Accidentally Catty (12 page)

Whirling back around, Wanda set Paulie on the floor with a kiss to the top of his head and extended her hand to Teeny, a wide, warm smile on her face. “I’m Wanda Schwartz Jefferson. So lovely to meet you.”

Teeny’s eyebrow rose over the rim of her cup before she set it down and took Wanda’s hand. “You all friends of Katie’s from the city?”

“Yes!” Marty and Wanda chimed in unison.

“Friends. We’re all friends,” Wanda agreed with a vigorous nod of her head. “Definitely, definitely friends—from the, uh, city.”

Teeny nodded, chucking Muffin under the chin while she cast a scathing eyeball to Wanda’s heels. “I should’ve known. The way you all dress like you’re goin’ to church and here it is only
Tuesday
.”

“So she obviously hasn’t met Nina?” Marty quipped with a grin.

Beck chuckled low, taking another sip of his coffee while he let this charade play out in the hands of the women who’d suddenly taken over his life.

Katie almost chuckled, too, until she realized, Nina was sleeping in the upstairs bedroom’s walk-in closet. Shit. “Where’s Casey?”

“There’s more of ’em?” Teeny asked.

“Just two,” Wanda informed her, holding up her fingers. “Nina and Casey are still sleeping. Must’ve been all that fresh air—knocked them right out. We were all so excited about Beck’s new job, we decided to make a day of it by getting out of the city and seeing some real fall foliage. It really is pretty here,” she remarked. “And your house is fabulous. Thank you so much for your hospitality.”

Katie held her breath. Teeny, suspicious by nature and clearly not as enamored of Wanda and Marty as she was of Beck and his wrinkle-free body, pushed away from the table with a grunt. “Didn’t know I was bein’ hospitable to begin with, but any friends of Katie are always welcome to hang their hats on my hook. I don’t know what you girls have planned for the day, but I got some plantin’ to do. Gotta go get my teeth.” She clapped Beck on the shoulder and winked. “Lunchtime’s noon. Save your appetite. I cook.”

Teeny shuffled off to her bedroom to the collective releasing of pent-up air.

Beck leaned back in his chair, crossing his ankle over his leg, giving Marty an amused look. “Speedos?
Spee-dos
?”

She threw her hands up in the air in apology. “I know. I know. All I could think of was your mention of
Project Runway
last night, and I made the leap from clothing designers to Speedos. I’m sorry—it just popped out of my mouth.”

Katie glanced at the two women and Ingrid. “Thank you. I was mulling over what to tell Aunt Teeny for most of last night.”

“And another thing,” Beck interrupted. “Beckham, Ingrid? Like David Beckham?”

Ingrid grinned. “It was the first thing that came to mind and it beats Spanky. I like it.”

“Hands down, it beats Spanky,” he agreed, his approval making Ingrid preen.

“You know the name David Beckham, but you can’t remember your own? Why do you suppose that is?” Katie asked, a peevish tone to her voice. Petey and Paulie heard her tone of voice, usually reserved for asking them what they were doing digging in the trash, and cocked their heads in her direction. Blissfully, they were as silent as Muffin.

Beck shrugged. “I guess I know David Beckham’s name in the same way I knew
Project Runway
and how to button my shirt. I just did. So I’ll thank you to keep your skepticism to yourself, Katie Woods. Nina told you I had no memories in my head. Are you calling the scariest woman alive a liar? Were I you, I’d retract that statement instantly. My impression is she’s killed for less.”

“She’s killed for just a nibble on a Twinkie,” Casey said on a giggle, slipping down the stairs and heading toward the coffeepot Katie pointed to.

“The hell you say,” Nina said gruff and bleary-eyed. She had a white stripe of zinc oxide over her nose and she’d wrapped a hoodie over her head. The sunglasses she wore hid her eyes, but Katie knew what lay behind them. “Who called me a liar? I’m damned tired, people. Don’t make me take it out on you by way of my fist down your throat.”

Ingrid’s fear of Nina took hold once more as she inched her chair closer to Beck’s. “Shouldn’t you still be asleep? It’s only nine in the morning . . .” Her face went from flushed to ashen. Her hands shook when they twisted the fabric of her miniskirt. “Omigod—will you turn to dust? Like right here in the kitchen?” That familiar tremble from last night in Ingrid’s lower lip returned.

