I arrived home with a bag of fast food and climbed from my car, but I didn’t make it far before I heard a voice calling my name. I winced. I knew that voice. I turned and found my neighbor, Bitsy Stout, standing across the street with her hands on her hips, looking like she was ready for a bullfight. Bitsy and I had a history. It was not good.
I gave her my best fake smile. Her blue gray hair had been curled and lacquered into place so that not even tornado winds would muss it. “Hello, Bitsy,” I said. “You’re looking well.”
“Cut the sweet talk. I found two piles of dog poop in my yard this morning,” she said, her tone accusatory.
“Gee, and all I got was a lousy newspaper.”
“I am tired of cleaning up after that ugly dog of yours.”
I crossed the street and got in her face. “Don’t call my dog ugly.”
“Then you keep that mutt out of my yard or I’m going to report you for not adhering to the leash laws.”
“My dog is
not
pooping your yard,” I said.
“It’s people like you,
renters
, who give good solid neighborhoods a bad name.”
“It’s not my fault that nobody but riffraff wants to live across the street from you,” I said. Bitsy had made my life miserable after my mom and aunt had designed a sculpture for my front flower bed. Bitsy had declared it pornographic, and the next thing I knew she had her holy-rolling church group picketing on my lawn. I’d agreed not to press charges in return for her sour cream crumb cake recipe, but she had yet to hand it over.
“If I catch your dog in my yard I’m going to shoot her with my pellet gun,” she added.
“I dare you,” I said, using what I considered my most menacing voice. “You don’t want to go to jail, Bitsy. Do you know what they do to blue-haired ladies in jail?” Her eyes widened. “Put
that
in your pellet gun,” I said.
I turned and marched across the street to my house. I was actually looking forward to seeing the dog in question. Mike was a small wirehaired mixed terrier with huge brown eyes. She’d followed me home from a walk two and a half months ago. There had been no collar so I’d assumed she was a stray. I had tagged her with the name Mike before checking down under. Being a sucker for animals, I’d let her inside during the night when a bad storm blew in, only to awake the next morning to find that she had birthed five puppies.
I had recently found a home for the last puppy, and Mike wasn’t taking it well. She was clearly depressed. Instead of greeting me happily the minute I walked through the door, as she once had, I found her sleeping in her box in the laundry room.
“Guess what?” I said. I held up the bag. “Junk food!” I announced. “I even got you your own burger.”
Mike opened her eyes, climbed from her box, and headed toward the back door. Jay had installed a doggie door so that she could go out when she needed. Luckily, my backyard was fenced in so I didn’t have to worry about her wandering off. It was probably the only reason Mike hadn’t run away in search of her puppies.
I unwrapped her cheeseburger, which I’d ordered plain, as I waited for her to return. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist this,” I said when she rejoined me. I held it close to her nose. “Yum-yum,” I said.
She sniffed it a few times but lost interest and returned to her bed. I was at a loss as to what to do. She’d barely touched her food for a week. In fact, she’d done little more than sleep.
I sat on the floor beside the large dog pillow I’d bought her. “Look, I told you from the beginning we couldn’t keep the puppies,” I said, “and it’s not like they don’t have good homes. I was very selective.”
Mike sighed.
I sighed.
Maybe I’d rushed things by giving away the last puppy, I thought, but the experience had been exhausting. It had taken Mona’s housekeeper and me both to keep up with the mopping and disinfecting.
Mike closed her eyes, and I headed for the kitchen. I ate my burger and fries, but I couldn’t stop worrying. Finally, I reached for the wall phone and called the only person I knew who could advise me. Dr. Jeff Henry was Mike’s veterinarian, and one of my closest friends, even though we’d only met a few months ago. He’d been there for me
and
Mike the night her smallest puppy had died.
He answered after a couple of rings. “It’s me,” I said.
“Hi, Me. What’s up?”
He had a smile in his voice, but he sounded tired. “Mike’s depressed.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Plus, she hates me for breaking up her family.”
“She doesn’t hate you.”
“Let’s just say I’m not her favorite person right now.”
“Is she eating?”
“Not much,” I said. “She mostly sleeps.”
