Cat Trick Read Online Free

what he’d heard about the man when Claire came back with
     our food. We’d both ordered the same thing—Mediterranean fish stew—something Eric
     had just added to the café’s menu. Claire set the steaming bowls in front of us and
     placed a basket of corn bread in the middle of the table. I breathed in the scent
     of tomatoes and onions and picked up my spoon.
    I was down to the last spoonful of fragrant broth when Claire came back to the table.
     “Dessert?” she asked. “There’s chocolate pudding cake in the kitchen.”
    “None for me,” I said, wondering if there was a polite way to get the last bits of
     corn bread and cheese from the bottom of my bowl.
    “I’ll try some, please,” Marcus said.
    Claire smiled at him. “I’ll be right back.”
    When she set the heavy stoneware bowl in front of Marcus, the scent of warm chocolate
     reached across the table like a finger beckoning me to lean over for a taste. He picked
     up the spoon and held it out to me without saying a word, but a smile pulled at his
     mouth and the corners of his eyes.
    I thought about just shaking my head. After all, it was his dessert, not mine. I thought
     about signaling to Claire for a dish of my own. I could see from the corner of my
     eye that she was watching us, even as she seemed to be giving directions to a tall
     man in jeans and a black and red jacket whom I remembered talking to earlier at the
     library. But I had a feeling from the smile that Marcus had been unable to stifle
     that sharing dessert had been his plan all along. So I smiled back at him and took
     the spoon. The man in the plaid jacket nodded at me as he passed us on his way out.
     “It’s delicious,” he said, gesturing at the bowl.
    He was right. But I’d already known that.
    “Who’s that?” Marcus asked, giving the man an appraising look as he went out the door.
     Some small part of him was always in police officer mode.
    “A tourist, I think,” I said. “He came into the library this afternoon looking to
     use one of the public access computers and a printer. Then he asked me if I could
     recommend somewhere good for supper.” I reached across the table and scooped up a
     spoonful of cake and warm chocolate sauce.
    “And you said Eric’s, of course.”
    I nodded. My mouth was too full of chocolate bliss to answer.
    “Thank you for sharing,” I said when we’d finished the pudding cake and our coffee
     refills.
    “You’re welcome.” Marcus leaned one arm on the back of his chair. “Are you ready to
     walk up and take a look at the tents?”
    I pushed back from the table. “Yes. I could use some exercise.”
    He got to his feet. “I have this,” he said.
    I opened my mouth to argue that I could pay for my dinner, but he was already halfway
     to the counter.
    The sun was just going down and the sky over the river was streaked with red and gold
     when we stepped outside. I stopped on the sidewalk for a moment to take in the view.
    “‘Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning,’”
     Marcus said softly behind me.
    I turned to look at him.
    “My father used to say that,” he said with a shrug. “Then he’d go into this long explanation
     about the light from the setting sun, dust particles and high-pressure systems.”
    “He wasn’t wrong,” I said as we started walking.
    “Yeah, I know. But when you’re ten and your friends are standing there, that kind
     of thing is embarrassing.”
    I waved my hand dismissively at him. “No, no, no, no. Embarrassing is your father
     doing the balcony scene from
Romeo and Juliet
on the fire escape. In tights. In January. Embarrassing is all your friends dressing
     up as tap-dancing raisins for Halloween because your father played one in a cereal
     commercial and became some kind of cultural icon slash cult hero.”
    “You’re joking,” Marcus said.
    I sighed and shook my head. “No, sadly, I’m not.”
    “A tap-dancing raisin?” He still looked