Cat Nap Read Online Free Page B

table. She wanted to get Shadow out and away from Jane’s too tightly clenched hands.
    Good thing old Martin isn’t around right now,
she thought.
If Jane got hold of him in this mood, she’d probably snap his neck like a rotten twig.

3
    Sunny barely got home before the snowstorm the weather forecasters had been hyping came roaring in. She lugged the carrier to the front door of her house through stinging wind-borne snowflakes, let Shadow out in the foyer, and turned to face what looked like a wall of snow suddenly falling outside.
    Looks as if I finally get to try out the four-wheel drive on my Wrangler,
she thought.
    Her father appeared in the arched entranceway into the living room. “So, you’re back,” he said. “You, too, hairball.”
    Shadow slipped around him and disappeared into the room.
    “How’s he doing?” Mike asked.
    “Jane suggested a little home therapy.” Sunny slipped the hood of her coat up over the baseball cap she was wearing. “Anything you particularly want from the store, Dad? I figure I’d better get out there before it gets any worse.”
    “Not a problem,” Mike told her. “I took care of it already. Went to the store, got some milk—skim, so don’t get excited—and a few other things on the grocery list.” He sounded very pleased with himself. “Including the makings for a stew. Figure that would work pretty well with the weather outside.”
    Sunny agreed, and with plentiful supplies, they spent the weekend hunkered down. The storm was fierce but brief, dropping a few inches of the white stuff before blowing out to sea. Sunny and her dad didn’t mind much—except that Mike missed his heart-healthy hike. A neighbor came by with a snowblower to clear their walk and driveway, so neither Sunny nor her dad had to shovel. They had movies to watch, and more than enough ingredients to re-create Mom’s famous pressure cooker stew recipe.
    And, of course, Sunny had Shadow to play with. He still wasn’t running and jumping so much. That eliminated some of their rougher games. But he definitely seemed to be getting around with less pain.
    When her dad watched Shadow purring like a motorboat while Sunny did the warm oil massage on Sunday, Mike grumped, “You’re coddling that cat.”
    “Well, I think warm oil beats superglue,” she replied, explaining about Jane’s treatment for torn pads. “I used to use something similar to close up paper cuts. The stuff stung like blazes.”
    “Superglue on his paws . . .” Mike’s voice trailed off and his eyes got a bit dreamy, going from Shadow to the living room mantel.
    “Don’t even think about it,” Sunny warned.
    “That’s easy enough for you to say,” Mike said, only half joking. “You’ve never had him launch a sneak attack when you’re heading to the bathroom for a three a.m. pee. Can you blame me for wanting him to stay put sometimes?”
    *
    By the time Monday morning came around, the roads had been cleared, and Sunny had no excuse to stay home from work. She sat with her dad in the kitchen, listening to more snow nonsense on the radio. The weather forecaster warned that if the latest cold front to the west and tropical low to the south cooperated, they could create really serious weather.
If.
Apparently, everything had to line up just right to create a perfect storm, so the voice on the radio alternated between predicting doom and being vague, offering anything from a foot of snow to a mere dusting.
    “Well, that’s really helpful,” Sunny told Mike. “Maybe it will also hail with a threat of lightning, too.”
    “You know what they say,” he replied with a grin. “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it.” He leaned back in his seat. “Me, I’ll get out early and get my walk done. Then I’ll take it easy back here. We’re still pretty well supplied from Saturday.”
    “Yeah—wish me luck in that big, bad world outside.” Sunny put her oatmeal bowl in the sink and got