From the Hat Down, page 20
“No. We’ve been too busy. We’d both like a couple of dogs eventually, though.”
“Well, if dogs show up, I’d be glad to be their doggie doctor.”
Haley smiled. “That’d be great. And I’ll pay for their care,” she added hastily. “I don’t expect you to treat them for free or anything like that.”
Meg took another swallow of beer. “I know you don’t. But I’ll tell you what, it’s a little more convenient treating the family pet when you’re the vet.” She winked. “You just haul them in to work with you. And take them on rounds. Like certain dogs.”
“Moonshine’s cool,” Haley said with another smile. “I’d be glad to take care of him for you if you have to go out of town for anything.”
“I appreciate that. And of course I will pay you to take care of his furry ass.”
“You don’t have to do that,” she said quietly. “I feel like I owe you, for giving me a chance.”
“Hey.” Meg gave her a hard stare. “You’ve got talent for animal care. I have no doubt that vet school is in your future and that you’ll succeed at it. This isn’t about chance. It’s about recognizing what’s in you and putting it to work. And I will do whatever I can to help you take the next step.”
Haley’s jaw clenched and for a moment, she looked like she might cry, but she composed herself. A hard road she’d had to ride already, Meg thought.
“And remember, any time you and Beth want to come out to the Diamond Rock and hang out with me and a bunch of other weirdos, just let me know. Standing invite.”
“That’d be great.” Haley lowered her gaze. “I told Beth that I wanted her to meet you.”
“Good. It’s important that I pass muster with the partner, so she knows I’m not working you to the bone or forcing you to do all the nasty vet stuff I don’t want to do. Like the butt exams or anything.”
She grinned. “I think that’s going to be my least fave part of veterinary medicine.”
“But you get a lot of info from the ass, my friend.” Meg raised her glass in a mock salute and finished the rest of her beer while Haley giggled.
Sam approached. “Anything else, Doc?”
“Nah, that’s it.”
“Cool. I’ll wrap that up for you.” He gestured at the pizza that remained on the pizza tray.”
“Great. Thanks.”
He placed the check next to her. “And your pizza’s up,” he said to Haley.
“Thanks.” Haley stood and he moved away. “I’ll see you Monday?” she said to Meg.
“Yep. Don’t get too wild this weekend.”
“No, ma’am,” she said, but she was smiling. “Later.” She started to turn when Meg spoke again.
“You know, if you ever need anything—whatever it is—you or Beth can call me. Make sure she has my cell number.”
Haley stared at her for a long moment, then nodded, a serious expression on her face. “Thank you.”
Meg nodded back and Haley went to the front to get her pizza. She put a few bills on the check and Sam reappeared a few moments later with her to-go box.
“You need change?” he asked.
“Nope. I’m helping pay your student loans.”
He laughed. “Thanks, Doc. See you next time.”
She nodded as she stood, picked up her to-go box, left the restaurant, and walked back to her truck. She didn’t get in right away, and instead stood staring up into the dark, thinking about Gina. “Retro-crush,” she muttered with a wry smile as she got into her truck. She pulled away from the curb and drove home.
Her phone rang just as Meg got in from a Sunday evening jog around the neighborhood. She glanced at the ID, and it seemed her heart sped up, and not from the exercise.
“Hi, Mary.”
“Hey. Gina would love to see you, but can you fly in three weeks from Wednesday? We’re trying to spread visits out so we don’t wear her out. One of her coworkers and some of her friends will be visiting the Thursday and Friday before and then Sharon’ll be in town that weekend and then you can come.”
Sharon. That was a kick to the gut. “You sure? Maybe Gina needs more down time after all those people are there.”
“What for? She’s totally looking forward to seeing you. That’s the week she wanted to see you.”
“Okay. You want me to rent a car?” Meg relented before she talked herself completely out of this.
“No way. I’ll pick you up. We have plenty of vehicles here. No sense spending money on a rental when there’re plenty of us in the area to get you.”
