Chapter 1
Sunday, 11 a.m.
“Maddie. You forgot to grasp the bird’s tail.”
Cass Hendricks’ deep baritone voice cut through the Zen I’d finally sort-of achieved after maybe twenty times through the first set of tai chi movements. I’d gotten a little too confident, apparently—there was always one move I forgot. Although it usually wasn’t this particular one.
With an exasperated sigh, I opened my eyes and dropped my arms from cloud hand position. We were outside in Cass’s private Zen garden in the back of his downtown store, Jasper’s Tall Tails, which also housed his second-floor apartment. The garden was amazing. It made me feel like I was in the middle of one of those fancy outdoor spas in California. I always marveled at how he had managed to create such a peaceful place in the middle of all the hustle and bustle that was Daybreak Island in the summertime, but peace was Cass’s superpower. Although the peaceful environment wasn’t helping me much at all. “I stink at this. I’m never going to remember the sequence.”
JJ, my orange rescue cat and best bud, squeaked from where he sat on Cass’s special chair, partly overseeing my efforts but really spending more time watching the koi fish in the little pond. I turned to glare at him. “I didn’t ask you.”
JJ flicked his tail at me and went back to watching the fish.
I dropped down to the yoga mat and pulled my hair up into a messy bun. It was getting hot out here. August on Daybreak Island definitely brought the dog days of summer.
Cass regarded me with that slightly amused look he reserved for his overly dramatic students. “You do not stink. And of course you will remember. You just need to focus. Just like I’ve been telling you since you were a teenager.” He moved over to his tea table and poured some tea into a small cup. The giant silver rings he wore on each finger clinked against the teapot handle, a delightful accompaniment to the cello music playing softly in the background. “Here. Drinking this will help.”
I would much rather sit here and listen to Cass teach than actually try to do something at which I was so inadequate. I loved listening to him talk. It didn’t even matter really what he was saying. Despite his permanent residency on the island since, well, I could remember, Cass still sported a thick accent from his homeland of Haiti. He still wore his hair in long braids that reached his waist. And despite his six-foot-five, solid-muscle stature and slightly intimidating presence, he moved as gracefully as a ballet dancer.
Which, obviously, had not rubbed off on me.
He handed me the teacup, which I gratefully accepted, and I moved over to sit on one of the meditation pillows lining the side of the patio area where we practiced. He sat next to me, his braids spilling over his shoulders to nearly brush the floor. He looked exactly the same as when I met him, back when I was a kid. I estimated him somewhere between fifty and ageless, and fifty was only a guess based on how long I’d known him. When I said as much to him, he simply shrugged and said his meditative lifestyle was quite conducive to health and wellness. He’d never actually told me his age. Although I guess I’d never really asked, either.
Jasper’s Tall Tails was a metaphysical bookstore that also served as the island’s only tai chi studio, crystal healing center, and unofficial tea house. It really was the most Zen place on Daybreak Island, a place where people could come to escape the frenzy of the summer tourist season and simply be still. I also loved it because Cass had named it after his childhood dog, Jasper, back in Haiti. The one thing missing was a store cat, which I was working on changing by bringing JJ in every chance I got in hopes that he would decide to adopt one of my cafe cats.
“I just stink. I think the only thing that might work is hypnosis. They can rewire for coordination, right?” I sipped the tea, which did make me feel better almost immediately. Even though it was a hot summer day, the warmth of the tea felt good. I needed to spend more time here, something that had been on my to-do list since I moved home just over a year ago. Unfortunately, I always let other things get in the way. Although lately I’d been dropping by most Sunday afternoons like this for a private lesson, some tea, or just some peace. My boyfriend Lucas often went to his grooming salon on Sundays to clean and get ready for the week, so I’d been using the free time to work on my mindfulness.
Cass, on the other hand, never seemed to need to “work” on being mindful at all. He just was. I wished I could be like him.
“You underestimate yourself. You need to come to class at least once a week. And I know I don’t need to remind you, but you should meditate every day. At least ten minutes.” He acted as if he hadn’t heard my poor attempt at a joke and nodded, as if agreeing with himself. “You will find much more peace in your life.”
“Mmm.” I sipped more tea as an excuse to not answer, since I didn’t currently meditate every day. But it wasn’t like he couldn’t figure that out. He could read me like one of his favorite books, of which he had many. He knew me too well. “You know I would love to come to class more. I’m not always able to get away from the cafe, though. Besides, I kind of like the private lessons. That way no one else can see how much I stink.”
He held up a giant ring-covered hand to ward off my excuses. “You have two co-owners and a full-time manager. You should be able to spare an hour a week on a regular basis.”
