Barking up the Wrong Tree: Willow Bay Witches #2

by Silver, Samantha

  “What? Why should I go say hi?”

  “Because you think he’s hot, despite the fact that you thought he’d murdered someone, and he thinks you’re cute. And also he got shot while saving your life.”

  “That’s ridiculous. I do not think he’s hot,” I protested, feeling the blush crawling up my face. Ok, so Jason Black wasn’t bad looking. Maybe he was even pretty good looking. But that didn’t mean I had to be the one to go say hi to him. And why on earth did Sophie say he thought I was cute? She had absolutely no way of knowing that.

  “I wonder what he’s doing here,” Charlotte asked, thoughtfully.

  When Tony Nyman had been murdered, it seemed like I saw Jason Black around every corner. It turned out he was actually Nyman’s son, and not his murderer, and in the end Jason had saved my life. I supposed it was true I still hadn’t gotten to thank him properly for that, as when his mom found out he’d been shot she wanted him to come home straight away.

  “It looks like the decision’s out of our hands anyway,” Sophie said with a grin on her face, and I looked over. Jason Black was coming this way.

  “Come on, Charlotte, we have to find Sprinkles,” Sophie told my sister, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her away, leaving me standing there alone, looking like an idiot as Jason came over.

  As he came closer, I really did have to admit it. Fine. He was hot. With black hair that seemed to constantly have that just-got-out-of-bed look to it, and eyes as dark as midnight, chiselled cheekbones and a few days’ worth of stubble, Jason Black looked like he belonged on the front page of a magazine, not some small town in Oregon. He was definitely good looking. It was too bad he was also completely infuriating.

  “Hey, Angie,” he said as he came up to me, and I scowled.

  “I thought I told you not to call me that.”

  “That was back when you thought I was a murderer, I thought it’d be ok now,” he said, his eyes widening in fake shock.

  “Fine,” I replied. “I suppose I should thank you, too. You know, for saving my life and all.”

  Jason waved away my thanks.

  “Right place, right time. You know. I’m just that awesome.”

  “Right. That must be it,” I replied. “What are you doing back here in Willow Bay, anyway?”

  “What, can’t a guy take a holiday in the town where his father ran away to then was brutally murdered in a couple months ago?”

  “That would be pretty macabre. And also creepy.”

  “You got me. Macabre and creepy. But seriously, I decided to come back because I like the town. I wanted to get away from New York and everything happening there, and I figured why not come to the place that my father liked so much after he left the big city as well.”

  “Wait, so you live here now?” I asked. Jason nodded.

  “Yeah. Moved here last week. After all, thanks to you, I’m a rich man now.”

  “Wait, what?”

  “The people at Ocean Mist’s head office decided that their publicity would end up being even worse if it turned out the man who technically owned some of the property they were going to build on and was murdered for it wasn’t properly compensated. And since I’m his son, and Zoe Wright burned his will, everything passed to me.”

  “So now you’re basically Donald Trump,” I replied, crossing my arms.

  “Hey, let’s not say things we can’t take back,” he laughed. “But basically, yes. Not quite that rich.”

  “So you get to live a life of leisure now?”

  “Oh hey, I didn’t say that. I can’t simply while the days away doing nothing. I’ve gotten myself a job.”

  “And what kind of job did you get?” I asked curiously. I had to admit, I never really thought of Jason Black as having a real job.

  “Believe it or not, I’m a qualified journalist. I can find out all your secrets,” he said salaciously, and I unconsciously felt a twitter of butterflies in my stomach. No, no, no. Absolutely not. Just because he wasn’t a murderer didn’t mean he wasn’t super annoying, and frustrating.

  “Maybe I don’t have any secrets worth discovering,” I lied.

  “Ohhh, I don’t think that’s true,” Jason replied, grinning. Why did his smile have to be so… perfect? “Anyway,” he continued, “I found out that the local paper was looking for a new journalist. In that, the only journalist quit, and the owner, who acts as the editor, doesn’t want to do the job themselves. He pretty much fell over his shoes asking me to join the paper when I mentioned I’d had some stuff published in the New York Times.”

