Nat continued yapping at her as she made her way into the kitchen and poured a saucer of milk for him.
“Were you a cat most of the night?”she asked him, and he meowed.
“I think we should figure out a way of communicating,” she said.“What if you growl when it’s no and meow for yes?”
Nathaniel sat back on his haunches and glared at her.
Thea threw her hands up in the air.
“What do you want from me?”she asked.“I’ve never tried to communicate with a cat before.What about that exactly is unacceptable?”
He let out a purr that was so low, it felt threatening.
“Fine, I won’t try to communicate with you,” she said, unable to hide her grin.
Ginger sauntered over, making her way into the kitchen and letting out a pleased purr when she saw Nathaniel, who backed away from her and the milk.
Thea could hardly hide her smile.
“You two are gonna have to learn to get along,” she said, “until we can figure this out.”
Nathaniel growled.
“Oh, now you want to use my method?”she teased him.“You look tired.”How she could tell that a cat looked tired, she wasn’t entirely sure—but nevertheless, he did.“You go take a nap.I’ll get my work done and see if I can send a message to Guinevere.Beatrice said we should talk to her.”
Nathaniel continued grumbling, but he made his way to the fireplace and settled down in his favorite chair.It should’ve been a sign that he was Nathaniel when the cat chose to sit in his favorite chair every time—but in Thea’s defense, she had hardly expected him to show up in cat form in the beginning.
The door opened, and Conrad appeared, settling in at the corner table with a hat pulled over his head.
“Attempting to disguise yourself again?”Thea asked as she walked his drink over to him.
He handed her two coins instead of one.“Thank you for bringing it,” he said.“Yes, I’m hiding.Those two girls won’t stop trying to follow me.I thought maybe after everything that happened with Dietrich and Ella, they would move on.But it apparently only made them more desperate, because I can’t get them to leave me alone.”
“I’m very sorry,” Thea said, patting him on the shoulder as she went back to the kitchen to pull the muffins out of the oven.They smelled like they were just about done.
Poor Conrad needed to find a girl that wasn’t chasing after him.
“I hope you’re happy that he’s back,” Thea told Ginger, who was looking between the saucer of milk on the floor and Nathaniel, unable to choose which one she wanted.“Drink the milk.Let him sleep.”
Nathaniel had said Ginger could understand her—but if Ginger had been able to listen to her all along, she certainly didn’t listen to instruction.
Perhaps that was a cat thing.
The sun was high in the sky when the bell rang and Guinevere appeared in the doorway, a mischievous smirk on her face and a bulky bag on her hip.
“Hello,” she called as she came around the counter.“Beatrice said you might need some help.”
There was something in her eyes that gleamed differently than someone who had only heard that her help was needed, though.Thea narrowed her eyes.
“Did you know before?”she asked.
“Maybe,” Guinevere admitted, “but I didn’t know how to bring it up to you.”
“You didn’t think it would be nice to know?”Thea whispered, looking over at Nat, still peacefully sleeping.He must have had a very long night.
“What was I supposed to say?”Guinevere asked, just as quietly.“‘Hello, the man that you love to hate was just turned into a cat outside your front door, what would you like me to do about this?’”
“I...can see why that might be a hard sell,” Thea admitted.“But I still wish you’d told me.”
