Tears pricked at Kat’s eyes. In that moment she knew she couldn’t be separated from Lucy. “What does that mean?”
“If she is going to stay on the ranch, we’ll have to buy her.” He gave her hand a squeeze.
Kat sat silently. There it was again. Luke talking like she wasn’t leaving. A new car, a dog that belonged to them. She looked at his profile. Did he really mean it? It had only been a day.
The silence stretched out as the questions piled up in her head. There was so much she wanted to ask but all of her insecurities kept them from tumbling out of her mouth. She knew what he was saying but he couldn’t mean it all. There was no way that Luke wanted her forever.
“Kat, you haven’t said a word for fifteen minute. It turns out that you not talking is more nerve wracking than you talking. What are you thinking, sweetheart?”
She turned to him. “You’re saying things that I want to believe but…”
“But what?” He slowed the car, turning onto the ranch road. He pulled the car over to the side and turned to look at her. “Do you know how long it took me to get you out here? Kat, I don’t want to scare you away, but I’ve haven’t dated anyone else in a long time, they never compared with you—”
“Wait, what?” She stared at him. Her hands trembled.
He grasped them in his. “I’m not pressuring you. We’ve only been dating for a day and it might not work out. I know that. But I want to give it a try and I don’t want you thinking that I just want to have sex a few times or that I’m just messing around. Because I really care about you and I have for a while. I didn’t just want Lucy. I wanted you. I wanted a chance to be with you and to see if we had something real.”
“I just can’t believe that you would actually like me.” She took a deep breath, looking at her feet. But his thumb hooked under her chin lifting it up until their eyes met. “Luke, you make me insecure. You always have. That is why I get so defensive. I’m not one of those girls who is always putting themselves down. I just never thought I was good enough for you to actually care about.”
His lips came down on hers. “Give me a chance to prove to you that I think you are the most beautiful, most perfect woman I’ve ever met. I’m going to start by buying Lucy for you. Though, I have to warn you that we may be eating macaroni and cheese for a while.”
She laughed then. “The beauty of the modern world is that I’ve got plenty of my own money. I’ve been saving for years. But if you can keep a roof over my head for the summer so I don’t have to spend it in rent, then I won’t have to touch the savings.”
He pulled her into his lap then, snuggling her close. “I’ll keep it over your head forever, if you’ll let me.”
Her breath caught. Was this really happening or was she dreaming? Luke hadn’t been teasing her all these years. Instead, he had been pining for her and now he was offering her a forever. “I love you,” slipped out of her lips before she could hold it back. Her heart hammered in her chest. She had just made a terrible mistake.
“Oh sweetheart, I love you too.” His kissed her long and hard, taking the breath from her chest. “But promise you won’t get worried and insecure if you gain any weight. Because I can’t wait for that to happen.”
She laughed then, it bubbled out of her chest. “I promise. Now get me back to your house and get me to bed.”
EPILOGE
Kat stared out the kitchen window. A year had passed since she had moved onto the ranch and nine months had slipped by since she and Luke had gotten married. Her friends had thought she was completely crazy until they met him. Then they all understood.
Carl had been her biggest supporter. “They spent ten years flirting,” he’d loudly proclaimed at the wedding during his best man speech. “If they’d taken any more time, they would have been dead before they finally got together.”
Kat spotted Luke and Lucy coming in from the field. It turned out that Lucy was an amazing cattle dog. They had kept a female from the litter too, Grace. She was the future of their breeding program.
Her stomach tightened and she took a deep breath as her husband and her dog walked through the door. “Any advice, Lucy?” She gave the dog a pet.
“Is it time?” Luke wrapped his arms around his now very large wife. He had gotten his wish in spades.
“I think so. I called Barb. She’s on her way to dog sit.” She gritted her teeth again.
Luke wrapped his arms around her and led her to the couch. His hands rested on her rounded belly, his voice cooing. “I can’t wait to meet you.”
“So much for my plan to go back to teaching this fall.” She sighed.
“Well you can go back whenever you want. But we’re doing just fine if you don’t. Besides, you’re on the cusp of having your own breeding business.”
“You know I won’t make much money doing that!” She sagged against the couch.
“The ranch is doing better and better and you are part of that success. If you miss teaching go back but if you want to stay home with this little one,” he patted her pregnant belly. “I’ll support you either way.” He gave her a long lingering kiss.
“I love you, Luke,” she sighed.
“I love you too, Kat. Forever.” He held her tight.
About Tammy Andresen
Tammy Andresen lives with her husband and three children just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. She grew up on the Seacoast of Maine, where she spent countless days dreaming up stories in blueberry fields and among the scrub pines that line the coast. Her mother loved to spin a yarn and Tammy filled many hours listening to her mother retell the classics. It was inevitable that at the age of 18, she headed off to Simmons College, where she studied English literature and education. She never left Massachusetts but some of her heart still resides in Maine and her family visits often.