  “Wait, so you actually are a journalist?” I asked. “You didn’t just make that up?”

  “There’s more to me than meets the eye,” Jason winked. “I am a journalist. I’ve been working as a freelancer in New York since graduating from journalism school. I have to say, it’ll be nice to get a steady paycheck for once.”

  “You just said you don’t need the paycheck, you’re Donald Trump rich now,” I replied.

  “Yeah, well, just because I have the money doesn’t mean I need to spend it all. A paycheck to live off is still nice. The one I’m getting from The Willow Bay Whistler isn’t enough to live off, but it’ll be nice all the same.”

  “Well, I’m glad everything’s working out for you. If you happen to see a red and white dog who answers to the name of Sprinkles, give me a call, will you?” I asked, handing him one of Charlotte’s posters.

  “That’s certainly a sly way to give me your phone number,” Jason told me, and I glared at him.

  “It’s not my number, it’s my sister’s.”

  “Well, can’t blame a man for trying. I’ll see you around town, Angie,” Jason replied, giving me a wink before walking back to his bench.

  The man was infuriating. I could never figure him out. Not that I wanted to, of course.

  Chapter 5

  By the next morning there was still no sign of Sprinkles. I’d spent half the night in the backyard where we lived, taking care of the animals that lived in the little stables out the back of our place (currently: a doe with a broken leg that was just about ready to be released in the wild, an injured owl and two sheep whose owner we were looking for, that animal control weren’t set up to care for) in the hopes that Sprinkles might happen to find his way onto our property.

  Finally, I gave up and went to bed, hoping the poor little guy would be ok spending the night out there alone.

  I woke up so exhausted the next day that I ran to Betty’s café and begged her to make me a double shot vanilla latte before I had to open the vet clinic. It seemed to do the trick, and it had to: my first client of the day was a new guy in town, Gareth Sims, who brought in his German Shepherd Boss, who’d been poisoned.

  “I’m not sure what he got himself into,” Gareth told me, looking worriedly at his dog. “We’ve only lived in the area for about three weeks, we came up from California. I’m afraid I might not have been looking at what he was doing when he was off-leash, and I don’t exactly know what to look for up here anyway.”

  “Can you tell me what his symptoms have been?” I asked. Boss wasn’t really speaking, he was just lying on the examination table looking sad. When he’d come in he was stumbling slightly, and he threw up in the lobby.

  “Yeah,” Garret told me, running a hand through his hair. He was in his early 30s, with brown hair and eyes and about a day’s worth of stubble. Basically, your average looking guy. “I took him for a walk around midnight last night. Couldn’t sleep, you know. Plus he normally has enough energy to go for as many walks as I can take him on. We walked around the block a few times, and he was totally fine. I took him down to that big park and let him off the leash and threw his ball around for him. He seemed fine. Went into the forest once or twice. Then after we got home, he started to look weird. He started stumbling around, and he threw up once or twice. When he wasn’t better this morning, I came here.”

  “You did good to do that,” I said. I gave Boss a good look over, physically. The
whole time, I still couldn’t get Sprinkles out of my head. I hoped the little doggie was ok. Boss physically seemed pretty normal, but his eyes were definitely dilated; I was fairly certain I knew what had caused the illness. “Unfortunately for some kids out there, I think they’re going to be disappointed when they find that their stash of plants has gone missing,” I told him. “I’m almost certain Boss is suffering from marijuana poisoning.”

  “Damn… so you’re saying my dog is high?”

  I nodded. “Yes. It’s not as uncommon as you might think, but it is relatively serious. However, I do want to keep Boss here for a few hours. We’ll give him some IV fluids, and some activated charcoal to try and absorb some of the toxins, but mainly I just want to make sure that he’s under watch while he sleeps it off, so to speak. He’ll almost certainly be fine,” I told Garret with a smile.

  “Oh, thank God,” he replied. “Sure. Keep an eye on him for me, for sure. Thank you so much.”

  “No problem at all,” I replied. “I’ll give you a call when he’s ready to be picked up, probably late this afternoon sometime. You did good to bring him in.”