It was true. I owned the cafe with my business partner Ethan Birdsong and my Grandpa Leo—we had turned part of Grandpa’s large house into the cat portion of the cafe, and the stand-alone garage into the food portion, which was Ethan’s happy place—and I had recently hired one of my longtime volunteers, Adele Barrows, as my shelter manager. Honestly, no one needed me around as much as last year, when we were in the frenzy of trying to open. I just liked to think they did. Plus, I enjoyed being in the hustle and bustle of the cafe, the cats, the guests, the smiles.
“I’m happy to continue with private lessons, but classes are also very helpful,” Cass went on. “Besides, I cannot get you to commit to private lessons regularly either.”
“I know, I know. Okay. I’ll sign up.” Giving in was easier than arguing with Cass. I’d never win.
“Excellent. My beginner class is every Tuesday at nine thirty. And,” he added with a new gleam in his eye, as if whatever he was about to say had just dawned on him, “you will come to my meditation retreat.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Your what now?”
“My meditation retreat. The theme is Who Am I?” He smiled and nodded. “We will all work on answering that question. It’s in two weeks. I rented a house in Duck Cove, right on the water. Only ten students. I’m fully booked, but will make an exception for you.”
I stared at him. A full weekend of meditating? “Um. I’m not sure—”
The hand went up again. “No arguments. It will be good for you. We’ll meditate, do yoga, have tea, make healthy meals together. Discover who we are.”
I frowned. “Can JJ come?”
“I think JJ already knows who he is. But if that will get you to agree, then of course.”
“Do I have a choice?” I asked wryly.
“No.”
I bit back a laugh. Cass was a man of few words, but those words packed a punch. I pulled my cell phone out to add it to my calendar. “Okay.” Because arguing with him had never, in my twenty-plus years of knowing him, gotten me anywhere.
“We start on the Friday night, end on Sunday evening. You’ll need to practice in the meantime. Ten minutes per day. To get you in the right headspace,” he said with that incredibly effective Cass look when this time I did open my mouth to protest. “It’s a prerequisite. And don’t forget to add the Tuesday class to your calendar too.”
I shut my mouth and added the Tuesday class dutifully to my calendar, complete with alerts to remind me to actually show up. “It’s official. I will see you Tuesday.”
He nodded, almost smugly. “Good. And skip the coffee before you come.”
I stared at him. “You’re serious.”
“Of course I am. Caffeine—unless it’s natural caffeine like in my tea—will ruin your concentration. Monkey mind.” He tapped a finger to his head. “You need calm.”
“Hmmph,” I said, because I knew better than to argue with him. “I thought your beginner classes were on Mondays, though? Did you change your schedule?”
“I did. I’m working in Fisherman’s Cove on Mondays during the day now. And a couple of evenings.”
“Fisherman’s Cove? Really? Doing what?”
“The community there is lacking in wellness resources.” He spread his hands to encompass his space. “The acting town administrator approached me earlier in the summer to ask if I could bring some of my practices to the people out there. They’re also lacking in transportation, unfortunately, and many of the older residents don’t leave the area much. I’ve been teaching there for about six weeks.”
Fisherman’s Cove was the smallest of the five towns on Daybreak Island. It sat at the westernmost point, known to us here on Daybreak Harbor as up-island, and most people who came to visit didn’t even realize it existed. It was the “working town” of the island. There were no quaint downtown restaurants, fancy boutiques, or coffee bars like here in Daybreak Harbor or the other towns. It comprised mostly small, no-nonsense homes for fishermen who still made their living out on the sea and for others who had either some ties to the area or to working boats. It was pretty low-income for Daybreak, and some of the fishermen who lived here during the summer months had to leave for the winter with whatever earnings they’d made in the warm weather. Island life could be tough for anyone year-round, especially in the northeast, but I’d always felt like it was toughest out on Fisherman’s Cove. With only about seven square miles total, it boasted less than three hundred year-round residents.
One silver lining to the lack of tourists, though, was that the great beaches and state parks remained largely unnoticed by those not in the know, which made them a prime place for islanders to escape to when the well-known beaches were overloaded. But other than the ability to access nature a lot more easily, I didn’t think much about Fisherman’s Cove and its residents, mostly because I felt like they kind of lived in a different universe than I did.
Still, it was good exposure for Cass. “That’s great,” I said. “What are you teaching?”
“I’m offering tai chi, qigong, and some tea events. Bringing some different teas for sampling, and educating them on the health benefits. It is a very diverse group of people, many of whom haven’t had the exposure to this type of wellness care. I feel good about it. These people are very no-nonsense, so it’s taken a bit of education to get them to see the value. There is one woman especially who wanted nothing to do with my classes, but over time she heard more and more about them and finally stopped by. I could see that she desperately needed something meaningful. Now she attends regularly. I can already see the difference it’s made in her life after only a few weeks.”
