Now all she needed to do was reconnect with Wren and life would be pretty much perfect.
ChapterSix
On Saturday morning, Sarah drove around the corner and along the main street for the second time in five minutes.The bookstore already had a crowd gathering inside, and she slowed down, searching for a place to park.
“There’s a spot!”Riley pointed at the side of the road, where a small black car was pulling out ahead of them.
“Good eye,” said Sarah, pulling up to the car in front of the empty spot and concentrating on her parallel parking.
“Can we go see the kittens now?”Riley asked, opening the passenger door and climbing out before Sarah had even turned off the car.
“Whoa, wait a minute,” said Sarah.“I have to pay for parking first.”She climbed out of the car and locked it, then stepped up to the parking meter, glancing up at the apartments above the shops that lined the street.She thought it must be nice to work so close to home, but escaping the office for a completely different part of town had its advantages too.
Riley shifted from foot to foot as Sarah glanced at her old Honda’s license plate—why could she never remember it properly?—and concentrated on entering it into the machine and paying for parking.An hour would do.
“Come on, Mom.”
Riley’s was almost whining again, and Sarah shivered.She really hated that sound.But she reminded herself that snapping at her daughter would only start a fight, and instead placed her credit card into the slot to pay.“Don’t worry, there’ll be plenty of cats when we get there.It’s only ten thirty.”
“But I promised Sally I’d be here early.And now we’re late.”
“We aren’t late,” said Sarah, though of course she was half an hour later than she had promised Simon.But that was the problem, wasn’t it?Simon.
She had taken longer than anticipated because she’d tried on four different outfits.The skirts had looked too feminine and carefree—she needed new clothes if she was going to look more distant and uninterested.And the pants… everything but the jeans made her look like she was on her way to work.Which sent the message that she was too unapproachable.Too formal.
Finally, she had settled on a T-shirt with a V neck that showed a bit of cleavage but not much, and the same jeans she had worn to the meeting.Would he remember?Did she care?
She replaced her card in her purse and fished the ticket out of the machine—probably more slowly than necessary, but the girl really needed to learn patience—and then Riley grabbed her hand and nearly pulled Sarah off her feet.
“I said I was coming,” said Sarah, laughing and falling into step beside her daughter.It was nice to see Riley excited about something, she reminded herself.Even if it was a cat, and even if it was a cat Sarah did not want.
The Bookworm by the Bay was even busier than it had appeared from the street.The promise of a sale on books accompanied by the cuteness factor of cats and kittens seemed to be a big draw.Sarah nodded to several people she recognized but didn’t take the time to stop and say hello because Riley was pulling her along to the back of the store where the displays were set up.
A large banner display near the science section read “Pages and Paws—Where stories find readers and cats find homes.”Sarah rolled her eyes at the advertisement, wanting to turn around and avoid the inevitable, but it was too late.Riley had released her hand and was rushing toward her friend Sally.
In an area of the store usually reserved for patrons to sit and read, tables held either a Plexiglas enclosure, brochures and adoption applications, or books about cats and cat care.On a shelf nearby there were products, ranging from mugs to stuffies to book socks and bookmarks, all featuring cats.
Several children, including Sally and Riley, were gathered around the largest enclosure—and there she saw the two fluffy gray kittens, their blue eyes filled with mischief as they wrestled and scampered around the space, pausing for breath and then starting again.
“Look, Mom,” said Riley, waving at her to come closer.“It’s Dot and Dash.”
“I see that,” said Sarah, smiling and edging closer despite her earlier reticence.When she got within a meter of the enclosure, she noticed Simon standing nearby.
“So what percentage are you at now?”
She looked at him, wondering what he was on about.
“With respect to your decision about whether to go forward or not,” he added, reminding her of their earlier conversation.
She looked over at Riley and Sally’s animated faces as they watched the Tumble Twins scurry around the enclosure, tumbling all over each other.
“I suppose I am now at ninety-nine percent,” she said, moving closer so they weren’t yelling across the room at each other.This was, after all, a bookstore, despite the mayhem around them.
“Have you given any further thought to asking for those in particular?”he asked, nodding toward the kittens.
“Well, they’re very cute,” she said, smiling in her daughter’s direction.“And if Sally and Riley each adopt one, it will give the pair some time together as they learn to live in separate houses.”
“So you’d be interested in a co-parenting arrangement of sorts?”asked Simon, his face suddenly serious.“I assure you I’m pretty easy to work with, and I was serious when I offered to help watch Riley some afternoons this summer.”
