Tyber shrugged. "Just more to add to the mystery, baby. And how can Hippolito's portrait be dated 1964? This is getting more and more tangled."
Zanita poked him in the side with her elbow. "C'mon, admit it. You love it!"
"Well…"
"Ha!"
Tyber frowned at her back as she pranced toward the dumbwaiter. To his mind, her saucy step had way too much know-it-all bounce.
The edges of his mouth lifted as a thought occurred to him. The proof was right in her attitude. Somehow, in her eyes, he had become a partner. A husband.
He was going to take great pleasure in making her realize it.
"Oomph!"
"Dammit!"
The dumbwaiter came to a halt at the bottom of the shaft near the kitchen with a whump-bang! Since Zanita was perched prettily on his lap while he sweated and strained in an effort to bring them down safely with the pulleys, he had the delightful experience of absorbing the full brunt of the jolt when the board hit rock bottom.
Since he was on the bottom, his bottom took the initial wallop. This was followed by the rebound, which caused Zanita to plop down onto his lap in a really uncomfortable way.
You might say poor Tyber took it two ways to the middle.
He tried not to be too vocal about it—there was no telling who was beyond the small lift door in the kitchen. He rested his damp forehead against Zanitas and counted to ten.
"Bad landing, huh?"
He nodded his head silently.
"Poor thing." She patted his back over his shoulder. Then she tried to scramble from his lap.
Tyber clenched his teeth. "Wait—a—second."
"Okay." She wiggled her rump, getting cozy once more.
"You'll pay for this," he croaked.
She grinned. "Stop being such a baby. I didn't land that hard."
"It was the angle… but never mind that."
"Oh?" Her face took on a puzzled look—until she realized where the flashlight was. "Oh my! Are you okay?"
"I will be… in about five days," he groaned.
"What made you put the flashlight there?"
His blue eyes narrowed. "I didn't. You did."
"Oh," she said in a small voice.
Tyber took a few deep breaths and carefully lifted the hatch just enough to see if anyone was in the kitchen.
"Thank God it's empty. Now we don't have to go all the way around. Quick—jump into the kitchen." He lifted the hatch the rest of the way for her and she sprang out. A small groan followed her from the direction of the shaft.
Tyber followed, although not as quickly.
His freedom of motion had been severely restricted. He had just lowered the hatch when Todd came strolling into the kitchen.
"Hey, you two, looking for an afternoon snack?"
"Ah, sure, Todd," Zanita said. "We thought we'd take a pot of tea and those finger sandwiches back to the room with us."
Tyber limped slightly over to Zanita, his complexion a bit paler than usual. "Yeah, we thought we'd relax until dinner, maybe soak in the tub awhile, take a nap."
"Tyber's sore from his workout this morning." Zanita kept her voice perfectly bland.
Tyber pinched her bottom discreetly.
"Sure thing!" Todd set out a tray and retrieved the sandwiches from the fridge with enviable flaire.
Hippolito, who was lying feet up in the sun by the window, opened one eye and twitched his nose. Todd tossed him a scrap of turkey. The cat caught it like a performing whale at Sea World, upside down, mouth opening and closing in a snap. Snack accomplished, he drifted back to sleep.
Tyber and Zanita watched the cat speculatively.
"Todd… how long have you had Hippolito?
"Oh, forever!" Todd put a kettle on for their tea. "You might say he came with the house."
Zanita and Tyber eyeballed each other. "But how long has he been in the family?" Tyber probed.
"Gee, the Litos have been with my family for ages."
"The Litos?" they both said at once.
"Yes. There was Grandelito, Collosolito, and then before him, Megalito… that was grandfather's cat." Todd smiled slightly. "Grandfather was fond of cats, from what I've heard."
"You mean the Litos actually are able to get up and procreate?" Tyber looked at the sprawled feline doubtfully.
Todd chuckled as he removed the kettle from the stove and poured boiling water into a strawberry-patterned teapot. "Yeah, I guess, but only once a generation, it seems. After that, I guess they figure it isn't worth the effort."
"Not worth the effort? What's wrong with those Litos? Twice is always the charm. They obviously didn't have the right love partner," Tyber declared with mock seriousness. Zanita wagged her finger at him.
Todd laughed. "Guess not. The Litos seem to have only one offspring in the litter, and it always comes out looking exactly like pappy. Somehow, junior always shows up at our door. Guess the Litos are part of the Florencia Inn." He handed Tyber the laden tray.
"It would seem so."
"Thanks, Todd!" Zanita gave him a thank-you wave of her fingers as they left the room.
"What did you find so funny about the once-is-enough tale?" Tyber asked her, grinning.
"Oh, just that Hippolito needs some new techniques to pique his interest."
"Uh-huh. And what techniques would those be?" He limped along.
She giggled.
"Whaaat?"
"I just realized you got the shaft in the shaft."
"I'm not laughing, baby."
Hippolito spelled with one p or two?
Zanita made a note on her laptop to ask Todd.
Tyber sighed and snuggled deeper into her side, his head half on her lap. She was sitting up in bed taking notes on the story, which would later turn into an article and possibly part of a book. After taking a nice long bath in the whirlpool—which he constantly tried to cajole her into—Tyber had crawled naked under the sheets next to her and promptly fell asleep.
Not even the rapid tapping of the keys was having any effect on him.
They really hadn't had much sleep these past two days, not to mention that their schedule had been changed around from day to night.
