“Oh, shit!” Hobie cried out. She tore through the book shop and into the clothing store. She hoped she was in time.

“What in the hell are you talking about? I don’t see anyone there.” BJ was about near the end of her patience when she saw Hobie rushing toward them.

“What do you mean you can’t see him? He’s sitting there as plain as the nose on your face!”

“There is no one there, you stu—”

The moment that Hobie ran up to the two women, they nearly pounced on her. “Hobie!” they exclaimed in unison.

Hobie looked from one woman to the other. Katherine and BJ were red in the face. BJ wore an expression that Hobie was learning to recognize. The look meant that in another five seconds she would be cutting through someone with that sharp tongue of hers.

“Will you tell this woman to just give me my clothes so we can—”

“She sat on Albert!” Katherine nearly screamed. “Who the fuck is Albert?” BJ shouted back.

BJ knew she probably shouldn’t be cursing at an old woman, but her patience had ended. Katherine had been placing the new clothes into bags when BJ decided to rest her leg and sit in the comfortable-looking chair beside the cash register. She hadn’t a clue as to what was wrong when the usually silent old woman had begun shouting hysterically at her.

BJ had jumped up, only to become embroiled in one of the most inane arguments in which she’d ever been involved.

Katherine insisted BJ had sat there on purpose, telling her that even Albert had better manners.

“I’m sure she didn’t see him, Katherine,” Hobie said soothingly.

“How could she not see him?”

“See who?” BJ shouted again. The tenuous grasp she had on her temper was rapidly slipping away.

“Do you see what I mean? She’s just like those doctors in Tampa. I don’t know if we can do business with your friend, Hobie Lynn.”

“Hobie,” BJ said calmly—perhaps too calmly, in Hobie’s estimation. Hobie could practically hear BJ’s teeth grinding together. “Do you see this Albert in that chair?”

Hobie bit her bottom lip as she looked between the two women once more. If she told BJ the truth, she risked losing Katherine’s trust. “Um...yes?”

BJ stared down at Hobie as Katherine snorted in triumph. BJ looked at the chair once more, beginning to feel as though she were the crazy one. “So you actually see something...here?” She waved her hand in front of the seemingly empty chair.

“Of course she does, and it’s not something, it’s Albert!” Katherine interjected. “And quit slapping him in the nose with your hand like that, you twit!”

“Speaking of slapping someone in the nose...” BJ took a step closer to the angry woman.

Hobie stepped between them. “Can I see you over here for a second?” she whispered, pulling on BJ’s elbow.

“She can’t see him. People like her never will,” Katherine said.

“I bet it was just the light, Katherine. Look how dark it is back here.” The convincing tone to Hobie’s voice made Katherine pause to look around. During those moments, Hobie managed to maneuver BJ a few feet away.

“If you even think about saying you really saw anything over there, I’m going to throw you out the window and run for my life,” BJ hissed through her teeth.

If the situation hadn’t been so serious, Hobie would have laughed aloud at the sheer confusion coupled with uncertainty on BJ’s face. “Look, have you ever seen that old movie with Jimmy Stewart?”

“Dear God in heaven! You are not seriously going to tell me that Albert is a six-foot white rabbit?” BJ whispered.

“Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous. He’s only three feet high, and he’s a hamster.”

“What?” BJ raised her voice. “What is this island—lunatic central?”

“Shh. Please, just go along with this and I’ll explain later, I promise. Please?”

Hobie looked up at BJ with such a pleading expression that BJ realized at that moment she couldn’t have refused Hobie anything. Large green eyes tugged at BJ’s heartstrings. That insight made BJ uncomfortable. She’d never felt like that before.

“You owe me big-time” was her response.

Ten seconds later, BJ was standing beside the same comfortable chair. She gestured with one arm. “Of course. I can’t believe I missed him!”

“Bullshit!” Katherine exclaimed. “You’re making it up now.”

“Okay, that’s it. I’m going back to Chicago.” BJ turned to leave.

“What color is he?” Katherine suddenly spoke up.

BJ quickly looked to Hobie, who tugged on the neck of her T-shirt.

“Brown.”

“What color are his eyes?” Katherine raised one eyebrow suspiciously.

Hobie and BJ panicked, but for different reasons. A quick look over to Hobie showed that she seemed to be pointing to her own eye. At least that’s what BJ hoped it meant.

“Green,” BJ said with a confident smile.

