“What was that?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
Her eyes darted around the room, catching on the plant in the corner that had overgrown its pot. I closed the distance between us, tipping her chin up with a finger. “Kitten.”
She groaned like a teenager caught sneaking out. “Fine, I can’t . . . shave my legs anymore, okay? I can’t evenseemy legs anymore.”
The flare in her eyes warned me that there would be hell to pay if I even cracked a smile. “That’s it?”
“That’s it?! Brooks, I’ve officially hit rock bottom. I can’t even handle the basics. I’m hairy, hormonal, and homicidal.”
I bit back a grin, but what struck me harder than the dramatics was the look in her eyes—wide, wild, like she was teetering on the edge of another spiral. Maybe what she needed wasn’t a pen-and-paper solution. Maybe she just needed to get out of her head for a while, to breathe, laugh, remember there was more to her than panic and planning. A distraction, not a strategy.
“C’mon,” I said, settling back on my heels. “Let’s get out of here.”
Her head snapped up. “What? Brooks, I look like a raccoon that lost a fight with a mascara wand.”
“You look perfect,” I replied, already hauling her up from the couch. “And trust me, where we’re going, nobody gives a damn about your mascara or your legs.”
Suspicion narrowed her eyes. “Where are we going?”
I only grinned, grabbing her sandals and tossing them at her feet. “Field trip, kitten. You’ll see.”
The bell over the door dinged as I pushed it open, holding it wide for Dani. Her eyes bounced around the nondescript room with peach and yellow accents, looking at it like it was another dimension, rather than the local cat rescue.
“Wha— You brought me to a cat shelter?”
“I brought you tothecat shelter,” I said around a nod.
Pawsitive Vibes also boasted a café and was tucked into a narrow strip mall about halfway between Rose City and Portland, the kind of place you’d miss entirely if you weren’t looking for it. Inside, the air smelled faintly of cedar chips and hand sanitizer, undercut by the warm musk of too many cats—if there were such a thing—in one place. A long ledge circled the room just below the ceiling, a feline highway where sleek shapes padded from perch to perch.
In the front windows, little hammocks swayed lazily with the weight of napping tabbies, their tails flicking in slow, content arcs.
The rest of the space could best be described as a whiskered wonderland—cat trees erected like totem poles, cubbies stacked along the walls, little tunnels cut into the shelving so the cats could dart in and out like ghosts. Soft cushions and mismatched chairs dotted the floor, clearly meant for the humans who came to sit, sip coffee, and get covered in fur.
And then, there were the three women behind the coffee counter, all of them old enough to be my nana. Carolina had taken to calling them Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather becausethey reminded her of the three fairies from her favorite Disney film.
“There’s our guy,” one of them said, her face breaking into a grin. “Back again so soon?”
“Couldn’t stay away,” I said easily, slipping a check from my back pocket and sliding it across the counter. They didn’t even blink, just smiled, already knowing what it was.
Beside me, Dani gawked. “You . . . come here a lot?”
I shrugged, guiding her deeper inside. A sleek black cat darted across the floor. “When I can.”
“He’s being modest,” the tallest of the three women said. “Brooks is a certified Paws Pal, one of our biggest donors. He also subscribes to our monthly newsletter.”
Dani’s eyes lit up. “Oh, do tell.”
“Uh, maybe later.” I steered her toward the smaller room at the back, the one labeled with a sign that readKitten Kingdom.“Dani, here, is in desperate need of some kitten cuddles, so if you wouldn’t mind excusing us, ladies?”
“Have fun, you two.”
Dani froze on the threshold, peeking through the glass. On the other side of the door, half a dozen kittens lounged across beanbags and perches, stretching lazily in the sunbeams.
“You brought me to cuddle kittens?” she asked, dazed.
“Damn right I did.” I gave her a little push inside, watching her shoulders finally loosen as a ginger tabby padded straight up and pressed against her leg. “Told you I’d make you feel better.”
