Catch the Cougar: A Halloween Novella Page 3

  Addie and Dan’s gray and white striped tabby cat had to go to the vet for her annual checkup this morning and Bridget thought they could use that excuse to get some intel on Vanessa during the vet visit. This would be a strictly clandestine operation that only she and Addie and Kate would know about.

  “Oh, good. I’m so ready to take a break and do something investigative. So what are we checking out?” Addie sounded as thrilled about the prospect as Bridget felt.

  Bridget cleared her throat. “We’re looking into Vanessa’s former love life.”

  There was a significant pause.

  “What?” Addie finally said.

  “Okay, Kate said that William and Vanessa are having their first dinner tonight. We need to learn what her dating history was before this so we can advise William on how to handle himself.”

  Addie laughed.

  “I’m serious. You know how much he has wanted to be friends with her since she arrived, and she has pushed him away at every chance they had at socializing. But things have changed between them and he really wants to make this work.”

  “William told you that?”

  “Oh, no, Kate did. Apparently, Vanessa wanted William to grill her dinner and he doesn’t have a grill even! So he asked Kate, and Leyton checked around to see who could help him haul his grill over to William’s townhouse so William would be all set.”

  Addie laughed again. “Does Vanessa know that all of cougar town will be conspiring to make this happen?”

  “Hopefully not. That’s why we need to do this in a really subtle way.”

  “Okay, what about doing an investigation into William’s romantic liaisons? I mean, this should go both ways,” Addie said.

  “You’re right. Absolutely. We’ll investigate William too, and then we can let Vanessa know if he’s a good fit for her.”

  “You know we could let them figure this out on their own, just like I did with Dan and you did with Travis.”

  Bridget thought about it for a moment. “Nah, we need a case to work on, and this is really important. Not once have either of them dated anyone else since they have been in Yuma Town, yet both of them are interested in each other.”

  “And you know this how?” Addie asked.

  “At every function we’ve had, they search each other out in a surreptitious way. We all notice it though. You know how it is with us being curious cats.”

  “And? Ohmigod, you’ve read their minds, right?” Addie chuckled. “And you’ll be using your mind-spy powers to read their thoughts when you question them, I bet.”

  “Yeah. He’s been dying to enjoy her company, and she can’t keep her eyes off him, admiring him, but being annoyed with him too. It’s like this real contradiction where her feelings toward him are concerned. If we can help them out, don’t you want to give it a try?”

  “Sure.”

  “Good. I’ll go with you to take in your cat and we can ask some questions of her that seem innocuous and it won’t have anything to do with her dating William at all.”

  “Okay, I’m game. I’m leaving at nine and I’ll pick you up at your house.”

  “Good, see you in half an hour then.”

  * * *

  Vanessa finished up another annual pet exam and gave the dog its vaccinations when Addie Steinacker showed up with her cat for her physical. Vanessa was surprised to see Bridget MacKay had come with her. She guessed the two women were ready to take a break from motherhood.

  “How is Lucy doing?” Vanessa asked Addie.

  “Oh, just fine.”

  “She looks nice and healthy. Teeth look good. Heartbeat sounds fine. I’ll do some bloodwork on her, to check for heartworms.”

  Addie glanced at Bridget, who just smiled, then said, “So when you were living in Colorado Springs, you worked at a vet clinic that was human run, didn’t you?”

  “Uh, yes. I’ll just take Lucy back into the other room and be out in a minute.”

  Vanessa and her vet technician, Riley Manning, whom she had hired recently to help out at the clinic, took Lucy to another room in the back.

  * * *

  Addie frowned at Bridget. “You were supposed to start questioning her,” she whispered.

  “I had every intention of doing so, but I realized it was kind of awkward when she’s talking to you about Lucy, which is why we are here.”

  Addie pursed her lips. “Okay, invite her over to dinner. Travis went out of town with Leyton to chase after bad guys, you’re going to be alone, and so is Kate. You could say you’re going to get together with Kate, and did she want to come too?”

  “What if she did and she canceled on poor William?”

  Vanessa returned with the cat and Riley.

  Both Addie and Bridget smiled at Vanessa.

  “She looks good. And she’s all set for another year,” Vanessa said.

  “Oh, good,” Addie said, taking her cat into her arms. “Thanks so much.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  As they were leaving to pay at the reception counter, Bridget said to Addie, loud enough for Vanessa to hear, “We’ve got to get Tracey’s sister, Jessie, married off.”

  Addie frowned at her, then as if she realized it was another of Bridget’s ploys to read a person’s mind when they reacted to something they saw or heard, she nodded. “Oh, yes. Soon.”

  Then Addie paid the vet bill and they headed out to the car with Lucy in her carrier.

  “So?” Addie asked, climbing into the vehicle.

  “Vanessa began thinking of a movie she was watching last night about an undercover bodyguard serving as a bridesmaid at a wedding.”

  Addie laughed. “Okay, that didn’t work. We’ll need to do our regular investigative work. I’ll drop you off at the house and we’ll get together tonight so we can put the kids down and then we’ll start doing our research.”

  “It sounds like a deal.”

