Chapter 9 #2
Thankfully, reinforcements soon returned with a litter tray. Carrie had never realised it was possible to have an awkward silence with a cat. But then poor Tabitha was going through a lot.
Carrie left Michael and Poppy doing drawing tutorials together as the shop began to fill up with customers. Poppy made her turn off the radio in the shop and would appear at the half-open office door looking fierce if she thought the customers were getting too rowdy.
Carrie was closing up for lunch when Poppy came running out of the office.
“Mummy, Tabitha has had a kitten!” she exclaimed loudly, before catching herself. “Sorry, Tabitha,” she whispered over her shoulder.
“That’s wonderful!” said Carrie in her own hushed whisper. “May I come to see?”
“As long as you’re very quiet.”
Carrie smiled as she raised her eyebrows and Poppy giggled. “I have been quite quiet,” she said.
Poppy took Carrie’s hand and led her into the office where Michael was bent down by the box.
“Congratulations, you’re a grandad,” Carrie whispered, looking at the tiny ginger kitten, its eyes tightly closed, which Tabitha was licking.
“Indeed. I’ve just texted Layla to tell her she’s an aunt too.” Michael sounded quite emotional and Carrie squeezed his hand and they grinned at each other.
Just a few minutes later, Tabitha had another ginger kitten, making Michael repeat his suspicions as to its parentage. Half an hour later, they concluded she was done.
“Only two in a litter isn’t unusual for a first-time mother,” Michael said. “It appears we got off lightly.”
Carrie went next door to the coffee shop where she got them all paninis and chocolate brownies as a treat for lunch. She told Lucy the happy news and she made them a couple of coffees and an apple juice on the house.
Tabitha had moved into her basket with her kittens by the time Carrie returned.
They ate their lunch in the office, Carrie perched on the desk, whispering to each other and unable to wipe the smiles from their faces.
Carrie put a note on the shop’s door explaining what was happening and that they’d be closed for longer to give Tabitha some peace.
She reopened the shop at 3 p.m. and Michael and Poppy went to take Monty for a walk.
Carrie thought it was lovely how Michael was happy to let her little girl tag along with him.
She watched them from the shop window as they ambled down the road together towards the beach.
The shop was busy for the next half an hour or so, with plenty of holidaymakers.
Carrie was now able to tell almost as soon as they came in the shop door what sort of customer they were.
Probably her favourites were the ones who’d travelled specifically to visit them because they simply loved romance books.
They walked almost in awe around the shop, pointing things out to one another (they were usually women, and usually in pairs or threes).
They inevitably bought a lot of books, and she loved hearing their happy exclamations when they spotted something special they’d been looking for on the shelves.
They, and general tourists who popped in, usually left with one of the postcards her aunt had had printed of the shop front and which were displayed on a little carousel on the counter.
The book dealers who came in were usually very friendly as well, and some had even been coming to the shop for so long that they recognised Carrie from when she used to visit growing up.
A lot of these older ones were general booksellers of course, rather than romance specific, but they still always seemed to find some treasures.
The shop had a quiet moment so Carrie went into the office to check on Tabitha.
The kittens were feeding and everything looked very peaceful.
Carrie considered giving Tabitha a reassuring stroke but wasn’t at all convinced she’d appreciate it.
Something caught her eye. She looked in the basket again — there was a third, tiny kitten.
It was black with white paws and smaller than the others but very much wriggling around and drinking from its mother.
The bell over the door jingled and she came out of the office as Michael, Poppy and Monty returned. Deciding to keep shtum about the new kitten so she’d witness their surprise, she gave Monty a scratch behind the ears.
“Is Monty coming to hang out with us for a little while?” Carrie asked.
“I was going to take him back to mine, but thought I’d drop Poppy off first,” Michael said.
“Why doesn’t he stay here? He’ll be no trouble,” suggested Carrie. She felt a bit sorry for the poor dog missing out on all the excitement and being left by himself.
“Famous last words,” warned Michael, and let Monty off the lead. The dog sniffed around and made his way to the office door.
“I think he wants to see Tabitha,” said Poppy.
“Why don’t you go in and check on her first?” Carrie said, with a smile. “See if you think she’s ready for visitors.”
Michael called Monty over to him and Poppy went into the office. Almost immediately they heard her little squeal of surprise. “There’s another kitten!”
“What?” said Michael.
