Laurie Salzer - A Kiss Before Dawn

by Laurie Salzer

  Chris felt a new wave of disappointment at the news, but at least she would see Mary Jo tomorrow afternoon. “Okay, Frances won’t be happy, you know. She always makes extra when she’s expecting you. Now she’ll try and get me to eat it all.”

  Mary Jo snorted. “Martel, the way you eat, that shouldn’t be a hardship.”

  “Oh, shut the hell up and get out of here.” Chris closed the desk drawer, walked to the door, and opened it wide for Mary Jo to pass.

  She called to the dogs, “Come on girls, MJ is deserting us, so we have to go scrounge up something to eat, all by ourselves.” Hearing the key word “eat,” all three dogs immediately jumped up and met Chris and Mary Jo at the door.

  Before Chris was able to close the door, however, Mary Jo stopped. “Oops, hang on. I need to grab my gloves. They’re still on the cot.”

  Chris stepped back and let her pass back into the office. “Just close the door behind you. The lock’s already engaged.” She moved down the aisle to the main entrance, thoughtlessly turning off the lights and plunging the space into complete darkness. When she reached for the door, she turned back to wait for Mary Jo. Without warning, she felt an impact from behind.

  “Mmmph. Oh shit, I’m sorry! I couldn’t see you,” Mary Jo said.

  Surprised to feel Mary Jo’s breath so close to her face, Chris reached out to grab her shoulders. Her forearms accidentally brushed against soft mounds, and she heard a soft groan.

  She backed away, stepped into the night, and breathed deeply, struggling to control her racing heart. The cold air shocked the hot skin of her face and abated the blush that had crept up her face. When Mary Jo collided with her, those lips were so close to hers.

  Mary Jo wordlessly came through the doorway and barely avoided running into Chris again.

  The sky had cleared enough to allow moonlight to filter through the darkness. Chris was thankful they could only see forms in the dark, not each other’s faces.

  “Okay, um, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Mary Jo said.

  “Yeah, sounds good,” Chris replied, surprised by the huskiness in her voice.

  Mary Jo walked to her truck, while Chris stood in place and watched her. As soon as the truck’s taillights disappeared down the drive, she marched to the house, showered, changed, and drove like a mad woman to Rochester, to the one place where she knew the fire between her legs could be extinguished.

  Chapter 14

  Sky spotted Chris immediately and met her at the door. As usual, she was very attentive. Because Chris’s needs were running in overdrive, she joined Sky in the dark part of the room more than once. Sky seemed high on coke because she sniffled a lot and was a bit wilder than usual, but the sexual release was very good. Fortunately, Sky didn’t press her anymore about taking drugs.

  On her way home from the bar, needing something in her stomach besides beer, Chris stopped for coffee and doughnuts. As she was picking out a couple of donuts, she spotted a coffee cake and bought it on impulse.

  Tired the next morning, but rid of the intense sexual arousal that had driven her to Rochester, Chris went to Frances’s house a little later than normal but in a good mood and happy to see her friend.

  Breakfast was a combined effort. Frances had run out of scone mix, but she made her usual bacon and eggs. Chris brought the unopened coffee cake she had bought last night.

  “I’m curious. What’s the occasion?” Frances lowered her coffee cup to the table.

  Chris put her fork down, grabbed her coffee, and took a sip. “Excuse me? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “The coffee cake.”

  “What about it?”

  “Chris, for as long as you’ve been coming here on Thursday mornings, you’ve never once brought any food with you.”

  “So what? I saw the coffee cake and thought you’d appreciate it,” Chris replied, slightly wounded.

  “I do, but you didn’t have to. Lord knows you do enough around here for me. I should feed you three meals a day. There’s something different about you.”

  “What?” Bewildered, Chris made a show of checking her clothes. “Did I spill something on myself?”

  Frances snapped her fingers. “I know what it is!”

  Chris looked at the ceiling in frustration. “Okay, you’d better tell me, because I have no idea what you’re getting at.”

  Frances waited a few seconds before speaking. “You look content.”

  “What?”

