Big Girls Don't Cry

by Linz, Cathie

  “What’s he doing wearing a tool belt out back?”

  “That’s where his house is. Right behind the animal clinic here. It was part of the property, but the house hadn’t been lived in for years. The old vet, a relative of Cole’s, had moved to a newer house a few blocks away.” Mindy set down her still-empty mug and gave Leena a shy hug. “I can’t believe you’re going to be working here now. You’ll have to tell me all about your life in Chicago, but first I’d better fill you in on what the schedule is like. The receptionist answers the phone, schedules appointments, pulls patient files, handles the paperwork and billing, that sort of thing.”

  “Why aren’t you the vet here? When we were in school, that’s all you talked about . . . becoming a vet.”

  Mindy shrugged. “I wasn’t smart enough.”

  “Says who?” Leena demanded.

  “Says me.”

  “Well, you’re wrong.”

  “That’s nice of you to say, but—”

  “It’s the truth. You were always great at biology and that kind of stuff.”

  Mindy shifted uncomfortably. “Well, I’m very happy working here as a veterinary assistant. And I’m very lucky to have this job. There aren’t a lot of HELP WANTED signs up in Rock Creek.”

  Leena had noticed that. Not that Rock Creek had ever been a hotbed of industrial expansion. At least not in her lifetime. At one point there had been a lunch-pail factory that had done a good business and provided a lot of jobs for locals, but that had closed decades ago. The town had pretty much gone downhill ever since.

  When she’d left, Leena had decided that Rock Creek was for losers. Yet, here she was. Back again.

  Loser, loser, loser. The chant went round and round in her head like a Chihuahua chasing its tail.

  Leena tried to focus on the information Mindy was telling her, how to open files on the computer and change screens from patient records to billing to scheduling. Leena had mastered the use of her BlackJack cell phone—an all-in-one smart device with Internet access, an MP3 player, and camera with video capability. She was a very fast learner, and this computer system was just a bigger BlackJack as far as she was concerned.

  “Time to open up.” Mindy unlocked the front door. “Looks like our first clients are already here.”

  “Don’t you keep the dogs and cats separated?” Leena asked Mindy as a woman walked in with a Persian cat on a leash under one arm and a bulldog on a leash in her other hand.

  “Not when they’re owned by the same person,” Mindy replied.

  “Butch and Princess are best friends,” the woman said.

  “Butch, huh?” Leena smiled. “That’s a cute name for a bulldog.”

  “That’s my cat’s name.” The woman sounded highly offended. “The bulldog is Princess.”

  “Oh. My bad.” Leena shook her head. “Sorry.”

  “You’re new here, aren’t you?”

  The comment was said with suspicion. Residents of Rock Creek weren’t real fond of outsiders. Since they didn’t get many, it usually wasn’t a problem.

  “Yes, I’m new,” Leena said, “but that doesn’t mean I can’t do a great job.”

  “You already messed up my pets’ names.”

  Leena worked hard to make amends, even offering the woman some coffee, which she refused.

  “Will there be a long wait?” the woman demanded.

  “I don’t think so. What’s your name?”

  “Mrs. Dabronovitch. Edie Dabronovitch.”

  “Can you spell that for me?”

  “Of course I can spell it.”

  Leena waited expectantly. When the woman said nothing, Leena began without her. “D-o . . .”

  “It’s D-a-bronovitch. Who are you?”

  “I’m Leena Riley, the new receptionist here.”

  “You’re not related to Sue Ellen Riley, are you?”

  “Yes, I am. She’s my sister.”

  “You must be the supposedly smart sister then, not the model.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Well, look at you. You don’t look like a model any more than Mindy here does. Models are thin. Neither one of you is.”

  The woman had just insulted her. And Mindy. Leena knew it. Mindy knew it. Even Butch and Princess had to know it.

  Leena wasn’t about to let Mrs. Edie Dabronovitch get away with it.

  Call her mean, but Leena saw red when someone got nasty and went out of their way to make her feel bad about herself. Leena already had tons of self-doubt. Especially in her current circumstances. She sure didn’t need anyone else adding to the pile.

