I smiled despite myself, reaching into the basket for another shirt to peg on the line.
Then the bouncing stopped and there was a long stretch of silence.
“Do you think it’s stuck?” Alice’s voice sounded higher than usual. Worried.
“I don’t know. Maybe it can’t get down?” That was Audrey, using her big sister voice.
I paused, a damp towel in my hands, and glanced toward the fence line. Through the gaps in the slats, I could see flashes of movement. Both girls were standing on the trampoline now, completely still, staring up at something.
“We should tell Daddy,” Alice said.
“He said not to bother him until breakfast is ready, unless someone’s bleeding.”
“But it might fall!”
What might fall?
I dropped the towel back in the basket and crossed to the fence, standing on my toes to peer over. Sure enough, both girls were craning their necks to look up into one of the giant oaks. About fifteen feet up, pressed against the trunk on a branch that looked way too thin for comfort, was an orange tabby cat.
“Oh no!”
Both girls jumped at the sound of my voice, whipping around to face me, their eyes wide.
“Hi, girls.”
“Hi, Emily!” They said in unison.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, but I heard you talking about the cat.”
“It’s stuck in the tree.” Audrey pointed up at it.
“So I see. Poor thing.”
As if on cue, the cat let out a pitiful yowl.
“Maybe you should tell your dad.”
“He’s cooking.” Audrey’s tone was very serious. “He gets grumpy when we interrupt cooking.”
I bit back a smile. “I see. Well, maybe we should interrupt him anyway. This seems important.”
“I’ll get him!” Alice was already scrambling off the trampoline, running for the house at full speed. “DADDY! DADDY, THERE’S A CAT!”
Audrey stayed put, still staring at up with a worried crease between her brows. “How are we gonna get him down?”
I gave it some thought. “It looks to me like someone might need to climb up and get him.”
“Can you climb trees? I can’t. It’s too scary.”
“I used to when I was little.”
The back door banged open and Cam appeared, still holding a spatula, looking exactly as grumpy as advertised. His hair was messy, like he’d been running his hands through it, and he worea faded t-shirt that had definitely seen better days. The whole package should have been illegal.
Alice was tugging on his hand, pulling him toward the trampoline. “The cat is stuck, Daddy! Way up high!”
His eyes tracked up the tree, then around the yard, landing on me standing at the fence. Something flickered across his face, too quick to read.
“Morning,” I called.
