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Not even the sweetness of my dessert could mask the bitterness of what I realized had to happen next. I pushed my long-handled spoon as far down as it would go in the soda shop style glass and heaved a giant sigh.

“I’ll tell Octo-Cat I can’t take him to see Grizabella. He won’t be happy, but I can take him another time. Soon, even. It’s just that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I refuse to let it slip by. I might never meet my bio grandma otherwise.”

Charles sucked air through his teeth, then regarded me with a frown.“You can’t change your travel plans. It’s too last minute for that. And I know you don’t want to deal with how cranky Octo-Cat will be for the rest of his nine lives if you do.”

I pressed my back against the firm vinyl of the booth. Charles was right, as always. There would be hefty penalties to pay for disappointing Octo-Cat, but I just couldn’t see any way around it. “What choice do I have, though?” I asked.

“You go as planned. I’ll work on things here.” With that, he pulled my sundae to his side of the table and stole one of the cherries from the top.

“You can’t talk to them,” I pointed out, leaning over the table to reclaim my sundae and popping the remaining cherry into my mouth.

Charles smiled.“You use FaceTime with Octo-Cat, right? Can’t we use it for the seagulls, too?”

“But what about your caseload? You’ve been so busy lately. I’d hate to add another thing when—”

“Angie, relax. It’s okay. I want to help. Besides, my girlfriend is going out of town for the week. I’ll need something to keep me busy on my off hours. Might as well be this.” He shrugged and took a slow sip of coffee.

I waited for him to set the mug back onto the table.“Are you sure?”

He reached forward and grabbed both my hands, then wedged his fingers between mine.“Completely. You need this trip, and so does your cat. Besides, I already have a few case precedents in mind that should make winning this thing a cinch.

“You’re too good to me,” I said with a happy sigh. Especially considering he seemed to be quite afraid of the flock, but I didn’t mention that part aloud.

“It’s no big deal. They said they have ten days, and you’ll be back by then. We can deliver the big case together.”

“Sounds perfect.” And it did.

Charles’s features pinched as he leaned back against the red and white vinyl booth. “There’s just one part I’m not sure about. They mentioned that Flock 83 disappeared, but they never said why or where they went.”

I spooned a massive heap of hot fudge into my mouth and moaned with pleasure.“They’re birds. Birds migrate. I’m sure it’s no big deal.”

Charles bit his lip and nodded.“Probably not. Still, I might feel better if I knew for sure. It could help the case, too.”

“I don’t know much about that, but I bet if you could get Bravo to talk to you alone without Alpha there, he’ll be more forthcoming.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Now tell me about what you did today before the run-in with those birds.”

We laughed and chatted until I scraped the last smudge of gooey sweetness from my sundae. It was far shorter than I would have liked, but we both had big days ahead of us tomorrow.

Charles stood and extended a hand to me to help me out of the booth.“I’m going to miss you so much,” he said before giving me a goodbye kiss that would need to last almost a full week.

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Despite leaving early that morning with my human-do list, I arrived home after Paisley’s self-prescribed bedtime of eight o’clock. The little dog, who lay snoozing by the front door, lifted her head groggily and thumped her tail against the hardwood floor.

“Are you home now, Mommy? I couldn’t sleep without knowing you’d made it back safe and sound.”

I set my bags on the floor and then scooped her into my arms and gave her a kiss on her forehead.“I’m home, sweetie. Go get some sleep.”

She licked my hands as I bent to set her back down, then raced upstairs to find Nan, her little tail swinging back and forth the entire time.

I could always count on our Chihuahua for a warm welcome. Octo-Cat, on the other hand, did not look pleased to see me.

“Took you long enough,” he spat from his perch about halfway up the staircase. “Did you at least get everything on my list?”

“Other than the stuff Nan picked up, yeah. You’re welcome, by the way.”

“Stuff,” he said with a yawn. “I don’t like you calling my things that.”

He’d demanded everything from a specific brand of shrimp cocktail to that infuriating audiobook. I didn’t know what else to call that odd grouping other than “stuff.”

“Why are you so late?” he asked, running up the stairs in front of me as I trudged slowly after him.

“Something came up. Something with seagulls,” I muttered, really not wanting to get into all that right now.

Octo-Cat arched his back and had the audacity to hiss at me.“You’re not backing out on me. Are you? Because that is the lamest excuse you’ve come up with yet.”

Oh, if only he knew how close I’d been to packing it in. He was lucky I loved him so much and that Charles loved me so much.