“Worked your charm, eh?” I grinned.
He smiled back. “I try.”
I was teasing him, but this all sounded cool. Especially the tea event. “We’ll do the tea thing on the retreat?”
“Absolutely.”
“Cool. Where are your classes out there?”
“Sometimes outside in the big park. If the weather isn’t good, I have access to the community room in a nearby church. That’s where we hold the tea events.”
“And it’s all free?”
“It is.”
“You’re the best, Cass. It sounds awesome. Those people are lucky to have you.”
He smiled at me. “Well, I do all that here too, you know.”
I winced good-naturedly. “I know. And you’re right. I need to get serious about scheduling more peace in my life.” I drained my teacup and set it back on his little tea table, then stood to go. JJ hopped off his chair and trotted over to join me.
“Tuesday, then,” Cass said.
“Tuesday,” I affirmed. “Nine thirty. I’ll see you then.”
Chapter 2
Monday, 10 a.m.
“Of course, Mrs. Hennessy. I promise I’ll call you as soon as some torties show up.” I patted the older woman on the shoulder as I walked her to the door of JJ’s House of Purrs, our cat cafe—yes, it was named after my JJ—on Monday morning. Angela Hennessy, a Daybreak Harbor resident, had been visiting the cafe every Monday since it had opened last year, and now that her ancient cat Ralphie had recently passed away at the ripe old age of twenty-two, she was in the market to adopt. But she staunchly refused to adopt anything other than a tortoiseshell cat. She’d had one as a child, and all her adult cats had been either orange or black. Now, she was determined to relive her childhood. I thought it was cute, if not a bit obsessive.
“Oh, good. Do you think it will be soon?” She peered at me with worried eyes. Mrs. Hennessy was one of those nervous women, always fretting about something. It seemed like an exhausting way to live.
“I really have no idea,” I said. “I don’t usually know what I’m getting until they show up.” As if my words had summoned her, I saw my friend Katrina Denning’s animal control van pull into the driveway. Another delivery. Katrina was the animal control officer for Daybreak Harbor, and my cat supplier. She was also an old, dear friend and my former babysitter when I was a kid. I wasn’t sure how many cats she was bringing today. Apparently we’d all stopped counting, and my initial firm number of ten cats at a time in the cafe had long since gone out the window. I currently had somewhere around eighteen in here, but heck, that was a guess: I’d lost count too. I just thanked my lucky stars I had Adele and some good volunteers to help me manage them all. And my business partner Ethan, of course, although he spent more time in his new garage-turned-food-cafe than inside with the cats these days. He was the chef behind the operation, and the best coffee maker I knew. Which was also good because people were coming out for the goodies, not just the cats. And we in the household reaped the benefits as well—the freshly baked goods and new meals that he regularly tested out on us.
Katrina got out of the van, went around to the back, and pulled out a cat carrier. “Guess what I have!” she called out as she walked up. “Babies!” She looked like she’d been working for hours already. Her dark blond hair was pulled back in a headband, her go-to style since she’d started growing out her bangs and had no patience for her hair falling in her eyes all day, and there was a giant tear in one leg of her uniform pants.
“Oh, how delightful!” Mrs. Hennessy clapped. “Any torties?”
“Actually, yes,” Katrina said. “How did you know?”
Mrs. Hennessy’s eyes almost popped out of her head. “Really? I’ll take one!”
I laughed. “Do you want to meet her first?” Torties were typically female, so I figured it was a safe assumption that it was a she.
“Well of course, but I’ll still take her.” For the first time, the worry cloud had lifted from her eyes.
Katrina raised an eyebrow at me, which I knew was code for Is she a good adopter?
I flashed a thumbs-up. Katrina handed her the carrier. “All yours, then.”
I peered inside as Mrs. Hennessy reached for it, already cooing baby talk. There were five babies in there—not one but two torties, a ginger, a buff-colored, and a tiger. They tumbled over one another in that adorable kitten way, mewling the whole time. “There are two,” I said to Mrs. Hennessy. “You know two is better than one, right?” I grinned at her delighted expression.
She squealed and hurried to one of the couches, clutching the carrier.
“Hopefully she’ll take them both. Since otherwise this will put me well over twenty in here,” I said pointedly to Katrina as Mrs. Hennessy walked away. When I got no response, I sighed. “What happened to you?” I indicated her pants.
“Huh?” She followed my eyes down to the tear, then grimaced. “Oh, that. Chasing Mrs. Montgomery’s cat again. That annoying woman keeps letting her slip out, then calls me crying to help get her back. I swear next time I’m going to threaten to take her away.”
“No you’re not,” I said, chuckling.
“You’re right. I probably won’t. But I want to. At the very least I’m going to send her a bill.”
Copyright © 2022 by Liz Mugavero.