  “Chris, you look more at ease than I’ve seen you in years.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Chris began eating again and tried to ignore Frances’s interrogation. Frances had no idea of what went on at Angie’s bar.

  “You’ve been spending a lot of time with Mary Jo, haven’t you?”

  Exasperated, Chris dropped her fork and looked Frances in the eye. “Yes, I’m spending time with her, but only because she asked me to teach her the round pen stuff. I can assure you, nothing else is going on.”

  “But you like her, don’t you?”

  “Yes, I like her. She’s a good friend. But that’s all she’s ever going to be.”

  “Too bad. I think she’d be good for you.”

  “Frances.” Chris hoped her confusion about Mary Jo wasn’t showing. She just wanted the conversation to end.

  “I know, I know. I’ve overstepped my bounds. But I think it’s great that you’re spending time with her.” Frances held her hand up to stall Chris’s objection. “Let me finish. I worry about you spending so much time by yourself. Mary Jo is a wonderful woman, and I like her a lot. She’s good for you, as a friend or whatever you find down the road. Okay, I’m finished. I’ll get off my soapbox now.”

  “She’s just a friend, Frances.”

  “Okay, point taken. Now eat up.”

  Chris seized the opportunity to change the subject. “Do you need me to do anything special today besides unload feed and bring wood into the shed?”

  “Actually, yes. The horses spent all night inside because it was so cold. In the teens, the weatherman said. Do you think you could clean up the mess they made in the run-in shed?”

  “Of course,” Chris said. “Most of mine stayed in last night, too. This morning when I fed them, everybody’s coat was poofed up to keep them warm. Everybody except Stetson, that is. I clipped him several weeks ago, and now he’s wearing his blanket.”

  “When you go out, would you throw the boys some more hay? I can’t be bothered with the blankets anymore, so I better feed them extra to keep them warm.”

  “Sure.” Chris drained her coffee cup. She pushed her chair back, stood, and picked up her plate as she went to the sink. Frances remained seated while Chris refilled both coffee cups and cleared the table. Once all the dishes were on the counter, she filled the sink with soap and hot water and started washing them.

  “You know, you never used to clean up the kitchen before Mary Jo came into our lives,” Frances said.

  Chris stopped what she was doing, hung her head, and sighed. “Frances, please stop it.”

  “I just think she’s a good influence on you. You seem, I don’t know, more relaxed and less guarded.”

  “Okay, you were right. I concede. I needed another friend, and she’s fun to be around.” Chris rinsed the last dish and set it in the dish rack to dry.

  “Good. Because you have a whole lot of room in that big old heart of yours. It’d be a shame to let it go to waste.”

  Chris glanced over her shoulder. “You take up a huge portion of that space, you know. I’m not sure if there’s room for anybody else.” She dried her hands on the towel and leaned against the sink. “I’m fine. Now I’ve work to do. The old lady that owns this place is going to get real snippy if her horse stalls don’t get cleaned.”

  * * *

  Mary Jo tried to hide her distraction from Doc when she led the pony from the stall.

  “MJ? Are you with me?” he asked.

  “Hmm? Oh, yeah.”
With some effort, she focused her eyes on him.

  “Did you inject the Ace Promazine?”

  “Oh, shit. No, hold on, I’ll bring her back.” Mary Jo bit her lip, chastising herself for making the simple mistake of forgetting the initial sedative. She turned the pony around and led her back to the stall. “I have no idea where my mind is this morning.”

  Liar, it’s back at the barn. She prepared the injection and pushed the needle into the pony’s jugular vein.

  Last night, she’d driven home aroused and confused. Chris felt it, didn’t she? She couldn’t have possibly missed the electricity that passed between them when they collided. God, her lips were so close. All Mary Jo would’ve had to do was lean in, just an inch more.

  She had breathed in Chris’s scent, a familiar smell now that she’d spent time with her. Mary Jo let her mind drift with the wonder of what it would be like to lay with Chris, their arms and legs tangled together.

  “Are you all right? You seem a little out of it, and I need you here with me,” Doc said, jolting Mary Jo out of her daydream.

  She shook her head to regain her wits. “I’m sorry. For some reason, I couldn’t sleep last night.” She raised her eyes to him and said, “While we wait for this girl to go down a little, I’m going to run back and chug a quick gallon of coffee.”

