August Heat

by Billings, Hildred

  After a thorough exam that determined no surgeries were probably necessary, Siobhan prescribed some antibiotics and wrapped the crinkled tail in a bandage. She came back today to check in on the kitten and was pleased to see her bounding across the couch and beseeching attention around every turn.

  “She’s very lucky you drove by that day,” Siobhan said to Rita. “Too bad we can’t figure out who put her in that position to begin with, but she should be fine. It all works out in the end.”

  “A thousand years of bad karma to whoever dumped her there, anyway,” Rita spat. “Who the hell dumps pets? There’s a damned shelter not too far away from here. Why are people…”

  “One of many human mysteries.” Siobhan stood up and shook Rita’s hand. “Give me a call if anything comes up with your new addition. I’ll check in from time to time.”

  Siobhan hopped in her truck and checked her phone for any messages. The only thing of note was a garbled voicemail from her assistant back at the office. AKA my aunt Gabriella. They shared a house off the county road that conveniently doubled as a vet office. Nothing fancy, of course, but it gave Siobhan a place to treat the occasional animal and to safely store her equipment. Sometimes that was a bigger boon than renting out a space in town. Kept out the nosy people that way.

  Besides, Siobhan liked being by herself. She preferred life away from the hustle and bustle of a town, even a small one like Paradise Valley. To think, I moved here to be closer to people “like me.” It hadn’t been her idea, but she went along with it because her ex insisted it was the place for them to make their “homesteading dreams come true.” Siobhan needed a new place to practice and discovered there was an opening for a livestock vet more local to the area. It had seemed like destiny at the time.

  You may notice a lack of a partner in this house, though. Her aunt didn’t count. Gabriella picked up the pieces Emily the ex left behind. Namely, she came to make sure Siobhan didn’t die from the breakup. She stayed because she loved the area and the isolationist lifestyle it provided.

  Siobhan shut off the engine as soon as she parked in her usual spot, right between the house and the RV garage she converted into her office space. She wouldn’t head into the house yet, though. First thing? Into the office, where she’d fill out some paperwork about Rita and anything else she did that day. Luckily, she currently had no wounded or sick animals staying for treatment in the back of the office. Otherwise, she’d spend the rest of her evening there.

  “Oh, there you are!” Gabriella popped out of the office, her windbreaker freshly put on and her hair up in a messy bun. “Been trying to get a hold of you. Did you get my voicemail?”

  “Not really. I got it, but it’s not super understandable.”

  “Dangit. You’ve got somebody coming by with some kittens soon.”

  “Kittens?”

  “I guess that old barn on the side of the route burned down or something. One of the firefighters called earlier, saying they found a box of kittens nearby. Owner of the barn says they aren’t his and suggested the firefighters bring them over here.”

  Siobhan slammed her hands on her hips, a worried look gracing her freckled visage. “Kittens? Isn’t that more suited for Dr. Global?”

  Her aunt shrugged. “She’s coming by soon.”

  “She?”

  “Yeah, it was a female firefighter who called. Is that weird or something?”

  “No.” Siobhan pushed past her aunt and entered the office. “Not weird at all.”

  She didn’t want Gabriella seeing the dread on her face. Although Siobhan didn’t personally know Krys Madison, she knew who she was. The only female firefighter in Paradise Valley. Kind of a big deal. Krys had many, many acquaintances. When she wasn’t at the firehouse, she hung out at the gay bar or got into trouble with her friends. One of those was her ex-girlfriend Jalen Stonehill, a plumber who sometimes came by the O’Connors’ to take care of their ongoing issues. Jalen hadn’t been around too much lately, though. She was too busy living it up in Hollywood with that new celebrity girlfriend of hers.

  Sheesh. Siobhan made a point of avoiding town gossip, yet she still knew all about that.

  Like how she also knew that Krys was the kind of trouble Siobhan didn’t need in her life.

  A car pulled down the driveway a few minutes later. Siobhan had barely begun her paperwork when she caught sight of a muscular woman popping out of the car and turning around to pick up a box from the backseat.

  Here we go.