“It’ll probably be an evening flight.”
“No problem. I’ll work around it.” She giggled then. “This is going to be a blast. Just like old times.”
Meg frowned. What did that mean? “So where should I stay?”
“What the hell kind of question is that? Meg, you’re practically family. You’ll stay at Mom and Dad’s. There’s plenty of room.”
With Gina? “But—”
“Oh, shit. Gotta run. I’ll keep you posted. Bye.”
And she hung up, leaving Meg to stare blankly at the phone. Stay at Gina’s folks’ house? With Gina? Was that even a good idea? “Well, shit,” she said softly as she hung up the phone. Visiting Gina after Sharon was there left her deflated. Face the demons, Sean would say. Take them out for a drink. But she doubted there was enough alcohol in Laramie to appease them.
She fixed a burger for dinner and cooked a bit of ground beef for Moonshine that she stirred in with his regular kibble. He ate like he’d never seen food. She had to make sure that he maintained a certain weight, so as to keep strain off his back end. But a little treat every now and again wouldn’t hurt. He banged his bowl against the wall, trying to get every last bit and she gave him a little extra.
She opened the back door so he could come and go and then she poured herself another glass of iced tea and watched him wandering around the yard. She was looking forward to seeing Gina, but the idea had taken on a melancholy cast. Maybe she’d been hoping that since nobody had really mentioned Sharon that somehow, Sharon wasn’t real, that maybe there was a chance that Gina might want more from Meg. Clearly, she was the world’s biggest idiot.
“Life goes on,” she said with a sigh. She went back inside to her office and opened one of the papers she was co-writing for a journal but she ended up staring at the ceiling instead. It was an asshole move to back out of the visit now. On the other hand, maybe she could get really busy and thus have a reason to back out. “Fuck,” she muttered as she focused on the research paper again. This she could handle. Animal stuff she could deal with. But issues of the heart? That was a whole other animal, and one she knew could cause a hell of a lot of pain. Yeah, she might have to be really busy in the next couple of weeks.
Chapter 17
Moonshine sat up on the truck seat and looked around as Meg pulled up in front of the ranch house and she gave him a pat. “Hang out here, pal.” She got out of the truck and immediately three cattle dogs approached, barking. A sharp whistle from the front porch put a stop to it. All three raced to the source of the whistle.
“Hey, Howard,” she said.
He stood in the doorway to the house and beamed at her, grinning behind his massive mustache.
“I’m here to see a man about a horse.”
He laughed. “Come in, come in. Coffee?”
She smiled back. “Love some.”
“Doc Roy said you’d be doing the Monday rounds this week. Haven’t seen you in a while. How are you?”
“Good. And you?”
“Same shit, different day.” He chuckled. “Not a whole lot going on with the livestock, thank God, but Doc Roy wanted to do a follow-up.”
“Well, I read all the files and talked to him, so if I see anything weird, I’ll let him know and he’ll swing by tomorrow or Thursday.”
“Appreciate it.”
She followed him into the kitchen and he poured her a cup of coffee from the pot on the counter. Blue gingham curtains hung over the window above the sink and the wallpaper was decorated with little butter churns and mixing bowls.
“Where’s Paula?” Meg asked.
“Cheyenne. Visiting her mom.”
“So you’re a bachelor for a few days.” She sipped the coffee black. Hot and strong, like the way Alice made it and the way all the hands and her dad preferred. She liked a splash of cream, but she’d take it black, too.
He smiled. “Nah. Just more for me to do. Jason’s home from college for the summer, so that’s a help.” He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter how much you work, there’s always more to do.”
“Truer words were never spoken.”
They chatted a bit more before he led her to the barns, then out to the paddock. An hour later she was on the road again for the next spread, checking on not only animals, but the people who tended them. Because out here, the two were linked, tied into the ebbs and flows of a life dependent on the land and what it could provide. That’s why she was more than happy to go on rounds that might take her a hundred miles from one end of the county to the next, because she knew what a life out here entailed, and as hard as it could be, she loved it, loved the way the spring grasses rippled in the wind like waves and washed toward the base of the Medicine Bows, and how the sky stretched for miles, and how the earth in her hands felt like the warmth of a cow’s hide beneath her palms.
