Chapter One Hundred Two - Bills & (Gasp) Not a Bill

We settled back into our routine so quickly that you wouldn’t think Studmuffin had ever been gone. Of course my familiar thought all the Christmas decorations were for him as a welcome-home gift, which…sure. Why not? I was just glad he was home with me again.

Even when the “Christmas tree fainted” overnight. His words.

“Uh-huh,” I’d said and then laughed.

No way I could be mad at him for trying to conquer his nemesis known as the Christmas tree. And spilling all of its ornaments everywhere. And putting bite marks in the treetop’s star because it “tasted like laptop plastic.” His words yet again.

I think he was just excited to be back home. Still, I started packing up the decorations, slowly so he wouldn’t notice.

He totally noticed though. He gave me some serious stink-eye while he sat on the window seat watching me find the final missing ornament inside a kitchen cabinet of all places. I’d been searching for hours.

“Really, Studmuffin? Now you’re just messing with me. I didn’t really want to spend my Saturday on a scavenger hunt, but here we are.”

“I didn’t put it there.”

“Surrrrre you didn’t.”

He lifted a murder mitten to clean it, and also to try to hide his little kitty smile.

“Fluffer. Stinker.”

Ignoring me, he turned his attention to the window and the complete whiteout beyond. “I suppose I should do something about that.”

“About what?”

He shrugged. “About the snow.”

“What do you mean do something about it?”

He scooted my cell phone lying next to him closer. “I mean I need to call Boxy.”

“Okay,” I said, dropping the ornament back into the hall closet, “but that doesn’t clear anything up.”

He ignored me as usual, speed-dialed Boxy, and put him on speaker when he answered. “Boxy, I have bills to pay. Make it so.”

“On it, boss.” Boxy hung up.

I stared at my familiar for what seemed like several lifetimes, waiting for him to explain. When he settled in for bath time on the window seat, stubbornly silent, I threw my hands in the air.

“Um, hello? Did you just ask Boxy to pay your kitty bills to do something about the snow?”

He looked at me as though the hamster wheel inside my head had long ago stopped spinning. “Yes.”

“But…how?” I knelt in front of him to make it harder for him to ignore me. “What does the snow have to do with you?”

“Well, someone has to pay Mother Nature to ease up on Belle’s Cove. It might as well be me.”

Now it was all starting to make sense. Sort of. “When you first came to Sunray’s last January, you gave Boxy one of your whiskers. He said as a kid, he always thought that meant he was a bank for cats so they could pay their kitty bills. He said he took that role of banker very seriously.”

He stopped cleaning his white murder mitten to spare me a glance. “I already know all this, for this is known.”

“Right, but I’m just now figuring out that it’s real,” I said with a laugh. “So if you pay Mother Nature’s bill, it’ll stop snowing.”

“Probably. However, I was late paying it due to being catnapped. She might tack on some interest in the form of a few sinkholes in town or something. She’s one kooky cookie, that one.”

“I see…”

He licked his murder mitten again, swiped it against his head, and flipped his ear inside out with it. “Do you?”

“No,” I admitted and reached out to help him with his ear situation. “Doesn’t Mother Nature know that it’s July? Georgia July?”

“Of course, but guess what her favorite season is?”

“Ahhh, makes sense,” I said, resting my elbow on the seat next to him with my head in my hand.

“When she makes it snow like this, businesses close, roads close, and sometimes even schools close.” He shuddered hard at that. “Believe me, if I could pay more whiskers to prevent that, I would.”

“You don’t say,” I deadpanned. “Thank goodness you’re not really a professor or you’d make your poor students slog through the snow even if school was cancelled. Probably even on Saturdays and Sundays.”

“So?”

I laughed.

“Anyway, where was I?” Studmuffin blinked his yellow-green eyes at me.

“Um, Mother Nature and her favorite season?”

“Right. So when all these places close, the only place that never closes is home. Everyone’s there, and suddenly it’s the coziest place on the planet.”

I grinned. “So it is.”

“She loves the smiles and laughter and love when people are home. That’s why, if it weren’t for familiars all over the world paying their bills, it would be winter all the time everywhere.”

“I never thought I’d say this, but I have more in common with Mother Nature than I thought because I love snow too.” I dropped a kiss on the top of his head. “Maybe you should’ve been a little later paying your bill.”

