Just Horsing Around

Chapter 1

“But what if I trip coming back from the bathroom, faceplant straight into our table, knock everything off it, and come up with a plateful of spaghetti on my face?” I asked my best friend Sophie while I prepared the vaccines for the litter of kittens coming in for their first shots later on today.

“I think you should replay that sentence in your head and ask yourself if maybe, just maybe, you’re considering scenarios with a zero percent chance of actually playing out,” Sophie replied, helping me with the vaccines.

“There is so a chance of that happening,” I retorted.

“Seeing as the diner, which is where you’re going for dinner, doesn’t actually serve anything with spaghetti in it, no, there isn’t.”

Ok, fine, she had me there.

The reason for my slight panic attack was my first date in a long, long time. It had been a few years, at least. When I opened the Happy Paws vet clinic after graduating from veterinary school three years ago, it turned out that opening a business took up approximately 150 percent of my time. Unfortunately, that led to very little in terms of time for a personal life. Not to mention, Willow Bay isn’t exactly a thriving metropolis with thousands of potential fish in the sea. It’s more like a goldfish bowl.

But the real crazy part of this was my scheduled date was with none other than Jason Black, the infuriating but also super-hot journalist who’d recently moved to Willow Bay after his father’s murder. I’d actually spent most of that time thinking Jason was the murderer.

We clashed like crazy, but somehow, inexplicably, when Jason asked me out after I’d been kidnapped at gunpoint by a drug ring leader, I’d said yes. I still didn’t know why. Maybe it was that perfect smile of his.

And now I was definitely in panic mode.

“Can you call him and say I’ve disappeared?” I asked Sophie, who laughed.

“I’m so not doing that. Besides, you’re just panicking because you like him so much.”

“No, I’m panicking because I haven’t been on a date since forever and because I actually can’t stand Jason.”

“Please. You just pretend you can’t stand him because it’s easier than admitting you think he’s gorgeous and amazing, which, by the way, you are totally obvious about.”

I rolled my eyes as I filled another vial with one of the kitten vaccines.

“So not true,” I muttered as Sophie laughed.

“You could not be more obvious about it if you tried. Watching the two of you was like watching the first like four seasons of The Office where you just knew Jim and Pam were totally going to get together eventually, but you couldn’t do anything about it until it finally happened.”

I felt a bit of a blush creeping up my face, and hoped Sophie didn’t notice. “Besides,” she continued, “you deserve a chance to relax a bit. After all, you’re running a business at the same time as you’ve solved two murders on the side.”

I laughed hollowly. Sophie certainly wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t like it was a cakewalk. Three months ago Sophie, my sister Charlotte and I were almost killed by Zoe Wright, the head of a project to build a mega resort in Willow Bay. She’d killed a man named Tony Nyman, and decided we’d gotten too close to the truth for comfort, and that she had to do away with us as well.

It was only thanks to my cat, Bee, that the three of us survived.

Then a week earlier, when trying to solve another murder in town, I was kidnapped at gunpoint and only just managed to escape. I spent a couple days in hospital, despite not having many physical wounds from that encounter. But the day of rest did me good, knowing someone has shot a gun at you with the intention of ending your life is definitely the sort of thing that messes with your brain. Believe me.

It was then, when I was sitting in the hospital, that Jason asked me out. I still don’t know why I agreed. After all, while he was attractive, he was also so… frustrating. Jason had grown up in New York and had that confident, almost cocky feel about him. That idea that he was always right, and the ability to give back to me as much crap as I gave him. I’d never met any guy like him, and I’d actually convinced myself that I hated him.

And yet, when he asked me out, my mouth still agreed, while my brain was going ‘nope nope nope’.

Now my brain was still saying nope, but at a record speed. This was so a terrible idea. This date was going to go terribly.

“Remember though, you have to go up to Gibson Farm after this,” Sophie reminded me.

I sighed. I was going to spend most of the afternoon surrounded by horses, then have to make it home and shower in time for my date with Jason. Or maybe I shouldn’t shower, and show up smelling like a stable. At least that was one way to guarantee there was never going to be a second date.

“Yeah, I had forgotten about that,” I told Sophie.

“What’s a best friend for?” she replied as Karen, the receptionist, stuck her head in the room.

“Sorry to interrupt, but when you’re ready the kittens are in exam room 1, waiting for you.”

“Thanks,” I told her, shooting Karen a smile. She was a few years younger than Sophie and I, in her early 20s, but she was a hard worker and always dependable, and about a thousand times more organized than I was. If it wasn’t for Karen I knew Happy Paws wouldn’t be nearly as successful as it was becoming.

Sophie and I made our way to the exam room, where a nice young couple in their mid-20s had a crate with three little black kittens.

We introduced ourselves, then looked at the little darlings in the crate.

“We found them abandoned in a box outside of her work,” said Tom, a tall, lanky guy with an easy smile and friendly eyes.

“They were so small, and crying, they obviously missed their mom,” Cassie continued, her eyes looking down at the kittens sympathetically. “They would have died if I didn’t take them, so we brought them home and looked up how to take care of them.”

“We knew the odds weren’t good that they’d all survive, but they did, and now they’re old enough for their first shots.”

I smiled at Cassie and Tom. They had definitely saved the lives of the three little kittens.

“They’re definitely healthy looking at first glance,” I said as I let them out of the crate. Two of the cats came piling out, playing with each other, paws flying, while the third immediately jumped from the exam table onto the floor and began exploring, climbing onto the chair and then onto the counter where we kept the computer and the treats. I picked her up gently and got a loud meow in my ear for my troubles while Sophie set about separating the two playful boys.

Happy little kitties were definitely one of the best parts of being a vet.

Twenty minutes later, with the help of Cassie, Tom and Sophie and a handful of cat treats, all the kittens had gotten their shots and a basic checkup to find that they were perfectly healthy kittens, and directions to come back for their next set of shots in a few weeks. I told Karen to give them a discount for being awesome human beings (maybe it wasn’t good business, but I loved animals enough that a young couple who saved kittens from certain death deserved a break) and then got ready to make my way over to Gibson Farms.

“I love it when we get new kittens,” Sophie said as she helped clean the room when they left.

“Agreed,” I said, smiling.

“Now get out of here. I can handle cleaning, but you’ve got to be at Gibson Farms in a little bit, and I saw what they’re paying you. You absolutely don’t want to be late.”

I laughed. “Thanks, Sophie. You’re right, I’m going to head off now.”

Gibson Farms was actually one of the most famous farms in all of Oregon. They didn’t raise cattle or sheep or anything, they were a horse racing farm. The Gibson family, and especially the head of it, Caroline Gibson, were pretty much royalty in that sport. The Gibson family had owned the horse who won the Kentucky Derby last year, and they had even been featured in mainstream magazines like Time.

And yesterday they’d called me asking to come and look at one of their horses. This was definitely my highest-profile client ever. I left the room and grabbed my things, including a bowler bag filled with everything a vet in the field could need, telling Karen she and Sophie could lock up and go home as soon as Sophie was finished.