  * * *

  At six, it was finally time for dinner, and William had knocked himself out straightening up his place. Even his bedroom, not that Vanessa would end up with him there, but he wanted to make sure he didn’t leave anything to chance. He glanced at his walls and the prints of beautiful oil paintings of dinosaurs hanging in the living room. He’d thought if he ever found a she-cat to be his mate, he would probably have to take them down and put them in his office.

  When Vanessa arrived, she was wearing a rust-colored sweater, brown slacks, and boots, looking like fall and just as pretty as could be. He took her light suede jacket and laid it on the back of the couch. “I hope you enjoy the steaks.”

  “Any cougar would.” She smiled.

  When it came to meat, he was all for it, just like most cougars were, so he figured he couldn’t go wrong with it.

  “I was thinking, if it wasn’t too late, we could run as cougars after dinner. I wasn’t sure how you would feel with having to work tomorrow, so we could just decide after we eat.”

  “Yeah, sure. I would like that. I don’t run much on my own. It’s not that much fun,” she said.

  “Okay, good.” He had only thought of it at the last minute. Getting to know each other as cougars and as humans was important. But for now, he was glad the misunderstanding they’d had between them was gone.

  “So the veterinarian who was your friend, where is he practicing?” she asked, as William served up their meals and brought them inside to set on the table.

  “Colorado Springs.”

  * * *

  Vanessa was about to take her seat and she felt her body heat uncomfortably. Not that she would know his friend in Colorado Springs, but what if William chanced to mention to the friend that he was dating Vanessa and the vet knew about her wedding failures? Both weddings had been in the paper and both cancellations too. When she really got to know someone well, she’d talk to him about it, but in the beginning? She thought there was no need to mention it.

  She’d been very careful not to tell anyone in Yuma Town about it. She’d had to tell them she
was from Colorado Springs so that they could approve her building a vet clinic here to serve the cougars of Yuma Town and to know that she was a fully qualified vet. Beyond that, nothing else was important.

  “You’re from there, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, but I probably don’t know your friend.”

  William eyed her speculatively. She was giving herself away, big time.

  “Matt Appleton?”

  She shook her head. She didn’t know him. Thankfully.

  “I’m sure there are several animal clinics in Colorado Springs,” William said, buttering his mashed potatoes.

  “There are.” She cut into her steak. The problem was William could smell her nervousness and wonder why mentioning his friend in Colorado Springs would have brought it on. “So where did you have in mind to run?” She figured switching the topic to show she was interested in doing more with William would work like a charm to make him forget about Colorado Springs and that she was from there.

  “I thought we would go through the woods out back and just run as far as we thought we could and when we’re done, we’ll return.”

  “Okay, sounds good. We could run out at my place sometime, if you want.” She didn’t know why she said that. They had barely started dinner and she should wait to see how this went. But she did feel that she owed him for giving him the cold shoulder since she’d been here.

  “Yeah, sure, I’d like that. What do you have out there? About twenty-five acres?”

  “A hundred, so plenty of land to explore. Woods, a creek, some great rock-climbing features for mountain goats and cougars, and a tiny waterfall.”

  “A waterfall? You have a waterfall?”

  She smiled, surprised he would be that interested in a waterfall. “Just a tiny one. It trickles down the rocks into the river in a steady stream. Sometimes, if we’ve had snow or heavy rains, it turns into a torrent. But most of the time it’s just a fun little flow of water that’s pleasing to hear.”

  “Man, Hal and Tracey have one near their ranch, so does Chase and Shannon near their resort. Now you have one?”

  She laughed. “It’s just a tiny one.” She held up her thumb and finger to show how small the trickle was.

  “I have definitely got to see this for myself.”

  “It’s not that big a deal.” Though it was one of the reasons she had bought the land to build her clinic and house on. She just hoped he wasn’t building his expectations up, thinking it was like the waterfall near Hal’s ranch. Now that one, people could actually go behind, and it was a lot of fun.

  “How’s your steak?” he asked.

  “Oh, it’s delicious! It’s cooked to perfection. Thanks so much for having me over for dinner.”

  “You’re so welcome. I’m just glad we could finally do it, once we cleared up the misunderstanding.”

  “Please, don’t mention it.”

  William smiled. He always had the most disarming smile and she thought he looked both dashing and a little roguish at the same time. That could be her undoing.

  “Were there any cougars in Colorado Springs?” William asked, making small talk.

  “Yeah, a few. But not like Yuma Town. I love that it’s cougar run.” Again, she had to change the subject from talking about Colorado Springs. If she mentioned too much about the cougars there, she might slip up about the two guys she’d been engaged to.

  “Same with where I was at in Twin Falls, Idaho. I dated a little, but never met anyone who was really someone I wanted to spend more time with.”

  She smiled, knowing just where this was going. “Yeah, me too.” Don’t ask anything about who she had dated, please.

  “Are you ready to run?”

  “Yeah, I sure am.” She helped him with the dishes and loaded them into the dishwasher.

  “You can change in the guest room if you would like, down that way.” He motioned to the hall leading away from the living room and kitchen.

