Psychic Series Boxset: Books 1-3

by Lisa Freed

  I wavered between exasperation and love for my departed aunt. While I was thrilled to continue to have her in my life, she could have made things so much easier if she would just give me a straight answer once in a while. Seriously, how hard would that have been?

  Her comment about Adrian being gone worried me. Who was I seeing then, if not him? Or had he visited me before deciding to move on? And I truly didn’t see Victor willingly giving up his nephew’s body. So, what was that remark about him not keeping it? That did sound ominous. As always, a visit from Aunt Prudy left me with more questions than answers.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The next morning, I showered and grabbed a Pop-Tart before dashing out the door. Our wonderful volunteer veterinarian, Ashley O’Shea, was paying a visit and I wanted to be there for that before claiming my fair share of the black cats.

  When I entered Whisker Kisses nobody was at the front desk, other than Chloe and Cleo, senior sisters, curled up on top of the desk in a mound of soft brown and white fluff. Stroking their fur, I saw one nose, three ears, and several whiskers poking out, but no eyes. The sisters were inseparable and indistinguishable from each other. Giving them one more loving pet, I moved around the lower level, visiting with the cats I found, including saying a whispered hello to the ghost of Old Zeke.

  Still no sign of any of the volunteers or Ashley until I moved upstairs and saw the tall lanky form of Aaron clutching a burgundy cat carrier to his thin chest, a huge grin stretching ear to ear on his pimply face in the hallway. The teenager was a great volunteer, overall good guy, and just a sweet kid but he had a crush on Ashley that was painful to witness.

  Though the high school senior was tall, Ashley, at six foot two, towered over him and had a good twenty years on him as well. Plus, Ashley was model gorgeous and Aaron was…well it didn’t matter. Even if Aaron was her dream match, he was underage and I doubted a woman like Ashley would look twice at a seventeen-year-old.

  If the tall, striking blonde vet was aware of the boy’s crush she didn’t let on as she smiled and laughed with him. She spotted me first, turning her mega-watt smile my way. “Teresa!” she called out bringing Aaron’s attention my way as well.

  Bright red color bloomed on his face. I bit my lip somewhat amused at his reaction.

  “Look at this darling wee polydactyl,” she enthused, turning the carrier in Aaron’s trembling hands so the front faced me and I could see a small black kitten, no more than three months old, all big front feet with multiple toes.

  When I crouching down to get a better look, the little one pressed his sooty black nose against the metal bars of the carrier’s door and meowed pitifully.

  “Oh, man,” I gulped, overwhelmed by cuteness. “Male or female?”

  “A little man who will hopefully grow into those paws soon,” Ashley said, reaching out to stroke the little nose. “Aaron, can you put him in room one please?”

  “Sure, Ashley,” the love-struck teen said and scampered away, almost tripping over his own feet in the process.

  We stood in silence watching him go. When the door closed, the seasoned vet turned to me, “He’s going to make a fantastic veterinarian someday.”

  I blinked. For the life of me, I hadn’t been aware that was Aaron’s future career goal but it made perfect sense. How many other teenage boys spent most of their free time volunteering at a cat rescue in a beach town?

  “So,” Ashley said looking at me, “how was Greece? I haven’t seen you since you got back.”

  “Gorgeous,” was my honest answer.

  “Did you see the ruins? I’ll admit that was my favorite part of my honeymoon,” she mused.

  Involuntarily, I took a step back and my eyes went to her ringless hands. I had known Ashley for two years and had never known she was married! Wow, how much more clueless could I get?

  She had noticed the direction of my shocked eyes and let loose one of her throaty laughs. “Oh, that was ages ago, the divorce took longer than the actual marriage lasted. Always have a long engagement if you’ve known the man less than two months when you get engaged. My whirlwind romance taught me that.” Her head angled to the right causing her long shiny braid of blonde hair to flop off her shoulder and swing slightly in a hypnotic fashion.

