Page 30 of Love Fast

“Sort of.” Before I can ask whatthatmeans, he says, “Did you find out who lost the cat?”

Rachel comes back with our orders, which are basically enough to feed the town for the rest of the weekend. I think I could get full just by inhaling the scent of the stack of pancakes. Each of them is as thick as my palm and the same golden color as the jug of syrup Rachel slides onto the table.

“Eggs,” I say, nodding at Byron’s plate. He furrows his brow like he’s wondering whether there’s more to that observation, or if I just like to state the obvious. “They look good.”

“They are. Will makes the best eggs. Or at least he did fifteen years ago when I last had them.”

“You never came back? Not even to visit?”

“You were talking about the cat,” he says, ignoring my question.

“Yes, let’s change the subject again,” I say with a grin. If he doesn’t want to talk about himself, that’s fine, but I’m not going to let him think I didn’t notice. “She didn’t have a chip and no one’s called looking for her. Donna said they don’t keep lost cats, not unless…” I run a finger across my neck.

Byron bursts out laughing. “Fred’s decapitating cats now?” he asks.

“Who the hell is Fred?”

“The vet.”

“Oh, I didn’t meet him. Just the receptionist. I’m pretty sure she didn’t mean literal decapitation. At least I hope not. But the end result would be the same. Athena would be no more.”

“Wow. Brutal.”

“Right? So I need to find the owner before I move into the staff housing on Tuesday. Donna said I should make some posters and put them around town. Then tell people in the stores that I’ve found her.”

“Sounds like a good idea. If you get me a poster, I can have my assistant make copies.”

“You’d do that?”

He shrugs like it’s no big deal, but I’m sure Byron has bigger things to worry about than a missing cat.

“Thank you. I guess I’m going to spend the rest of the day going up and down Main Street, telling people I’ve found a cat. I need a megaphone or something.”

Byron laughs again, and I get a warm, gooey feeling inside at the thought that I’ve helped him relax. “It’s a way to meet people, I suppose.”

I shake my head. “Now I’m going to be the crazy girl who arrived in a wedding dress and tried to get rid of a cat.”

He sighs, but he’s still smiling. “Yeah, there’s no escaping the town grapevine.”

“I suppose it’s nice in some ways.”

“It is?” he says, eyebrows raised.

“You know, people looking out for each other, in and out of each other’s kitchens, asking after each other’s kids and health conditions. It’s a community. I probably don’t need a megaphone. I probably need to tell three people, and the entire town will know about dear old Athena in no time.”

“It’s a community with a long memory,” he says, a look of resentment in his expression I just don’t understand.

“I bet you remember just as well.”

He shoots me a puzzled expression.

“Tell me about Rachel.” I nod to where she’s stacking sugar packets into bowls. Her pencil is back in its rightful place behind her ear. “She seems to know you. But I bet you know her too. Tell me something you remember about her.”

Byron sighs. “I don’t know. Her hair is a different shade of red every week. She never drinks apart from New Year’s, when she really lets loose. One year, the town placed bets on which track on the jukebox would have her dancing on the bar at Grizzly’s.”

I glance over at our waitress, who seems far from the bar-dancing type. “Was it ‘Sweet Caroline’?”

Byron chuckles, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “No. ‘Brown-Eyed Girl.’”

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