31906844db5c02010017a90f3f2ca805

“You’ll have to ask Odelia. But I think you already know the answer.”

“Dammit. I wanted to have a chat with this Ringo. Tie up the case with a neat bow.”

Alec suppressed a smile. Tough to have a chat with a Chihuahua.

Though Ringo would probably love the bow.

Chapter 37

Tex and Marge were the only ones left in the small hospital waiting room. And they weren’t going anywhere. Even though the doctor had said there was nothing they could do there, and Odelia slept peacefully, Marge couldn’t imagine going home, or going to work, while her little girl was laid up in her room. She would have preferred to sit by her side, but after the doctor had left, a nurse had told them it would be a little while before they could go back in there, as they needed to run some tests and take care of some other stuff.

“I don’t get it,” she said, rubbing her arms. “What tests? What stuff? Odelia is sleeping, the doctor told us so himself. What can they possibly be doing to my baby?”

“I’m sure they know what they’re doing,” said Tex, taking her hand and patting it consolingly.

“You’re a doctor, Tex. Can’t you ask them what’s going on?”

“You heard what’s going on. They’re running some tests and they’ll let us know when we can get in there.”

“But what tests?!”

She knew she was acting like a hysteric but frankly she didn’t care. Her only daughter had almost died today and she wasn’t going to be calm and rational for quite some time while she tried to deal with this emergency. She didn’t even care anymore that she’d only escaped death by inches herself, and so had Tex and even Vesta.

“What’s going on, Tex? Do you really think there’s a gang out there trying to kill us?”

“Alec doesn’t seem to think so,” Tex said carefully.

“But my mother does, and look how often she’s been proved right.”

“And how often she’s been proved wrong,” said Tex, still patting her hand.

She jerked it from his grasp.“I don’t understand. Something is happening and it scares me.”

“Everything will be just fine,” said Tex, though he didn’t sound convinced himself. He looked up at the nurse, but she merely passed by, without a message to share this time. “And I’m sure they know perfectly well what they’re doing,” he added.

Marge bit her lower lip. If she kept this up she wouldn’t have a lip left by the time Odelia was allowed to go home. “Remember how beautiful she was?”

Tex immediately knew what she was talking about, for he smiled.“She still is.”

“She is, isn’t she? Our beautiful darling baby girl. Oh, Tex. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to her.”

“Nothing is going to happen to her. She has her guardian angels looking out for her.”

“Do you think that if Max and Dooley hadn’t been there, she would have taken an even nastier fall?”

“I’m sure of it. Somehow—and I don’t know how any of this works—this gift you and Odelia share—and Vesta,” he added grudgingly, “not only gives you the power to communicate with cats, it also seems to have transferred to you certain qualities cats have. Amongst them the whole nine lives thing.”

“You don’t think that’s just a myth?”

“No, actually I don’t. Cats are notoriously hard to kill, and so are you and Odelia.”

“And Mom.”

“And your mom,” he said reluctantly.

Marge smiled.“You don’t really believe we have nine lives, do you?”

“Why not? You can talk to those sweethearts, why not share other traits as well?”

It definitely was a comforting thought.

“Do you think Chase knows?” she asked.

“Knows what? That you can talk to cats? I don’t think so.”

“I forgot he was there for a moment. In Odelia’s room? He was giving me some very strange looks.”

“We can simply ascribe that to your general state of mind. You were very distraught, honey. We all were.”

“True, but maybe it’s time we told him? I told you at a certain point, remember?”

Tex smiled at the memory.“I didn’t believe you at first. I thought you were pulling my leg.”

“Chase will, too. But we still owe it to him to know the truth about this family. Especially if…”

“He and Odelia end up together.”

“Which I’m starting to think they will.”

“I think so, too. He seems really smitten with her.”

“And she with him.”

She was feeling calmer now. Talking things through with her husband always had that effect on her. She looked up into his face.“You know? You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, Tex. And I don’t say this nearly often enough.”

“You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, too, Marge,” he said.

They kissed, and didn’t even hear it when the nurse walked up to them, on those rubber-soled nurse’s sneakers of hers. But when she cleared her throat, and said, “You can go in now,” Marge’s heart jumped. Maybe Tex was right, and things would be just fine.

After all, weren’t they always?

Chapter 38

There was a knock at the door of Odelia’s room and a man poked his head in. He wasn’t a doctor or a nurse but still seemed vaguely familiar to me. When he saw that the couch was covered in cats, he smiled. Immediately I warmed to him. I can never dislike a cat person, and this man obviously was one.