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Tailwind
A Love By Design Series Novella
by M.C. Cerny
Copyright © 2016
M.C. Cerny
Dedication
For the furry lover in us all
One
WINNIE
Sometimes life kicks you in the lady balls and the only answer is to pull the fire alarm on your way out the door and start over. There’s this immediate satisfaction, a Zen that comes over your body in the moment those water sprinklers wash away the filth and regret. I happen to know of this firsthand freefalling freedom, but I also know it’s seriously frowned upon. I’m totally a fly by the seat of your pants kind of girl until I get reined in.
That’s me, Winsome Hana Gray-Yoshida, my mother’s clam bake frat party surprise. My dad was probably the only half-Asian kid in his fraternity back then, while my mother agonized over being the only Jewish girl from her Brooklyn neighborhood attending college. I think they bonded over Long Island ice teas their freshman semester at NYU.
As for me, all this shit stirring fun was working out pretty well until my trus
t fund dried up, and that’s how I got shipped up north to bumble-fuck-too-far-from-a-real-mall-rural-NY-state to pet sit for my travel junkies aunt and uncle. Mom had it with my carefree latte and Pilates lifestyle, which was unfortunate for me, since the only marketable skill I had was knowing the difference between a Kate Spade knockoff and the real deal.
As for the fire alarm I pulled? Let’s just say I’ve got another uncle who’s on the fire department and owes my mom a big favor after planning his chief’s retirement party over at the Weston Hotel. Our family is pretty tight, and I’d be kidding myself if I didn’t realize how lucky I was that this all got swept under the rug as an accident.
Animals are not exactly high on my list of things to work with, but it was probably better than my last job as a failed retail sales clerk. I mean, who knew there was a company policy about chasing shoplifters? Definitely not me. I was certain the boutique store chain Janie Doe could have offered me something. At least a bonus for rescuing that so last year jade colored cashmere sweater. I was the poster child for Pantone, but instead I got fired because the thief sprained their ankle and threatened to sue for medical compensation.
Ridiculous.
Bullshit, that’s what that was.
Utter fuckery, in my honest opinion.
I’ve decided there isn’t a cashmere sweater in the tristate—no, make that the east coast—worth a jail sentence. Now I was nanny—under duress—to three obnoxious pets who were more high maintenance than children. I checked in with a few of my friends who actually do nanny the human kind of children, because I didn’t think it was possible. It’s possible all right, and right now I would have traded a shitty diaper for the all hairballs and loose stools on the kitchen floor in the world. I tried calling my dad for backup, but Mom had cut my international calling plan, pulling the plug on that bailout.
Note to self, next time my dad, Ryo Yoshida, goes all Doctor’s Without Borders, get a reliable email not through his office.
“Dammit, Roswell! Easy, Pumpkin! Oh shit, lordy, Bailey! No! No!” The three chariot beasts of hell dragged me down what was the country bumpkin equivalent of Fifth Avenue with me at their unholy mercy. My mom might have lied a teensy bit to her sister about my recent stint as a professional dog walker, but it was probably better than getting into actual trouble for that whole non-fire-sprinkler episode at Janie Doe. My phone rang, and I juggled three leashes, my perfect shade of butter tan purse from Coach’s new spring line and a small non-brand organic coffee in my hands.
“Oww, shit balls!” I cursed, burning my hand spilling the coffee and staining my favorite purse. “Oh, man!”
Pumpkin howled off key, and Bailey took off in the other direction, snagging my arm, sloshing more coffee.
“Ugh!” I dumped the coffee in a trash can littered with hippie stickers and one Buddha deity with the required number of arms I needed. I picked up my phone before the last ring. “Hello?”
“Winnie, darling! I’m calling to remind you that Precious has an acupuncture appointment today at eleven-thirty. Would you be a dear and get him there, please? I can’t have my baby-boo suffer-ruffering.” She made it sound like baby talk, and I wanted to gag. My vagina was definitely closed for construction after this summer.
“Um, right. Well, I’ve got them out for a walk right now.” Sure, if these beasts didn’t kill me first by pulling me into oncoming traffic, and in this town that meant a large wheeled farm vehicle.
“Wonderful,” she cooed. “Dr. Calloway’s office is on the main street near the coffee shop and the art gallery. Don’t be late!” Aunt Helen hung up, and I was left staring at my phone steaming mad, wishing I had my coffee back.
“Okay.” I looked down at my charges. “Which one of you freakin’ fur balls is Precious?” Three faces stared back at me in differing states of drool and toothlessness, cocking their heads with ears perked.
Roswell is a mini pug looking dog who could melt your face off, not with kisses, but with his bad breath and one saber tooth poking out between his slobbery lips. I learned this upon my first morning of hell rolling over into his beady eyed panting stare. If dogs could talk, I imagined he’d talk with a lisp.