  Plus the überskinny woman had just insulted Mindy, who’d never hurt a fly or say anything in her own defense. That called for definite action.

  Mindy nervously cleared her throat. “Uh, Edie, why don’t you and Princess and Butch come on back into an examining room with me.”

  “Don’t you need her file?” Leena asked.

  “I’ll come back for it.”

  Mindy was clearly concerned that Leena might haul off and smack Edie Dabrono-bitch right then and there.

  As if Leena would do such a thing. She was an adult now. She didn’t have to beat up someone the way she had as a kid. Now she had words to use in her own defense. And Mindy’s.

  “What’s the hurry? Edie and I were just getting to know one another,” Leena said. “I didn’t realize she was an expert on the modeling world.”

  Edie didn’t appear to appreciate Leena’s sarcasm. “It doesn’t take an expert to see—”

  “Yeah?” Leena challenged her, a deliberately dangerous edge to her voice. “To see what?”

  “That Americans have a huge problem with obesity.” Edie looked at Mindy and then back at Leena before looking down at her own size-zero self and smiling so smugly it was all Leena could do not to leap over the counter and strangle her with Princess’s leash. “I used to be overweight myself.” Edie patted her flat stomach. “And I have a daughter who struggles daily with her weight.” She pointed to a girl who stood half hidden behind the large ficus in the corner. The poor kid blushed and hung her head.

  The thing was, the girl wasn’t overweight. Granted she was no size zero, but she seemed to be average for someone with a large-boned, athletic build. Leena knew, because she too had a similar build that came from her mom’s side of the family. That and her height. At five foot ten, Leena was no petite little thing and never would be.

  Neither was this girl.

  “She looks fine to me,” Leena said.

  “Hannah is great at softball and basketball even though she’s only a freshman,” Mindy added. “My niece is on her team.”

  “I don’t look like my mom,” Hannah half whispered.

  “You’re not supposed to,” Leena said.

  Edie protested. “I hardly think you’re qualified—”

  “I agree that you hardly think, or you wouldn’t have said any of the things you have here today. That’s okay. Your bad. I forgive you.”

  “I . . . I . . .” Edie sputtered.

  Mindy quickly herded Edie and her entourage down the hall into an examining room. As Edie’s daughter passed by, she paused to look at Leena and mouth the words thank you before scurrying after her mother.

  Leena’s blood was still boiling when the outside door to the waiting room burst open and a very pregnant woman staggered inside. She made it to the reception desk before gasping and staring down. “Oh, no! My water just broke!”

  Chapter Three

  I am not cleaning that up! was Leena’s first panicked thought, quickly followed by I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ babies! a la Gone With the Wind.

  The pregnant woman leaned across the counter and grabbed Leena by the front of her favorite DKNY shirt. “Do not let Angel give me a natural childbirth.”

  “Right.” Leena had no idea what Manic Mom-to-Be was talking about, but at that point she wasn’t about to ask questions.

  “Call 911!” the woman gasped.


  “You’ve got it. Uh, you need to let me go first or I can’t reach the phone.”

  The instant Leena was released she grabbed for the phone and dialed emergency services.

  “We’ve got some crazy pregnant woman here at the vet’s office. She’s having a baby!” she told the dispatcher.

  “Is she conscious?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is she breathing?”

  “Yes, she’s doing that panting stuff that pregnant women do on TV.”

  “Ask her how far apart her contractions are.”

  Leena took one look at the contorted expression on the pregnant woman’s face. “She, uh, doesn’t feel like talking right now. The EMTs can ask her that question when they get here. Just send an ambulance now. Her water broke.”

  “We’ve got a unit on the way.”

  Leena hung up. “They’re on the way.”

  “What’s going on out here?” Cole demanded. “Julia?” He looked at the woman about to give birth at any second. So now she had a name.

  Julia grabbed Cole by the front of his white lab coat with even greater vehemence than she’d grabbed Leena moments earlier. “I am not having this baby in a vet’s office!”

