Chapter 32

32

F ranzi had a lot to say on the way to Tiny Paws, and she tugged on Tabby's hand as they walked from where she'd parked the truck to make her go faster.

"Push that button!" Franzi commanded when they arrived at the saloon-fronted building.

There was an intercom next to the door and Tabby pushed the call button.

"Tiny Paws Day Care!"

"I'm…ah…dropping off Franzi."

There was a moment of silence over the speaker and the door buzzed. Tabby opened it and Franzi pushed in first. The entryway stretched along the front of the building, separated from the noisy chaos beyond by a tall divider wall with an opening to one side protected by a baby gate. A woman was standing there, eyeing Tabby suspiciously.

"Hello, Franzi," the young woman said carefully, not once looking at the little girl. She had yellow-green eyes, like a cat.

"Hi Teacher Addy! Is Tara here?" Franzi asked, peeling out of her shoes and leaving them where they dropped. Tabby picked them up, stashed them under the bench with other shoes, and followed Franzi to the gate.

Teacher Addy did not move aside to let them in. "Only Mr. Kennedy is authorized on Franzi's account to drop her off or pick her up."

This was more than just professional caution, Tabby thought, and she remembered that shifters could recognize one another. "I'm not a shifter," she said, deciding honesty was the best choice, and anyway, this was probably already a given. "Logan had a…a…shifting emergency, and I can't keep her today. It's not safe ." Tabby couldn't risk Clancy coming back and finding Franzi while a client was taking Tabby's time. A terrible thought suddenly occurred to her: if Clancy was looking for Franzi, he might know about Tiny Paws, too. "Franzi has a…relative who might come to try to get her, and she must not go with him. "

"Is she in danger ?"

Tabby didn't know how much to say in front of Franzi herself, and when she cast a look at the little girl, who was craning to try to see into the day care, Addy seemed to make up her mind. She stepped to the side and opened the gate.

Tabby realized at the last moment that she was meant to take off her own shoes, and managed to knot the laces of her sneakers trying to get them off too fast, nearly fell down, and finally kicked them under the bench to follow Franzi and Addison into the back.

There were children everywhere, playing various games of pretend and learning motor skills with blocks and soft toys. A woman was changing a baby and tickling it with a feather that appeared to have been shed by an owl chick bouncing nearby. Franzi and Tara were already giggling together in a heap of beanbags, and some of the kids were sitting at a table doing an art project. The middle-aged woman directing these children looked up at their approach with a smile and stood up gracefully from the too-short chair.

"She came in with Franzi," Addy said, giving a barely perceptible shake of her head to the woman. "There might be some kind of trouble ." They traded subtle little bits of body language that suggested they had worked together for some time, but Tabby wasn't sure what any of it meant.

"I'm Tabby," she introduced herself. "Tabitha Swiftwater. I'm Logan's…landlord." Lover didn't seem appropriate, and they hadn't established anything more.

The woman offered a hand to shake, and Tabby did. She had a solid, gentle grip. "I'm Cherry. I own Tiny Paws. Why don't you come into my office and tell me more."

The office had full-sized chairs, and Tabby gratefully took one as Cherry shut the door, muffling the shrieks and shrill voices from the day care.

"Why don't you tell me what's going on," Cherry suggested, taking a seat across the desk. "Addison said there's trouble?"

Tabby was quiet a moment, trying to gather her thoughts, because she had no idea where to start. "Logan is stuck as a stallion," she said. "He was bought, and branded, and he doesn't seem to be able to shift back. His cousin is probably responsible, and he's not to be trusted with Franzi. Whatever you do, don't let Clancy Kennedy take her. He might have another name." It occurred to her that she had a photo of him on her phone from when she was first researching her missing horse, and she started to scroll back to try to find it.

Before she knew what she was doing, Tabby was telling Cherry the entire sordid tale, all out of order, from the Prix to Logan's original sale to her, all about her investigation into the con artists that had probably been the reason that child services finally found Logan. "Here's his photo," she said, when she finally found it. "This is the jerk."

Cherry gave her a phone number to text it to and Tabby did.

"I don't know what we're going to do," Tabby said, knowing she was on the verge of tears and not entirely sure why now when she'd been able to keep it together so far. "Logan can't keep custody as a horse, I'm nobody according to the state, and Clancy Kennedy would use her for god knows what kinds of awful cons if he got his hands on her."

Cherry listened patiently, occasionally asking for clarification, but didn't seem judgmental about Logan's shady past or questionable life choices. She nodded occasionally, and visibly winced at the idea of a shifter being branded.