Nina let her head fall back on her shoulders to show her irritation. “Listen, lamebrain, if you’d paid attention last night, you’d know I can tolerate some sunlight with the proper protection. I don’t like it, but it’s doable, and if I had to spend one more second smelling all that girly soap and perfume up there in that closet, surrounded by all that lace, I was going to gak my cookies up. So I’m awake. Appease me.” Beck rose to offer her a chair, but she waved him off and instead sunk down to the floor where Dozer lay, placing a hand on his rib cage to give him a scratch. Petey and Paulie, usually cautious around strangers, hovered at her hip.

Dozer stretched leisurely, letting her give him a good rubdown, moaning his appreciation while Muffin curled into her slim hip. “So what’s on tap today, people? Did Felix the Cat remember anything, or are we still in the same fucking place we were last night?”

Beck leaned down, letting his eyes rove over Nina’s face with leisurely arrogance. “Felix has a name now, thank you very much. You may refer to me as Beck. I’ll thank you kindly to remember that and no,
he
didn’t remember anything. But it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying. I pondered this—this shapeshifting thing and the idea I created this feline havoc all night long while I was in a bed clearly made for one of the seven dwarves. I don’t want to look the proverbial gift cougar in the mouth, but I believe the pink-and-purple ruffled spread prevented any clearing of the haze my thoughts are muddled by.”

Katie winced. She’d put him in the room she’d once slept in as a child when she visited her aunt Teeny during the summers. A deep snort almost spewed from her throat at the visual of his long, lean body crammed into her bed with the pink-and-purple canopy.

Nina rolled her tongue along the inside of her cheek while she scooped both Petey and Paulie into her lap. “Oooo, look at you all cagey and full of fire this A.M. Which would be hot if it wasn’t for the fact that nobody’s allowed to be cockier than me this early in the morning. So let’s get one thing straight, pussycat. I’m fucking tired. I slept in a walk-in closet that smelled like the perfume counter at Macy’s all in the name of some peace. I need to feed soon. Add to that, I don’t like people—especially new people like A River Runs Through It and you, Chicken Little.” She nodded her head in Ingrid’s direction. “Being with all of you for the last twelve hours has been like some kind of ‘new people’ intervention by force. It makes me cranky. So can the cocky. Nobody gives me permission to do anything.” She followed up her statement by reaching up and flicking his flannel collar.

“So sayeth Nina,” Beck taunted out of the side of his mouth, stooping to run a tanned hand over Muffin’s head and chuck Dozer under the chin as though he were letting Nina know she couldn’t intimidate him.

Wow. She was right. He
was
hot. And not afraid of Nina. Hotter still.

Casey’s giggle was light as a breeze. “I think he just told you to shut it, Nina.”

Wanda was instantly between them, scooting the dogs off her lap and hauling Nina up with a yank to her long arm. “C’mon, bruiser. We have errands to run if we’re going to be in town for a few days, and you’re helping while Marty and Casey get in touch with Darnell.”

Nina let her head fall back on her shoulders with a whining grunt. “Fuck you, Wanda. I don’t want to run errands. I want to go home to my man and feed, not hang out in the town called Deliverance while banjos
da-da-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding
in the background.”

Wanda pinched her cheek and grinned. “Aw, then how unfortunate to be you today, Princess. You can’t go home to someone who isn’t there. Heath called me this morning from Pebble Beach. Hollis is with Keegan and Mara and Naomi are babysitting while the boys are on an impromptu ‘the girls have stuck their noses into another mess’ trip. He said they decided while we quote, unquote, save the noob paranormal, they might as well amuse themselves. But don’t you fret your unforgiving tongue about blood, either. Darnell’s bringing you enough to last a week. Now come. Put your best scary face on, Sunshine. You know you want to. I’ll need someone to frighten off the unfriendly locals with just one grunt so I can shop in peace.”

“Enough blood for a week? A flippin’ week?” Nina griped, frowning.

Wanda cocked an eyebrow in reprimand at her as she gathered her purse, letting it slide to the crook of her arm. “It’ll be for as long as I say it will. Now shut it and march.” She pointed a finger at the back door with the colorful stained glass window.

Nina stomped out the door Beck obligingly held open for her with his self-assured smile. “Allow me, Nina,” he cooed.

She flipped her middle finger over her shoulder at him as she slunk down the front porch steps, each heavy fall of her feet ringing with her discontent.

