with how soon Bram can send the kitten, she thought. Davis glanced her way, saw her, waved and then the two of them, Davis still talking, walked away from the house into the yard.
Vala shrugged and went about fixing herself breakfast. Though she didn't feel much like eating, the idea of facing airline food for the rest of the day made her decide to eat something decent while she had the chance.
She was downing her second cup of coffee when Davis came through the sliding doors into the kitchen. Bram, she saw, was still in the yard, apparently contemplating one of the grapefruit trees.
"He's thinking things over," Davis informed her.
"I know he's planning some changes in his life," she said.
"You do?" Davis sounded surprised.
"I think he intends to start lawyering for the Ndee. It seems he had a dream where Mokesh told him to."
"Whoa! It was really Mokesh?"
"In his rattlesnake form."
"Awesome. So he's gonna do it?"
Vala nodded. "Your map made a difference in Bram's life, didn't it?"
"Mine, too," Davis said. "And yours."
Startled, she stared at him. "Why do you say in my life?"
"Um--" Davis tugged at his ear. "Well, you learned to ride a horse, didn't you?"
Not sure he wasn't concealing something, she would have pursued it if Bram hadn't pushed open the sliding door and entered just then. When her gaze fastened on him, everything else fled from her mind.
He looked at her with those wonderful dark eyes and she was caught, unable to move or speak, feeling the arc of emotion flashing between them, filling her heart.
"I have an errand to run before we leave for the airport," he said finally, breaking the spell. "Be back soon."
Bram took the BMW, easing it into the flow of traffic, turning off at the mall, thinking he didn't have much time for what he had to do. He shook his head. Wouldn't be doing it at all if it weren't for Davis. Smart kid. He couldn't say the same for himself.
His mother's favorite word for those unfortunates a can or two short of a sixpack was noodleheads. He'd never believed he belonged there but damned if he hadn't just about joined his mother's noodlehead club.
In the jewelry store, he asked the female clerk, "If you were a no-nonsense lady of maybe sixty, living alone in the Superstitions, but with an eye for beauty, what do you think would catch your eye in here?"
"Does she prefer Native American designs?" the unfazed clerk asked, gesturing toward a tray of turquoise set in silver. In a box next to the tray he saw a gold snake pin with yellow gem eyes and small chips of turquoise set into the body in a diamond-back pattern. "Mokesh," he muttered under his breath.
He pointed. "I'll take the snake."
After Pauline got this gift she could no longer claim there wasn't gold in the Superstitions, he thought with amusement. The gold snake, though, was only a token. He owed Pauline more than he could ever repay.
He finished his shopping and drove back to the house. Inside, he found Vala and Davis on the floor by the kitten box. It hadn't taken Sheba long to learn Davis meant her kittens no harm and, though she made her usual mother noises, she didn't object to the boy holding Zorro.
Davis had the kitten snugged up against his face while Vala watched, smiling.
"I'd say Zorro is the luckiest one of the lot," Bram said to them. "Kinked tail, crossed-eyes and all."
"I hope he won't mind New York winters," Vala said.
"Not to worry." When she glanced up at him, he added, "Cats are adaptable."
"I whispered to him so he wouldn't miss me too much," Davis said. "I told him we'd be together soon."
Vala rose and, leaving Davis with the kitten, followed Bram into the living room.
"All packed?' he asked.
She nodded.
"I like that yellow shirt," he said. "You look good in bright colors."
Hell, to him she looked good in anything. Or nothing. But the colors she'd worn before she bought that skirt and this shirt in the mall here tended to be dark ones. Or plain white. In his mind the brighter shades meant she'd come out of her shell. It gave him a thrill to think that at least part of that was his doing.
"Thank you," she told him.
He took a jewelry box from his pocket, saying, "I want to show you the pin I bought for Pauline."
When Vala gazed at the pin, she murmured, "Mokesh. Perfect."
"Will you help me gift wrap it before