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“Because this heroic animal needs to be minded for the weekend,” Cal said.
“And there are no spaces at wherever hellcats get minded?” Zeke asked.
Fin stepped up to the desk and put her hand on the top of the carrier. “This was a bad idea. I should find somewhere else for him.”
“Not at all.” Mom to the rescue. That’s what Cal had been banking on when he’d called her to this afternoon’s meeting. She went to the carrier and looked through the grill. “Hello, fur baby.”
Scungy immediately stopped growling. The savior of albatrosses and other endangered creatures opened the carrier door, and everyone but Fin took an involuntary step backwards. Mom put her hand in the cage and let the cat sniff her.
“Fin, this is my mom, Katrice Sherwood.”
“Scungy likes you,” said Fin to Mom.
The only evidence of that was the lack of blood and yawing from the beyond.
Katrice Sherwood closed the cage door and frowned at Cal. “What is this poor darling doing here?”
“He needs to be looked after for the weekend while Fin and I are away.”
Mom turned to Fin. “You’re the new One Night Wife.”
Fin’s face registered a fine brew of WTF. “I’m what?”
“Katrice,” Cal said, and earned a grunt of irritation from Mom.
“You’re Cal’s accomplice,” she amended. She had to press buttons.
Mom put her hand out to shake and Fin took it. “You’re the badass. Savior of albatrosses,” she said.
Mom blinked in surprise. Zeke lost it, folding over the reception desk, consumed with laughter. The damn cat started up that god-awful, raise-the-dead wailing, and Halsey said from the corridor, “That thing in the cage had better not be my birthday present.”
“I like her, Cal,” Mom said, hands to her hips. “You didn’t tell me I’d like her.”
Of course, that oversight would be his fault. And it shouldn’t have mattered. He clapped his hands for attention. “All right, here’s what’s going to happen. Halsey, go back to your office. It’s not your birthday for weeks. Camille, turn the cage to the wall, might flip the evil demon out less if he can’t see us.”
“Don’t call him that,” Fin protested. It wouldn’t be all she’d protest.
“Zeke, clear out. Mom, would you be so kind as to take care of Fin’s cat for the weekend?” He waited for her nod. “Fin, my office and yes, I’ll explain what my mother said.”
Everyone moved at once. Halsey backed away, Z
eke followed. Camille turned the cage around. The demon stopped growling. Fin handed Mom a bag of cat things, and they exchanged a few words about the evil one’s social habits, hygiene requirements, and penchant for hiding under things, and Cal left them to it.
He got to his office a few minutes before Fin.
“It’s a joke,” he said, before she opened her mouth.
“Calling me your accomplice is one thing, but what’s a One Night Wife?”
He shut the door because he didn’t need an audience, and he was pretty sure anyone who could listen in would. Where was a yowling cat when you needed cover? “It’s a term we use.”
“I don’t know whether to feel insulted or deprived?”
“Why would you feel deprived?”
“Because Rory was your last One Night Wife, and I’m pretty sure she got privileges.”
“And by privileges you mean?”
