The Orange Cat and Other Cainsville Tales (Cainsville 3.5)

"They smell awesome." Ricky looked at me. "Have you had one?"

"Not yet. Save me one, please."

"I will." He turned to Owen as he set down his coffee mug. "Now, you were saying something about my bike and my girlfriend. That wasn't a threat, was it? It kinda sounded that way, but I'm sure I was misunderstanding."

"I'm telling your girlfriend here to get out of town."

Ricky's lips twitched. "By high noon? Or sunset?"

"You think that's funny?" Owen stepped up to him. "Take your bike and your

girlfriend and get out of here before someone messes one of them up. Understood?"

"Mmm. I think so. Let's see . . ." Ricky eased back, as if considering. Then his fist shot out, hitting Owen in the jaw so hard the young man slammed into the wall.

Owen spit blood, sputtering, "You--you--"

"That's what my sort do. If you want to hit me back, go ahead and try. But if you miss, I'm going to hit you again, and we'll continue that way until either the cops come or I pound some sense through your thick skull. The alternative is that you decide you're going to have a polite conversation with my girlfriend while I go inside and save her a scone."

Owen stared at him, hand cradling his jaw.

"He thinks I'm trying to take Krista's money," I said. "I was explaining otherwise." I turned to Owen. "I am not taking a penny from Krista. As your smart-ass comments about Ricky's bike should make clear, we don't need her money." I waved my wrist in front of him. "Not to be a stereotypical trust-fund brat, but this watch is worth ten times what Krista was offering. I was trying to be helpful. Look into Maggie's disappearance. Ask around. Then, if I was concerned that the police might not be handling it properly, I'd make suggestions for alternatives. Alternatives that don't involve hiring me or anyone I know. Is that acceptable, Owen?"

He straightened. "No, it's not. You're building up Krista's hopes. False hopes. I know what happened to Maggie. A rich couple like you two came to town. People who are used to getting whatever they want. What they wanted was a baby. They figured a couple kids wouldn't miss her, so they took her, and there's nothing we can do about that."

"Um, yes, there is. I can think of few crimes more likely to be prosecuted. If you have some reason to think that's what happened, someone who made a suspicious comment about the baby . . ."

He went quiet, and this look filled his eyes. The look of someone who's not accustomed to being crafty, trying his best to be exactly that. When I saw that look, every hair on my body rose. I glanced at Ricky, who was peering at Owen, his eyes narrowing.

For ten seconds, I was sure Owen was going to say yes, that's exactly what happened. A stranger had talked about wanting Maggie.

He was going to lie.

But then his look changed to uncertainty, worry. The realization hit that if he said that, we'd ask for details, and he'd have to think fast, and if he failed, it would look bad.

It already looked bad.

"No," he said. "Nothing like that. But everyone always said Maggie was a cute kid, and there are lots of people who want babies. That's what happened. Someone saw her and took her and didn't leave any clues. She's gone, and we don't need people like you saying otherwise. Getting Krista's hopes up. Getting Mrs. Lyons's hopes up. Getting my parents' hopes up."

"And yours?"

A moment of hesitation. Then he shoved his hands into his pockets. "I know better."

"Do you?"

"Yeah, I do. Maggie's gone, and the sooner everyone accepts that, the sooner we can get on with our lives. I only hope that whoever took her is a good person. Treats her well. Maybe gives her stuff we couldn't, like that fancy watch." He nodded, as if to himself. "That's what I hope. What I know is that she's not coming home."

Thirteen - Ricky

It was nearly lunchtime, and they hadn't left town yet. Ricky was fine with that--he wouldn't have gone even if Liv had asked, because he knew she wouldn't want to.

Liv worried that her fae blood made her cold, insensitive. It didn't. It just meant she didn't go out of her way to find people in need and help them. Which, as far as Ricky was concerned, would be stupid, pointless and ultimately a lot less satisfying than one might think. Yeah, obviously he had some of that fae blood, too, but it was also just common sense. The way he saw it, most people who did that were only looking for self-satisfaction or a pat on the back. Liv honestly wanted to help Krista, and so did he. Now that they had an actual lead, they were staying.

They'd spent the morning getting a better sense of Owen's role in this co-parenting arrangement. The truth wasn't as cut-and-dried as Krista made it seem. Or, Ricky figured, more like it wasn't as cut-and-dried as Krista thought.

Owen was a far more reluctant teen parent than everyone let on. Part of that seemed to be that people had a different set of expectations for mothers versus fathers. Ricky knew that first-hand. All his life, he'd heard how his mother was a monster for giving him up and his father a saint for raising him. Bullshit on both ends. It'd been an accidental pregnancy between a guy and a girl who'd been not much older than Krista and Owen. His dad had asked his mom to carry the pregnancy to term and give him the child, and she'd agreed, despite being in med school and feeling totally unprepared for motherhood. They'd both made a tough choice, a huge sacrifice, and he respected them both for it. Yet, if he told people that, they thought he was justifying his mother's actions. And his dad? Totally the hero in this scenario . . . for deciding he wanted to be a father to his kid. Ricky wasn't sure which one should be more insulted.

So, yeah, Ricky knew the expectations would be different for Krista and Owen. As the devoted teen mom, Krista was only playing her natural role. As for Owen, the simple fact that he played any role won him kudos. People praised him for that, saying it'd have been so easy to walk away or deny paternity "like some boys would." It was the simple advantage of biology. Guys could walk away, their part done in thirty seconds. Girls didn't have that option. Granted, the flip side was that guys didn't always have his father's choice--to not opt out. A complicated situation, and in Ricky's case, he knew exactly how fortunate he'd been.