“It’s not as special if it lasts forever, pet.” He rubbed the side of his face against my mermaid arm. “But I love it too.”

“So what do you do in winter when it occasionally does snow? Do you still have to pay your bills?”

“Of course I do. It’s why we only get a few inches and schools never close.”

“Got it, Professor.” Grinning, I turned to the window. “I think it’s already stopped snowing!”

“Good.” Studmuffin tucked his front murder mittens underneath him so he looked like a proper muffin. “It already feels several degrees warmer too.”

“Until the snow melts, want to listen to audiobooks and cuddle all day?”

He gave me his best kitty smile. “I thought you’d never ask.”

* * *

It took about a day for all the snow to melt. Three feet of snow couldn’t compete long with Georgia’s summer temperatures. It was now hotter than a billy goat with a blowtorch.

Days passed with no wacky weather, no catnapping but plenty of cat napping, and no murders. I’d never been more shocked in my life at how quiet everything was. It was almost as if the snow had frozen all thoughts of murder. Maybe all that time spent inside while warm and safe had softened some hearts.

Several more days passed with no one bothering to put away their Christmas decorations, which gave all of Belle’s Cove an even quirkier, cozier vibe. The holiday season was only five months away, so better to leave them up. Maybe even all year long, because why not?

During that time, Travis and I made plans for our first date. Oh, and he eventually stopped hovering in midair after my summoning spell at the police station. Anyway, he’d agreed to go see a scary movie with me if I agreed to help him recover over dinner. This was one date I promised I wouldn’t forget, no matter what life threw in my way.

And the detective… Well, I hadn’t spoken to him in nearly a week. It was because I was busy at Sunray’s. Promise. I would tell him about my heart and how it now belonged to my mortal enemy turned friend turned more than friend soon…right after I was finished stalling.

Have I mentioned how awesome I am at stalling? So good that instead of calling Detective Palmer during my lunch break—for the fifth straight day in a row—I checked the mail.

I was glad I did because there weren’t just bills. Inside the mailbox was a letter from the University of Georgia. I blinked hard at my name on the envelope. My heart rattled to a stop before it jump started itself to life again. This was it—either my acceptance letter or my you’ve-got-to-be-kidding letter.

I couldn’t open it. Too much hung in the balance. I stood there in the July heat for who knows how long just staring at it.

With a loud pop, Studmuffin appeared next to me. Even he couldn’t shake me from this frozen trance I was in though.

“Hey.” He tapped me on the leg with his murder mitten, then when I didn’t respond, he brought out the claws and tried again. “What is that you’ve been holding for the last fifteen minutes?”

“It’s the letter. The letter, Studmuffin.” Unexpected emotion clogged my throat. “I don’t think I can open it.”

Boxy ambled toward us while adjusting his blue-and-white striped railroad cap to keep the sun out of his eyes. The sun was glaring down extra hard today, seeming to throw this moment in a spotlight.

“What’s all this?” Boxy asked. “Is this where the lunchtime party is?”

I showed him the envelope. “It’s here.”

After studying it for a moment, a bright smile blossomed all over his face. “Well, Vic, are you going to open it?”

Studmuffin swatted my leg with his mood noodle. “Only if standing here and thinking about opening it counts. She says she can’t do it.”

“It’s too much.” I shook my head, not really sure what I was saying. “My hopes, my dreams… It all comes down to this right here, and it’s too much. I want this, but the envelope is so light that it can’t be good news.”

“Nonsense,” Studmuffin grumped. “You don’t need a whole ream of paper in that envelope telling you how great you are, pet.”

Boxy nodded. “He’s right, you know.”

“Well, of course he is,” I agreed.

“Of course I am.” Studmuffin puffed his white chest out proudly. “I will sit here in my rightness and be right.”

I shoved the envelope at Boxy. “Can you open it?”

Shaking his head, he gently pushed it back. “You said it yourself, Vic. These are your hopes and dreams. You should get the honor.”

“Wise words,” I said with a groan.

“I’ve had quite a few years of practice,” he said, shrugging. “Go on, Vic. We’ll love you no matter what’s inside that envelope.”

I blew out a steadying breath. These last few months had shown just how far I could go with my magic and with my life; I could go a little bit farther. With these two at my side and with everyone else who had my back, I could always go a little bit farther. I could discover just how much I was capable of.

With shaky hands, I opened the envelope.