  “Of course you’re not. Breathe.” He looked around. “Did anyone call her husband?”

  By anyone, he must mean me, Leena thought to herself. “I didn’t even know who she was until two seconds ago, so how could I call her husband?” Leena said defensively. “She ordered me to call 911, so I did.”

  “Do not let Angel make me give a natural birth.” Julia paused to pant for a few seconds. “I want drugs!” She jerked Cole closer. “Do you have drugs?”

  “The ambulance should be here any second,” Leena said from behind the safety of the reception counter. No way was she getting close enough for Julia to take her down. She’d never seen a woman in labor before. Not a pretty sight. Made her want to rethink the subject of having kids of her own someday . . .

  “Where is she?” A woman with curly hair and a swirly Indian cotton dress burst into the waiting room. “Don’t worry. Angel is here. Your mother is here, Julia. Everything will be fine. Just breathe and picture yourself in a happy place. Remember that childbirth is the most natural thing on earth, a wonderful and magical time for a woman,” Angel said with a New Age smile.

  It sure didn’t look very magical or wonderful to Leena. And from the I-want-to-hit-someone expression on Julia’s face, she didn’t seem to agree with that statement either.

  “The ambulance is almost here.” Leena could finally hear the sirens coming.

  “We don’t need them—” Angel began.

  “Yes, I do!” Julia snarled. “They have drugs.”

  Leena’s attention shifted to Cole, who was trying to charm his way out of Julia’s clutches. He flashed the pregnant woman a sexier-than-hell smile. “Come on, honey, you’re doing great.”

  Honey? The man was flirting with a woman in labor? Did he have no shame?

  “I need you all to move aside, folks,” an EMT ordered the rowdy group as he came through the front door.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to have a natural childbirth at home, Julia?” Angel asked her daughter. “It’s still not too late . . .”

  Julia’s only response was a heartfelt growl. Seconds later the EMTs had Julia on the gurney and were whisking her outside to the waiting ambulance.

  Angel trailed after them, leaving Cole, Leena, and Mindy in the waiting room.

  Leena spoke first. “Well, that was enough to give a girl second thoughts about having kids.”

  “The miracle of birth is a powerful thing,” Cole said.

  “It sure is,” Mindy agreed. “I’ll just clean things up here.”

  Leena felt guilty, but her stomach had definitely taken a turn toward queasy. “Am I supposed to help?”

  “No. Trust me, after dog diarrhea and kitty pee, this is nothing.”

  “Is this place always so wild?” Leena had to ask.

  Mindy nodded. “Very often, although we don’t usually have women about to give birth in the waiting room. We have had a litter of golden retrievers and several litters of kittens delivered here, but no human babies.”

  Minutes later, Mindy had everything restored to normal, or as normal as this place appeared to get.

  “That was so exciting,” the owner of a poodle said once clients were allowed to reenter the building. She and her dog both had white curly hair adorned with little pink bows. “I wonder if the baby will be a boy or girl.”

  Leena wondered what she’d gotten into here. Signing up to work as the vet’s receptionist hadn’t seemed like that big a deal yesterday. Now she was very tempted to reach for another paper bag to hyperventilate into.

  “You look a little pale, dear. You’re not going to faint, are you? Rock Creek only has one ambulance and it’s busy at the moment. Cole, your assistant looks like she’s going to pass out.”

  “I’m the receptionist, not the vet assistant,” Leena immediately replied. “Mindy is the veterinary assistant. I’m just . . .” Crazy? She saw a flutter of wings out of the corner of her eye and then felt the landing. “I’m . . . I . . . I’ve got . . . a bird on my head.”

  “I’m so sorry,” said a middle-aged man with thinning hair as he hurried over. “Tweetypie, you get back here.”

  “Birds are not allowed out of their cages.” Leena pointed to the sign she’d put up that very morning.

  “I was just trying to calm Tweetypie down after all the excitement of the evacuation and all. She’s a precocious parakeet.”

  Leena felt something wet on her neck. Parakeet poop. Yuck! She grabbed hold of Tweetypie and handed the bird off to its owner.

