“Have I?”
Pam nodded. “But I don’t blame you, Annie. This is your shop, your investment, your responsibility. Whenever you think I’m ready, I’m glad to help.”
“Thing is, he kissed me.”
It became very quiet in the shop. Pam’s mouth dropped open.
“Nuts,” Annie said. There were no ears gifted with supersonic hearing like those found in a beauty shop, despite the noise of dryers and running water. She looked around the small shop. It was tiny—three chairs on each side of the room. Two dryers and two deep sinks in back. Behind that was their break room and Annie’s little office.
In the salon now were women in various stages of beautifying, rods, rollers, foils or back-combed tresses blooming from their heads. Beauticians with blow-dryers, curling irons, combs and brushes in their hands, poised over those heads. All silent. All waiting. “Talk among yourselves,” Annie instructed.
“Lotsa luck,” Pam said. “Is this guy, this vet, in any way appealing?”
Annie’s cheeks got a little rosy.
“Is he cute?” Pam asked.
Annie leaned toward Pam and whispered, “You’d wet yourself.”
And Pam’s cheeks got a little pink. “Whew.”
“Well, tell us about him,” someone said.
“Yeah, what kind of guy is he?”
“Should you call the police or wear something with a real low neckline?”
“How old is he? How many times has he been married? Because that’s key. Believe me!”
“Listen, I can’t talk about this,” Annie said. “I’ve known the man barely a week! And only because of these puppies! Honestly, if it weren’t for these puppies, we wouldn’t even know about each other. He’s a large-animal vet. He was just doing the bartender, Jack, a favor by looking at the orphaned litter.”
“Um, Annie, don’t you have large animals? Who’s your vet?”
“Well, he is, but I didn’t know that. I mean, my folks keep an eye on the horses and Erasmus. My bull,” she clarified for those confused stares in the room. “When they said they called Doc Jensen to the farm, I thanked them and paid the bill. I mean, it hardly ever happens that the horses or the bull needs something. I thought he was the same Doc Jensen who’d been looking after our animals since I was in diapers. But it turned out to be his son. Doc Jensen Junior.” She cleared her throat. “He’s thirty-two. And never been married.”
“Whoa,” someone said. Another woman whistled.
“He’s had girlfriends,” Annie said. “Not from around here. But when he came up here to take over his dad’s practice a couple of years ago, he brought a young buxom blonde fiancée with him and it didn’t work out, but—”
“Low neckline,” someone advised.
“Tight jeans. Snug, anyway. I mean this in the nicest way, but if you could think about a little extra makeup, like eyeliner and lip liner,” someone said.
“You don’t need that,” Pam said quietly.
“I was thinking that maybe being unavailable would be a good—”
“No!” three women said at once.
“Why would you do that?” Pam asked.
“He’s just too damn sure of himself,” Annie answered.
“Well, how about this,” Pam said. “Maybe you could try being sure of yourself?”
Annie thought about that for a second. “See, that’s the hard part.”
* * *
Usually Annie was very confident. She knew she was intelligent; she was a small-business owner and it was going well. She was independent and doubted that would ever change, even once she partnered up. And as for her modest upbringing, she had not yet met the person she’d trade places with. Life on the farm was rich in many ways. She might’ve had a moment of shallow jealousy over the skinny, fancy, city girl who could attract not only Nathaniel’s attention, but acquire a big engagement rock, as well, but all that had passed pretty quickly.
There was one area in her life where her confidence was a little shaky, however. She’d barely recovered from Ed. She’d put a lot of faith and trust in a man who’d clearly been using her. If this new guy, the big-shot vet, was really interested in her, he’d have some proving to do. She wasn’t going to be played for a fool. And she certainly wasn’t going to be the only available two-legged female he’d run across lately.
Later that day after work, she fed Ahab, dug around in her refrigerator and fluffed up a nice green salad, fixed a plate of frosted brownies and headed for Nate’s place.
When she pulled up to his house, a woman was just leaving the clinic, locking the door behind her. She was a tiny thing with salt-and-pepper hair cut supershort, and when she might have headed for the only car parked outside the clinic, she stopped and waited for Annie with a smile on her lips.
Annie approached her. “You must be Virginia,” she said.
“And you would be Annie McKenzie,” the older woman said. “Nice to meet you. I met your parents some years ago, but I think all you kids were either at school or had maybe already left home. Nate’s not home yet, but you have a key, right?”
“I do,” she said. “Thanks for helping with those puppies. These are for you,” she added on a whim, passing Virginia the plate of brownies.
“You shouldn’t have, but I’m glad you did. Annie, tell Nathaniel to give you both the clinic and my home phone numbers and to leave your phone number for me. If we run into a situation when he’s stuck out at a farm or ranch, we can work together to cover for him. I live in Clear River and he tells me you’re in Fortuna. It’s about the same distance for both of us to get here.”
“Sure. And I’ll tell him to call me first. I don’t have a husband to irritate by running off somewhere to take care of puppies.”
Virginia tilted her head, regarding her. “He doesn’t talk about women, you know,” she said.
“Your husband?” Annie answered, confused.
Virginia laughed. “Nathaniel. Can’t get a word out of him about his love life. And I’ve known him since he was this high,” she said, her hand measuring about midthigh.
“Maybe it’s not much of a—”
“But he’s talked about you for a week now. Annie this, and Annie that.”
Annie’s eyes grew round and maybe a little panicked. “This and that what?” she asked.
“I think he finds you delightful. Maybe amazing. You knew exactly what to do with the puppies because, raised by Hank and Rose, you were
