Myrtle looked up at her. “Double stack of flapjacks.”
Lainey was startled. “You want me to get you a double stack of flapjacks?”
Myrtle’s eyes briefly turned milky white, and she repeated firmly “Double stack of flapjacks.”
“Uhhh…okay. I’ll be right back with that. Do you want syrup and butter?” Lainey asked, but Myrtle’s eyes looked normal again, and she was staring off at something far, far away.
Lainey turned to leave. A double stack of flapjacks? That was a menu item at the Henhouse. What the heck, why not?
She signed out at the visitor’s desk, and carefully shut the front door, making sure that the lock caught. The last thing she needed was to be responsible for dozens of wandering nursing home residents drifting through the streets.
Sighing, she got in her car and headed towards the diner. As she parked and walked into the Henhouse, she felt like she’d tumbled down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland, batted about this way and that by the bizarre denizens of this strange little world unto itself. She hadn’t really minded, up until the day her mother and Miles had shown up.
And, speak of the devils, there they were, sitting at a booth, looking at menus. Ergh. Would she never be free of them?
She stopped in her tracks, and quickly turned to go, praying they wouldn’t see her.
Too late.
Why, Mildred, why? Why did you send me here? Come on, I brought you tea!
Her mother leaped up and strode towards her, with Miles in tow. “We’re here to take you home, darling,” her mother said loudly, her big, bright smile pasted on her face. “We’ll get you the help you so desperately need. We’ll never abandon you.”
The entire diner had fallen silent. Lainey felt as if a white-hot spotlight were glaring down on her. It was like being on stage and having your pants fall down in front of the audience.
Lainey turned to face her mother, prepared to yell, to curse, to stomp out of the restaurant. She was horrified to see that Miles had sunk to one knee.
“Lainey Robinson, I love you, despite everything,” he said loudly enough for the entire diner to hear. “I promise I will take care of you for the rest of your life. I forgive you. You agreed to marry me, Lainey. Are you an honorable woman? Will you honor that agreement and be my wife?”
“The word ‘honor’ is one that should never pass your lips,” Lainey snapped. “And no, I will never marry you.”
“Don’t you understand? Your father and I will not allow you to stay here, and we certainly will not allow you to mate with a dog,” her mother said loudly. There was a gasp of outrage from the customers in the room, canine shifters, feline shifters, and humans alike.
“Yes, you will, mother,” a voice said from behind a family of panther shifters who had been standing in line to pay for their bill. It was Donavan—and next to him was Tate.
Lainey’s jaw dropped. “What is happening here?”
Tate and Donovan walked up to her, and Tate threw his arms around her and kissed her. Lainey was so shocked that she didn’t even respond.
“What—the—how—what are you doing here?” she asked.
“We were about to go to the boarding house to find you, but I saw your car parked here,” he said.
“Donny, darling!” their mother cried out, her face lighting up at the sight of her big, handsome son.
Donny scowled at her. “Don’t darling me. I heard what you did to my sister, and I’m here to tell you it’s over. I’ve contacted the district attorney’s office, and I’m turning myself in.”
“Donny, don’t. You’ll go to jail.” Lainey was horrified. “What about your wife and baby?”
“I’ve talked to her about it, and she agrees with me. I did the crime, so I’m the one who should do the time. I may be looking at some time in jail, yes. My lawyer thinks it won’t be more than a few months. That’s not what matters. What matters is that you’re being punished for something that I did.”
Donny scrambled up on top of the counter, and yelled at the top of his lungs.“Hear ye, hear ye,” he shouted, although he didn’t need to. Every eye in the place was on him. Even the cook and the servers had stopped to stare at him, riveted.
“You don’t know me. I am Donavan Robinson, and I am privileged to be the brother of the best sister in the world, Lainey Robinson. A few years ago, I was acting like a real jerk, getting arrested, driving drunk, vandalizing things for the hell of it, getting in bar fights. I was out on probation when I stole money from the account of one of my parents’ clients.”