and professional advice regarding Pumpkin, he adamantly shook his head. “Really, Mary Kay—”
“Shh.” She cut off what was going to be a fervent denial by placing the pads of her pink-polished fingertips of one hand over his mouth. “No. You’re right. This isn’t the time for words, it’s time for action. Let me show you just how lucky you really are, Jack.”
He tried to take a step back, but Pumpkin, undoubtedly looking for revenge against the usurper who’d taken his place on his mistress’s lap, had circled Jack’s legs and wound the leash that Mary Kay still had looped over her wrist around him. It was all Jack could do to keep from falling backward on his butt or forward onto Mary Kay.
If it came to it, he’d pick hitting vinyl in a heartbeat. He would have never dreamed Mary Kay would become so aggressive in her bid to land a millionaire. Though he shouldn’t be surprised. Even the mayor’s assistant, Paula Pratt, had suddenly shown up with a pet so she’d have an excuse to come to the clinic. The mayor, after all, hadn’t been one of the group he’d dubbed The Main Street Millionaires.
Mary Kay tugged again, her bright blue eyes glinting with determination. “Give me one good reason why not, Jack. Just one,” she huskily challenged, leaning yet closer in a clear invitation for a kiss.
Ten compelling reasons instantly came to mind, but none of them were particularly flattering to Mary Kay. While her pursuit of him, obviously fueled by his newfound wealth, was extremely annoying, it didn’t earn her his cruelty. But thanks to the effort involved in trying to keep his balance and avoid her puckered lips lined in a shade a heck of a lot darker than her coral lipstick, his brain had a hard time coming up with a nice reason.
The first and foremost truth popped from his mouth. “Because I’m already involved with someone.” He always would be.
Mary Kay froze, then frowned. His state of perpetual mourning had never been a secret in Jester, and was the main reason he’d been left alone by the women in town. But over a million in the bank apparently overrode their pity.
The skepticism plain on her meticulously made-up face, she pulled back and challenged, “Who?”
Now he’d stepped in it.
Figuring the rest of that particular truth wouldn’t buy him a respite but instead earn him the standard lecture on the benefits of moving on, he mentally scrambled for a name. He couldn’t just make a girlfriend up, even one who might live out of town. He was far too visible around Jester, and didn’t leave often enough to get a story like that to fly. Besides, in a town of 1,500 people, everyone generally knew everyone else’s business.
Just when Mary Kay’s frown was turning to exasperation, the clinic’s door opened and Melinda returned with a blast of cold air that matched her icy expression. With a glancing glare in their direction that let him know Mary Kay had sent Melinda on an unnecessary trip outside, Melinda stomped back into their office.
It dawned on Jack that the only woman he spent any amount of time with alone was his currently grumpy partner. He could easily be having a relationship with her that no one would know about.
Without further thought he announced, “Mel. I mean, Melinda. I’m currently involved with Melinda.” And just in case Mary Kay expected him to be willing to cheat, he threw in, “Seriously involved.” He took advantage of Mary Kay’s shock and extracted himself from her grip.
Looking down, he stepped out of the tangle Pumpkin had made of the leash. He started in on the explanation he was certain she would demand. “Since we work together, we’d prefer to keep it quiet, you understand—” He looked back at Mary Kay, and her expression stopped him.
She was softly saying, “Ah,” and nodding her head as if he’d just pointed out something obvious, like the fact chicken coops stink.
She slipped off the examination table. “Why didn’t you say so in the first place, Jack? Sheesh,” she muttered as she bent to pick up her rotund cat. “I could have spent all this time hanging at The Heartbreaker Saloon, working on Dev,” she groused on her way out of the room.
Jack’s brows went up. That had been easy. A little too easy. His luck couldn’t be that good. “So you don’t want me to take a look at Pumpkin?” he offered while following her into the small waiting area.
“Naa, that’s okay.” She waved him off as she continued toward the front door. “Pumpkee’s tougher than he looks.”
Considering that Pumpkee looked like the feline equivalent of a Sumo wrestler, that was saying something.
“Well, if you’re sure…” he trailed off, hoping his pleasure over his excuse working wasn’t too obvious.
“I’m sure. Catch you later, Jack.”
“’Bye, Mary Kay, Pumpkin.”
Jack closed the door behind her and whistled low through his teeth. That had been a close one. While lying wasn’t his thing, no matter how white the lie, in this instance it had certainly been the lesser of two evils. He doubted he could have convinced Mary Kay that the only woman he would ever want in any way was already gone from his life.
That fate had already decided he would spend his life alone.
Besides, he was leaving Jester.
He turned toward the office, intent on making sure Melinda was on board with his plan, but she was already heading out into the waiting area, her coat on and her vaccination kit in hand.
“Where are you going? I want to finish our discussion.”
She stepped around him and made for the door. “Sorry, Jack. But I’m due out at Wyla Thorne’s place in fifteen minutes. At least she doesn’t mind having a woman vaccinate her pigs.”
He pulled in a deep breath and followed her. “We’ll get everything straightened out, Mel. I promise.”
The look she gave him as he held the door open for her said, yeah, right.
But he meant it.
He had no choice.
JACK HAD ALL of an hour of peace, having finally forced himself to focus on the paperwork that needed to be done, before the blinds on the door rattled again. He braced himself, wondering which supposedly love-struck lady with a mysteriously ill pet would appear next.
He sent up a silent prayer that it wouldn’t be the mayor’s curvaceous, blond assistant, Paula Pratt. Her newly acquired, tiny beige Chihuahua, Angel—the dog’s original owners had called him Killer—was only happy snuggled up inside the front of the woman’s coat, and whenever she drew close to someone, the dog growled. It sounded eerily like her abundant breasts were snarling. And whatever it was that little dog had wrong with him, only a truly gifted animal psychologist could cure.
Jack’s prayer was answered when much older and rounder Stella Montgomery came through the door, her platinum-blond curls protected from the weather by a clear plastic rain hat and her peacock blue, heavy winter coat brushing the tops of her sheepskin-lined boots. She caught sight of him in the office and her seemingly permanent smile widened.
He automatically smiled in return. Stella was a real sweetheart. She lived over at Gwen Tanner’s boardinghouse, and was forever seeing to everyone’s happiness and the health of their love life,