  My eyes followed its slow swaying as this new information penetrated my brain. Honestly, I didn’t know what to say so remained mum.

  “I was half-afraid you were going to return from Greece a new bride,” she tossed at me with a wink.

  That kickstarted my sluggish mind, “Oh no! No, no, no,” I said. “I do believe the trip taught me quite the opposite, I don’t see marriage in my near future.”

  Walking to the second room to see some of the newly freed cats, we closed the door and continued our conversation. “Never say never,” she counseled. “Say, I heard Manny might be leaving you.”

  “Yes, I need to check when the visit is scheduled.” Sandy had never called me back, rather unlike her. She went through men like socks, scoring tons of first dates but few seconds, but was highly efficient when it came to working here.

  “Want me to give him a once over since I’m here?” Ashley offered.

  “That would be great! How’s Gideon?”

  Gideon was a huge orange cat that could have been Manny’s twin. He was brought in several months ago out of a hoarder’s situation. It had been love at first sight for Ashley and the cat and she had scooped him up the same day I came in with him. A first for her.

  “The biggest lovebug ever! The only issue is his killer gas, we’ve been through over half a dozen different foods but nothing has changed.”

  I winced as I had a hazy memory of the nasty odor drifting from him on our drive back from Maryland. “Best of luck with that.”

  “Thanks, we’ll find the right one, I know it. It’s just a slow process since I don’t want to upset his digestive system any further.” She stood up from her hunched over position where she had been letting a few of the mingling cats sniff at her fingers. “I don’t recall last year being this crazy with black cats.”

  “A lot of things are odd this year,” I said with feeling, my mind firmly on the exploding ghost population.

  “I’m not one given to being superstitious but I’m glad these guys are safe here.”

  I grew serious. “Nothing to do with witchcraft more to do with idiots. I hate people sometimes.”

  “Amen to that.” Her phone chimed and her finely arched eyebrows rose as she checked her text message. “Sorry to cut this short but got an emergency coming into the office. See ya, T! I’ll get to Manny tomorrow, I promise!”

  Her long legs carried her out of the room in three strides. I stayed for several more minutes trying to decide which of these to take home with me when I heard the scuffling of feet and the door opening and closing. Glancing back, I saw Aaron giving me a tiny wave.

  “Hey, Aaron, how’s the little guy?”

  “Pete? The polydactyl? He’ll be fine, growling at his food and making a mess. Ashley picked him up on her way over from the Pet Mart, someone dumped the guy in their parking lot.”

  I couldn’t help grinning over the way Aaron’s voice rose and cracked slightly when he said Ashley’s name. “Lucky for him they called her.”

  “Oh no, she was there to grab some litter and food for us.”

  Groaning out loud, I made a mental note to have a word with Ashely the next time I saw her. She already did so much for the rescue with her free or insanely reduced fees for all the vet care, she didn’t need to be donating items too.

  Aaron grinned at my vocalization. “She said you would be ticked at her. We’re straining at the walls here with the influx of black cats and all the at-home fosters needed, so don’t be too tough on her.”

  I laughed. “Me tough on Ashley? You know better.” Eying the teen I debated whether to ask if he would be applying for scholarships for college or not. Better to ask Ashley about that since Aaron was obviously confiding in her about his future plans
. Then I could find a way to swing a nice sum his way via a Whisker Kisses Scholarship. A call to my lawyer would probably be helpful there before I got too ahead of myself.

  “Umm…T, I know you usually prefer the older volunteers to do the night shifts but I would really like to start.”

  Other than Aaron’s crazy crush on Ashley, the boy was a model volunteer, prompt, helpful, and polite. Did I think he would throw a wild cat party if here overnight? Doubtful, and truthfully, he was more responsible than many older people. Why let age stand in the way of another volunteer to handle the overnight shifts at the rescue? “Okay, but I will need one of your parents to sign off for you.”

  The teen’s face lit up like I had just handed him Ashley’s home number. “Yes!” he crowed, pumping a fist.