“Is she taking in liquid?”
“A little. I’m worried about her, Jeff.”
“She’s probably worn out, Kate. Giving birth and caring for pups is no easy task. Sounds like a job for Super Vet. Why don’t you drop her off at my office on the way to work tomorrow so I can have a look? It’ll give you a good excuse to see me.”
I smiled. I especially liked Jeff because our relationship was simple and uncomplicated, unlike the others in my life. Before Jay and I had decided to work on our marital issues, I’d had a very small crush on Jeff. Not only was he good-looking, he was one of the nicest people I knew. And I’d been lonely.
Then I’d discovered, quite by accident, that he was gay. He didn’t know I knew, although I’d expected him to have confided in me by now. I’d certainly spilled my guts to him. My greatest concern was that he feared it would affect our relationship. I wanted him to give me the chance to prove my loyalty.
Okay, so, maybe our relationship was a little more complicated than I thought.
“How come you sound so tired?” I asked.
“The last few weeks have been incredibly busy.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
“Except when pet owners call me in the middle of the night because their cat hurled a fur ball,” he said.
“I know the feeling,” I told him. “I sometimes get calls from patients in the middle of the night. You wouldn’t believe how many people get depressed at two a.m.”
“How are things going otherwise?” he asked.
I hesitated. “I should probably tell you I’ve been evicted from my office,” I said, “due to the nitroglycerin incident. I’ve been trying to fight it for two months, but the long and the short of it is I have to be out by the end of the day on Friday.”
“That’s terrible! Is there anything I can do?”
“Yeah, you can go to bed early tonight and try to catch up on your sleep.”
“Yes, Mother.”
I hung up a few minutes later and changed into jeans and a blouse. The phone rang. Jay spoke from the other end. “I’m two blocks from your house,” he said. “Mind if I drop by?”
The sound of his voice made the tiny hairs on the back of my neck prickle, but I was surprised to hear from him after what he’d said that morning; and even more so since he’d felt the need to ask permission before he came over. “Sure,” I said.
I heard him pull into my driveway. I hung up the phone and hurried to the front door. I watched him climb from his SUV and make his way toward me, a sexy smile on his face. It should have been against the law for a man to look that good in jeans. He paused at the door and dropped a quick kiss on my mouth. “You got a beer for a tired fireman?” he asked.
“Of course.”
We went into the kitchen, and I headed to the refrigerator. I pulled out his favorite beer and handed it to him.
“You’re not going to have one with me?”
“No, I just had dinner, and I’m full.”
“I’m sorry about this morning, Katie,” he said.
“The first session is usually uncomfortable,” I told him.
He opened his beer and took a sip. “Where’s Mike?”
“In her bed,” I said. “She’s still moping around. I’m going to drop her off at the vet on my way to the office tomorrow. He suspects she’s just run down after the puppies.”
“I’d better look in on her.” Jay set his beer on the counter, walked into the laundry room, and turned on the light. Mike’s tail thumped at the sight of him. “Hello, girl,” he said, leaning over to pet her. Mike rolled on her back and Jay scratched her belly.
He spent a few minutes talking to her before turning off the light. We walked into the living room. Instead of sitting on the sofa and pulling me onto his lap, he sank into an overstuffed chair and leaned his head back.
“How was your day?” he asked.
“Mona has decided to become a nurse.”
He looked amused. “For some reason I have a hard time imagining that.”
“How about you? Anything exciting going on?” I felt as though we were simply trying to make polite conversation.
“Same old, same old. I ran errands, paid bills, washed clothes.”
Jay worked twenty-four hours on and forty-eight hours off. He spent the first day catching up on his sleep; on the second day he took care of personal business, including me.
“Actually, I had to go in for a meeting. The guys grilled burgers out back, but you know what it’s like trying to eat around there. You take one bite, and the bells go off. Half the time it’s some kid yanking an alarm, showing off in front of his buddies.”
I thought the legal system needed to crack down on people, mostly kids, who got a kick out of pulling alarm boxes. A false alarm wasted precious time in the event of a real fire; lives were sometimes lost.