  Chapter 3

  KRYS

  “Hello?” Krys looked between the old house at the end of the driveway and the big garage beside her. The garage was marked Clinic, but it didn’t look like anyone was inside. So much for being prepared and picking up the kittens while she thought about it. Maybe she should put them back in the car, in case…

  A door popped open beside her. “You must be Krys. Madison, right?”

  Krys whipped around, jostling the poor kittens in their box. Mews of displeasure peppered the muggy air.

  Yet Krys didn’t have much sympathy for the kittens who had already accomplished such a big day. She was too taken aback by the woman standing in the doorway to her clinical office, arms crossed and demeanor bold enough to start a few fires. Guess I’m the one to do that around… Krys knew something about putting out fires.

  She also knew about stoking them.

  The woman in front of her couldn’t have been much older than thirty-five, possibly younger. Not exactly the picture Krys had summoned when she heard about a rural vet with an older, more traditional name. Yet she wasn’t that far from her picture of someone named Siobhan O’Connor. She may have lacked some age, but she had orange-red hair that was the color of flickering flames before they turned into raging fires. Freckles that were as plentiful as they were emboldened with a golden-brown hue dotted her pointed face. Such a self-assured attitude cocked against the doorway, a flowy white top hanging loosely from a willowy frame. Black yoga pants added an air of countryside authority before Krys got a load of the dirty, old, worn work boots scraping against the ground. Those things look like they’ve walked through a few cowpies.

  It didn’t detract from Siobhan’s beauty, though. If anything, it only made her look like a bigger badass.

  “Uh, yeah.” Krys was reminded that she was there to get something taken care of when a kitten lightly bit her thumb. “I called earlier about the kittens from the fire? They ain’t got no owner, and I’m worried they might have some smoke damage in their lungs. Just little guys, you know?” Their lungs were probably the size of Krys’s fingertip. Granted, she had pretty big fingers, but that meant nothing when it came to filtering air!

  Siobhan craned her head up and peered into the box. “How many?”

  “Four. Keep counting them to make sure they’re all there.”

  Finally, Siobhan kicked herself out of the doorway and motioned for Krys to come in with the kittens. “Bring them on in and we’ll have a look at ‘em. Tell me what you can.”

  Krys spilled everything she knew, which wasn’t much. By the time she placed the box on an exam table in a tiny room with only one window, she had said everything there was to say. While Siobhan sprayed something on a bath towel and draped it across the table, Krys said, “Thanks so much for doing this. I didn’t wanna take them to Dr. Global because…”

  “It’s all right. I don’t have any other critters here right now, let alone something that might like a tasty kitten for a snack.” Siobhan placed a stethoscope around her neck, washed her hands, and pulled gloves up to her wrists. Between those and the wire-rim glasses now gracing her face, she looked like any other doctor from the area. She ain’t no Brandelyn Meyer, though. All right, so they were both intimidating as hell to be around, but Krys always got through her appointments with Dr. Meyer by reminding herself that she was a damn firefighter. If she could stand in the face of flickering flames, she could handle a pretty lady sticking her hand up her shirt – to listen to her heartbeat,
of course.

  “Do me a favor and put these on.” Siobhan tossed Krys another pair of gloves. “With four of the buggers, I might need a little help.”

  Krys slipped the gloves over her hands, one eye always on the box of fun currently scooting along the exam table. Two of the kittens had taken to throwing themselves against one side of the box, as if they knew their mother awaited them over the far edge of the table. Don't think you're gonna find much down there but a big bump on the head. At least they were in the right place for it. “I don't have any training beyond some EMT stuff. I can put an oxygen mask on a dog, but that's about it.”

  Siobhan snapped a surgeon's mask against her face. Was she expecting these cats to carry the next plague? Should Krys be wearing a mask? Or was she already doomed? “You don't need anything a competent layman couldn't accomplish.” She lowered her mask far enough to expose her upper lip. “You're a competent layman, right?”