  “Let me get a release made up and I’ll get that to you ASAP.”

  “Awesome!”

  One other thing had been worrying at the back of my mind though. “Say, Aaron, who else is supposed to be on shift with you?”

  “Madison,” his brown eyes shifted all around.

  I waited, a trick I had learned from my sister Megan. When you wanted information all you had to do was wait out the guilty party and they would begin to stumble all over themselves to fill the awkward silence.

  It took him two minutes to crumble. I wasn’t quite up to my sister’s level.

  “She’s having problems with her boyfriend and it’s only three hours before Dana and Gwennie come in.” His head hung as he spoke more to his t-shirt than to me.

  “Hey, that’s life I get it, but I don’t like anyone here alone. It’s just a safety issue.” I thought about my daily plans and mentally shrugged. “Guess it’s you and me, Aaron, until the girls come.”

  “You’re not mad at Madison, are you?” The poor kid sounded miserable.

  “No, but I do wish one of you would have called someone else to help cover her shift.” I tried not to be too hard but again, Aaron was just seventeen and during the day our doors were open to the public. At night, with things locked up and the security system on, I wasn’t as concerned. Plus, the chances of someone breaking into a cat rescue were pretty slim.

  A frown pulled at my mouth. This month had already proven to be unpredictable. Would a deranged bunch of loons that could savagely kill a cat because it’s black balk at breaking into a place that had dozens of black cats? Maybe I should consider the extra measure of having a security fence installed. That wasn’t something that could be done in a day though. Rehoboth was crazy about permits. Ugh, another thing to look into. I really should be writing these down.

  “You said Dana and Gwennie are coming in?”

  We were on a safer topic so Aaron straightened up. “Yeah, they should be here around noon.”

  “Who’s doing the overnight?”

  “They are.”

  I couldn’t stop the words that burst from my mouth. “Noon until eight?! How did they draw that short stick?”

  Aaron’s brown eyes flew wide at that as his mouth puckered up forming an O. “T, they wanted to do it!” he finally spat out. “They have big plans to watch a few movies with popcorn.”

  The idea of those two older ladies, both in their sixties, enjoying their overnight shift as a girl’s night sleepover had me chuckling. “Okay, as long as they don’t feel they need to do this.”

  Even so, it was probably time to see about getting some more volunteers. We had a pretty tight crew of seven that had been with me almost from the start and had picked up five more over the years. Yet another thing to add to my ever-growing list.

  “Everything okay up here?” My eyes traveled around the clean and peaceful room, all the cats in various degrees of snoozing.

  “Oh yeah, it’s cool and seriously T, you don’t need to stay.”

  “No, I have some things I need to get done anyway.”

  He gave me a shrug and left to do the next task on his list. I went around and decided on two sisters that were cuddled together in a single bed as the ones I would take to my house tonight.

  Going down the stairs, I came across Jasper, our regular resident black cat. “Hey, baby,” I crooned to him giving him exactly three strokes before pulling back. That seemed to be the magical number that he would tolerate. Go for that fourth pet and you were going to get bit. His temperament had made placing him tricky but I knew the right person or family would come along for him. A few times I had been tempted to take him home myself since I knew and accepted him as he was, but Maverick simply would not tolerate another male cat in the house. That I had found out the hard way when I had tried shortly after fostering Daisy and Maverick.

  At noon Dana and Gwennie showed up and gave hugs all around. I loved those ladies, they were always smiling and just a positive influence on all of us. They ribbed Aaron horribly when they heard that Ashley had been by. Seeing the poor guy go beet red and sputter his way through denials of his crush was hilarious. When they turned that attention onto me, I wasn’t quite as amused.

  “What’s that we heard about Greece being a dud? And Stella, our stylist, said she heard Lance got married?”

  I about fell over. I had just found out yesterday and here a hair stylist already knew the news and was spreading it around!

  Dana grabbed me in another hug. “He’s slime to move on so quickly. You’re well rid of him,” she told me gently.

