Page 36 of Ghostlighted (Ghost Townies #2)

“You absolutely have a look. The worst thing Greg could do to you was withhold touch.” He jerked his chin at Ricky. “So I thought Ricky should know how you express affection.”

I goggled at him. “That’s why he took my hand?”

He shrugged one shoulder. “I suspect that was a service he was completely happy to provide. He— Oh!” Avi’s eyes widened and his gaze snapped to the bottom of the yard where the seasonal stream burbled among the rocks. “I think… Yes!”

The cattails along the bank rustled and suddenly Gil emerged.

“Gil!” I started to race toward him, but slowed when I noticed he was carrying something in his mouth. “Crap. Is that a rat? Because we didn’t have any in the house, he decided to go searching for one?”

“Not a rat, Maz. Look closer.”

By that time, Gil was about ten feet away. He uttered a muffled mrrow and dropped his burden.

Which moved.

I jumped backward. “Augh!” But then I heard it. A tiny mew . “You’ve got to be kidding me? A kitten ?”

I crept forward and knelt in the grass. Sure enough, it was a tiny tortoiseshell fluff ball.

Not a newborn. Probably at least five or six weeks old because its ears had already migrated to the top of its head and its— her , most likely, since most torties were female—eyes had already begun to morph from newborn blue to gold.

I held out my hand, and rather than flinching away from it or hissing, she hopped over and rubbed against my fingers. I scooped her up, and she began to purr immediately. “She’s clearly not feral.”

“No.” Avi ran a finger down her spine, and just like with Gil, her fur reacted to him, lifting in his finger’s wake.

“The edge of town is a prime dump site for people trying to get rid of unwanted animals. I expect that’s what happened to her.

It may also be why Gil’s been trying so desperately to get out of the house the last couple of days. He probably heard her.”

“Good job, buddy.” I peered at the kitten’s face. Her eyes were clear. She didn’t seem to be too undernourished or flea-ridden. “You deserve a—” A burst of panic drove through my middle. “Where did he go?”

Avi jerked a thumb at the ginger tail disappearing into the cattails again. “I don’t think he’s done.”

Sure enough, a moment later, Gil returned with another kitten, this one a black-and-white tuxedo. After he dropped this one at my feet, he sat down and shot out one hind leg, settling in to give himself a bath.

“ Now I think he’s done,” Avi said dryly.

“Maz?” Sofia called from the porch, the first time I’d heard her speak since she came home from the hospital. “What do you have there?”

I glared down at Gil. “Don’t you dare move.” I scooped up the other kitten and turned toward the porch. “Gil found a couple of orphans.”

“Oh, pobrecitos. Let me see them.” Sofia rose from her chair. Ricky jumped up immediately to help her down the steps. She gave him a look that was almost up to her old standard. “I am not an invalid, Enrique. I can walk across my own lawn.”

“Yes, Tia,” he said, but stayed by her side as she approached.

“Oh,” she breathed. “Bonito. But they must be so hungry.” The tuxedo kitten squirmed in my grip and she caught him, cradling him against her cheek to the tune of a purr totally out of proportion to his size. “Will you be keeping them?”

I jerked my thumb at Gil, who’d moved on to his front paws. “Despite his little search and rescue adventure, Gil doesn’t like other cats in his territory. Does Ghost have an animal rescue organization?”

“Yes,” Ricky said. “It’s run by?—”

“Let me guess. One of your cousins?”

He just grinned, but Sofia said, “Pfft. We do not need to bother Nayeli about these two. They will have a home here with me.” She turned, the tuxedo kitten burrowed against her neck. “Maz, give that little mariposa to Enrique and take your gatito back home. He deserves a treat.”

Ricky gently detached the tortie kitten’s tiny claws from my T-shirt. “Seems like this one already has a name. Come along, Mariposa.” He paused, then leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Thank you.”

“For foisting two kittens on your godmother?”

“No. For being here. For both of us.”

“Enrique? Hurry, the pequenos need to eat.”

“Coming, Tia.”

With Avi still at my side, I hefted Gil in my arms and flipped him upside down as Ricky and Sofia disappeared into the house. After the door closed behind them, I glared down at Gil. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

He did a slow blink, his front paws curled over his furry chest.

“I’m guessing he just said no promises ,” Avi said.

I sighed. “Probably.” We headed toward my back porch. “Do you think the kittens will help Sofia recover?”

Avi shoved his hands into the pockets of his chinos. “Help, yes. Completely heal? No.”

I snorted as we mounted the steps. “At least she won’t need to worry about Liam’s alleged allergies for another five to ten years, depending on good behavior. And that’s just for the aggravated theft charge. Who knows what they’ll make of the fraud or the assault charge for swapping out her meds?”

We walked inside and I set Gil on his feet. Predictably, the first thing he did was scamper over to his food dishes and stare at me imperiously.

“Hey, it wasn’t my idea for you to go on a three-day wilderness hike. What did you eat all that time?” I clapped a hand over my eyes. “No. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”

His kibble dish was full—maybe overfull, because I couldn’t keep myself from adding to it every evening, even though he hadn’t been there to eat any of it—but I broke out a can of people-tuna. As I was scraping the last bits into his bowl, Avi started to laugh.

I glanced up at him from where I was petting Gil as he chowed down on the chunk white. “What?”

“How long have you been in town, Maz?”

“I don’t… Oh, hey. It’s one month today.”

“And in that month, you’ve been held at gunpoint, gotten front-ended in the world’s shortest car chase, and been instrumental in apprehending two men who’ve been getting away with—in one case, literal—murder for years.

Not incidentally, you’re also responsible for the first official beyond-the-veil communication in the town’s history, Thaddeus Richdale’s obsessive crusade notwithstanding. ”

“Well, damn. I guess that’s true.” I stood, not bothering to brush cat fur off my hands, and shook my head. “Whoever claimed small towns were calm and slow-paced had obviously never been to Ghost.”

Maz, Avi, and the other Ghost townies will return! If you’d like more slightly goofy paranormal mystery in the meantime, check out the Quest Investigations series, beginning with Five Dead Herrings .

If you’re in the mood for more small town coziness, this time of the contemporary romance variety, Summer Kitchen might fill the bill nicely . Hapless would-be chef, ex-rock star, quirky Vermont town—oh, and another ginger cat (because we can never get enough of those!).