“Since I wasn’t on duty, I got to finish my burger.”
“What was the meeting about?”
He hesitated. “We’ve had a few fires that look like they were set by the same person.”
I decided not to tell him I already knew. “That doesn’t sound good,” I said.
“Yeah. Most likely some guy getting his rocks off.”
He took a sip of his beer. I wanted to know more, but Jay would only think I was grilling him and things would get tense. I had a feeling there was going to be enough tension in the air after I told him about my eviction.
“Guess what?” I said, doing an excellent job of avoiding the subject. “I had to admit a patient to the psychiatric ward today. Guess who I ran into?”
“Your mother and aunt?”
“Very funny. Carter Atkins,” I said. “He’s an orderly, you know. Do you think he’s odd?”
“I think he wrote the book on odd.”
“Well, he obviously loves being a volunteer fireman, because he plans to study for the exam.”
Jay gave me a funny look. “Carter isn’t a volunteer fireman. He just hangs out at the station and gets on everybody’s nerves. The guys put up with him because he helps with the chores.”
“I didn’t know.”
“He’s not likely to pass the exam. He has already flunked it several times. He’s not that sharp, you know?”
I felt a wave of disappointment for Carter. “He said your new female probie was hot.”
“Did I forget to mention Carter is also a blabber-mouth?”
“I hear she’s, um, busty.”
“Yeah, well, that doesn’t hold much weight if you can’t get along with people.”
“Oh?”
“Mandy—that’s her name—expects preferential treatment.” He drained his beer and set the can on the coffee table. “I trained under her father, who was captain when I joined the department ten years ago. He got hurt in a fire while trying to drag an unconscious teenager to safety. He ended up a big hero but had to take early retirement because of his injuries. He moved his family to West Virginia because he loved the mountains.”
“Is that why she was hired?” I asked. “Because of her father?”
“Let’s just say it worked in her favor.”
“Is she any good?”
“She’s not bad,” he said. “She wanted to follow in her old man’s footsteps. You know how that goes. She just needs to climb down from her high horse.” He smiled. “We also got a new guy in from Texas who really knows his stuff. Ronnie Sumner,” he added. “He’s funny as hell. Actually, he’s from Atlanta. He moved to Texas because his wife’s family was there. When they divorced he decided to move back. He specifically asked to work with our engine company because he said he likes being where the action is.”
The engine company Jay was with was one of the busiest in Atlanta. “Well, you guys do get plenty of action,” I said.
Jay gazed at me quietly for a moment. “I could use a little action right now.”
His sudden interest surprised me, and I wondered if he’d needed time to unwind before getting romantic on me. He joined me on the sofa, pulled me into his arms, and gave me a long, slow kiss. The center of my stomach turned soft. He slipped one hand beneath my bottom and began a slow massage. I went hot all over.
“If you play your cards right I might stay the night.”
I convinced myself this wasn’t a good time to tell him about my eviction notice and Thad’s offer to share his office. I had avoidance behavior down to a fine art.
chapter 4
I was only vaguely aware of Jay climbing from the bed the next morning at what felt like an ungodly hour. I tried to open my eyes, but my lids wouldn’t cooperate. “Do you want me to get up and make you breakfast?” I asked.
He chuckled and kissed me full on the mouth. “When did you learn to cook?” he asked.
I pried my eyes open. “I could make you instant oatmeal.”
“I’ll grab something on the way. Go back to sleep.”
I closed my eyes. At seven, the alarm clock shook me awake. I fumbled for it and turned it off, then lay in bed and thought about the previous night; hot kisses, skin on skin, the joy of having Jay fill me. I’d lain awake long after he had fallen asleep, feeling guilty that I had not told him about the eviction.
I was still fretting over it when I arrived at Jeff’s office with Mike. I noted the lines of fatigue on his face. “You don’t look so good,” I said.
“I haven’t had much sleep,” he confessed. “An overweight dachshund hurt his back jumping off the bed in the middle of the night. I could hear the little fellow yelping in the background, so I had no choice but to come in. I barely made it home before I got another call; a poodle that had been in labor for a while and wasn’t getting anywhere. I had to come back and do a C-section.”