  Gwennie was more diplomatic, “I hope he paid for the trip.” That earned her a sharp jab from Dana’s bony elbow. “What?”

  “Ladies, I’m fine.” I let out a deep breath and amended it, “Now I am, at least. I saw the happy couple yesterday and if my niece hadn’t been with me, I would have blown up.”

  “Plenty of fish in the sea,” Gwennie said.

  “Plus, you’re young, tons of time. There’s no rush.”

  All things I had thought of myself dozens of times since yesterday, yet it still stung that Lance had gotten married so soon after we broke up.

  “Thanks, ladies, you enjoy your movies. I’m taking Billy and Jean home with me tonight to free up some more room here.”

  Dana and Gwennie exchanged a glance then Gwennie grabbed her large monogrammed black and white striped tote bag and headed upstairs. Dana remained behind with me. “Sure you don’t want to stay? We got the first three Indiana Jones movies, the fourth one was rubbish so we ignore it.”

  I wavered for a moment, I loved Harrison Ford, then my phone beeped at me. Glancing at it I saw a text from John asking me to head over to the firehouse. Odd.

  “Looks like I now have plans and Billy and Jean will have to wait until later.”

  “Somehow I doubt the girls will mind much,” Dana said. “Well, if you get finished up early and still want them, come on over and we’ll get them ready for you.” She enveloped me in another fragrant, tight hug and I leaned into it and enjoyed it for all it was worth. I missed having family that hugged me.

  A shouted-out goodbye to Aaron and Gwennie and I was off, heading toward Station Ten in Lewes.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  It was funny how life turned out. John and I had grown up outside Wilmington Delaware and he ended up in Lewes at the fire department down there. It was the first station he had interviewed at after passing his exams and he had been shocked when they called to hire him. Not me, I had known before the call had even come through. One of my rare flashes of prescience.

  What had surprised me was the sudden desire to move there too. Though it made sense, I felt such peace at the beach and near the ocean why shouldn’t I go where I had the most joy?

  John, being John, never resented me for my lifestyle or my money. He was content with his rewarding job, his small apartment, and our friendship. Though I had known for years that he would be happy if we took things to the next level, he had never pushed. Another reason he was my trusted friend and I loved him dearly.

  Sadly, I couldn’t say I felt the same way about his coworkers. Firefighters were a different breed of people. Guess they had to be
to go running into danger when the rest of us were smart enough to be going the other direction. But no matter how much time I spent around some of John’s fire hall buddies, their quirky senses of humor rubbed me the wrong way.

  As I entered the main door of the large grey stone firehouse, the air filled with hoots and yells.

  “It’s the fortune teller!”

  “Where’s your crystal ball, Teresa?”

  “Watch out! It’s heart attack time!”

  Ouch, that last one was low. Ripping on me after my over the top summer performance as Madame T at their carnival I could understand and even chuckle at. Okay, maybe just the first few times, now months later it was long since old. But to joke about a man being so spooked by a ghost from the past coming up that he had popped a gasket and some stinky gas to boot, well, that was rather tasteless.

  I tossed my death glare at the t-shirt and blue cargo pant clad guys lounging around the station and tried to ignore all the ghost firefighters that frowned at me coming into their territory. Sadly, I had no clue where to find John so the whole thing was ruined when I had to approach the living men. The ghosts I shielded around and tried not to make eye contact with. From past visits I found them to be an even surlier lot than the living firefighters.

  The overhead fluorescent lights glaring off the shiny bald dome of one of the guys almost blinded me as I asked him about John. Without a word he jerked his melon-shaped head toward the large bay of firetrucks that could be viewed through the glass window then went back to watching TV.

  Taking a cue from his casual attitude, I walked over and let myself in through the closed door. Each step on the clean floor produced a loud, reverberating squeak and I saw John’s head pop around the fender of one of the big red trucks to investigate. When he saw it was me, a fast grin transformed his homely face into approachably cute and drew an answering smile from me.