Catch the Cougar: A Halloween Novella Read online

  As soon as William arrived with a sack of fajitas and sopapillas, she was so ready for lunch. Her staff had all left except for Riley, who was checking out the situation, as if he were her big brother.

  “I’ll see you in an hour,” Vanessa said.

  Riley looked skeptically at her. “That would be a first.”

  True, she usually took a fifteen-minute break and ate lunch while she worked on patient charts in her office. She wasn’t one to waste time.

  William smiled. “I’ll make sure she takes a full lunch hour.”

  She chuckled. “Yeah, but the patients’ charts still need to be done.”

  “How well I know.”

  She enjoyed that about William. He might not be a vet, but he had similar responsibilities and she could talk to him freely about medical issues, either her patients’ or his.

  Then she and William headed over to her house and he smiled at all her decorations like he was really enjoying seeing them.

  “These are great. I love your dinosaur skeletons.”

  “I thought you might. I loved your dinosaur paintings. When I was girl, I read all about the dinosaurs, before it was really a thing to do. I was just fascinated with them.”

  “Me too. Hence the dinosaur paintings.”

  “We must be oddities. When everyone else is interested in cougar photos and paintings, here we are loving dinosaurs.” She unlocked the door to her home and once they were inside, he locked it for her.

  “Differences is what makes us, well, human, at least half so. I have a human skeleton that I usually put out, I but didn’t get around to it this year.”

  “Since you didn’t decorate for Halloween, I wasn’t sure you were into all that.”

  “I am. I love what you’ve done with yours. Speaking of Halloween, will you go with me to the Halloween party?”

  She was surprised he asked her. He sure was moving right along. In a way, she liked it. There was nothing worse than a guy who couldn’t decide if she was fun to be with or not. She’d had enough men in her life like that too. But in a way, she worried he was going a little too fast and they would end up in the same boat as she’d been in before.

  “I wasn’t sure if I was going to the party. You know, after a long day at the clinic, I like to just relax and be myself.” She went into the kitchen to get glasses of water to go with their meal.

  “Oh, you’ve got to. You’ll have a great time, as evidenced by all the decorations here and at the animal clinic. I see you have a bunch of movies appropriate for Halloween: Hocus Pocus, Stardust, The Witches of Eastwick, Practical Magic. You’ll have fun seeing the Halloween food and costumes. I had a great time last year.”

  She brought in their glasses of water. “I always watch one of those movies for Halloween.” She set silverware on the table. “They have dancing at the party.” If she was going to go with him, she wanted to dance with her date.

  “Yep. And I’ll be your dance partner.”

  She arched a brow. “You know how to dance?” For some reason, she didn’t take him as the kind of person who would be into dancing, which really wasn’t fair to William. She was probably projecting on him because her former grooms hated to dance.

  She knew William was friendly to everyone, but she hadn’t heard he’d dated anyone while he was living here either. Though she’d heard rumors he might be dating someone out of town, like at the medical conferences he went to so that he would keep up his credentials.

  “I sure do.”

  She sighed. “All right. I was going to watch Hocus Pocus Halloween night.”

  “We can watch it afterward.”

  They sat down to eat their fajitas.

  She laughed. “You have everything planned out, don’t you?” She added sour cream, shredded cheese, and guacamole to her fajita and took a bite.

  “Not everything. I’m in uncharted waters here and playing things by ear. How are your fajitas?”

  “Delicious! Much better than the tuna fish sandwich I was going to have. And the company is fun.”

  “I feel the same way. So what are you going to wear to the party?”

  “I think I’ll be a…a female pirate in charge of her own sailing ship and crew. What about you?” She ate some more of her fajitas. These were really good.

  She was thinking a pirate costume would be easy. She had a peasant skirt, blouse, and boots she could wear. She just needed a belt and a scabbard and sword.

  “I’m not sure. I’ll have to see what I can scrounge up.”

  “You mean you don’t have a closet full of costumes?” She lifted her second fajita to her lips.

  He laughed. “I’ve missed several of the Halloween parties because I’ve been out of town at medical conferences, so this one will be special. I have to give it some thought. I didn’t expect to have a date for the night.”

  “Well, you can swab my decks any time.”

  He smiled in a way that said he was seeing a lot more into what she was saying than she had intended.

  She felt her face warm, realizing he had taken it in a sexual way.

  “I think I’ll have to be a pirate on your ship, swabbing your decks, or anything else you need me to do.” He made up his third fajita.

  “Yes! Pirates it is.”

  He smiled. “We’re going to have fun.”

  “We will.” Well, she hadn’t expected to become a pirate for Halloween and have a date for the Halloween party while she was having lunch with William. She liked that he really wanted to see her further. She was enjoying her time with him.

  “What exciting things have you done today so far?” he asked.

  That was a first for her too. Normally, the guys she dated didn’t care one whit about what she had to do during her workday. Maybe it was because William was in medicine also.

  “I delivered a cougar who was having her twins in her cougar form. She wasn’t from here, but her water broke and she couldn’t make it home in time. But it worked out well because she didn’t have a cougar doctor back home to deliver her.”

  “Well that’s easier.”

