Chapter 12 Julia
TWELVE
JULIA
“Dr. Lett? Can you see what I mean? Her nipples are all swollen,” Mrs. Marsden said while staring into the camera on her phone.
“Well, ma’am, I actually can’t see Fluffy at all.
You have the camera pointed toward yourself instead of your cat.
” I then spent the next few minutes talking the older woman through how to show me her cat.
When she finally did, I bit back a laugh and reached for my phone to send a text to Declan Morris, asking if he could make the time to stop by for a quick home visit.
“Can you see what’s wrong, doctor?”
“I can now. It looks like you’re about to become a gram-paw.” I grinned at the pun but when the woman turned the phone around, she was frowning.
“A what now?”
My phone beeped and I saw Declan’s message agreeing to stop by. “Your daughter’s cat is pregnant.”
“She’s what now?”
“Pregnant!” I shouted at my computer. I never thought I’d be attempting to diagnose pet ailments via video chat but Mrs. Marsden was terrified of driving and rarely left the house.
She’d also been lighting up my office line with messages since early this morning.
“Dr. Morris said he could stop by later this afternoon to check on Fluffy and make sure momma and the babies are doing okay. How does that sound?”
“Well, that sounds wonderful. Thank you, Dr. Lett.” The woman didn’t disconnect the call at her end and I could hear her shouting to her daughter before I shut my laptop, “Hilary, I’m going to be a gram-paw; Fluffy is pregnant. We need to get her a bigger bed!”
“At least Fluffy and her kittens would be well taken care of, right, Izzy?” I said to my calico who was lounging on the back of the sofa by me.
I heard a car door slam and boots on my porch.
“How are you feeling, lady?” Sofia called out as she walked through my back door.
She stopped to pet Fay and Wellington who followed her inside.
Reaching for the treat jar, she broke the dehydrated chicken I kept for all of them into smaller pieces, sharing it with between my dogs and cats before she finally looked to me to answer her.
“Pain is way down and, so long as I keep it elevated, the swelling is too,” I said as she reached for Pocket’s treats and held up both canisters. I pointed to the cricket ones. “Jake gave him a mealworm when he stopped by early this morning to feed the animals and let the horses out.”
“How’s it going with you two?” Sofia asked after she delivered Pocket his cricket. Didn’t matter that I told everyone that Pocket was nocturnal, they still wanted to leave him treats to find when he woke up.
“Not as awkward as I thought it would be. He’s been helpful around here.
” I wasn’t sure if I was ready to say aloud that I actually looked forward to Jake coming by, but it was still true whether or not I admitted it aloud.
Not only did it break up the tedium of the day, but I liked spending time with him even if it was only for a few minutes at a time.
Plus, I got to see the caretaker side of him that doted on all the animals under his care.
There was something very sexy about a man petting a cat. And it didn’t hurt that he was wearing well-worn jeans that looked downright sinful on him and he had a smile to die for.
“You know, I’m happy to come by more often.” Sofia poured herself a cup of coffee from the dregs in my pot and added both cream and sugar before sitting down at the table across from me. Magellan hopped up into her lap and turned around in circles before settling down for pets.
“I know, but Jake offered.” More like insisted. “And he’s a lot closer than you are.” I shrugged. “It makes sense for him to do it.” Also true. I wasn’t up for talking about Jake, so I switched the subject. “How are you? I heard Donovan got a new tattoo.”
Sofia’s cheeks turned pink and she set her coffee cup down. “How did you hear about that?” Donovan was Sofia’s “benefits buddy” as she called him and word was that he’d gotten a tattoo that looked remarkably like her face. Apparently, it looked good, too.
I pointed to my laptop. “Lydia, over at the townhall. I did a video call with her to discuss her Pointer, Duchess. She heard about it from her mom.” Her mom, Lois, was the receptionist at the sheriff’s office.
Sofia was gnawing on her lower lip, and I reached out to squeeze her arm.
“Hey, it’s not a big deal, right? The guy has a lot of tattoos.
And who wouldn’t want your gorgeous face tattooed on their…
uh… thigh?” I couldn’t stop the giggle, even when I clapped my hand over my mouth. Sofia snorted in response.
“I genuinely don’t know if I should be flattered or pissed about it.” She shifted and Magellan gave her an indignant scowl before hopping down to join Izzy on the sofa.
“Well, how does it look? I assume you’ve seen it.”
Sofia nodded. “Oh yeah, I’ve seen it. And it’s good. But why does it have to be my face? I mean, what does that even mean?” I didn’t have an answer for her. Before I could say anything, she added, “Melody entered it in a ‘before and after competition’ since it’s a coverup.”
Melody was Caitlin’s business partner and fellow artist in their tattoo studio. “How’d it do?”
“The contest ends on Halloween. The top three winners get a spread in Colorado Inked, which means my face on his thigh could be forever immortalized in print.” Sofia had the glimmer of a smile on her face and I realized this might just be a good thing.
“That’ll be good business for the tattoo studio and the town, right?” I said, already imagining more people coming to town for tattoos.
“Sure, until I pull someone over and they recognize me from Donovan’s thigh! How am I supposed to be taken seriously at a traffic stop or worse?”
Ah. I could understand her concern but at the same time, my friend had a great sense of humor and I hoped she’d be able to approach those stops with the right amount of clapback.
“You could always change your hair—you’ve talked about cutting it.”
“Oh, my hair gets even curlier when I cut it shorter.”
I pointed to my head. “Same here, but you could add a relaxer to give you those beach waves no one living in a landlocked state ever gets naturally.”
“Hmm, I’ll think about that.” She tapped the table. “In the meantime, put me to work, bestie. What do you need?”