Zanita sighed as his muscular forearm cradled her waist, over the loose T-shirt she was wearing. He murmured something unintelligible just before the gentle puffs of air started again, indicating he was once more in
She gazed down at him. He was a physically stunning man awake, but he was an even more captivating man asleep. That was when the sheer beauty of his form could be appreciated simply for itself.
His long, thick lashes made a dark crescent on his high cheekbones. The straight, even nose and perfectly chiseled lips were the ideal foil for that beguiling dimple… Dimple? He must be dreaming of something very pleasing.
As if to give credence to her evaluation, he growled softly in the back of his throat, exhaling steadily in his sleep. The small currents of his hot breath through the thin material of her T-shirt gave her goose bumps.
She shook herself. No time for that; I have to work! So she went back to staring into space.
Soon she was blithely typing away on her story while her mind wandered on to more arcane topics. What if Hippolito was, in fact, the only pet belonging to all those generations of Sparklings? It would make a great story. Idly she plotted the macabre tale in her head: The Quasimodo-like feline hangs on to the same family… and what? Lies there like a beached whale and demands to be fed tidbits generation after generation?
She giggled to herself. He did grow on you after a while, and he was kinda cute with that little pink tongue. She looked down at the screen and frowned. Her mind must have really been traveling, for her work was mistyped in several places. Letters that didn't belong popped up in the middle of several words.
Shrugging, she fixed the mistakes and went back to typing, looking off into space every now and then as she thought her article through.
When she glanced down again, she was horrified to see more of the same mistakes! She frowned. Something wasn't right here; she was an excellent typist.
She shifted her focus to her innocently sleeping husband. Hmmm. Pretending to type away at her article, furtively she peeped down from the corner of her eye.
A mischievous masculine finger snuck up over the edge of the laptop and hit a random key.
Aha! Caught in the act! The rogue.
"Tyber!"
He smiled into her midriff. "Whaaat?"
And here she'd thought he had been innocently sleeping away! She should have known better. Innocent and pirate didn't go together.
"Can't you just lie there? Like a normal person!"
He laughed into her skin. "Now, why would I want to do that, hmmm?"
An exasperated gust of air sailed past her lips. She had to watch him every second! There was no telling what he would do…
She stopped.
No, there was no telling what he would do.
Ever.
It was part of his very nature.
This man would never become mundane or repetitive or distant. Tyber lived life. He felt life.
Every second of every day. Why should her marriage to him be any different?
She inhaled a shaky breath. Was she losing the challenge? Secretly, she had hoped she would lose the bet. Secretly, she had used the bet to corner him into this investigation. Somehow, in some way, her eyes had been opened and in ways she had never imagined. Who knew they were shut to some things? The strange part of life's lessons was that you never knew how closed you had been until your eyes were opened. Once the truth was seen, there was no going back.
She paled as she gazed down at him.
Tyber instantly lost his smile, concerned that he had done something truly wrong. "What? I didn't mean to upset your work. I was just playing and knew you'd… mpf!"
Zanita had grabbed his gorgeous face between her hands and kissed him soundly on the mouth. Just because.
He blinked slowly when she released him. "What was that for? Not that I'm complaining." Like Hambone, he lifted his face, hoping for another serving.
"That was for being you." She planted a second helping, which was eagerly received. "I love you."
Tyber sucked in his breath. "Totally nonlinear, baby," he breathed. "Does this mean I should mess up some more of your… typing?" The expression he sent her was one of utter mischief, underscored with sexual innuendo.
Her lips twitched. "Try it and you'll think the flashlight incident was a stroll in the park."
"Ouch. The woman can wield a whip."
She just smiled.
"Hmmm…" He rubbed his jaw pondering that possibility.
Zanita placed her palm over his head and slam-dunked him back down to the quilt.
"Tonight the spirit speaks! He is close by, I can feel him!"
Tyber and Zanita watched Calendula obliquely. The woman was picking up something psychically. And she wasn't far off. The ghost was close by. Second floor of the closed wing, to be exact.
"What will the spirit say, do you think?" Zanita questioned Tyber in an aside.
"Eenie meenie chili beanie," he quipped.
Zanita elbowed him. "Shh! Someone might hear you. And you know, it feels a lot creepier in here knowing that there's an actual dead body in the house with us."
"Technically it's not a body anymore."
Zanita's tongue dropped out. "Eck. Don't remind me. That macabre scene was like something out of a Vincent Price movie."
"Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones," Tyber sang under his breath.
Zanita stifled a giggle. "I honestly don't think Todd knows his grandfather is upstairs in residence. Look at him; he's so sweet."
"If you say so, baby."
"On the other hand, Sasenfras must definitely know, if he—"
Tyber sat up straight. "You're right! He said he was in there once. He has to know. I wonder why he refuses to unseal the wing and why he hasn't told anyone about what's in there."
"Maybe he's afraid hell be accused of the murder… or maybe he's afraid of something else… Something in that wing terrified him. It may not have been the corpse alone."
"Back to your ghost theory, huh, baby?"
"There are a lot of odd things going on in this house. You know, I'm not even sure about the Hippolito story."
He did a double take. "You actually think this inn has been haunted for decades by an enormously fat cat? You're killing me here."
"Pookah."
"Bless you."
"No, I said Pookah! Like in that movie
Harvey
. What if Hippolito is a Pookah? You have to admit he's strange."
Tyber gave her an odd look. "Compared to what?" he asked cautiously. "An aunt with three hats or a pirate cat?"