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“I’m so glad I found you,” I whispered, not wanting to let go.

“Thank you for not giving up on me. I can’t have made it easy.”

“Actually, when you have a moment, I’d like to teach you about social media safety. That way, the next time you want to hide from someone, you don’t make the same silly mistake.” I explained how I’d determined she wasn’t really out of town, and together we shared a great big belly laugh.

We sat at that rickety patio set for hours, sharing stories of our lives, telling her about what Charles and I hoped for with our wedding, and of course, remembering all the weird and wonderful animals who had enriched our lives along the way.

“Do you promise you’ll come back tomorrow?” my grandma asked after we all shared a delicious dinner of grilled chicken and vegetables.

“You couldn’t keep her away if you tried,” Charles promised, pulling me into his side as we both stood.

“I know that,” Grandma Marilyn said. “I already tried and failed.”

We all laughed again and said goodnight. This didn’t feel like a first meeting. It felt like coming home.

Like family.

17

Charles and I returned to the bed and breakfast well after dinnertime, both with huge smiles on our faces.

“What a day,” he said.

“Yeah,” I said back. It was all either of us needed to express. Our time with my grandmother had said it all.

“I liked Grandma Lyn,” Paisley said as I lifted her into my arms and climbed out of the car.

“She reminded me of Ethel,” Octo-Cat remarked, drawing Paisley’s and my eyes to him.

I didn’t say anything because we were no longer in the privacy of the car, and Millicent had already proven she wasn’t above spying.

“Hang on a sec,” I told Charles and waited.

Luckily, Octo-Cat didn’t hesitate to continue. “What?” he asked, stretching in the backseat while we all waited on him. “She’s a nice, old lady. A nice, old, relatively normal lady. Also, she had tea.”

“I don’t know why I was expecting something more profound,” I murmured to myself.

Paisley squirmed within my arms.“What about thepound?”

I patted her head.“Everything is perfectly fine. Let’s head back to our room,” I said while looking at Charles, just in case Millicent was watching.

The gravel crunched at the edge of the lot as another car pulled in. And not just any car—a police car.

“I smell trouble,” Octo-Cat said with a grin, hopping out of the car and craning his neck to see better while hiding behind my legs. Always hungry for someone else’s drama, that one.

Millicent spilled forth from the entryway, waving her arms overhead.“Officer, officer! This is them!” It looked as if she’d taken great care with her appearance, considering the obscene amount of both makeup and jewelry she now wore. She’d been expecting us.

The policeman unfurled himself from the driver’s seat, reaching an impressive height, close to seven feet, if I had to guess. He tucked his thumbs into his belt loop and approached me and Charles.

Paisley shook and squirmed, not because she was frightened but simply because she was eager to say hello to the new arrival.

Clearly a dog person, the cop reached over and scratched under her chin with his thick fingers, then pulled back and glared down at Charles.“You been giving Mrs. Strobel trouble?”

“No, sir,” he said, standing in place, far more calm and collected than I could ever be in this type of situation.

“Are you kidding me?” I boomed.

Millicent ran in front of us, shouting,“Yes! Yes, they have! Then they refused to leave when I asked them to. That’s why I’d like you to escort them from the property!”

The officer glanced at each of us in turn, finally deciding on Charles as the most rational one among us.“Would you like to tell me what happened here today?” he asked, pulling out a notebook that looked comically small in his oversized hands.

Charles didn’t miss a beat. “My fianc?e’s engagement ring went missing,” he explained, taking care not to talk with his hands the way he usually did. “We reported it to Mrs. Strobel immediately upon discovering its absence last night.”

The officer bobbed his head.“And then?”

“This afternoon, we returned from meeting a friend when Mrs. Strobel met us outside the bed-and-breakfast, demanding to know where we had gone and whether we’d engaged in any illegal activity. She then accused us of stealing the ring, not realizing that we were the same ones who’d reported itmissing. When we pointed this out, she accused us of implicating her establishment in a planned insurance fraud, which I can assure you is not accurate.”

The officer raised one eyebrow.“Then?”

“Then she demanded we leave. Naturally, since we had booked our reservation for two nights, we didn’t see any reason to check out before said duration. Also, my fianc?e was not eager to leave before we could find her missing engagement ring.”

“Uh-huh. Then?” He glanced sidelong at Millicent, who stood openly scowling at Charles.