I pointed her to Pocket’s room where his enclosure needed cleaning. When that was done, she helped me change the sheets on my bed and get the dirty linens into the wash.
“What’s next? You have me for as long as you want today,” Sofia said. Before I could answer, a truck pulled up outside and we both looked out the kitchen window. “Jake’s here and he’s got Cal with him,” Sofia announced.
“Oh. I wasn’t expecting him until later.” I looked at my watch, surprised that it was already well past noon. “Scratch that, he’s right on time.”
“Hello!” Jake called out and we met them on the back porch. “Sofia, good to see you in person,” he said with a smirk and Sofia rolled her eyes at him.
“You know, Thorne, there’s already a precedent set for arresting your ass. Don’t make me do it too,” she threatened but there was zero heat behind her words and we all knew it. She turned to Cal. “Do you have anything to say?”
Cal held his hands up in surrender. “This must be some sort of inside joke I know nothing about,” he declared, so we filled him in about the tattoo.
“I gotta admit, I am curious to see what it looks like,” he conceded once he’d heard the story, “but I’m sure Melody did your likeness justice if she entered it in a statewide contest.”
I elbowed Sofia. “See?” But she shook her head.
Jake made it to the porch and handed me a container that was warm to the touch. “Mom made cookies for her book club and I thought you might like some. It’s her chocolate chip oatmeal recipe, and they’re still warm from the oven.”
“Please tell her I said thank you.” The smell of warm chocolate made me salivate and I clutched the container to me touched that he brought them. “What brings you both here?”
Jake used his thumb to point to Cal. “We’re headed out to Half Moon to pick up some fencing supplies for his place and decided it would be faster if we both exercise your horses before we go. Hope that’s all right?”
“That would be great, but you know the horses can skip a day or two if needed. Happens all the time when the weather’s bad,” I said, wanting to give them an easy out. It would take a few hours to get out to Half Moon and back.
Sofia plucked the container from my hands and set it on the table. “Let them do what they came to do,” she said. “I thought I saw some sweet tea in the fridge. I’ll grab it and some glasses while those two get to work.”
Jake and Cal gave her a half salute and headed for the side pasture while Sofia grabbed the tea and glasses.
She poured us each a glass and opened the container with the cookies, inhaling deeply.
“I’ve tried reheating store-bought cookies just so I could get my house to smell like fresh baked cookies, but it never works—and the cookies taste even worse than when I took them out of the package. ”
I snatched a cookie from the container and took a big bite, closing my eyes to enjoy the sweet, melty chocolate taste before washing it down with tea. “You know they sell raw cookie dough already cut up. All you have to do is put the cookies on a baking sheet and bake. Problem solved.”
Sofia didn’t respond and I tilted my head to look at her. She was staring at something on her phone with a small smile on her face. I reached over and snatched her phone. “What’s this?”
“It’s the popularity count for the contest.”
“Oh? How’s your face doing? Or would that be Donovan’s thigh?” I asked, not bothering to hide my laughter.
Sofia took her phone back and was swiping away at something.
“Melody’s submission is currently in the top five.
I sent you a voting link. Might as well help her out, right?
As you said, it’s bound to be good for business.
” We both settled back to eat cookies and watch the Thorne brothers exercise my horses.
As soon as Twister saw Cal, he trotted over to greet him.
Twister was usually slow to warm up to new people who tried to ride him—he could get a bit jumpy.
I was always very careful with him because of that, but it was clear that there was something about both Cal and Jake that Twister liked.
I wasn’t sure if it was their calm demeanor around him or the fact that both brothers truly loved horses.
Whatever it was, even my more timid mares were eager for their attention.
“So…” Sofia started, waiting for me to face her. “About that.” She pointed to where Jake and Cal were laughing about something.
I huffed out a sigh. “What about it?”
“He’s here multiple times a day, brings you homemade cookies, takes care of your animals. Is there anything more you’d like to discuss with your bestie?”
I shoved a larger piece of cookie in my mouth and pointed to it while I chewed slowly, trying to sort through how to answer.
I took a sip of tea to help wash it down, then said, “I’m not sure.
I like him, but under normal circumstances, we’re both ridiculously busy.
What could we possibly offer each other that wouldn’t leave either of us feeling like we’re stretched too thin?
” Or worse. Plus, there was the fact that he was a cocky cowboy.
I wasn’t interested in having another one of those in my life.
Jake and Cal finished up and were striding this way, so I pushed to my feet.
“How’d it go?” I asked them.
“Just fine. I went ahead and fed Ally a little early, and we left the horses in the side pasture as you can see. It’s a nice day. Did you want to leave them in the pasture overnight?”
Sofia rose and dusted the crumbs off her jeans.
“I’ve got some errands to run in town. I’ll stop by later for Ally’s last feeding and get the horses put up,” she said.
Turning to me, “I’ve got your grocery list from the fridge and I’ll pick up your order from Martin’s to save an extra trip into town. Do you want anything else?”
I’d been hungrier lately and I wasn’t sure why. I’d assumed it was partly due to boredom since I wasn’t being physically active. “Maybe a veggie pizza from Magiano’s? Extra crispy crust?”
“I’ll be back in time for dinner,” Sofia said, snagging another cookie before heading for her truck. “Text me if you need anything else,” she said over her shoulder.
As she was driving away, I thanked Jake and Cal again for their help and leaned against the pillar on the porch while they made their departure, Jake’s promise to be back here first thing in the morning still ringing in my ears.
As a single woman living alone, it was hard being reliant on people for chores that I could normally do in my sleep, but Jake went about everything with such a calm efficiency, I was going to miss seeing him every day once I was back to doing all of this on my own.