  She frowned at him as she brought them cups of coffee.

  “I mean that it’s easier for the momma to deliver multiple babies that way.” He smiled at her.

  “Right.”

  He smiled again in his perfectly charming way.

  “What did you do that was exciting today?” she asked him. She really was interested.

  “I delivered a woman’s baby, just one though. She was human and on her way to Loveland. She said her doctor had advised her not to travel this late in her pregnancy, but she had to visit a dying aunt before it was too late, and then the woman went into labor on the way home. It’s getting close to Halloween, you know.”

  “Oh, wow. And yeah, I agree. I have more cases like that during Halloween than any other time of year. Is she still at the clinic?” Vanessa asked. They normally didn’t keep humans at the clinic for very long if they ended up there. Every once in a while a cougar would come in with a bad injury and be so out of it, he or she would shift unexpectedly, so they really tried to keep it as a clinic just for shifters as much as possible.

  “No. They transported her to the hospital in Loveland, where her husband and parents are meeting her. It all worked out well. The baby was full-term and healthy.”

  “So were the shifter babies.”

  “That’s good.”

  “I agree. I love lunch, by the way. Thanks so much for bringing it.”

  “You’re welcome. I thought it could be fun.”

  “It was really nice,” she said, and was thinking she could get used to this. “I’m going to start our pot roast in the slow cooker, and it will be done by the time we’re ready to have dinner.”

  “That sounds great. What can I do to help?”

  “Can you peel the carrots or potatoes?” She hadn’t expected him to offer to help her since he’d made the dinner last night without her help and he’d bought their lunch.

 
“I can do both.”

  “Okay, great.” She brought out the potatoes, carrots, and onions, pot roast, and the seasoning package she loved. She set out a cutting board and peeler for him and brought out the slow cooker. Then she set out another cutting board and a knife and worked on the onions, then threw them in the cooker with the roast, some water, and the seasoning mix.

  He finished peeling the carrots and she cut them up. Once he was done with the potatoes, she cut them up too and added them to the pot, covered it, and put it on high.

  “That’s a good way to cook a meal while you’re working,” he said.

  “Yeah, I use it for brisket, corned beef, tough roasts, stew, lots of stuff. And then I can freeze a good portion of the rest of it for later.”

  “I need to get one of those.”

  They talked some more about cases they each had and then, unfortunately, it was time for them both to return to work. William had to leave a few minutes early to drive back into Yuma Town to the clinic.

  He walked her to the animal clinic and then they said goodbye and he drove off to the medical clinic.

  “Well, how was lunch?” Riley asked, grabbing a soda.

  “Good. Yours?”

  “I didn’t have a date, so I imagine not as good as yours.”

  She smiled. “There’s nothing to it.”

  “Are you going to the Halloween party?”

  “Yeah. You?” She began working on her patient charts.

  “Yeah. Is William taking you?”

  She looked up from the patient’s record and smiled. “Yeah. Are you going with someone?”

  “I was going to take you.” He began cleaning an exam room.

  No way had he planned to ask her. That was one thing she had learned about Riley was that he loved to tease her. And she’d heard him telling their receptionist that he would like to ask her to go to the Halloween party, but she had said she already had a date. That was a week ago. Why hadn’t he asked Vanessa in all that time? He was just too funny.

  “How did lunch go?” Pamela Lang asked as she returned from lunch and moved around the counter to work on billing. She was their receptionist and billing clerk. She was a pretty dark-haired woman who wasn’t interested in Riley, like Vanessa hadn’t been interested in William. At least at the time.

  Who knew though? Pamela might change her mind about Riley too.

  Missy Longmire arrived and she was their other vet technician. Vanessa had heard Riley asking her out. And she had said no also. Poor guy.

  “So, how was lunch?” Pamela asked.

  “Oh, it was great,” Riley said.

  “You know I was asking Doc.”

  Riley sighed. “Yeah, I know, but she might not want to talk about her love life.”

  Vanessa laughed. She hadn’t had this much interest in what was going on in her life since she moved here. Everyone was too funny.

  * * *

  As soon as William returned to work, Kate was giving him smiles every time she chanced to run into him. So did their receptionist and all the nurses. William was getting a kick of it. He was thrilled Vanessa wanted to go with him to the Halloween party. He would show her he knew how to dance.

  The day seemed to fly by faster than he thought possible and he was ready to have dinner with Vanessa, barely saying good night to the rest of the staff at the clinic, amusing them to pieces. He heard them all laughing about it as he got into his car, smiled, then drove off to meet with Vanessa for dinner. He swore he could smell the roast already, and the delectable scent of the she-cat most of all.

  Chapter 5

  That night, William arrived at Vanessa’s house and he loved that she had orange and black lights illuminating the windows. He hadn’t expected that. She was fun and she made him want to do some decorating himself, if it hadn’t been so late to do it.

  As soon as she let him inside, she smiled. “Food’s ready.”

  “Man, it smells good.” He pulled her in for a kiss, having wanted to do that all day. “Thanks for dinner.”

  “Hmm,” she said, getting into the kiss, acting as though she felt the same about missing him. “It was my turn to feed you.”