  A couple minutes later Sophie and I were leading Boss into a comfortable kennel.

  “Come on buddy, you just gotta sleep it off,” Sophie was telling him. “You’re high as a kite right now, you gotta learn to pace yourself.”

  I smiled as I set up the IV at the counter. “It’s going to be ok, Boss,” I told him. “You’re going to rest here for a few hours, then Garret’s going to come back this afternoon when you’re feeling better and take you home.”

  “Thanks,” I heard Boss mumble slightly before he fell back asleep. Not all dogs got very lethargic when they got high, but some did, and Boss certainly fell into that category.

  “It just goes to show how many dangerous things there are for dogs out there,” I said, almost to myself, and Sophie nodded.

  “I know. I wish we could just leave and look for Sprinkles. I hope he made it through the night ok. I can’t help but worry that he got his leash caught on something and he’s trapped, or worse.

  “We can’t think like that, Soph. Listen, let’s go out at lunch and look for him, ok? We’ll only have an hour, but it’s better than doing nothing, right?

  “Definitely. Good plan,” Sophie told me, just as Karen came in to let us know our next patient was waiting for us in exam room two.

  I could worry about Sprinkles later. Right now, my focus had to be on the dogs like Boss who needed medical help and that we had access to.

  I checked my cell quickly for any messages before going in to see the next patient, just in case someone had found Sprinkles. Instead, I found a text from my sister.

  Dinner tonight with Lisa. The diner. 7.

  Oh boy.

  Is this guy gonna be there? I replied.

  How should I know? came the immediate response back.

  Well should I tell Sophie? She doesn’t exactly do well with surprises.

  You promised me you wouldn’t.

  I sighed and put down the phone, ready to go see the next animal who needed my help. If Lisa had invited us all to dinner at her place and was going to introduce us to her new boyfriend without warning Sophie, I just knew all hell was going to break loose.

  This was not going to be good.

  Chapter 6

  “Why does my mom want to have dinner with us at the diner anyway?” Sophie complained as she did her hair.

  “Don’t ask me, all I know is we’re meeting her there,” I replied, hurrying out of the bathroom and back to my room to find a different top. I didn’t realize my old favourite had a mustard stain on it, so I tossed it into my laundry hamper as I picked out a simple, form fitting red tee to go with a pair of dark blue jeans and black flats. This was the Willow Bay equivalent of dressing up, and that was just the way I liked it.

  “Don’t you dare tell her,” Charlotte hissed at me, and I rolled my eyes.

  “Tell me what?” Sophie yelled from the bathroom. I held up my hands and gave Charlotte a look that screamed ‘you deal with it’ and went back to the living room.

  “I don’t see why I can’t come to dinner,” Bee complained from her spot on the arm of the couch.

  “You’ve had your dinner, that’s why,” I replied.

  “That was canned food. I want real, fresh-cooked fish.”

  “Well, if you’re lucky, maybe I’ll get you a sushi roll on the way back.”

  A week earlier Charlotte had brought back some sushi for dinner – including some vegetarian ones for me (it’s a lot harder to eat animals when you can talk to them) – and after Bee nabbed one from Sophie’s plate she declared sushi to be her new favourite food, and that she wanted it for dinner every night.

  Obviously that wasn’t going to happen, but it was good to know a California roll was the best treat my cat could ask for.

  I tried not to think about Sprinkles as we all piled up into Sophie’s car. I tried not to think about all the time we could spend looking for the poor thing instead of eating dinner. I had called Chief Gary earlier in the day, and he told me the dog hadn’t shown up yet. This was getting pretty worrying.

  Charlotte had apparently invented some story, so Sophie still didn’t know about the mystery man when we got to the diner.

  The Seaside Diner was right on the waterfront, and looked just like the stereotypical 50s hangout: red neon signs in the windows advertising Burgers, Fries, Milkshakes, black and white checkered floors, plush red booths and stools at the metallic curved counter with super bright lighting and cheery waitresses. Some people might think it was a bit kitschy, but I loved it. And the food was awesome. Great, stereotypically American fare. As soon as we walked in I saw Lisa sitting at a booth at the back. And sure enough, there was a man next to her.

