Silver Samantha
Lipstick On A Pig
- Язык: en
- Формат: fb2
- Размер: 701.34 kB
- Жанр: детективы
Lipstick on a Pig Willow Bay Witches #4
Samantha Silver
Blueberry Books Press
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Also by Samantha Silver
About the Author
Chapter 1
“This is humiliating. I hate it, and I hate you,” Bee scowled. She was in prime form this morning. I sighed as I placed her bed on the little fold-out table where I was collecting donations for the petting zoo.
It was summer festival time in Willow Bay. Taking place during the second and third weeks of August, the festival was the busiest time of the year. We even got food trucks from Portland to come down and line the streets, adding a little bit of variety to the eight or so places in town where you could normally get a meal.
As the local vet clinic owner, every year I was the major sponsor for one of the prime family attractions—the petting zoo. That’s where I was now, setting up for the day, as I volunteered to help run the petting zoo every year. Not only was it good for the community, and the donations that people gave to have their children pet local farm animals all went to the local animal shelter, but this year there was an added bonus: my favorite Portland taco truck was parked right at the entrance to the Park, only about fifty feet from where our giant tent was set up. I couldn’t wait for them to open this morning.
Every year, we normally had the local animal shelter bring down all the dogs and cats they had available for adoption as one of the major features of the petting zoo. And while this year we did have a handful of dogs, we also had the incredibly enviable position of all the local cats in the shelter having been adopted! So, to make sure all our animal friends were represented, I had volunteered Bee to come and sleep nicely in her bed at my table and let herself be pet by little kids who wanted to see all the animals.
Unfortunately, Bee wasn’t quite as civic-minded as I was, and was making her opinions known.
“Do you know how disgusting children are? Their hands are sticky. Why are they sticky?” I sighed. In twenty minutes other people were going to start showing up, to help with the petting zoo and the other attractions in the park, and Bee would stop huffing and pretend to be better than everyone else by ignoring everything going on around her—like she did every day at the vet clinic. Or so I hoped. Those twenty minutes couldn’t come soon enough. To think, it was only the first day of the festival. After today, I still had to deal with this for eleven more days.
I guess I should explain a little bit. I’m a witch. I can cast spells, and like all witches, I have one power that’s unique to me. Mine is that I can speak to animals, and Bee is my little black cat. I like to say she has a lot of personality. It’s a polite way of saying she’s a completely narcissistic drama queen.
“Remember to be nice today, Bee. You can ignore everyone, but no claws . Remember, if you try to scratch anyone, you’re not getting your sushi roll tonight.”
Bee had managed to negotiate a roll of sushi, her favorite treat, as payment for each day that she had to sit there and let herself be pet. It might sound like a lot, but she started off by asking for a box each day, so I felt like I negotiated her down reasonably well. Or that was what I told myself, at least. I didn’t want to admit to myself, or to anyone else, that my cat was a better negotiator than I was.
“You told me I have to be here, you didn’t say I had to behave.”
“Well I’m telling you now.”
“That’s not in my contract.”
“You didn’t sign a contract.”
“It was verbal.”
“Fine, well, I’m amending the contract. You scratch anyone or you bite anyone and you don’t get any sushi.”
Bee scowled at me, walked over to where I was getting the big sign that read Healthy Paws’ Petting Zoo to put along the front of the fold out table and deliberately knocked a pair of scissors onto the floor. I rolled my eyes. I loved Bee, but sometimes my little black cat could be infuriating.
Before I had a chance to scold her, however, Sophie showed up driving a large pickup truck, which she parked about ten feet in front of