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“I’ve put my best gulls on scouting duty, but so far we’re unable to locate her new residence,” Bravo added, all business, while Abigull seemed much more concerned about tending to my feelings.

“So what now?” I asked with a sigh. I appreciated that they’d tried but also felt terribly heartbroken that I may never get to meet my missing family member after all.

“We’ll keep searching, but we’ll need to expand the radius. She may have left the state. It’s no problem, really. We will find her, but it’s just going to take a little longer than originally estimated.”

“Thank you,” I said, working hard to show them a smile even though the news they’d just brought me had ruined my whole day. “Thank you for not giving up.”

“Nothing can stop a bird on a mission,” Bravo informed me with a narrowed gaze.

“Yeah,” his adoptive daughter chimed in.

“Now we must be off.” Bravo immediately launched into the sky with Abigull at his tail.

“Bye, Angie,” the girl gull called as they soared away on the winds.

I slumped down onto the worn oak porch steps and sat there for a while, just me and the dwindling warmth of the setting sun.

What would I do if the flock failed to find my grandmother? I’d already questioned my remaining family in Larkhaven, searched every nook and cranny of the Internet… I’d even tried the genealogy route but had come up with absolutely nothing.

Somewhere out there, I had a grandmother I hadn’t even known existed until last year. Her entire family had been stolen from her when my grandpa took their baby—my mother—and asked Nan to take her somewhere far away.

None of us knew why, and my grandpa had already passed by the time I learned of his existence. And now these two huge players in my personal history were nothing more than a giant question mark, and I doubted I’d ever really be whole again until I could find her.

Chapter Two

Octo-Cat found me on the porch a while later. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed since the pair of seagulls delivered the news of their delay in finding my family. It must have been a while, though, because the light had faded and a chill that hadn’t been there before now hung in the air.

“What are you doing out here?” Octo-Cat asked after pushing through the automatic pet door and coming to sit at my side.

I would have thought he was showing a rare moment of affection, except the next words out of his mouth were,“And where is my lobster roll?”

I sighed and pushed the almost transparent paper bag over to him.

“It’s almost all the way cold,” he whined as he crinkled his way into the sack, but he accepted the food nonetheless.

I sat and watched the branches of the white ash trees that lined our property as they blew in the wind.

“Do you—uh—want some?” my cat offered hesitantly, his face a distorted mask of concern through the oily paper. His eyes remained glued to the food, daring me to accept the offer.

I shook my head.“All yours.”

“You seem…” The bag broke open, spilling the cat and his lobster roll onto the porch with me. He grabbed the food with his paws and tried to regain his normal, dignified air. With a twinkle in his eyes, he turned his head to one side then the other as he examined me. “Less irritating than usual,” he decided at last. “What’s wrong?”

“Bravo is having a hard time finding my grandmother.” I shrugged, trying to play off my devastation.

“So what’s the big deal? You’ve lived without her this long. Besides, I haven’t seen my mother or any of my brothers or sisters since I was a kitten. And you’re well past your youth now, Angela.”

I chuckled at his logic.“Cats and people aren’t the same. I think you know that better than anyone.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Octo-Cat said, bits of lobster hanging from his chin and whiskers. “And I spend way too much time with humans and other lesser creatures these days…”

He paused to let this sink in. I assumed the other lesser creatures referred to Paisley and Pringle but knew better than to ask for specifics.

“It might be nice to know what happened to my litter mates,” he continued, running a paw over his face. “Ever since we found those kittens, I got to thinking. What if all my brothers and sisters turned out almost as awesome as me?”

“That’s hard to believe,” I said with another laugh. Leave it to Octo-Cat to make my personal tragedy all about him.

“You’re right. It would be almost too amazing, but that’s a chance I’m willing to take.”

I turned to look at him, cupping my cheek in one palm and resting my elbow on my thigh.“What do you mean?”

He finished chewing his bite and swallowed hard.“We’re searching for your family. I want to search for mine, too.”

“But—”

“But nothing. I think it’s fair to ask, since it is my trust fund that pays all our bills.”

“Remember how curiosity killed the cat?” I asked with one eyebrow raised, a slight smile playing at my lips.

Octo-Cat scoffed at this.“That’s just a vicious generalization, and you know it. But fine, I am curious. What’s so wrong about that?”