  Uh oh.

  As soon as Lisa saw us she waved.

  “This is what I wasn’t supposed to know about, wasn’t it?” Sophie hissed as we made our way down the aisle towards where Lisa was waiting. Lisa Mashito had brown hair and big round eyes, like a doe, which Sophie had inherited. Her face could look hard, but as soon as she smiled it always lit up gorgeously.

  Charlotte ignored Sophie and instead burst into a huge smile. Leave it to my sister to be the most mature of the three of us, despite being the youngest.

  “Lisa! How good to see you!” she exclaimed as she slid in the booth across from Sophie’s mom.

  “You too, girls, I’m so glad you could all make dinner tonight.” She looked over at the man next to her, and if I wasn’t mistaken, she actually looked nervous. Lisa Mashito didn’t do nervous.

  “I wanted to introduce you all to Austin Stark, my new boyfriend.” She paused for a split second before saying ‘boyfriend’, as if the word was all new to her.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Charlotte said, flashing him a smile. Austin Stark was exactly what I expected from someone who would date Lisa Mashito. She was the ultimate professional, and together they looked like they would make an incredible power couple. He wore a full suit, with expensive cufflinks and a haircut that probably cost more than my weekly salary.

  “Nice to meet you too,” Austin replied, smiling. I shook his hand as well, but Sophie just sat at the booth and promptly ignored him.

  “So what is it that you ladies do here in town?” Austin asked as the waitress brought us menus.

  “I’m in medical school in Portland,” Charlotte offered first.

  “And I run the vet clinic here in town. Sophie works there as well, she’s our vet tech,” I added, knowing that Sophie was absolutely not going to willingly offer anything constructive to this conversation. I knew not telling her about Austin beforehand had been a mistake. So far, Austin seemed pretty nice.

  “How about you?” Charlotte asked politely. “How did you and Lisa meet?”

  Austin looked over lovingly at Sophie’s mom, and I heard Sophie emit a low growl. I kicked her under the table. So much for giving people a chance before judging them
.

  Still, I had to admit, there was something about Austin that seemed a little bit… off. I didn’t know what it was, but something about him rubbed me the wrong way. I chalked it up to simply being uncomfortable with Lisa dating for the first time I could ever remember, it had to just be that.

  “Lisa and I met through work,” Austin told us. “I run a real company, a distribution centre that supplies over a thousand stores throughout Oregon and Washington states.”

  Excuse me? A real company? Was that a jab at my vet clinic?

  “I can supply my foot up your ass,” I heard Sophie mutter so quietly next to me that only I could hear, and I had to admit, I had to struggle not to giggle. Still, maybe he didn’t mean anything by it.

  “What was that, dear?” Lisa asked Sophie innocently. Oh, Lisa. For such a great mom, she really was clueless as to her daughter’s faults. Like her microscopically short fuse.

  “Oh, nothing,” Sophie smiled overly sweetly.

  The waitress came over to take our orders. The four of us ordered vegetarian; Charlotte, Lisa and Sophie were nice enough to (usually) eat vegetarian around me, although I knew and had no problem with the fact that when they were alone they were full carnivores.

  “Is there a moratorium on meat or something?” Austin asked Lisa, looking at her curiously.

  “Oh, Angela’s a vegetarian, so we always eat vegetarian around her. But you have what you want, don’t let us pressure you.”

  “Well, as a full-fledged American, I’m going to have some meat. Specifically, the double double burger, with onion rings instead of fries,” he told the waitress as we handed over our menus.

  Ok, that was enough. I might have been trying to fight my instincts, but the more Austin Stark opened his mouth, the less I liked him. Sophie had that fake smile that screamed ‘if I open my mouth I’m going to ruin this whole dinner so I’m just going to sit here looking like a happy idiot’, while Charlotte dutifully tried to make conversation with Austin. At least one of us was trying to keep the rapidly deteriorating peace.