  “And we’ll run to the waterfall after this?”

  “Oh, sure. But it’s not a really big one,” she reminded him and put the food out for them.

  They were soon enjoying the pot roast, potatoes, and carrots. “This is so good,” he said.

  “Thanks. I’m glad you like it. It’s one of my favorite dishes for fall.”

  “Yeah I agree. I like your lights too.”

  “They add just that little extra touch.”

  “Have you figured out your costume?” He’d finally kind of figured out what he thought he could wear.

  “Oh, yeah, I have a long skirt, peasant blouse, boots and I need a cutlass sword. Or a flintlock pistol.”

  “Do you think you’re going to run into trouble?”

  “You never know.”

  He smiled. He knew they were going to have fun.

  After dinner, he cleaned up for them and she went into her bedroom to remove her clothes and shift. He stripped off his clothes in one of her spare rooms, then shifted and joined her in the living room. He knew her waterfall wouldn’t be huge, but he loved the sound of water trickling.

  They nuzzled each other, and then they went through her cougar door and she led the way this time, running through the woods and reaching a mountain of rocks. At the bottom, water trickled into a pond.

  He loved it. It was just perfect for a cougar run. She bounded up the rocks and he went up right after her. Their own climbing rocks. Once they were on top, they snuggled with each other again, licking each other’s muzzles and he couldn’t be happier.

  The moon was full and the stars bright. A star was shooting across the heavens and he made a wish. That he and Vanessa would continue to enjoy each other’s company and that, if they were meant to be together, they would be.

  After exploring and playing chase and tag for about an hour, they finally returned to her house and watched Stardust. That was a fun, feel-good movie. Watching it with Vanessa made it even better.

  He finally said, “I’d better get going. I had a lovely night. Lunch tomorrow, if we can swing it?”

  “Yeah, sure. Your place or mine?”

  “Yours. We have more privacy here. And I like your waterfall, so tomorrow night, dinner here again? I can bring something?”

  “I can warm up the pot roast or we could have roast beef hash then for dinner.”

  “Roast beef hash sounds good. What about lunch?”

  “Pizza. Cheese and meat lovers.”

  “Okay, sounds good.” Then he kissed her and she kissed him back, openmouthed and very receptive. He smelled her pheromones and they enticed him to take this further with her. But he knew he shouldn’t push it too fast. Not unless she was ready. “Hey, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Yeah.” She sighed and didn’t release him right away. “I’ve had such a wonderful time with you. We could watch Practical Magic tomorrow night.”

  “It’s a date.” He kissed her again, and then he said goodnight and left, though he really wanted to spend the night.

  * * *

  “Okay, so we look into William’s past next, right?” Addie asked Bridget as they gathered at Bridget’s home that night.

  Bridget put all four little ones down to sleep: Addie and Dan’s twins—Mitch and Maddie—and Bridget and Travis’s twins—Theo and Phoebe—all four of them born on the 4th of July. Talk about fireworks that night.

  Addie was on her laptop, looking for clues about William’s past.

  Then Bridget was back on her computer, glad Addie’s husband was out working too so they could do their research on William and Vanessa. “Yeah. I found pictures of the medical conference he attended, and he was the key speaker a couple of times. Here are pictures of William at a couple of the booths where the physicians picked up free stuff and here are some dinners they attended.”
r />   “There’s a woman with him or nearby him every time he’s in a picture,” Addie said, looking over Bridget’s shoulder. “A blond.”

  “Like Vanessa.” Bridget sighed. “What if William is still hung up on the other woman?”

  “Do you have a name for her?” Addie found the pictures on her laptop and blew them up. “Wait, I do. Sandy Sherman. That’s what her name tag says.”

  “She’s a doctor like him. A family physician.”

  “But also a cougar?” Addie asked.

  “That I don’t know. I’ll call him and see.”

  Addie frowned. “What? Wait. What happened to doing this in a clandestine way?”

  “What if he’s leading Vanessa on when he has this other woman on the string? You know some cats are wanderers and won’t ever settle down.” Bridget had known enough he-cats like that.

  Addie let out her breath. “What do we have on Vanessa?” She flipped through some Google searches for Vanessa Vanderbilt, DVM, in Colorado Springs and had several hits. “Ohmigod.”

  “What?” Bridget glanced over at Addie’s computer.

  Addie shook her head. “She’s been stood up at the altar twice. And both men were dark-haired like William.”

  Bridget joined her to see Addie’s laptop screen. “Ohmigod is right. We need to get Kate clued in on all this right away.”

  * * *

  The next morning, Vanessa was feeling really good about things between her and William when she arrived at the clinic. It was a lot easier to like someone than hold a grudge.

  She saw a bouquet of red roses sitting on the reception desk and smiled. “Who got the flowers?”

  “You. We’re all waiting to see who they’re from,” Pamela said, smelling the roses from behind the desk. “They are so fragrant.”

  “Who else would they be from other than Dr. Rugel?” Riley asked, as if it were a no-brainer.

  Vanessa was surprised William would get her roses. It reminded her of Edward Givens, groom number two, who had stood her up.