Cat Trick Read Online Free PDF Page A

She was wearing the T-shirt I’d brought her back from
     Boston—
IMatt Lauer
. The black fabric looked good with her fair skin and short blond hair, but she would
     have worn the shirt even if it hadn’t. Mags had a longtime crush on the morning-show
     host.
    “We just came to see if the tents were up,” I said.
    She blew out a long breath. “We’re getting there. Mike isn’t sure this is the correct
     type of tent. He’s been discussing it with Burtis.”
    That was probably the conversation Marcus and I had caught the end of.
    “What about the art show?” Marcus asked. “Is it going to be in one of the tents?”
    Maggie shook her head. “No. They’re both for food. We’re in the community center.”
     She gestured over her shoulder to the building across the street. “There’s more space
     and more light. Not to mention a roof. Liam thought it was a better idea. People can
     come back and forth.”
    Liam was Liam Stone, part-time bartender and full-time grad student in psychology.
     He was also the main organizer of the group that had put together the pitch to Legacy
     Tours. Maggie and I had met Liam the previous winter, when we’d been cruising the
     bars up on the highway, looking for information about who had run down former school
     principal Agatha Shepherd. (It was the same night I’d seen more of Mary than I had
     ever wanted to.)
    Maggie had charmed Liam to the point that for a moment he’d struggled to make words
     into sentences. They’d been going out casually for months. She insisted it was nothing
     serious.
    “Where is Liam?” I asked. I didn’t see him anywhere. He was well over six feet tall,
     so he was hard to miss.
    “He’s just gone over to River Arts to get some backdrops to use with a few of the
     booths. Mike didn’t think the ones Burtis brought were ‘classy’ enough.” Maggie hunched
     her shoulders and stifled a yawn with one hand. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m tired and
     I haven’t had supper.” She looked inquiringly at Marcus. “Have you two eaten yet?”
    Maggie wasn’t usually much for subtlety—getting or using—but I knew by the gleam in
     her green eyes that her question was a fishing expedition. She was trying to find
     out if Marcus and I had had dinner together. Maybe she’d picked up some sneakiness
     from Owen. The cat’s adoration for Maggie rivaled hers for Matt Lauer. I got a mental
     picture of Owen in an
IMaggie Adams
T-shirt and almost laughed.
    “Yes,” I said, sending her a slit-eyed glare. “And so has Marcus.”
    “I’ll walk back to Eric’s and get you something,” he said. “What would you like?”
    “You don’t have to do that,” Maggie said, running a hand through her curls.
    “I want to.” He smiled at us, and for a second I forgot what we were talking about.
     “Tea, right?” he asked. “And maybe some kind of sandwich?”
    “Okay,” Maggie agreed.
    “I won’t be very long,” he said. He turned and headed back the way we’d come.
    I watched him for a moment and turned back to Maggie. She smirked at me. “He’s just
     as cute as a bug’s ear,” she said.
    “‘I haven’t had supper. Have you two eaten yet?’” I said, mimicking her voice. “That
     was very creative of you.”
    “Thank you,” she said, the smirk still firmly in place. “And don’t think I don’t know
     that the two of you had dinner together.”
    “Yes, we had dinner together. And yes, before you ask, it was fun. But don’t push
     it. We’re taking things very slowly.”
    She gave a snort of laughter. “Slowly? Fossils form faster than you two move, Kathleen.”
    I made a face. “I’m changing the subject now. Tell me how things are going here.”
    She sighed. “Remember when I called Mike a festering boil?”
    I nodded.
    Maggie glanced back over her shoulder for a moment. “I was too nice. I know that’s
     mean, but he doesn’t like the backdrops. He doesn’t like the tents. He doesn’t like
     the art show being