month mucking out stalls for scaring ten years off my life for riding in that trailer all the way from Pine Creek. And,” he quietly growled when the boy started to protest, “for deceiving yer mother, you’ll not go near any electronics until all of next winter’s firewood is split and neatly stacked in the shed.”
“But Papa! That’ll take me all summer!”
The man’s features softened. “You’re lucky ye’re going to have a summer, Angus,” MacBain said, thickly. “That heavy trunk could just as easily have fallen on you, and ye could be just as dead as Timmy.”
“He’s not dead!” Angus cried, looking toward the station only to suddenly gasp. “See! Papa, do ye see!” he shouted, pulling away and running up the edge of the road until he was even with the station driveway. “Timmy, stop! Ye can’t go near the road!”
Gunnar had to grab the bumper of the truck to steady himself when he saw a gangly, black-bodied, white-footed cat darting back and forth down the driveway chasing after a leaf caught up in a swirling breeze. He glanced over to see MacBain appeared just as stunned, the man now fully kneeling as he stared, not at the cat, Gunnar realized, but at Katy as she followed her miraculously recovered patient at a more leisurely pace.
Nope, not possible. Gunnar looked back at what had to be a doppelganger, because the cat Katy had carried out of the trailer had had a broken neck.
“Sweet Christ,” MacBain softly murmured.
Yeah. That. What he said.
Except the man still stared at his sister.
Angus looked both ways for traffic and ran across the road. “You healed him, Aunt Katy! I told you Timmy wanted to live!”
“That you did,” Katy called to him with a smile. “Turns out Timmy only had the wind knocked out of him, so all it took was for me to breathe some air back into his tiny lungs.”
Gunnar had to grab the bumper again, because honest to God, Markov’s wilderness angel—aka Jane Abbot—had saved the future king from drowning nearly the same way, only she had entered his submerged plane and given him air by way of a kiss.
Angus scooped up the still dodging and darting Timmy with an excited whoop, then continued up the driveway at a run. “Here’s your surprise, Aunt Katy,” he said, stopping and thrusting the miracle cat out to her.
Gunnar was able to hear Katy’s sigh as she accepted the robustly given gift, because despite it still being none of his business, he was striding up the driveway right behind MacBain—partly because he wanted to find out why the man was obviously upset with his sister, but mostly because he wasn’t going anywhere until he touched that cat.
“His full name is Tuxedo Tim,” Angus continued in full presentation mode, “because Nora says his white paws and chest and mustache make him look like a groom at a wedding.”
Gunnar had no idea who Nora—wait. MacBain had married a woman who already had two children, a boy and a girl. Nora must be the girl, because Robert and Catherine had only had boys together. Three, he recalled, thanks to his nearly photographic memory, further recalling Angus was the oldest. He saw Katy nudge her nephew along, continuing right past her brother and boss as if she didn’t even see them. Well, or else she’d definitely seen something in MacBain’s eyes that she didn’t want to deal with.
Gunnar turned and fell into step beside her. “Angus?” he said, looking around Katy to smile at the boy. “I happen to love cats, and I wonder if I might hold Timmy.”
Angus lengthened his stride enough to look at him. “Tuxedo Tim is Aunt Katy’s cat now, so it’s up to her who holds him.” He then looked up at Katy and veered closer. “But I don’t think you should be letting strangers hold him,” he whispered.
“Mr. Wolfe is the fire chief here in Spellbound Falls and Katy’s boss,” MacBain said as he caught up with them.
Katy silently handed Timmy to Gunnar without looking at him, then broke into a jog as she crossed the road and disappeared around the front of the truck.
Gunnar cradled the squirming, surprisingly strong cat against his chest and gently pressed one of his fingers along its neck from its shoulder to its head. He’d heard a few years back about a man smashing into a tree while skiing in Europe and being declared fine by the local hospital, only to keel over dead in the resort