  “Why don’t you limit it to a quart? Otherwise, your hands will be shaking, and you’ll have to pee every two minutes.”

  Mary Jo gave a weak grin at his humor. She wondered whether Doc suspected the real reason she wasn’t quite with it today.

  Her usual perkiness was absent this morning. In fact, her mind remained distant from the clinic and veterinary medicine. In an effort to regain her missing professionalism, she scanned the patient’s record while she gulped the coffee. She grimaced as the hot liquid scalded her throat and warmed her belly.

  Five minutes later, she returned to the stable area. Doc had already led the pony, a buckskin Shetland, to the surgery room. While he administered the drug that would completely anesthetize the pony, Mary Jo gathered the instruments required to pull the tooth. She also picked up a breathing tube to connect to the anesthesia machine once the patient went down.

  She had been told the little pony, named Dusty, had been injured six months ago while pastured with five full-size horses. When one of the mares came into heat, a kicking match ensued. Unfortunately, Dusty got caught in the middle and had suffered a fractured jaw and a cracked tooth. Before any dental work occurred, the jaw had to heal completely. Now that it had, the owners trailered Dusty to the clinic. If all went well this morning, the pony would go home late in the afternoon.

  Several minutes later, Dusty lay on the table. Mary Jo glanced at Doc and was ready to begin. After removing the halter and inserting the breathing tube, she put a speculum into the pony’s mouth and opened it wide.

  Doc wore his headlamp to put additional light on the surgical site. Mary Jo took charge of the anesthesia machine and monitored heart and respiration rates.

  Doc chose a scalpel and forceps from the instrument tray. He gently pried the gum away from the doomed tooth. “How’s life treating you?” he asked Mary Jo.

  “Fine. It seems like things are slowing down a bit more.”

  “Uh-huh. We should have more free time starting next week.” Doc traded the scalpel for the tooth elevator.

  “That sounds good.” Mary Jo put her stethoscope on Dusty’s chest and listened to the heart rate. “We’re stable here.”

  “Good. How’s Chris doing?” Doc asked out of the blue.

  Mary Jo looked at him in surprise. “Uh, fine, I guess. Why?”

  “No reason, just wondering.”

  “I’m going over there today,” Mary Jo said. “We went riding yesterday.”

  Doc glanced up. “Wow, I’m impressed.” He turned his attention back to the patient.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Oops, hold on. Just have to clamp this bleeder.” He grabbed tweezers, smaller forceps, and another piece of gauze. “It’s just that I’ve never known Chris to let anyone ride her horses.” Doc located the source of the blood, clamped it, and tied off the bleeder with suture thread and needle. “All right, I just have to sew this, and we should be ready to wake her up.” He flushed the pony’s mouth with a warm solution of sterile water and antibiotics.

  Mary Jo increased the oxygen flow and decreased the amount of anesthesia entering the pony’s lungs. While checking vitals again, she thought about Doc’s comment. She was flattered but didn’t want to let her brain conjure up any fantasies about Chris’s intentions. She was sure riding Ramquette was just a step toward learning how to work in the round pen.

  If Doc had anything further to say about Chris, or the fact that they’d been spending some time together, she was thankful he’d apparently forgotten.

  Just as he tied off the last suture, Dusty stirred. Her little legs moved, and her eyes showed signs of impending wakefulness.

  Mary Jo helped Doc clear the table of instruments. She disconnected the trachea tube from the machine, removed the speculum, and waited as Doc lowered the table to ground level. She placed a steadying hand on the pony’s shoulder and put the halter back on.

  As Dusty became more alert and attempted to rise, Mary Jo pulled the tube from the pony’s throat and attached a lead rope to her halter. Dusty got to her feet with little effort, and Mary Jo led her back to the stall.

  “You did good, munchkin.” She slipped off the halter and draped it on her shoulder. As she leaned against the wall to watch Dusty, she smiled as the pony circled around in the shavings, snorting as she went. Dusty worked her jaw a bit and began looking around, probably for a stray piece of hay she might have missed at breakfast.

