Carrie smiled as she raised her eyebrows and Poppy giggled. “I have been quite quiet,” she said.
Poppy took Carrie’s hand and led her into the office where Michael was bent down by the box.
“Congratulations, you’re a grandad,” Carrie whispered, looking at the tiny ginger kitten, its eyes tightly closed, which Tabitha was licking.
“Indeed. I’ve just texted Layla to tell her she’s an aunt too.” Michael sounded quite emotional and Carrie squeezed his hand and they grinned at each other.
Just a few minutes later, Tabitha had another ginger kitten, making Michael repeat his suspicions as to its parentage. Half an hour later, they concluded she was done.
“Only two in a litter isn’t unusual for a first-time mother,” Michael said. “It appears we got off lightly.”
Carrie went next door to the coffee shop where she got them all paninis and chocolate brownies as a treat for lunch. She told Lucy the happy news and she made them a couple of coffees and an apple juice on the house.
Tabitha had moved into her basket with her kittens by the time Carrie returned.
They ate their lunch in the office, Carrie perched on the desk, whispering to each other and unable to wipe the smiles from their faces.
Carrie put a note on the shop’s door explaining what was happening and that they’d be closed for longer to give Tabitha some peace. She reopened the shop at 3 p.m. and Michael and Poppy went to take Monty for a walk. Carrie thought it was lovely how Michael was happy to let her little girl tag along with him. She watched them from the shop window as they ambled down the road together towards the beach.
The shop was busy for the next half an hour or so, with plenty of holidaymakers. Carrie was now able to tell almost as soon as they came in the shop door what sort of customer they were. Probably her favourites were the ones who’d travelledspecifically to visit them because they simply loved romance books. They walked almost in awe around the shop, pointing things out to one another (they were usually women, and usually in pairs or threes). They inevitably boughta lotof books, and she loved hearing their happy exclamations when they spotted something special they’d been looking for on the shelves. They, and general tourists who popped in, usually left with one of the postcards her aunt had had printed of the shop front and which were displayed on a little carousel on the counter.
The book dealers who came in were usually very friendly as well, and some had even been coming to the shop for so long that they recognised Carrie from when she used to visit growing up. A lot of these older ones were general booksellers of course, rather than romance specific, but they still always seemed to find some treasures.
The shop had a quiet moment so Carrie went into the office to check on Tabitha. The kittens were feeding and everything looked very peaceful. Carrie considered giving Tabitha a reassuring stroke but wasn’t at all convinced she’d appreciate it. Something caught her eye. She looked in the basket again — there was a third, tiny kitten. It was black with white paws and smaller than the others but very much wriggling around and drinking from its mother.
The bell over the door jingled and she came out of the office as Michael, Poppy and Monty returned. Deciding to keep shtum about the new kitten so she’d witness their surprise, she gave Monty a scratch behind the ears.
“Is Monty coming to hang out with us for a little while?” Carrie asked.
“I was going to take him back to mine, but thought I’d drop Poppy off first,” Michael said.
“Why doesn’t he stay here? He’ll be no trouble,” suggested Carrie. She felt a bit sorry for the poor dog missing out on all the excitement and being left by himself.
“Famous last words,” warned Michael, and let Monty off the lead. The dog sniffed around and made his way to the office door.
“I think he wants to see Tabitha,” said Poppy.
“Why don’t you go in and check on her first?” Carrie said, with a smile. “See if you think she’s ready for visitors.”
Michael called Monty over to him and Poppy went into the office. Almost immediately they heard her little squeal of surprise. “There’s another kitten!”
“What?” said Michael.
“Yep. It seems she wasn’t quite done after all.” Carrie laughed.
Michael put Monty back on the lead and went into the office to see for himself.
Monty was very sweet and gentle with the cat, who seemed happy to show him her kittens.
“The third kitten is very small,” said Michael. “But it seems to be moving around and breathing OK.”
“Yeah, we’d better keep an eye on it,” Carrie worried. “We don’t want it to get pushed around by the others.”
“I’ll make sure the big ones are kind,” said Poppy.
“If it’s OK, I’ll keep them here for a little while until you close and then take them back to my place. Hopefully Tabitha won’t mind being moved then.”
“Sure. We’ll need to move them really carefully though,” said Carrie.
