Page 80 of To Catch a Latte Thick as Thieves

“Well, can’t you find someone to go with you?” Cam asked desperately. “Julia and I were talking, and we thought maybe you could take a friend.”

“Cameron,” Cat groaned in exasperation. Honestly, he could be such an old woman at times. “Don’t you understand? I don’t want to take anyone with me. This is my chance to prove I can take care of myself. Besides I won’t be alone, I’ll have Lucy with me.”

“That puppy? Be serious. If a burglar broke in, she’d probably hold the flashlight for him.” Cam picked up the box she’d finished taping and piled it with the others. “Catherine, you need someone to take care of you.”

“No, I don’t.” She resisted the urge to tape his mouth shut.

“Do you want me to list the reasons?”

“No, I...”

“You’re a lousy judge of character, you’re naïve, gullible, entirely too trusting, and you have a horrible sense of direction.”

“I am not, and I do not,” Cat argued through clenched teeth.

“Was it or was it not you who befriended an ex-con and ended up driving the getaway car when he held up a convenience store?”

“I was sixteen, and he seemed like a nice old man. It could have happened to anyone,” she protested.

“And when we went camping for the weekend, were you or were you not the one who got lost in the woods for six hours while looking for firewood?”

“I was eight, and I was not lost. I just took the scenic route,” she huffed.

“Baloney. You could get lost in your own bathroom.” Cam waved his arms impatiently. “And now you want to drive across the country. You’re giving me an ulcer.”

“Consider it a goodbye present.”

“Not funny.”

Cat took in her brother’s distressed appearance and felt a chuckle bubble to the surface. His sandy brown hair stood on end, his hazel eyes were wide with worry, and his mouth wore the wobbly line of a man who knew he wasn’t going to get his way and didn’t know what to do about it.

Cat’s chuckle burst forth, and she wrapped her brother in an enormous bear hug. Not an easy task as he was twice her size. He’d been her chief tormentor and protector since the day she was born. It broke her heart to leave him, but she knew this was something she had to do.

“Have I ever told you you’re the best big brother a girl could ever have?”

“Yeah, right,” he muttered, hugging her in return. “That’s why you’re leaving.”

“I love you, you know,” she said.

“I love you, too, Sis,” he sighed in defeat.

Cat examined her small Cape-Cod-style house, satisfied that it would pass even the fussiest housekeeper’s inspection. She wanted Sally to feel at home when she arrived, so she left most of her knickknacks out, packing away only the most fragile and sentimental of mementoes.

Despite the nonchalance Cat adopted with her family, she was frightened by the prospect of leaving everything and everyone she’d ever known. Frightened being the understatement of the century. She was freaking out!

But she forced herself to breathe and discovered that with the anxiety, there was also a giddy sense of excitement. To strike out on her own, like a real pioneer, and travel west. Was there any greater adventure to be had? Of course, her covered wagon was a rented van with emergency road service.

Still, she was following the path of millions of settlers before her. If they could do it then, surely, she could handle it now.

Or so she tried to convince her worried family. She’d spent the weekend with her parents at their house on Cape Cod. They weren’t happy. They’d even managed to make Cam’s henpecking seem negligible by comparison.

Tonight she was going to Cam and Julia’s for dinner. She knew it was going to be just as difficult. Flash flood warnings would probably be issued for the outlying area if she began to cry again.

“Come on, Lucy,” she called to her black Standard Poodle puppy, who was gnawing on one of her old sneakers. “We have one more goodbye to make.”

Cameron’s house was across town from Cat’s. A white ranch house, it sat back in the woods secluded from both the road and neighbors. Cat braked the car and hopped out with Lucy in tow. Not bothering to knock, she bounded through their front door.

“Hello. Anybody home?” she called, wandering through the foyer and into the living room.