“Yep. It seems she wasn’t quite done after all.” Carrie laughed.
Michael put Monty back on the lead and went into the office to see for himself.
Monty was very sweet and gentle with the cat, who seemed happy to show him her kittens.
“The third kitten is very small,” said Michael. “But it seems to be moving around and breathing OK.”
“Yeah, we’d better keep an eye on it,” Carrie worried. “We don’t want it to get pushed around by the others.”
“I’ll make sure the big ones are kind,” said Poppy.
“If it’s OK, I’ll keep them here for a little while until you close and then take them back to my place. Hopefully Tabitha won’t mind being moved then.”
“Sure. We’ll need to move them really carefully though,” said Carrie.
* * *
The shop closed at five and Michael needed to pick up Layla soon afterwards so they planned to move Tabitha over to his house and then Carrie and Poppy would stay there with her until he returned with Layla.
The whole procedure took a few trips, with Tabitha and the kittens being moved first. Michael carried them in the basket as steadily as he could, while Poppy and Carrie stood on either side in case Tabitha got upset and attempted to jump out. Thankfully the cat seemed to accept what was happening.
Michael put the basket of cats in his utility room so he could close the door and Tabitha would have peace from Monty if need be.
“Make yourselves at home,” he said as he left to get Layla. “I won’t be long. Layla’s mum, Georgia, is going to bring her part of the way. Help yourselves to tea, coffee or whatever.”
Poppy went outside with Monty to play. She’d decided she was going to teach him to do all kinds of tricks after watching a dog training video on YouTube.
Carrie put the kettle on to boil and looked around Michael’s kitchen.
It felt strange to be in his home without him being there.
The shop made up the front part of the building with a door into the kitchen.
Off the kitchen was the utility room, which Carrie now thought of as Tabitha’s lair, beyond which was a cloakroom.
The kitchen was a good size, with a large pine table in the middle and French doors leading out to the garden. Another door led to a small hallway which ran down the side of the building, to a front door next to the shop, and contained the staircase going up to the first floor.
Carrie made herself a tea and got Poppy a glass of water. She took a little peep at the cats in the utility room before going to join Poppy and Monty in the garden.
The little girl wasn’t really getting anywhere with the training just yet but was valiantly struggling through.
Monty looked pleased to take a break when Poppy stopped to have some of her drink.
Carrie watched the dog skulk off to hide under a bush and decided to let him have a little rest rather than telling Poppy his location straight away.
“I’ll be helping to look after the kittens now as well as helping in the bookshop,” Poppy said.
“I hope you’ll still have time for holiday club,” Carrie said with a smile. Poppy was so sweet when she was serious.
“Me too.” She gave a delicate sigh. Carrie managed to hold back a laugh, she didn’t want to hurt Poppy’s feelings.
“We’re home!” called Michael as he and Layla came through the garden gate. Carrie’s stomach did a bizarre flip at the domesticity of it.
“Hey,” she said. “Did you have a good day, Layla?”
“I did, but I can’t believe I missed Tabitha having kittens. Can I see them now, Dad?”
“Of course, they’re in the utility room. Just try to be quiet.”
Poppy followed Layla into the house to give her the full rundown of the day’s excitement.
“What a day!” said Michael, sitting down in a chair next to Carrie’s.
“Absolutely.” Carrie laughed. “How about I go to the supermarket and grab some pizzas for us all? I fear it’s going to be hard to tear Poppy away from the new arrivals anytime soon.”
“That sounds absolutely brilliant,” said Michael. “If you’re happy for Layla to watch Poppy, Monty and I will come with you. He could do with another little walk.”
“You don’t think Layla will mind? She is a cool teen, you know.”
“She really likes hanging out with Poppy. I think it makes her feel grown up. Like a big sister maybe?”
“I can see that,” Carrie said.
Layla and Poppy came back outside. “Mummy!” said Poppy. “Layla says she’ll paint my nails, but I have to ask you first.”
“That’s fine,” said Carrie. “Do you know what colour you’d like her to paint them?”
“I think something glittery,” said Poppy.
“Good choice,” Carrie said while smiling at both girls. She mouthed thank you to Layla.
“While you girls do that, are you OK with Carrie and I going to the supermarket, Layla?” Michael asked. “We’ll take Monty with us and get some pizzas for tea.”
“No worries,” said Layla. “Can Poppy watch some Disney cartoons?”