  “Prefer laywoman, if it's all the same.” Jeez, could she turn up the smarm any more? This isn't the kind of woman you make “hey! Notice me! As a woman!” jokes around. Siobhan could perfectly tell that Krys was a woman of a certain persuasion. What did that make Dr. O'Connor? Was she attached? Did she have a husband? A wife? Boyfriend? Girlfriend? Krys was usually on top of her gaydar, but that day had already been a wild ride. Between the fire and these kittens, the last thing she expected was discovering a woman like Siobhan living in Paradise Valley. This might be the first time in several months I've got the hots for someone. Here she thought she was entering a new phase of her life. One where the hormones finally settled the hell down and she could focus on other things beyond dating, drinking, and fighting fires. I've already cut back on the drinking. Since hitting thirty, Krys had discovered she couldn't pound the beers like she used to. She still wasn't sure how she felt about that.

  She knew how she felt about this veterinarian, though.

  “Hey, did you hear me?”

  Krys snapped to attention. A kitten was already halfway into her hand. “No... no, sorry. I'm still a bit weird after the fire earlier. Takes some time to decompress, you know...”

  “Less fantasizing, more attention on the cats. We've got four of them to examine, and I'm gonna make sure it's done right.”

  Krys didn't know what she expected when she brought the kittens here. Dropping them off and leaving? Giving a report? Watching the vet do her work before heading out? Asking what she could do to help them get adopted? It certainly wasn't this. Krys Madison had not woken up that day to meet a pretty veterinarian and cuddle kittens in the clinic with her.

  Or maybe she had, and she simply didn’t know it yet.

  One by one the kittens were weighed, inspected, and checked for fleas and ticks. At the announcement that all four of them were flead the hell up, Krys took a giant step back. Siobhan could only laugh.

  “Fleas are everywhere, especially around here. Bet you have some in your house.”

  “Oh, hell no,” Krys said. “My roommate is kinda gross, but not that gross.”

  “You’ll be fine. It’s these guys I’m worried about.” Siobhan withdrew a cream from one of her drawers. On second inspection, she tossed it back in and grabbed another. “Especially if I’m trying to give them adult formula and not kitten. Their little systems are shocked enough.”

  Krys knew next to nothing about de-fleaing kittens. She barely knew anything about grown cats. Dogs? Sure. She had a dog with fleas before. Took multiple doses of whatever flea medication was the hot thing ten years ago to get rid of it. Back when I was a blushing twenty-year-old. Any fantasies she entertained about owning a dog now were gone with Siobhan’s gloves in the trash.

  “So, now what?” Krys scratched the back of her head. Oh, God, I ain’t got fleas now, do I? How quickly could fleas transfer from a kitten to a grown woman? Was what Siobhan said about fleas being everywhere true? What if Krys picked them up in the woods where she found these guys? “I can’t really take them home with me. We have a no pet policy at my place.”

  Siobhan shrugged, as if she hadn’t expected Krys to do anything. “I can keep an eye on them for a few days. I’ve got connections in some shelters around here. Kittens this young are fast adoptions. Granted, they’re a little young to be totally weaned and eating solid food, but I don’t think I need to bust out the eyedroppers.”

  Krys paled. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

  “You did the right thing bringing them to a vet. Real shame to hear they don’t have their mother anymore, but better for them to come to us early when we can socialize them and get them adopted before they become totally feral. My aunt lives with me. She loves cats. Bet she’ll be out here half the night looking after them.” Siobhan chuckled. “Probably end up adopting the whole lot of them. Our other cat will love that.”

  Krys couldn’t tell if that was sarcasm. “Again, thank you. I looked for a mama cat, but didn’t find one. Honestly, I found them in that box there, far away from the barn fire.”

  Siobhan tapped her finger against her chin. “Suspicious, isn’t it? The farmer said they’re not his?”

  “Said he had never seen them before.”

  “Still possible they were his barn cats. He just didn’t know they were there. That’s pretty common. I’m always finding litters of kittens in barns. Go in to check out a horse, come out carrying kittens the farmer doesn’t want in his barn.”

  It’s the fact they were in a box that makes it sound suspicious. As if someone knew there would be a fire and made sure nothing was killed. An arsonist with a little conscience? Go figure. Still something for the fire marshal to figure out. Krys would be on hand for an interview if necessary, but beyond that, her work was done when the chief pulled them from the scene.

