“Please come home,” she whispered. “I miss you so much.”
She dozed off and on. Sometime after midnight exhaustion forced her to the bed where she slept fitfully—the balcony doors wide-open to welcome Ramon, should he fly in. She woke up at three and went downstairs to take her shift of patrolling the mostly sleeping teens. As always a few diehards were watching the movies and eating popcorn. They waved at her, then returned their attention to the screen.
The food and, more importantly for the adults, the coffee arrived on time. Jax waited until the teens left and the cleaning crew was working to go up to her apartment and shower as she prepared for another long day. She was supposed to move in with the kids tomorrow and didn’t know what to do about that. She needed to be with them but felt awful about not waiting for Ramon. She knew Gentry and Xander would agree to sleep in the store for a few nights, but if their parrot didn’t come home, they would be sad and upset.
There was no good answer, she thought. In her head she understood she had to get on with her life and be the mother her children needed. But her heart still belonged to Ramon. It always would, even if he was gone forever—something she might have to start to accept.
She went into the store and began that part of her day. Her staff arrived, all of them talking cheerfully and asking about the sleepover. She answered as best she could, faking her way through smiling and laughing when on the inside, she felt sick and empty. No one who was interested in selling him would wait so long to get him listed. She was sure wherever he was, he was being difficult because he was scared and upset. The two of them had been together nearly thirty years. She and the bookstore and her family and friends were all he knew.
If he was somewhere in town he would have been spotted. People had been looking for days and no one had seen him. Which meant whoever had taken him was planning on keepinghim. Or if they had wanted to sell him, something bad had happened and he was either injured or dead.
She told herself not to cry. The tears wouldn’t help Ramon or herself. She had to deal with the ugly truth and figure out how to start mourning the most amazing bird she’d ever—
“Jax! Jax!” one of her employees screamed. “Jax, it’s Ramon!”
She ran through the store, ducking around people, moving as fast as she could, then burst through the open front door and onto the sidewalk. Several people pointed down the street where she saw her big, beautiful parrot walking toward the store, a scraggly orange cat at his side.
“Ramon!” she called. “Ramon!”
He saw her and immediately flew toward her. “Jax!” He landed on her outstretched hand, then hurried to her shoulder and pressed his head against her cheek.
“You’re okay,” she breathed, touching him all over. He was thin but she couldn’t feel any open wounds and his wings seemed intact. “Tell me you’re okay.”
“I love you.”
“Yes, I love you, too, but what happened? You left. You’ve never left me before.” She looked at him. “Ramon, you scared me so much.”
He squawked and flew down to the ground to stand by the skinny cat who was eyeing them all warily.
“I knew when I met you an adventure was going to happen,” he said proudly.
Jax stared at him blankly. “Are you talking about me or the cat?”
“He’s quotingWinnie-the-Pooh,” someone said.
She turned and saw they’d collected a good-sized crowd of customers and employees.
She looked from her parrot to the cat and back. “Is that what this was about? Getting your own cat?” She remembered the debacle that was introducing him to Lucy. “You realized you wanted a friend?”
He flew back to her shoulder and nuzzled her hair. “Stay gold, Ponyboy.”
Everyone laughed.
Cheryl showed up and began shooing everyone away. “All right, that’s enough. Give Ramon and his new friend some room.”
People drifted away. Cheryl offered Jax a quick hug.
“He came home.”
“He did and I’m relieved. Later I’ll be pissed that he left in the first place. He’s never done that before, so there will be a stern talking-to for sure.” She sat on the sidewalk and held out her fingers to the cat. “Hey there. You look hungry. Are you lost or are you a stray?”
The cat didn’t answer—not exactly a surprise. She turned to Ramon. “Does he belong to someone? Did you steal a cat?”
Her parrot gave her a little side-eye. “Breakfast, please.”
“Okay, but then we have to talk about the cat.”
Ramon moved next to his new friend and used his wings to urge him forward, into the store. The cat went slowly, sniffing and turning his head as if checking for danger.