  “You’ll have to wait awhile to eat, Dusty.” The pony looked at Mary Jo, her dark liquid eyes appraising, then she pinned her ears back and turned away.

  Mary Jo chuckled. “Little piss pot. You ponies are all alike.”

  Shortly thereafter, Doc joined her at the stall. “That went well.” He crossed his arms and leaned a shoulder against the stall.

  “I like them like that. Think she’s still on track to go home this afternoon?”

  “I would think so. As long as there’s no bleeding, she should be fine. Mrs. Peterson will be happy to hear her little girl came through okay.”

  Mary Jo left the moody little pony and slid the stall door closed behind her. “I’ll write up her care and discharge instructions.”

  Doc gave her an appreciative smile. “Great, thanks. Donna will be here when the Petersons show up. Which reminds me, I need to call them.” He turned to go, stopped, and glanced back at her. “By the way, I think it’s great that you and Chris are getting along so well.” Without another word, he walked into the office area, leaving Mary Jo standing with her mouth agape.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” she asked the closed door. Perplexed, she returned to the surgery room to start tidying up. While she worked, she wondered if Doc was insinuating that Chris and she were seeing each other romantically.

  “Imagine that. Yes, imagine that indeed,” she said under her breath.

  When she finished cleaning up the surgical mess, she walked into the office. Doc was nowhere in sight. Donna sat at her desk preparing invoices, a radio set to a low volume sitting next to her stack of bills.

  Mary Jo smiled to herself when she heard Donna humming. She pulled up a chair next to her and began humming along with her. From the desk organizer, she took a sheet of stationary, and opting for a more personal touch instead of the computer, began to write up the after-care instructions for the pony.

  When she finished, she got up, went to the supply cabinet, and took out a jar of antibiotics and a bottle of oral antiseptic. Mrs. Peterson would have to rinse the pony’s mouth out after each feeding. Some horses objected, but since the mouthwash was apple flavored, Mary Jo suspected this pony would rather enjoy it. Little piss pot, she thought again,
still amused by the miniature fireball’s attitude. She had no doubt Dusty would bounce back in a heartbeat.

  She put the instructions and supplies into a bag, marked it Peterson, and placed the bag on top of the patient’s file. “Okay, Dusty’s all set to go,” she said.

  “Good.” Donna didn’t look up from her work. “Mrs. Peterson was so worried about Dusty. I had hell’s own time getting her to leave last night when they brought the pony in.”

  “Where’d Doc go?” Mary Jo didn’t remember any appointments on the schedule when she came in.

  “He mumbled something about getting the tires rotated on his truck. He said he’d be back before long.”

  Mary Jo looked at her watch. One thirty. “Do you want me to stay here until he gets back, in case Mrs. Peterson shows up?”

  ”No need to. Get out and enjoy the sun.”

  “Thanks. You can call my cell phone in case you need me. And I’ll mail these for you.” Mary Jo picked up the sealed stack of invoices and left.

  The day had warmed to a balmy forty degrees with the sun shining through broken clouds. There was a slight breeze, but not enough to produce much of a wind chill. Snow remained only on those areas that faced north and were protected by deep shadows where the sun didn’t reach.

  Nevertheless, she stopped briefly at her apartment to change out of her work clothes into something warmer. Best to be prepared for any change in the weather. It hadn’t taken long to don silk thermals under her jeans and a red turtleneck. As an afterthought, she’d completed her outfit with a blue fleece vest. Now, off to meet Chris.

  Even before she opened the door to her truck, Mary Jo felt butterflies in the pit of her stomach, a familiar sensation every time she went to see Chris. Despite reasoning with herself, she couldn’t stop her heart from pounding whenever she caught Chris watching her.

  Today she’d begin working in the round pen. She hoped she wouldn’t be a disappointment to herself or Chris.

  Chapter 15

  The morning went by relatively quickly despite Chris’s growing anticipation of Mary Jo’s arrival. She occupied herself with sweeping the aisles, grooming the arena surface with the tractor, and scrubbing the automatic waterers in each stall. It was busy work, but she’d rather be doing something productive than sitting around fidgeting.