  “Tell you what.” Siobhan threw out her mask and washed her hands again. Krys lined up behind her to have a turn. “You’ll get first dibs to adopt one or all of them if you want. Finders keepers, right?”

  “I guess.”

  “Don’t worry about them having owners. Cats get dumped all the time.”

  She had such a cavalier way of saying that. Was that a byproduct of being a country vet for so long, or was Siobhan sarcastic by nature? It would explain why Krys hadn’t ever seen her around town before. I would remember her, too. A face like that… hair like that… uh, a body like that… Siobhan was all lean muscle and a few carefully placed curves. Nothing that made her a pin-up model, but she was physical, wasn’t she? Country vets were probably like that, always climbing around farms and dealing with big, unruly animals. I make it sound like she wrestles pigs every day. Well, maybe she did…

  “So…” Krys soaped up her hands while Siobhan dried hers a few feet away. “You’ve been here a while, huh? I’ve never seen you around.”

  What was that look for? Was Siobhan the type to take offence if nobody noticed her? Or was she put out that Krys’s nosiness was getting the best of her? “I don’t get out much,” Siobhan grumbled. Then, “That’s not true. I get out a lot. Every day, really! I don’t go into town much. All of my clients live on farms or up in the hills. Just earlier today I was checking on Rita Mills’s cat she found ran over in the road.”

  Krys searched her memory for that name. Rita Mills… Rita Mills… Nope. Didn’t ring any bells. Maybe Siobhan was the person most connected to the county’s agoraphobic residents. Krys didn’t meet people unless they were often in town or constantly calling the fire department.

  Or she dated them. Ahem.

  “Sorry. Don’t know her.”

  “I know you, though.”

  Krys patted her hands dry with a paper towel. “Excuse me?”

  “Krys Madison. Paradise Valley’s only female firefighter. I’ve had a few friends who dated you.”

  “Not sure what to say about that.” Krys would blush, though. “I’ve dated a few women over the years, so I couldn’t really guess who.”

  “Yeah.” Siobhan turned to the box of kittens. “I know.”

  How wa
s Krys supposed to take that?

  “I’ve got it from here, thanks. Unless there’s something else you need?”

  Krys was at a loss for words. Wouldn’t mind asking you out. Yet she was completely off her game, and she couldn’t say why. Lack of practice in recent months? Or was there something about Siobhan O’Connor that threw her off, as if Krys had finally met her match in a woman who probably wanted nothing to do with her? “I’ve had a few friends who dated you.” Was that said in jest, or anger? Who were these friends Krys had dated? Did things end sourly on one end, and that’s what Siobhan had heard over the years? How much was Krys’s honor at stake?

  “No, it’s good.” Krys made sure she had everything – minus the kittens, for they were still falling over each other in their box – before heading to the door. “Unless there’s anything else you need from me.”

  Siobhan glanced between Krys and the kittens, a confused smile twitching on her freckled face. Oh, my God. I’m such a sucker for freckles. There weren’t enough girls with freckles in Paradise Valley. Too many Scandinavians, not enough Irish. “I said I got everything from here. Four kittens, all with fleas but otherwise fine.”

  “If I hear anything about their owner, I’ll let you know.”

  “You do that.”

  Krys shut the door behind her and helped herself back out to her car. She lingered by the driver’s side door, fumbling with her keys. She was in no hurry to get inside. What if Siobhan suddenly remembered something and needed to talk to Krys a little longer?

  Surprise. No such thing happened.

  Chapter 4

  SIOBHAN

  Krys Madison. Go figure.

  That was all Siobhan could think about as she and her aunt Gabriella settled the furry children into the comfiest cage in the office. They kittens were just small enough that they could realistically climb through the lowest bars and tumble a few yards to the floor. For a grown cat, that was nothing, but for little babies in their tiny, growing bodies, Siobhan was taking no chances. Like she took no chances with a flea bath and the vitamin-enriched food she and Gabriella fed them later that night.