  So it had come to this. From successful model to bird potty house. Leena was now the equivalent of the paper at the bottom of a birdcage. It was too much.

  “Are you going to quit?” Cole looked at her as if he’d already written her off as a failure.

  “Don’t make me punch you again,” Leena growled.

  “Here, dear.” Poodle Lady gave her a wet wipe, but before Leena could use it, Sue Ellen burst into the waiting room. Didn’t anyone enter this place like a normal person? Were there any normal people even left in this town? If so, Leena had yet to meet one.

  “I heard Julia was having her baby in here!” Sue Ellen looked at Leena. “Why didn’t you call me?”

  “Because I was dialing 911.”

  “You should have called me.”

  “Why? You’re not a midwife.”

  “I could have been, had I not chosen to become a realtor instead.”

  “You faint at the first sight of blood.”

  “So do you,” Sue Ellen replied. “What do you have on your neck?”

  “Parakeet poop.”

  “Eeew! Wipe it off! You have to be gorgeous for a photo shoot this afternoon. Don’t give me that blank look. I told you last night. In exchange for staying in the model mobile home, you agreed to do a print ad for Regency Mobile Home Sales Incorporated.”

  “Today?”

  “There’s no time like the present.”

  That was for sure. Leena had never had a time like she’d had today. And the day wasn’t even half over with yet.

  “But I’m working today.”

  “Cole will let you off early, won’t you, Cole?” Sue Ellen batted her baby blues at him.

  “No, honey, I won’t.”

  There he went, calling women honey. It was insulting. It was demeaning. Sadly Leena also found it kind of appealing, flowing over her like melted dark chocolate when he said it in that husky voice and punctuated it with his decadent smile.

  Good thing Leena was immune.

  Totally immune.

  Denim Dude didn’t get to her one tiny bit.

  The zany shiver she felt inside was a result of her traumatic day, not the product of Cole’s seducing ways or cute butt.

  Only further exposure to the man would prove her point. “I’m staying here,”
Leena told her sister. “You’ll have to reschedule the photo shoot.”

  “I didn’t realize I’d be competing for your time with photographers,” Cole said after Sue Ellen left in a huff.

  “It’s a one-time deal,” Leena said.

  “I’ve heard that before.”

  “You’ve probably said it yourself to some poor girl who thought you’d settle down with her.” Oops. “Uh, forget I said that.”

  “No way. I’m intrigued by your obsession with my relationships concerning the opposite sex.”

  “I am not obsessed.”

  “Just opinionated.”

  “Blame it on the parakeet poop.” Leena grabbed more tissues to wipe her neck. She needed a shower . . . bad.

  “I doubt that’s the reason you’re opinionated.”

  “Stop saying that.”

  “And bossy too.”

  “Okay, I’ll admit to having some bossy tendencies,” Leena said, “but no way I’m opinionated.”

  “Edie told me you were rude to her.”

  “The woman should be horsewhipped. Not that whipping horses is a good thing in any way, shape, or form. So let me rephrase that. The woman should take a long walk off a short pier.” An old phrase her mom used, but Leena couldn’t come up with anything original at the moment.

  “Any particular reason why you have a grudge against Edie?”

  “She told her daughter she was fat!”

  Cole was perplexed. “So? That’s not a crime.”

  “Being fat or telling your kid they’re fat?”

  “Either one. Look, I’ve got patients waiting. Just do me a favor and try not to be rude to any more clients.”

  “Sure thing, Boss Man.”

  “I am the Boss Man and don’t you forget it.”

  Forgetting him wouldn’t come easy, but then nothing worthwhile did.

  “Interesting day, huh?” noted Sheriff Nathan Thornton, Cole’s best friend, as the two men sat in Nick’s Tavern after work that evening.

  Cole nodded. “Yeah, I hear the White Sox won today. That must make you happy.”

  “It does.” Nathan paused to take a sip of his Heineken. “But I was referring to the matter of Julia almost having her baby in your waiting room.”

  “Yeah, that was interesting too.”