“There ya go.” Katherine slapped BJ on the shoulder enthusiastically. BJ knew she would have a bruise there before the day was over. It was as if Katherine had forgotten that moments earlier she had been in a screaming match with BJ. “Guess it was just too dark for you to see him. I’ll have to talk to Helen about more lights back here.”

The fact that BJ knew the color of her eyes hadn’t been lost on Hobie. It was such a little thing, but it stuck in her mind in a way that worried her. So far, it fit into the same category as many of her other dealings with BJ Warren. She didn’t know whether to feel flattered or concerned. “Thanks for the backup,” she whispered sarcastically to Helen as she and BJ were on their way out of the store.

“I think you two did very well. Besides, I have to live with Katie. It’s always best if I stay out of the Albert debate unless it gets too far out of control.”

“Goodbye, you two,” Katherine shouted after them. “Come back soon.”

“Not in this lifetime,” BJ muttered so that only Hobie could hear. Looking back at the two older women, BJ arched an eyebrow at the way Katherine had placed her arm around Helen’s waist. In BJ’s opinion, there seemed to be more than a sisterly familiarity to it.

Once they were well on their way to the hospital, BJ turned to Hobie. “You owe me one very big story about Albert the giant, yet invisible, hamster.”

“I know. Let me explain.”

“Oh, and by the way,” BJ added, “if those two dykes are sisters, then I’m Mother Teresa.”

“So you met the Dilby sisters,” Evelyn Warren said.

Hobie and BJ sat beside her bed. The elderly woman had been heartsick upon seeing her granddaughter’s cast. When Hobie explained what happened but left out the fact that she was the driver of the vehicle that hit Baylor, Evelyn raised an eyebrow at her. Hobie’s remorseful expression apparently conveyed more than words could manage because Evelyn patted her hand affectionately. She spent the next twenty minutes treating BJ like a helpless invalid, going so far as to call the nurse to make her more comfortable. BJ, of course, lapped up the attention as shamelessly as Arturo receiving a belly rub.

“Yes, I met the Dilby sisters, and I use the word ‘sisters’ loosely.”

“It’s not for us to judge, Baylor.”

“I’m not talking about judging, Tanti, I just think it’s a crime that they have to hide who they are. Why don’t they move away? There are a lot of places more progressive in their thinking. Shoot, Key West isn’t that far away.”

“They were young women who lived in a different time, dear heart. It has nothing to do with wherethey live. It’s something they grew used to doing out of necessity. It’s not an acknowledgment of right or wrong. Some things in life, well, you continue to do them because you’ve grown comfortable with things that way. Change can be hard on the soul. Sometimes, you just accept things and people the way they are. So,” she continued with a mischievous look in her eye. “Did you meet Albert?”

Hobie laughed and BJ glared at her. “She sat on him,” Hobie blurted out through her laughter.

“Oh, my. What did Katherine do?”

“Her eyes bugged about, her head spun around, and smoke came out her ears,” BJ said. “I thought she was having some kind of an attack.”

Hobie couldn’t stop laughing.

“And this one,” BJ pointed to Hobie. “She stood there and encouraged the delusional woman.”

“I had to,” Hobie said soberly.

“I agree, Baylor. It took Katherine a long time to get to where she is today. It would have done more harm than good for Hobie Lynn to deny Albert’s existence,” Evelyn said.

“You said you’d tell me the whole story,” BJ said to Hobie. “I suppose I can tell that one best, considering I was there

when it all happened,” Evelyn said. Hobie nodded.

“It’s not as much of a story as you were probably hoping for. Katherine Dilby was a research scientist, quite a feat in the 1950s. There weren’t many women doing that kind of work in those days. I suppose no one knows what makes folks go a little loopy. I think Katherine finally dissected one lab animal too many. She had a breakdown and refused to speak or eat. They had her in a hospital in Miami for a number of years. She never said one solitary word to anyone. That’s where she met Helen.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” BJ interrupted to say. “Helen wasn’t a patient at the hospital, she was a volunteer.

She started coming by every day to read to Katherine. Just as quickly as it had started, it ended. One day, Katherine woke up and she was her old self. There was only one small change.”

“Let me guess. Albert was born,” BJ said.

“Correct. The doctors thought the creation of Albert was Katherine’s way of compensating for the years of experiments on the animals she loved. They released her a short time later and she and Helen began their relationship.”