Page 33 of At the Heart of It
Even then, Jonah knew she’d meant it. That was Viv for you. Maybe her words weren’t always genuine, but her desire to be of service never wavered. Her urge to help others, even at her own expense sometimes.
It was the thing he’d always admired most about her.
Jonah shook himself back to the present. Back to the woman sitting across from him with wide toffee eyes and a calico cat on her lap. She’d barely touched her pizza, and he wondered if he should have cleared his choices with her before ordering.
But now wasn’t the time to be fretting about pepperoni. He reached across the table and touched her hand.
“Hey,” he said, keeping his voice low. “Thank you for sharing that with me.”
She nodded, then gave a small smile. “Yeah.”
He thought about sharing his own story then. Telling her everything about Jossy and that horrible day eighteen years ago. He looked down at his plate, trying to form the words.
“Owl.”
Jonah looked up at Kate. “What did you say?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“It sounded like you said owl.”
“I heard it, too, but it wasn’t me.” She glanced toward the window. “I think it came from over there.”
But there was no one there. Just the weird-looking black-and white-cat with the judgey eyebrows and the Marilyn Monroe beauty mark. Jonah looked back at Kate.
“Weird.”
“Very.”
“So this TV show. Would we be filming at Viv’s house?”
“She suggested it, and the network seems to like the idea. Some of it comes down to licensing and insurance. That’s Amy’s department, so she’s looking into?—”
“Ooowl!”
The voice was more forceful this time, and it was definitely coming from the window. Judgey-eyebrow cat seemed to lift one brow, or maybe it was Jonah’s imagination. If a cat could speak, would it really choose to say owl? Her expression looked more like, “You people are fucking idiots.”
He was probably reading too much into this.
“I really think it’s the cat,” he said. “Judgey-eyebrow cat.”
“You have to stop calling her that,” Kate said. “She’s not judgey. Just misunderstood.”
Jonah laughed. “Funny. I think I said that to my sister the first time she met Viv.”
“That’s nice,” Kate said. “That you stuck up for her. Viv, I mean.”
“Sure,” he said, wishing he hadn’t said that. He needed to watch his mouth, especially around a woman who made a living in reality television. It was juvenile to be hanging up their dirty laundry so long after the divorce.
He looked at the cat again, wondering what the hell her deal was. She had a sweet face, regardless. The cat stared back at him, then opened her mouth.
“Owl!”
Jonah shook his head. “Apparently she has something important to say about Strigiformes.”
“Strigiformes?
“It’s the order owls belong to,” he said. “In the animal kingdom. It includes a couple hundred species of solitary, nocturnal birds of prey known for an upright stance, a broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers adapted for silent flight.”