Pumpkin the Basset Hound lumbered in at a good twenty pounds overweight. I don’t know what he eats, or where he puts it, but in the last three days I’ve been here, he hasn’t shit once that I’ve seen. I’m thinking I should start to worry about the box of puppy pads my aunt left for me to put around her house that I’ve neglected so far.
Bailey is a Husky breed of some kind with two different colored eyes that kind of creep me out. Her stare is intense, and I’m waiting for the day she snaps and mauls me in my sleep. Bedding down with Dexter Morgan might be safer. She’s also the youngest of the bunch with boundless energy so far and stands up taller than I do.
“Shit, let’s all go.” Giving up the good fight, I started to have them walk again only to have them tangled up as I tried to hurry them down the next block. Dr. Calloway’s office building was nestled between a hippie juice bar and organic food store named Dingleberries and an upscale looking gallery filled with finger paints my cousin’s three-year-old son could have done. I stopped in front of the gallery and fixed my hair, smoothing back dark flyaways and making sure my brows—thank you, Nana Dara!—are straight over my eyes. It may not be NYC, but I made sure I was presentable while the dogs jerked the leashes. I was wondering who got the short straw out of this one as I barged into the office, bells jingling.
“Whoa, guys, sit down.” The three faces huffed air, dripping drool on the tile floor. Gross. “Yeah, I guess not.” Seeing as how the waiting room was cozy and we were the only ones here, I dropped the leashes and went up to the waist high counter that hit closer to my breasts than waist.
“Hi, can I help you?” The woman had a name tag on her puppy scrubs that read Sharon. She looked me over, and I felt like she was assessing me as a neglectful pet owner. Lucky for all of us, I was only doing this for the summer.
“Hi, I’m Helen’s niece Winnie and one of her dogs has an appointment for acupuncture today.” Tapping my sheer bubble gum pink gel nails on the counter, Sharon gave me the stink eye, glancing back to the computer screen.
“Yes, let me see. Oh, it looks like you’re an hour late and we’ll have to reschedule.”
I felt my carefully groomed brows rise incredulously. “Late? Impossible!” I checked my phone display and I guess walking here did take longer than expected, but I did just get the call from my aunt and had a heck of a time navigating them down the street.
“Clearly,” Sharon expelled a breath, rolling her eyes, and tapped away on the keyboard.
I was barely listening to her, thinking about which nail color I could suggest for her bare nails that seriously needed cuticle TLC.
“I’ll have to see if the doctor can squeeze you in today. Do you know which dog?” she asked, peering over the counter to the monsters behind me with disapproval. I prayed one of them peed on something just to stick it to Sharon-with-the-snakes but no such luck.
“I, uh, don’t know which one. My aunt said Precious.”
“Oh, you mean Pumpkin. Fill out these updated medical forms, please.” The last was said condescendingly when she handed me a clipboard and a form, minus a pen. I probably shouldn’t be filling out anything that made me responsible for these mutts, but I figured there was a place in heaven for me somewhere, maybe on a street corner if I could just get through this summer. Sharon dismissed me, and I sat down on the awkward plastic chair, arranging the board on my lap and riffling through my purse for a pen. The chair, which was horribly uncomfortable, was a robin’s egg blue color that bothered me.
“Okay, great.” Getting the brush-off, I looked over the paperwork and filled in as much as possible. I was distracted because the chair didn’t match the blue trim in the office and I wondered who the hell put the colors together. Maybe it’s because I’m a quarter Asian and it’s screwing with my Feng Shui, b
ut I felt twitchy sitting in the mishegoss. It was all very shabby chic, including the Norman Rockwell framed pictures of little kids and pets on the walls.
Name–Pumpkin “aka Precious”
Age–If smell is a gauge then I’m guessing circa 2009.
Height–Can reach a fire hydrant sufficiently.
Weight–Pork belly status.
Medical Conditions–old stinky farts.
I wasn’t being totally facetious, but all these questions weren’t something I could exactly answer, and I wished I hadn’t taken this job once I realized the responsibility it entailed. I’ve never kept anything alive before, let alone a cactus plant which is supposed to be un-kill-able. With a flourish I didn’t feel, I signed my name and perhaps Pumpkin’s fate. I would probably be the only half Jewish girl knocking on heaven’s door if this didn’t work out. If anything I’d be lucky if my pet sitting abilities didn’t rip apart our family with my crappy luck and poor survival skills.
Two
CHASE
“Dr. Calloway, are you busy? The acupuncture appointment is finally here. Late.”
If by busy you mean squeezing the anal glands of a German Shepherd, then yes I’m currently up to my latex gloves in some shitty business.
Sharon was tapping her foot with what I assumed was annoyance over the last appointment of the day. I nodded that I would be right out once I finished up in here. Oh, the glamorous perks of being a veterinarian. I applied enough pressure to ease the blockage, and Cosimo looked up from the table at me, whining.