Free Cat and Company by Tracy Cooper-Posey Page A

time,” he said softly.
    Her heart lurched. “Yes, we should,” she agreed.
    Yennifer didn’t hug her. Hugging wasn’t Yennifer’s style. She was too inhibited for that sort of open expression. Her smile, though, was sweet and genuine. “It is good to have you back in the city,” she said. “You are a positive influence whenever you go.”
    Catherine laughed. “That’s not what Lilly and Bedivere think. Trouble follows me wherever I go.”
    “I never said trouble,” Lilly protested. “I’ve always said that life is interesting whenever I’m near you.”
    “Wars are interesting, too, just not while you’re living through them,” Brant pointed out dryly.
    It was the same easy back-and-forth from hundreds of conversations in the past. Catherine’s eyes began to sting with tears. “I really have missed you,” she said. She had to force the words out past the constriction in her throat.
    She glanced at the rest of the welcoming group. Devlin was talking to the sandy-haired Nichol August. They had been close friends and colleagues when Devlin had lived here, before he had acquired the Hana Stareach . There were three other village mayors that she recognized, too, all of them watching Devlin as he spoke softly. Even Devlin’s pilots were gathered around behind him, listening gravely.
    “Where is Connell?” she asked Brant. “I thought he would be here to give me hell about what I’m wearing.”
    “He…stayed back at the suite,” Lilly said carefully.
    With Bedivere, Catherine guessed. Lilly wasn’t going to be the first to say his name, though.
    Disappointment touched her. She really had not expected Bedivere to stand there with the welcoming group. She hadn’t expected a welcome like this at all. Yet they were all here and part of her wanted Bedivere to be there, too. It would be like him to defy everything and look her in the eye, daring her to react.
    She wanted him to show her he was the same as always, untouched by her absence.
    She also refused to be the first to speak his name aloud.
    It seemed she didn’t have to, though. Brant, Lilly and even Yennifer seemed to sink into themselves a little, their gazes downcast.
    Fright touched her. What was wrong? Something was wrong, but she had given up any right to ask.
    Then Lilly stirred, remembering her role and turned back to Devlin. “We would be honored if you could join us for dinner this evening.”
    The old first-night tradition. Catherine gritted her teeth together, hiding the rush of warm feelings and sentimentality that came with that thought. Please say no! she mentally begged Devlin.
    Devlin, though, looked delighted. “That would be absolutely wonderful,” he said. He looked at Brant. “Do you still have the pattern for that brandy you used to drink?”
    “Pattern? It’s planet-produced,” Brant assured him. “That’s the difference. And I just happen to have a few bottles and no one to drink it with.”
    Devlin squeezed his shoulder. “I can change that,” he said, his voice warm.
    * * * * *
    Connell shook his head. “I wish you’d told us about this sooner,” he said softly.
    Bedivere kept his shaking hands together, fisting them tightly. “Think about it,” he said, his voice low. “Just telling you, explaining this, is hard enough. You think I could have managed it the week after regeneration? Even a month ago?” He grimaced.
    Connell sighed. “I suppose the gift in all this is that you can’t get the shit here. You’d have to dive down the hole into the fringes and none of us will ever let you do that again.”
    “You couldn’t stop me if I really wanted to,” Bedivere assured him. “I just don’t want to, anymore.”
    “You might,” Connell said, his voice very low.
    Bedivere shook his head. “No.”
    Connell’s clear gaze locked with his. “Yennifer just blocked out Lilly’s and Brant’s and my schedules for tonight. Devlin Woodward is coming to dinner.”
    Bedivere sighed. The old first-night dinner