CHAPTER THREE

On Saturday morning, Jake Montgomery jolted awake, eyes wide open. Def Leppard’s “Love Bites” boomed from the clock radio. As usual to jumpstart his day, he’d tuned to his favorite rock station and set the volume to “deafening.”

The song’s lyrics seemed linked to his mood, and he lay in bed another few minutes until the tune came to a close. The chorus said it all. Love really did bite. Love did bleed.

When he’d crawled upstairs to bed at two a.m., he’d set the alarm for nine a.m. Yawning, he stretched and scanned the room. Why had he awakened with no bed partner? Where, oh, where was Lucy?

A strange “thwacking” drifted in from the kitchen, and he dragged his weary bones out of bed to investigate. Lucy, his cunning red point Siamese, was methodically pawing at the woodwork, doing her level best to open a cabinet door. He kept the crunchy cat food in the closed cupboard, and the famished feline was bound and determined to get at it.

As he stood in the kitchen doorway grinning with delight, she pirouetted and glowered at him, yowling as only a Siamese could. “Foiled again, huh, Lucy?” He picked her up and rumpled her ears. “Those childproof locks are working well, don’t you think?” Not amused, she cuffed his cheek and wriggled to get down. Laughing, he took pity on her and served her breakfast. How did that cat stay so skinny when she ate like a pony? He leaned on the doorjamb and gazed at her for a moment while she inhaled her Meow Chow.

Jake poured milk on his own breakfast of raisin bran and carried the bowl into the living room. As he spooned up a bite, the doorbell rang. “Just a sec,” he called out. He raced to the bedroom, threw on a t-shirt, and trotted back to the front door. He wasn’t about to go to the door dressed solely in his pajama bottoms.

He opened the door to his little sister, Lori. She might be only five years younger, but to him, she still looked like a kid.

“Hey, bro. Thanks for the belated birthday dinner last night, although I think I enjoyed it more than you did.” She eyed him up and down. “What’s the matter with you? It’s past nine, and the early bird’s still not dressed?” Lori paced into the living room and plopped onto the couch.

Lucy glided into the room on silent paws, took one look at the new arrival, and leapt gracefully up to the top of a bookcase. She peered over the edge, ears flat on her sleek, light orange head.

“Nice to see you, too.” Lori waved at the cat and aimed her attention back to Jake. “So what’s up? You okay?”

“Nothing’s up. Just felt like sleeping in.” Jake eased into his leather chair and elevated his bare feet up on the footstool. “Where are you headed?”

“I’m on my way to Aunt Alice’s. Lately, I’ve started grocery shopping for her every couple of weeks. She says she’s perfectly fine going on her own, but no seventy-eight-year-old woman should be toting heavy groceries. Then we’re going to the mall to look for comfortable old lady shoes and stopping somewhere for lunch. Wanna come?”

“Uh, no thanks.” He grimaced. “Sounds tempting, but you go ahead and do your girl thing. Could you check, though, to see if her grass is high? I mowed it last week, but we’ve been getting so much rain it might need to be cut again.”

“Sure thing.” Lori ran a hand through her short, strawberry blonde hair and stared hard into her brother’s eyes. She frowned and bit her bottom lip. “Oh! No wonder you’re still in your pj’s. How could I forget? Today would have been Victoria’s birthday. Thirty, right?”

“Good memory, sis. Yeah. Today would have been her thirtieth.” A small stab of pain pierced his heart. Fourteen long and difficult months—months of hurt, loss, and loneliness.

“No wonder you’re depressed.” Lori reached over and patted his foot.

Jake hauled in a deep breath and tried again to smile at his sister but couldn’t quite pull it off. When Victoria had passed away, the police had ruled the crash an accident. All these many months later, he’d never shared his doubts with Lori.

Lori tilted her head and studied him. “Do you think it would help if you got out of the house? I know it’s not much fun hanging out with Aunt Alice and me, but you could stop in and see your friend Drew. Or maybe Brian? It’s a beautiful day. It would be a shame to miss it.”

“Maybe.” Jake stared out the living room window, drinking in the soft spring light. “It does look like too nice of a day to waste. And, well, it’d be good to have fun again. Figure out what normal is supposed to feel like.”

He glanced up. Lucy pretended to sleep, tail draped over the edge of the bookcase. Jake had never lived with a cat before, and it had taken some adjustment before they’d learned to live together peacefully. The day he’d woken to a slumbering Lucy wrapped around his head in earmuff fashion, he’d decided she could stay. In retrospect, apparently Lucy had decided to take what she could get. “Maybe I should do something to ensure I don’t turn into the male equivalent of a crazy cat lady.”

Lori laughed, her eyes raking over him. “And eat something while you’re at it. You’re well-nigh skeletal.”

Vaulting out of his seat, he extended a hand to help Lori out of hers. “All right, I’m convinced. Get out of here so I can get dressed. Say hi to Aunt Alice for me.” He escorted Lori to the door and gave his sister a real smile. “Thanks, sis.”

Lori moseyed out onto the covered porch. Over her shoulder, she called out, “And get a haircut, too. Your hair’s longer than mine.” She whistled while she waltzed down the driveway.

He chuckled as he closed the door and spun around. Lucy reclined in his chair, washing her ears with a slender paw. He stroked the cat’s soft fur, flipped her up onto his shoulder, and wandered into his bedroom. She’d been Victoria’s pride and joy.

Taking Victoria’s picture off his dresser, he traced her familiar face with his finger and said a final farewell. It was time for a new beginning. Opening the closet door, he placed the photo with care in his box of memories on the top shelf.

He ambled to the bathroom to unwind under a hot shower. After he toweled off, he stepped on the scale. “Skeletal,” Jake mumbled. Lori had been right. He was down eight pounds on a frame that hadn’t had any weight to spare. Flexing his muscles, he slapped his bicep. A little flabby. He’d have to call up his friend Brian and get back on the tennis courts. He missed playing twice-weekly sets with his buddy, not to mention ribbing him about his distinctive North Carolina accent.

As he dressed, Lucy wound round and round on the bed, curled into a ball, and drifted into a post-breakfast nap. Jake sat next to her and caressed her velvety, wedge-shaped head. He’d leave her to dream her little cat dreams. He had other things to do.

The time had come to reclaim his life.