“Wanda, wait.” Katie jumped up, putting her hand on her arm. “I’ve taken enough of your time as it is. I can’t ask you to leave your lives for me.”

Wanda’s brown eyes were warm. “First, don’t talk crazy. You’re as helpless as a fetus in the womb. I couldn’t live with myself if I left you in this semi-shift and didn’t try to figure some way to help you. None of us knew what to expect when Marty was turned, but we all learned from each other’s experiences. Second, there’s something else, Katie. I woke up this morning with one thought after what happened last night. This
is
my life—or what I want to do with it when I’m not writing. Help people like you in paranormal distress. I decided no matter what the rest of the girls do, I’m going to try and make OOPS work. It makes me happy. So say no more,” she chided with a cluck of her tongue.

“Now I’m off to stir up this sleepy town with my big-mouthed vampire. Marty and Casey will tell you all about Darnell. I pray he has some answers.” She raised a hand in the air and with a wave she was gone.

Ingrid rose from the table, the glare of the multiple studs in her eyebrows glinting in the sunlight. “I’m going to go scour the Internet for shapeshifter info while I watch the front desk, Boss. How do you feel, by the way? You want me to close shop for the day? I don’t think you should see patients this way.”

Katie’s chest lifted in a sigh of remorse for the practice she could have if only the townspeople would let her. Some days, she didn’t know why she bothered to flip the sign on her door to OPEN. “Like we have many of those anyway, Ingrid? Or have you forgotten my right and proper shunning?”

Ingrid shook her finger at Katie just like she’d done a thousand times before when Katie had mourned out loud her lack of clientele for much else but the pet hotel/boarding she offered—something Dr. Jules didn’t. “But you never know. I mean, who knew what happened last night could really happen? I’ve been telling you all along, it just takes one little shift in the cosmic wheel and poof”—she made a blowing-up motion with her hands that made her multiple bracelets jingle—“we have liftoff. Keep the faith.”

Katie smiled with the optimism she knew Ingrid needed. “I don’t know where I’d be without you, Ingrid. And for today, I agree. Let’s close up shop. Though, really, I feel fine.” And she did. In fact, she’d felt more alert and rested on three hours’ sleep than she’d ever felt after eight.

Ingrid took her ragmag and skipped off to the reception area, satisfied she’d given Katie her daily dose of “go get ’em” while Marty and Casey lingered over coffee.

“Business is poor?” Beck commented, standing too close for her comfort, the heat his body radiated even in his ridiculous clothing making her pulse race.

“Business is nil.”

“I can’t imagine what with the superb cages and top-of-the-line cougar-wear. Do the townspeople find your accommodations lack that special something?”

Oh, she lacked all right. She now lacked a pristine record . . . “You’d be funny if I liked you today.”

“Did you like me yesterday?”

“More than I do this morning, yes.”

“More’s the pity. But it’s all right. I’m pacified with the notion that Aunt Teeny likes me enough for twelve of you. She cooks, you know.”

“Oh, she cooks. I hope you like fish sticks and Tater Tots, and FYI, Aunt Teeny likes any man that doesn’t need a penis pump.”

“How flattering.”

“But honest.”

“So tell me, Dr. Woods, what else would you like me to do today aside from regaining my memory so I can teach you to hunt helpless mountain bikers all right and proper?” He mocked a southern accent with little success, almost making her laugh out loud at his absurd attempt.

But then she remembered she had the Claw for a hand because of him, and all thoughts of laughing flew over the cuckoo’s nest. Her expression returned to its former frown. There were a million things to do. She and Teeny had made a list of them about a month ago, most of which escaped her now. “Can you hang shelves?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. Though, quite frankly, I was unprepared for the ease with which I handle an ax. Yet there I was, the epitome of grace and elegance in motion.”

Oh, if he only knew how graceful his motion was . . . but his motion was gay. She nodded her head to agree with his statement. “It was almost like watching an Olympic event, you were so full of all that grace.”

“I feel mocked.”

“You should.”

“You’re a cruel taskmistress.”

“I’d feel I failed you if your head got too big.”

“I wouldn’t fear that with you women in the mix.”

“It’s our instinct to mother and keep you humble.”

“You don’t look like anyone’s mother,” he purred, allowing his gaze to slide along her length in obvious appreciation.