And as she packed up after her last visit, the late afternoon sun dug its fingers into the landscape, and infused it with Meg’s favorite kind of light—a rich, deep gold that seemed to calm the wind and bind day to a whisper of evening. She sang along with the radio all the way back to Laramie, and remembered a dark-haired, dark-eyed woman who sat her horse like a pro, and who raced her across the meadows at the ranch, and wrapped Meg in her arms at the end of the day, singing softly near her ear.
She pulled into the parking lot at the clinic and sat for a few minutes, brooding again over California. She picked at a worn spot on the steering wheel cover. It was so not a good idea to go. Then again, it was a demon, and Sean would tell her to face it. What’s the worst that could happen?
She leaned her forehead against the wheel. The worst thing?
She’d fall for Gina.
Again.
And she knew her heart could not bear that.
“Fuck,” she said. Moonshine gave her a pitying look and put his paw on her thigh. She smiled. “Yeah,” she said to him as she scratched his ears. “It’s time to go home.” She got out of the truck and went around to let him out, still thinking about flying out to Sacramento a few days after Gina’s girlfriend had left. The visit wasn’t feeling like such a good idea, but she didn’t want to back out, either. And Gina had sent the video, where she said she wanted to be friends. Didn’t friends visit each other like this? She called Moonshine over to her truck and lifted him in.
“Wait here, pal.” She left the window cracked for him and went to unload the vet truck from rounds, still trying to justify a friendly visit with Gina. “Shit,” she muttered as she finished and locked up the building. She was in a twilight zone, between friend and ex, and in an even weirder zone where she wanted to be more than friends again. How was that possible? She frowned. How was it possible to be in love with your past? That was crazy. Echoes, she thought. She was just caught up in an echo. Her cell phone rang.
“Hi, Dad.”
“Hi, hon.”
“How’re things?”
“We got a thank you card from your mom. Thought you’d like me to read it to you.”
She heard him trying not to laugh, which smoothed the raw edge she always felt when dealing with things related to Irene. “Sounds like a gem. Go ahead.” She leaned against the grill of her truck.
He cleared his throat. “ ‘Dear Stan. Thank you for your wonderful hospitality recently. It really was quite an experience seeing how the operation has changed over the years. Phil had a wonderful time but was extremely disappointed that he couldn’t spend more time with Meg. I really think he’s taken a shine to her so I passed her mailing address to him’.”
Meg snorted a laugh. “She called a few days ago and told me Phil would be in Colorado on a business trip soon and I should wear something pretty to have lunch with him.”
“Oh, Lord,” Stan said. “Let’s see what else she says.” He cleared his throat. “‘He mentioned that he was working on a business venture in Colorado and that he’d be out that way for a business trip and then later this summer. I think this could be serious!’ Exclamation point,” he said, obviously trying not to laugh.
“Oh, my God.”
“‘I’ve enclosed a business card of his to pass along to Meg, if you would. Maybe this time, she’ll realize the error of her ways’.”
She sighed, and thought about her most recent conversation with her mom, who was trying a different tack. Using Stan as a messenger. “I’ve already got Phil’s card. And he sent me a thank you email last week.”
“Well, isn’t he the polite one. Maybe your mom’s right.”
Meg laughed.
“Anyway, here’s the last part. ‘Thank you again and I hope things continue to go well for you. Best wishes, Irene Bard’.”
“I wonder how Phil’s fiancée will feel about this deep, secret love he harbors for me.”
He started laughing. “Must’ve been the cowboy hat,” he said. “Gets those boys every time.”
“Why does she always sign with ‘Bard’? Does she think we’ll forget who she is?” she asked, knowing there wasn’t really an answer.
“Maybe she’s afraid she’ll forget.”
