Page 38 of The One You Want

Chapter 9

By Thursday morning, my Grandmother had called me no less than ten times, wanting an explanation for what had happened at the bar the previous Friday. I had managed to avoid her for nearly a week now, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up the hiding actforever.

Like I usually did when I was stressed, I let myself get lost in my craft room. I was running pretty low on just about everything after the market on Saturday. Grant had been right about me selling out most weeks. It was almost getting to the point where I was going to have to start alternating weekends at the market just so I could have enough time torestock.

The cats let me work in peace for several hours, until they staged their revolt. It was a coordinated attack, as it often was with them. First, Lady slunk into the room but I was so engrossed I barely noticed her—until a glass jar of beads went flying to the floor and I jumped in my seat in surprise. She stood there in front of the destruction, licking her paws as if she didn’t have a care in theworld.

“Thanks a lot,” I muttered, kneeling on the floor. Of course the container she dropped just had to be filled with little seed beads, the smallest ones I had. And they were clear, impossible to see on the cream carpet. “I don’t know how you did it, but I know you chose these on purpose.” She just sat there silently, watching me, her tail flicking back andforth.

Before I’d even finished cleaning up her mess, I heard a crash from the bathroom, followed by a loud kitty screech. Sighing, I went to see what the other two had gotten up to. The answer was Ernie, sitting on the rug in a pile of toilet paper that Mittens was rapidly pulling from the holder. "What are you doing?” I yelled. “You badcats!”

They both cast me completely indifferent looks before they went right back to what they’d been up to. “All right,” I muttered, grabbing Mittens while he hissed and wailed as if I was beating him. I managed to shoo Ernie out with my foot. As soon as the door was shut behind me, I heard another crash, from the kitchen thistime.

“Seriously?”

I released Mittens and headed in that direction, both cats following right at my feet. In the kitchen I found Lady on the counter, systematically pushing things over the edge—my bottle of vitamins, the napkin holder, a stray apple. When she saw me appear, she hopped off the counter and joined the other two in crowding around their waterdishes.

“You could have just started here,” I muttered, grabbing their bowls. “Meow by your dishes and I’ll know what you want! You don’t have to mess up all mystuff.”

They all just looked at me impassively and I sighed, filling up their water and sprinkling out a few of the fishy treats they loved for goodmeasure.

As they meowed happily at my feet, I glanced over at the clock, surprised to see that it was nearly two. I’d been at it for longer than I’d thought. No wonder the cats got restless. Now that I’d stopped I realized that I hadn’t had a thing to eat since a granola bar around seven. I was starving. A quick glance in the fridge reminded me that I didn’t have much in thehouse.

You could go out for something,a voice in my head whispered, sounding an awful lot like Riley. The thought of staying here and ordering in sounded way more appealing than trudging into town. I would definitely run into at least one person that I knew and have to make small talk, and I just wasn’t in themood.

You sound like a recluse,the voice added, and I sighed, knowing my obnoxious conscience was right. Getting out was good for me. Through my floor to ceiling windows I could see the sun shining out on the cobalt blue of the bay. It was gorgeous out there. No reason to stay inside. And no reason to be afraid of myneighbors.

I gave the cats a few more treats and made my escape. It was even nicer out than I had realized, the sun warm on my face, a light breeze blowing in from the water. It felt like Mother Nature was taunting me—see what happens when you leave your little cave and try to act like a functioning member of society? We have sunshine outhere!

Feeling really hungry now, I decided on the Lilac Cafe, which was closer to my place than Cora’s. And usually quieter this time ofday.

I swore under my breath when I saw Lilah, Tessa, and Jill sitting at one of the bistro tables on the patio. So much for choosing the quieteroption.

“Jenny!” Lilah called out, waving. “Have you started on this assignmentyet?”

I realized, belatedly, that their copies of the lioness book were on the table in front of them. They all had notebooks as well and seemed to be takingnotes.

“I haven’t had a chance,” I said, which wasn’t really a lie. Of course, I also had no desire to do the homework Margaret had assigned us at the end of the night, but I figured I didn’t need to tell them that. They all looked pretty excited about whatever they weredoing.

“You should,” Lilah said. “It’s really fun! We’re just about finished taking the secondquiz.”

“Yeah,” Jill added. “The first one told me I was a stingray, which I totally never would have guessed, youknow?”

“Uh, right,” I said uncertainly, having no idea what they were talking about. I’d dropped my book on the dining room table when I got home last night and hadn’t picked it up since. “I never would have pegged you for a…astingray.”

“That’s why the system works so well,” Lilah said excitedly. “It helps us see all the things in us we’ve kept hidden away, even fromourselves.”

“So true.” Tessa nodded. “The book doesn’t call them our hidden gifts fornothing!”

Wow. So apparently Margaret’s enthusiasm for all this crap was starting to spread through theLibbies.

“You should join us,” Lilah said. “You can take the quiztoo!”

Jill squinted up at me. “I bet Jenny is alemur.”

“Oooh, yeah, I think you’re right!” Lilah said. “Come on, sit down, we can findout!”

“Um, no, that’s cool,” I said, the thought of sitting here with them and answering personal questions making my skin crawl. “I don’t have my book,so…”