walk with me,” Black Cat jerked his head toward the vineyard, lifted his hind leg and scratched at his left shoulder. “We need to talk. You’ve been so busy with the kittens, you haven’t had much time for me.”

“I really should get back. Besides, I—” She looked over her shoulder toward the house.

“The kittens are fine. You need the exercise. You’ve hardly left them since they were born. Come on. We’ll go down to the creek.”

“What do you mean, exercise? Are you saying I’ve lost my figure since the kittens were born?”

“Of course not. I love every stripe on your pudgy back… Oh, you know what I mean. But Angel, we have to talk. Tomorrow, that woman is coming…”

They left John and Cindy cooing over the chicks and jogged toward the vineyard. Black Cat’s heart beat double time. He had something on his mind and he didn’t have much time. Angel wouldn’t want to stay out long. Her
person
was coming tomorrow. He had to tell her how much he had come to love her and it wasn’t the easiest thing to say.

They walked in silence between the rows in the vineyard. The plants and wires curled high over their heads. Next year, if John’s luck held and he could avoid bankruptcy, the vines would hang heavy with clumps of fruit, growing fat and purple in the afternoon sun, but today, only small bunches of grapes the size of little green raisins dotted the immature vines.

“You don’t look very happy.” Angel turned to him, her eyes sparkling.

He stopped in his tracks.
Happy?
How could she ask such a thing? Happy that she was leaving tomorrow? Was she so besotted with motherhood, that it blotted everything else from her mind? She certainly didn’t have leaving on
her
mind. But, then, her babies would go with her.

He wouldn’t.

“How can I possibly be happy when I’m losing you?” His heart wrenched. The pressure in his chest was almost more than he could bear.

She glanced around the vineyard and up at the sky. “How can you not be happy? We’re safe in a nice home. Our four babies are healthy and Muffins already has found a good home. John’s chicks have hatched and he’ll ship them soon. Maybe he can pay some bills and stall the foreclosure. Things are working out beautifully. What more could you want?”

Black Cat pulled his whiskers down and laid back his ears. “You failed to mention one teeny, tiny thing. You’re leaving tomorrow.”

“Am I?” She looked up at the puffy clouds floating by. “Oh, look, that one looks like…what do they call them? Mushrooms?” She took off at a trot toward the river.

Black Cat ran to catch up. “Angel. How can you be so unfeeling? Don’t you even care if that woman takes you and the babies away and leaves me behind? I thought you loved me.”

He stopped. The ache in his heart stole his breath away. How could she be so…so…happy? Apparently, she didn’t give a spit and a whistle about him. Perhaps he only imagined they had a relationship. Oh, she’d needed him in the beginning, alright, a healthy stud to contribute to her magnificent offspring, but now that she was going home, it was over.
Maybe that’s just the way it is with lady cats
.

The distance between them grew as she trotted on. Was it symbolic? The distance between them had grown every day since the birth of the kittens, and he hadn’t even noticed.

Chapter Twenty-One

A
wash with sadness, Black Cat turned back toward the house and trudged down the path.

“Aren’t you coming?” Her melodic voice stopped him in his tracks.

He turned.

She sat in a square of sunlight surrounded by dancing shadows filtering through the trees. She looked like an Egyptian statue with her striped toes tucked beneath her curled tail. The sun glinted off her golden head, as though Heaven itself had reached down and declared her an angel.
My Angel
. A lump formed in his throat. He would remember her like this forever, whether he lived for twenty years or only one more day. Wait!
What did she say? Am I coming?

She tilted her head to the side, one ear tipping forward. “Well?”

He raced to her side. “Are you sure? You still want me to come with you?”

“Of course. I said so, didn’t I?” She rubbed against his shoulder and licked his head.

Black Cat’s heart swelled almost to bursting, his breath coming in short gasps. Wonder of wonders.
She loves me!
He drew a breath.
“I’ll be here for as long as you want me. For as long as I’m able. For a lifetime.”

She ducked her head and then raised her eyes to his. “A lifetime is not measured by minutes or hours, but by the quality of its moments, however long it lasts,” she whispered.

What an odd thing to say.
A shiver raced down his spine.

He snuggled against her in the soft grass. His purrs hummed through the pine trees. Black Cat gave Angel’s ear a lick, a declaration of his love and commitment. Oh, if only it
could
last forever, not just until tomorrow morning. “Aren’t you going to miss me even a little when you’re gone?”

Angel tipped up her head in her odd little way, her eyes closed. She looked so peaceful, lying in the grass, as though tomorrow would never come. “What makes you think I’ll be going anywhere tomorrow?”

That peculiar remark, again. What about this situation doesn’t she understand? I don’t belong to Angel’s person. She doesn’t want me. She said so on the phone.