Page 13 of This Time Around
But Skye seemed warm and sweet, so Allie gave her a smile. “So you’re one of the caretakers?”
Skye’s smile seemed to falter just a little. “Oh. Well, yes. But it’s just me. I’m the only one who lives here.”
Allie frowned. “I thought my grandma said she hired a couple to look after the place.”
“Yes. Um, she did. But Brody—that was my boyfriend—he moved out a few months ago.” Skye’s expression went a little bit shaky. “Things weren’t working out between us and—well, anyway. It’s just me.”
“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.”
“No, it’s fine, really. I mean, I’ve been doing my best with upkeep and everything, and Brody wasn’t much help anyway. I’m managing just fine on my own.”
Allie nodded and wished there were a way to rewind and start this conversation over. She hadn’t meant to pry into the other woman’s love life so soon after meeting her. Eager for a subject change, she tilted her head toward the window. “What’s wrong with that cat’s feet?”
Skye followed the direction of Allie’s gaze and laughed. “Felix? You mean the extra toes? He’s a polydactyl. They all are. Come on inside so you can meet them.”
“Them?”
But Skye was already walking through the foyer of the historic West Hills home, her bare feet slapping on travertine floors that looked clean, but more weathered than Allie remembered. She hesitated, then followed Skye into the parlor. She stopped on the threshold of the arched doorway and looked down at the rose-printed carpet. She remembered how she used to hop from flower to flower while her mother shushed her and her grandma laughed and said, “Oh, let her be a little girl, Priscilla.”
Allie looked up to see Skye standing in the middle of the room. She held an orange tabby cat cradled in her arms, and two more cats—one black and one gray—stood on the back of the sofa, one of them batting at Skye’s elbow with a paw that looked like an oversized catcher’s mitt.
“Oh my God,” Allie said.
Skye laughed and set down the cat, who gave a growl of displeasure before wandering off. Tossing her hair, Skye scooped the gym-sock-colored cat off the windowsill and looked around the parlor. “Isn’t it great? Vicky had the cat playground built about three years ago so they’d all have somewhere to play. It’s a little extravagant, but it’s what she wanted.”
Vicky? Cat playground?
Allie looked up to see an intricate network of ramps and sisal-covered walkways lining the top edges of the walls. A cat door opened out into the sunroom, and the wide bay window Allie remembered had a bird feeder tacked to the other side. Another cat sat perched in a corner, its left ear looking like someone had bitten off the tip.
Allie looked back at Skye, trying to piece everything together. None of this was making any sense, nor was the fact that she had three mutant-pawed felines twining themselves around her ankles. She stared at the cats, trying to figure out if these were some of the ones she’d already seen. Good Lord, how may were there? A black and white one looked up at her and gave a plaintive meow.
Allie looked back at Skye. “Cats,” she said, wetting her lips as she realized how moronic she sounded. “How many cats are there?”
“Let’s see, there’s Matt, Luna, Sassy, Farrell, Kenny, Barabbas, Maestro, Maggie, Boo, Maple, Felix?—”
“And they’re all—what did you call them?”
“Polydactyl.” Skye smiled. “Extra toes. Yes, every single one of them.”
“And they belong to you?”
Skye cocked her head, her expression somewhere between amused and perplexed. “No, of course not. They’re your grandmother’s. She just hired me to be the caretaker.”
“Of the B&B,” Allie said slowly, still not understanding. “Taking reservations and cleaning rooms and?—”
“Oh dear.” Skye frowned and set down the cat. The feline scampered across the carpet and out into the foyer, its baseball-mitt paws skidding across the travertine. “Vicky didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?” Allie struggled to remember someone—anyone—daring to call her grandmother Vicky. She’d always been Victoria or Grandma, but Vicky?
“She hasn’t run this place as a B&B for years,” Skye said. “Said she didn’t have the time or the energy anymore. She turned it into a cat sanctuary about a year ago.”
“A cat sanctuary? Like—for cats?” Allie grimaced, knowing she sounded like an exceptionally dense child, but this wasn’t adding up. “I mean she was always into animal advocacy, but I didn’t realize—I mean, she never said?—”
“I did sort of wonder why no one from the family came by to see it.” Skye gave a sympathetic head tilt, and Allie knew what was coming next. “She told me about your parents—about the whole prison thing? I guess I figured you all had your hands full.”
Allie swallowed hard, trying to understand. “She never wanted me to visit her here after I got older. And then when she moved into assisted living, I used to take her out to lunch all the time. I always offered to bring her here to see the old place, but?—”
She trailed off, hating where that thought was taking her.