"What will you tell Clancy if he comes by demanding custody?" Cherry said, when Tabby had run out of story.

"I thought I'd hide both Logan and Franzi, pretend like Logan had never returned, and tell him that I had handed Franzi back to the state. He can probably figure out that I haven't if he goes looking. I don't know if he'd risk going to CPS directly as himself, but he makes up new identities like they're character sheets in a game. I'm worried he'll just create a new relative to be in order to snap her up. One without an arrest warrant. I can't let Franzi go back to foster care, but there's no way they'd just grant me custody out of the blue. I had a friend who did fostering, and it took like a year to get through approvals and background checks."

"We're not going to let Franzi go back to CPS," Cherry said firmly. "And we certainly aren't going to let Clancy Kennedy have her."

"Can you take her?" Tabby suggested impulsively. She only realized when she said it that she jealously didn't want to give anyone else Franzi. She'd become desperately fond of the little girl.

"It sounds like she's only just settling in with you and Logan, and I would hate to disrupt that unless we know she's not safe with you," Cherry said firmly. "We don't know for sure that Clancy will come to your ranch looking for her, and I have some contacts that I will get in touch with. The idea of someone selling out shifters is unacceptable to say the least, and there are organizations to protect shifter interests."

Secret organizations for shifters didn't surprise Tabby all that much. If there was magic in the world, why wouldn't there by undercover agencies, too? Maybe even true love..."What about getting Logan back to human form?" Tabby asked, relieved that she wouldn't be losing Franzi immediately. "Do you know how to fix that?"

Cherry shook her head. "I've never heard of that before. But I'll pass the information along and hopefully someone else has some ideas."

Tabby looked at her phone and realized that she was rapidly running out of time. "You have my number. Please let me know if you have any leads at all. I have to be back at my place in twenty minutes, and I still have to get Logan out of work this week, since he can't exactly show up as a horse."

"It was nice to meet you, Tabby," Cherry said, standing to shake her hand again. "Thank you for caring about Franzi."

Tabby wasn't sure why that felt like it was going to overflow her eyes, but she blinked back her tears and nodded briskly. "It was nice to meet you," she echoed gruffly.

She stuffed her feet back into the sneakers without tying them in the entry to the day care, nearly killed herself tripping over the laces, and had to stop to unknot them. She opened the day care door to an unwelcome and familiar face.

"Veronica Chase?"

It was an awkward moment where Tabby moved to block her and let the door shut slowly behind her, even as the woman tried to reach for the handle, because she didn't want to accidentally let her into the secretive day care. There was no way to make it look anything less than deliberate or stupid.

"What are you doing here?" Tabby asked, as innocently as possible. Did Veronica know about shifters? Was she still sour about losing the Prix?

"I own the building," Veronica said coldly. "If you'll excuse me?"

To Tabby's relief, the door had fully latched, and Tabby could shrug and pretend that she had nothing to do with it as Veronica smashed the button and demanded to speak with Cherry.

Tabby half-jogged down the street to the auto store where Logan worked.

"I'm looking for Mason," she said to the first technician whose attention she could grab. She was directed to a gruff, burly man taking the lug nuts off an SUV with a wrench that looked too short for the job.

"Mason?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"I wanted to let you know that due to circumstances outside of his control, Logan wouldn't be coming in to work today." Tabby had gone over all the stories she could come up with and decided that vague truth was the best idea.

Mason was quiet, still crouched by the SUV. "I suppose there is a reason he didn't call and tell me that himself?"

"Yes, there is," Tabby said unhelpfully. "And I don't know when he'll be able to come back in, but please give him a chance. He's a good guy, and he deserves this job. This isn't…his fault."

Mason's mouth worked, like he was trying to decide what to make of Tabby's plea.

"I…appreciate the update," he finally said mildly. "His voicemail was full."

Tabby gave him her own number, fretting at the time it took for him to wipe off his hands so he could handle his phone, and then sprinted back to where her truck was parked. There was a parking ticket on her windshield like a sprinkle of bad luck, and Tabby threw it into Franzi's car seat with a few select words.

She barely avoided getting a speeding ticket to add to it, and arrived at her ranch to find her boarding client waiting at the locked gate.

Fortunately, they had not been waiting long, and Tabby was glad to have work to keep her busy. Logan's stall was empty and there was no sign of the stallion, which was a relief. She gave the client a brief tour, signed paperwork with them, and got their horse—a smallish dun mare with a lively step that suggested she would be a joy to ride—settled.

She locked the gate again after they left.