The look he gave Teresa wasn’t warm, but it had thawed. Treating for mastitis meant the cow’s milk was unusable. She’d just saved him some bucks.
He, too, walked her out to the truck. “So you’re the new partner.”
“That’s right.” She unbuckled the rubber overalls and peeled them down.
“I suppose I’ll be seeing you again.”
“We’ll try to accommodate preferences,” she said evenly. “But that may not always be possible.”
He nodded, which could have meant anything from understanding to acquiescence. Teresa chose to take it as the latter. She’d done well.
Eric agreed when she got back to the hospital. “Two phone calls saying they liked you,” he informed her when she’d tracked him down to the kennel. Their resident cat, a huge fat tortoiseshell, sat slavishly at his feet. He was petting the still-groggy shepherd, who now had one floppy ear.
She crossed her arms. “And the two who wouldn’t let me in their barns?”
“One wants to know when I can come. The other says he’s changing services.”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake!” She stomped across the room, then swung around violently. “If they’d just give me a chance…”
Eric closed the cage door and rose to his feet, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “Ol’ Man Eide says he did only because he couldn’t wait. He sounded grudging, but he’s willing to concede you’re okay.”
“Eide? That was my last call.”
“Yup.”
“And he phoned you to praise me?”
“I think ‘okay’ is praise in his book.”
Teresa pumped her fist. “Yes!”
Eric slapped her on the back. “You’ll win ’em over.”
Already, she reflected as she unloaded the truck, it felt as if she and Eric had worked together forever. As if they were best friends. It was a good thing they didn’t stir each other’s hormones.
“HE’S HERE AGAIN,” Nicole said into the telephone to her best friend from Bellevue. “He didn’t even make an excuse for stopping by this time!”
“He?” Jayne echoed. “Oh. You mean that guy. The one your mom is seeing.”
“If she marries him, we’ll be stuck here forever!” Nicole said hopelessly.
“Hold on. My call waiting is beeping.”
While Nicole sat listening to silence, she brooded. Couldn’t Jayne tell how upset she was? Like some other phone call was so important.
Leaning against her bed, her door shut, she could still hear voices drifting up the stairs. Laughter. She felt…shut out. Even though she knew she wasn’t really. Mark was down there in the kitchen with them. But she didn’t belong.
Five minutes must have passed before her friend came back on the line with a rush. “That was him,” she said dramatically.
“Him?” But Nicole knew.
“Russ Harlan. He wanted to know if I’m going to a party tomorrow night. As if I’m going to say no.”
Nicole’s chest burned with envy and hurt. She struggled to say something. Cool. I hope he asks you out. Something. But she couldn’t. It was a relief to hear a beep in her ear.
“My call waiting,” she said. “Just a sec.”
The voice was hesitant and male. “Can I talk to Nicole?”
“Speaking,” she said coolly.
“Hi. This is Bill Nelson. I’m, uh, I sit next to you in English.” He waited for her to agree that she knew who he was. When she didn’t, he stumbled on, “I have brown hair. I play football. I’m, you know, a linebacker. We…we talked yesterday. After class.”
She could hear him sweating. Bill Nelson was an okay guy, just kind of big and dumb. But she didn’t care right now. Did he really think she’d go out with him?
“What do you want?”
He swallowed, making a gulping sound. “I…well, there’s this movie in town. Steven Seagal. I thought…that is, I hoped… Would you go with me?”
She felt mean suddenly. “You’re joking.”
Pause. His voice got a lot quieter. “No.”
He must be the tenth guy to hit on her since school started. She’d been nicer to the others. They were all such hicks they didn’t deserve it. Hicks, like the one sitting at her kitchen table right now.
“I have a boyfriend. In Bellevue. I’m really not interested.”
“Oh.” Bill cleared his throat. “Okay. I, uh… Sorry. I didn’t know.”
“No big deal,” she said ungraciously. “See ya.” She pushed the button to cut him off and bring Jayne back onto the line.
“Who was that?” Jayne asked.
“Some guy.” Nicole felt a little sick. She shouldn’t have been so hateful. It wasn’t Bill Nelson’s fault that her best friend in the whole world had just snatched the coolest guy she knew away from her.
“Are the guys all lame?” Jayne sounded pitying.
Nicole gritted her teeth. “Of course not. You ought to see the quarterback of the football team. He’s really fine. If I can just figure out how to meet a senior…”
“How hard can it be in a school that small?” Jayne didn’t let her answer. “Well, listen, I gotta go. I’m supposed to help Mom with dinner. Then I need to call Kelly and Roz and tell them all about Russ.”
“Sure.”
“Wow, I wish you were here like you used to be.”
Nicole strained to decide if Jayne meant it or not. “Yeah,” she said slowly. “Me, too.”
She had other friends she could have called, but they’d been sounding distant, too. It just wasn’t the same, when she hadn’t been there at school to see Liza tell off her boyfriend, or hear the new government teacher make an ass of himself, or watch Coach Murphy get a speeding ticket right in front of the high school. Everything was different. One-sided. They told her all the latest, and she grumbled about being stuck in this backwater town. But life hadn’t changed for them.
The kitchen door slammed. Nicole lifted her head. Was he leaving? But she could hear Mark talking excitedly and a low calm counterpoint. Careful not to be seen, she went to the window. Sure enough, Mark the traitor was taking a football out onto the lawn with Joe Hughes. They started throwing it, Mark’s passes wobbling, Joe’s perfect spirals.
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