“That’s impossible. She already did.”
He sighed then. “Well, Phil is a nice guy. And he’s got good business vision. I told him to look me up when he gets out here permanently.”
“Did he tell you what he’s up to?”
“Not specifically. But he did show me pictures of his fiancée, which explains a lot. I invited them both to the DR.”
She grinned. “I liked him, too. But not enough to move in around Alicia.”
He chuckled. “Oh, I sent that package out to Gina’s family today. How is she?”
Meg’s grin widened, in spite of her inner turmoil. “As far as I know, okay, considering. Cuts, bruises, bruised ribs.”
“Oh, those are a pisser. Takes a while for those to ease up.”
“Yeah. She’ll be back in the States probably around Wednesday.”
“Good. She’ll get some of Alice’s cookies.” He sounded pleased and Meg smiled. “Have you talked to her since last week?”
“No. Just Mary since then.”
“Well, next time you talk to her, tell her hi from all of us at the DR.”
“Will do.”
“So you still coming up next weekend?”
“Yep. I want to get more pictures of the site we liked.”
“I was just out there and I think there might be water, too. Might be able to put in your own well. I’m gonna have Earl Ransom come out and have a look.”
“You don’t think it’s a little too late?” She ran a hand through her hair. Generally March and April were better months for water witching.
“Nah. But Earl’ll let me know if he thinks it is. I’ll call him. Maybe I can get him for the weekend you’re here.”
“Sounds good.”
“All right. Talk to you later.”
“Okay. Bye.” She hung up and studied the brick wall of the clinic, thinking about Irene. How was it that you could feel so completely alienated from the woman who had given birth to you? She stared down at her phone and checked her text messages then her email. One made her heart speed up. She opened it.
Hey, Cowgirl—
I managed to commandeer a computer. . .Okay, Frank helped. I don’t get to keep it for very long, but it’ll do the job. Just wanted to tell you how great it was to talk to you and I’ll give you a call when I’m stateside. Looking forward to it. Mary told me you asked about coming to visit and I told her to tell you HELL YES. Probably best to wait at least two weeks because I’m no doubt going to be sore and cranky for a while. Mary’s building the visit schedule (who knew I’d have one of those), so check in with her and then send us your itinerary. I’m going to pause now, because. . . wow. I really will get to see you this summer. And sooner than I’d planned (no thanks to the circumstances that helped that, but I’ll give ’em props for letting me see you in a couple of weeks rather than a couple of months). Anyway, that’s reason enough for me to not be sore and cranky. And on that note, I’ll catch you in a few days.
Take care,
Gina
Meg read it a few times, and a combination of giddiness and dread battled through her thoughts. She pushed off the front of the truck and went around to the driver’s side, got in, and set her phone in the cup holder near the gear shift before she started the engine. “Okay, Moonie. For real. Let’s go home.”
Chapter 18
Wednesday morning Meg arrived at the office just after Ginny. She smelled coffee and grinned. “For the coffee alone, you’re hired,” she announced.
Ginny smiled at her. She took her glasses off and let them hang around her neck, held in place with a pink cord. She wore a light blue scrub top with little cartoon dogs and cats on it. Meg figured she had dozens of scrubs with that design. She might even collect them deliberately, to see how many different kinds of dog and cat designs came on scrubs. “Morning,” Ginny said. “Do I need to remind you about your morning schedule?”
“Nope. One canine neuter, one feline spay. Let’s try to get future fixings scheduled in the afternoons that Haley’s here.”
“Already done.”
Meg came around the counter. “Of course it is. I just say crap like that for my own edification, so I feel like I actually know what’s happening around here with the intern.”
Ginny smiled.
“You want coffee?” Meg asked with another grin.
“Please.”
Meg took Ginny’s cup from the counter and went to her office first to drop her bag off and get her own cup. She filled both from the staff coffee machine in the back, which Ginny had also prepared. Ginny kept her own coffee supplies up front, so Meg returned to the front and set Ginny’s cup on the counter.
