A head popped out of the top of her cape and I gasped, recognizing it as the black and white kitten with the tattered ear.

“You adopted a cat?” I stared at Ophelia incredulously.

“Yes!” Ophelia beamed, as she cooed to the little kitten snuggled inside her cape.

“It seems Ophelia had a change of mind about the feral cats,” Elspeth said. “She even donated some money to help fund the shelter.”

“I wonder what changed her mind,” Pepper cut in, raising a brow at me and purposely taking a sip of tea from the china cup she’d brought with her.

My eyes slid from Pepper to Ophelia and back again. Had Pepper’s tea concoction really changed Ophelia from nasty to nice? Maybe there was something to Pepper’s herbal obsession, after all.

“Not only that, but did you hear? The library is donating the sale of one of the bronzes to help build a new shelter for the feral cats.” Elspeth said. “Lavinia would have liked that.”

I remembered Lavinia telling me that Ophelia had scoured the library already. I’d thought she’d been looking for the bronzes, but I guess it had something to do with cats. Or maybe she thought Lavinia was hiding information about the cats there … either way, it didn’t seem like it mattered much now.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another swirly mist starting to form over by the door. It was Lavinia … and she had luggage. I watched as she pecked Robert, then Franklin, on the cheek. Then she turned to me, mouthed the words ‘thank you’, bent down to pet Pandora and promptly disappeared.

Robert and Franklin looked sad for a few seconds, then Franklin put his arm out, gesturing for Robert to precede him, and the two of them disappeared back into the bookstore, leaving Pandora frowning at the closed door.

“Well, we’re off to get cat supplies.” Elspeth started down the sidewalk.

“I do hope we can be friends now.” Ophelia stuck her hand out and I shook it.

“Sure,” I shrugged at Pepper who favored me with a cat-that-ate-the-canary smile.

A sheriff’s car pulled to the curb with Striker at the wheel.

“Hi, Eddie,” Pepper waved at him, then turned to me. “Gotta get back to my shop. See you later.”

She wiggled her eyebrows at me before turning and heading off in the direction of her shop. I walked toward the car, Pandora at my heels.

“Hey, Chance.” Striker smiled the smile that made his dimple show up and my heart fluttered.

“Hi.” I smiled back remembering our kiss.

Pandora meowed and Striker leaned his head out to look down at her. “Hello, to you, too.”

We stood there awkwardly for a few seconds. We hadn’t really had a chance to talk since that kiss and I felt unusually tongue-tied. My thoughts turned to his shoes. I never did apologize for throwing up on them.