Page 14 of Saving Cade
It had worked. Nicholas pulled himself out of his addiction. It took a while, but eventually, he stepped up to the plate and took over a large part of the company operations. He was a totally different person now.
Cade needed to call his brother. Nicholas would send some cash. What he really needed was access to the company files. If he could buy a cheap laptop, he could finish what he’d started two years ago, before Angie was killed. Whoever set him up was also the one stealing from the company. He was sure of it.
A shrill screeching sounded from inside the house, and Cade dropped his ax and ran. He found Meg in the kitchen, screaming and hopping around on one foot. He grabbed her shoulders. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
“No.” She pointed to the cupboard under the sink, her movements frantic. “There’s a family of rats in there.”
“Hey, don’t worry. I’ll get them out.” He started toward the sink and Meg fled to the other room. He looked around for something that he could use to chase a rat out of the house and grabbed the broom. Using the handle, he opened the cupboard.
Six baby possums stared at him. He jumped back. “They’re not rats,” he called to Meg.
“What are they?” she yelled from the other room.
“Baby possums.” He wasn’t sure how he was going to get them out of there. It looked like they had chewed a hole through the floor where the pipes came up. “Do we have any gloves?”
“I didn’t buy any. But maybe there are some in the closet.”
He rummaged through a few storage areas before resigning to pulling them out with his bare hands. He grabbed a paper bag in one hand and walked back to the sink. He slowly crouched down so he wouldn’t scare the little critters. “Where’s your momma?” he said quietly as he reached in to grab the first one.
Their black eyes stared at him as his hand came near. He picked one up, careful not to get near its mouth. He could see why she thought they were rats. Their long tails were very rat-like. He gingerly picked up each one, placing it in the paper bag. Then he carried them out back and let them go a few feet away from the house. They wandered for a minute before climbing up a tree.
“I hope she’s up there,” he said under his breath. He wasn’t sure if they were old enough to be away from their mother. But there was no way a full-grown opossum was climbing in under the sink. The hole was nowhere near that size.
“All taken care of,” he called to Meg.
She appeared out of the back door. “You got them out? Did they fight you?”
“No, they were fine.”
“Where did they go?” Meg stepped closer to him, her gaze wary.
“Up that tree.”
Her shoulders relaxed. “Oh. Good.”
“Do you want me to check the other cupboards?”
“Would you? I mean, I’m not usually such a pansy. It’s just when I saw all those eyes staring at me I kind of freaked.”
He chuckled. “No problem.” He walked back inside and checked the rest of the kitchen for any more unwanted guests. “All clear.”
Meg put her hand on her chest. “Thank goodness. Where did they come from?”
“There’s probably a crawl space under the house. They chewed up through the hole where the water pipe goes.”
“What can we do to plug it up?”
“I’ll shove some hand towels in it for now. Maybe I can use duct tape to seal it.”
Meg looked visibly relieved. “Thanks.” She walked up to him and gave him a peck on the cheek. It looked like she didn’t even think about it until it was done, but then she stepped back, her eyes wide. “Oh, sorry.”
Cade wanted to say he didn’t mind. In fact, the words were on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed them back. Meg was awesome, but he knew nothing could happen between them. He needed to get his life back, and his brother was the key. So, instead of saying anything, he ignored it. “Happy to help.”
He went back outside to continue chopping the wood.