  “Okay, thanks. I’ll be right out.” Before she headed down the hallway, looking forward to getting some exercise after a long day at work, she noticed the beautiful landscape paintings featuring dinosaurs on the walls in the living room. She smiled. She had all the Jurassic Park movies, and she’d read all about dinosaurs when she was a kid. Of course, they were always learning new things about them and that changed some of the suppositions they had about them—like most of the dinosaurs of the Jurassic Era were probably covered with feathers, according to a Siberian find and study. Dinosaurs had always fascinated her.

  She wondered if pictures and toys and movies would depict them that way in the future.

  She hurried out of her clothes and shifted. Then as a golden-coated cougar, she loped down the hallway and found William waiting for her in the living room. He was tawnier colored and she thought that fur was pretty too. She nuzzled his face in greeting, and then he led her through the cougar door in the dining room.

  He ran with her through the woods out back of the townhouse, and she really enjoyed running with him. She wanted to do this again.

  They finally reached a place where they could climb rocks, startling a couple of goats. She heard owls hooting off in the distance, one calling to another. Then, sitting atop the mountain of rocks, Vanessa and William looked up at the stars in the heaven and the full moon all aglow. A couple of miles away, they saw a sprinkling of city lights in Yuma Town. Up here, with the mountains in the distance, her place, and Hal’s ranch even further out, she felt they were on top of the world.

  Then they saw a bat fly overhead and she smiled. Perfect for Halloween. She realized William didn’t decorate for Halloween. Was he even going to the Halloween party? He might not be into that sort of thing.

  Then she yawned and he licked her cheek with his sandpaper tongue and she licked him back. It was time to head back to his place so she could return home to her own Halloween black cat and get some sleep before another workday.

  Chapter 4

  Once they reached William’s townhouse, shifted, and dressed, Vanessa told William how much she had enjoyed dinner and the cougar run. “Did you want to have dinner at my place sometime?”

  “And I can see your waterfall? Sure. Would tomorrow night work for you?” William smiled, not letting the opportunity pass.

  She chuckled. “Yeah, sure.”

  He hoped he wasn’t going too fast with her, but he had some catching up to do. And he didn’t see any reason to wait and get to know her more slowly. What if she finally began opening up to other bachelor males in the town, or those who lived out of town and who were related to town members or had friends here? What if one of them began dating Vanessa and then William lost his chance to get to know her?

  At least she seemed like she was up for it. He walked her out to her car and he was thinking he needed to get a barbecue grill of his own—just in case she wanted another grilled outdoor meal. He had to give Leyton’s grill back to him. William certainly couldn’t expect Leyton to loan it to him every time he needed to cook outdoors.

  “I had a great night,” William said.

  “Yeah, me too, William.” She took his hand and seemed to be deciding what to do next. Then she pulled him into her arms and she kissed him.

  He was trying to kiss her sweetly, as in them being on a first-date kiss, but it morphed into something more. He couldn’t help himself. He’d been wanting to date her since he’d first met her. With the way she was kissing him back, it seemed she felt the same way about him. More the better.

  He finally kissed her mouth lightly. “I’ll see you tomorrow night then.”

  “See you then.” She climbed into her car and drove off.

  He felt like he’d made a real breakthrough in getting to know her better. It still didn’t mean they were meant to be together long term, but this was the first time in years that he’d dated a woman he wanted to see a lot more of. Running with her as a cougar had been magical.

  * * *

  The next day, William couldn’t wait to see Vanessa
for dinner and a run that night and called her that morning. “Hey, tell me if I’m bothering you too much, but we both need lunch and if you want me to grab something and we can eat at your place, I will.”

  “If you don’t mind, you can bring me steak fajitas from Jose’s Mexican Restaurant.”

  William hadn’t expected her to agree so quickly and he thought that was a good sign. “That’s my favorite too. What time would you like to eat?”

  “Eleven-thirty, if that works for you. We shut down for an hour to give everyone time to eat. And then we’re open at 12:30 for clients who need to come in during their lunch hour.”

  “Okay, I’ll be there at 11:30.” He needed to clear it with Kate, but he figured she would be happy to cover for him if someone walked in with a medical complaint.

  Then Vanessa had to go and so did William to see their respective patients. He felt he was walking on a cloud, but as soon as he was free and Kate was, he asked her, “Hey, is it all right if I take off at 11:30 for lunch?”

  Kate smiled knowingly. “Is there someone special you want to see?”

  He chuckled. “I don’t kiss and tell.”

  “Ohmigod, you kissed her already?”

  Their receptionist, April Hightower, said, “He kissed who?”

  Marcus came to see Kate with a chart in hand. “Who’s kissing who?”

  The other nurses, Elsie Miller in her crowned frogs scrubs and Helen Kretchen, both came to see what was going on. The only ones not there were nurse Mandy Jones and their emergency call person, Becky Sorenson, but they would tell her about it before long.

  Smiling, William called in his next patient.

  * * *

  Vanessa couldn’t have been more thrilled that William was having lunch with her. It was nice that they could actually carry their takeout to her house behind the clinic so that they could have their meal in private.