Second Chance by Angela Verdenius

our plus four are
being babysat.”
    Geez, they didn’t look old enough
to have four kids.  “Boys or girls?” Tam queried.
    “Girl, Lily.  The other three are
Henny and Penny, the two hens, and Sparkles the rat.”  The woman actually said
it with a straight face, while her husband just kept smiling slightly like it
was perfectly natural.
    Okay then .  “Sweet.”  Tam
looked at the next couple.  The man was huge, muscles bulging under his shirt
sleeves, his width and height a little overpowering seated next to the slim
blonde.
    “The Yeti is Moz,” Ryder informed
her.  “Del is his fiancée.  They’re a plus two - one normal black cat and a
freaky bare-arsed cat.”
    “Mozart is not freaky,” Moz
rumbled.
    “Any cat with a bare arse is
freaky.  It’s not normal.”
    “You’re not normal and yet Dee still lets you out to play.”
    “My arse isn’t bare.”
    “It was this morning,” Dee said.
    Ryder looked at her, a glint in
his eyes and a lecherous leer on his lips.  “Yeah, babe, it was, wasn’t it?”
    “Spare us the details.”  The
redheaded man seated at the end of the table smiled at Tam.  “I’m Simon, I work
with Scott, and this is my wife, Elissa.  We’re a plus one - Arthur the cat.”
    Amused, Tam nodded a greeting.
    Elissa winked.  “We met at the vet
clinic this morning.”
    Tam remembered.  “Oh yeah, the
romantic encounter between Tiny and -”
    “The bitch?” Dee finished.
    “I think her name was Morganna.”
    “That’s the dog,” Dee said.  “The other one is called Yvonne.”
    Del laughed outright.
    “In case you don’t know, there’s a
hate/hate relationship between Dee and Yvonne,” Molly informed Tam.  “And Del will be trailing right behind Dee, ready to back her up.”
    “That’s what cousins are for.”  Del took a modest sip of her drink.
    “Right on, sister.”  Dee saluted her.
    “Before you start to think we’re
all interbred out in these here hills,” Molly added, “Elissa and Moz are
brother and sister, Del and Dee are cousins, Scott and I are cousins.  The rest
of us are fresh blood.”  She paused.  “Though Scott and Ryder were born here
and so were their parents, so you never know.”  She peered across the table at
Scott and Ryder.  “Uhhh…there may be a similarity.  Do you see it, Moz?”
    “I look nothing like Scott,” Ryder
denied.
    “Nothing wrong with me,” Scott
said indignantly.
    “I agree.”  Ash dimpled up at
Scott, who grinned and dropped a kiss on the tip of her nose.
    “No one can say I look like him,”
Ryder insisted.  “I have my own unique look.”
    “You’re right,” Moz agreed.  “You
have more of a resemblance to your knuckle-dragging relatives.”
    “I was going to say I was more
handsome.”
    “Sure, you go with that.”
    “You know in a weird way we’re
kind of related?”
    “Since when?”
    “Del and Dee are cousins.  That
makes us cousins-in-law.”
    “Easy fixed.  I divorce you.”
    “You can’t divorce your cousin,
numb nuts.”
    “Watch me.”  Moz turned to Kirk. 
“You’re the cop here.  Is there a law preventing me from divorcing my cousin- in-law ?”
    Sitting back, relaxed and at ease,
Kirk eyed him lazily.  “I think you’d need to divorce Del for that to work.”
    Ryder smirked.  “Welcome to the
family, Yeti.”
    Moz stared at him and cracked his
knuckles.
    “You won’t shed blood here,” Ryder
said confidently.
    “The girls won’t be around
forever.”
    “One mark on my handsome face will
upset Dee.”
    Dee quirked one brow in silent
query.
    “Work with me, babe.”
    “Okay.”  She jerked her thumb at
her husband.  “What he said.”
    Ryder smirked.  “And you upset
Dee, you upset Del.  You don’t want to upset Del, do you?”
    Moz looked down at Del.  “You didn’t tell me he was part of the marriage deal.”
    She shrugged.  “Sorry, honey.”
    “He might be a deal-breaker.”
    She crooked her finger at him and
leaned