Courting Alley Cat (15 page)

              Alley stood looking through her small wardrobe and found herself wishing once again that she had access to the clothes she had left in Dallas. It had been two days since her reconciliation with Justin. Her distrust had slowly unraveled and she had regained that feeling of hope and optimism that can come only with new love.

              However, she was almost to the point of biting her nails. Tonight she would be meeting Brenda, the cute little brunette who had known Justin longer than she had. He had been true to his word in arranging for them to meet so that she could feel comfortable that Justin and she were not... more than just friends.

              She finally decided on a pair of jeans and a light blue button front shirt. It was a clean, wholesome look, and that was how she was feeling lately.

              She was just checking her appearance in the full length mirror, when her cell phone rang.

              “I hope you aren’t too terrible busy tonight.”

              “Granny?” Alley froze. It had been - well - forever since she had heard from her grandmother.

              “Yes, Dear, Are you terribly busy?”

              “No, not at all,” Alley said, turning away from the mirror and beginning to pace. “Where are you?”

              “I’m at the airport.”

              “At the airport? Where?’

              “Here. In Shreveport.”

              “What are you doing here?”

              “I got your message and you just sounded like something was wrong, so I came back as soon as I got your message.”

              “But Granny…”

              ”Anyway, can you come over and pick me up?’             

              “At the airport?”

              “Of course. Is that a problem?’

              “No, of course not.” Her mom had taken Granny to the airport, so it made sense that someone would have to pick her up. “Why didn’t you call already?”

              “I couldn’t get my cell phone to work. Then there was no place to charge it. I’m on a pay phone right now. And the connection was so quick in Atlanta, I didn’t have time to call.”

              “Ok, I’ll be right there.”

              “That’s wonderful. I’ll take you to dinner.”

              After finalizing their plans, Alley hung up the phone and sat on the side of the bed.

              She had no choice. She had to go. She and Justin were scheduled to meet Brenda in Monroe, at least twenty minutes in the opposite direction that she needed to go. Would he go without her? Suddenly she felt a little sick to her stomach. Why wouldn’t he go without her? He and Brenda were good friends.

              She had to call and let him know she couldn’t make it. She dialed his number. The phone rang about twenty times. How could someone not have voicemail on their cell phone?

              She hung up and dialed again. No answer. No voicemail.

              She finished getting dressed, gathered up her handbag, and dashed out the back door. She would just go by his house and tell him in person.

              She went to the back door first and knocked. And waited. No answer.

              Going around to the front door, she knocked again. Rang the doorbell. And waited. No answer.

              Taking a deep breath, she dialed his cell phone again. Again, no answer.

              She stood looking around. The neighborhood was quiet. No cars. No neighbors. The York’s garage door was tightly closed and she had no idea whether or not anyone was home.

              She rang the doorbell again. And hated herself for doing it. If anyone was home, they were seeing just how desperate she felt.

              She glanced at her watch. Granny was sitting in the airport waiting for her.

              She ran down the front porch steps, and hurried to her car. She’d done all she could do. She had to get on the road.

              She wouldn’t call him again. Whatever he was doing, he would see that she had called and would call back when he could. He could be out on a farm delivering a colt. Doctors in the country did that kind of thing. Didn’t they?

              She didn’t even know. Maybe he just saw dogs and cats. She should ask him.

              Would he go without her? With Brenda? Was she inadvertently pushing them closer together?

              She hit redial and dialed his number again.

              Counted twenty rings. Hung up.

              This was just horrible. Would he get a text message? She typed in
Call me. Important!
and hit send.

              She waited.

              She got onto the interstate and checked her phone. No messages. No calls. She checked the volume. Everything was working properly.

              The phone rang and she answered without checking the caller id.

              It was Granny. “Have you left yet?”             

              Alley was overwhelmed with guilt. “I just left. I had to take of something first.” She felt guilty because she had felt disappointment that the call hadn’t been from Justin.

              “Ok, Dear, just be safe.”

              “I will Granny. I’m sorry I’m not there already to pick you up.” Granny was always so understanding. It only made the guilty feelings worse.

              Alley hung up the phone a few minutes later and resisted the urge to call Justin again. She had to let him call her back when he was ready. He hadn’t been concerned about standing her up, so she shouldn’t be concerned about standing him up.

              But she was. She had never stood anyone up in her life. She reminded herself that it wasn’t intentional. She had called and would have left a message if he only had voice mail. It wasn’t her fault he wasn’t with the twenty-first century.

              Justin was elbow deep in cow. He had promised himself that he would never work with farm animals. He had focused his career on dogs and cats and intended to keep it that way. However, when his old high school pal, Mark, had phoned, saying his vet was out of town and his prize cow was having a difficult birth, Justin had gone against everything he had promised himself and bailed out his friend.

              Right about now, he was wondering if a high school friendship was worth it. He and Mark rarely talked, but that, he supposed was how guys were. Once a friend, always a friend. So here he was. Helping Elsie to give birth.

              His phone had been ringing. He knew this. He also knew that it was Alley calling. She had a special, sexy little ring that he had attached to her phone number. At the moment, however, he wasn’t about to touch his cell phone.              

              “Have you lost your touch?” Mark asked, coming from somewhere in the back of the barn where he had conveniently found something more important to do for the past two hours.

              “You know as well as I do that cows aren’t my forte.”

              “How hard can it be?”

              “If that’s what you think, why don’t you go ahead and make this delivery yourself?’

              Mark laughed and squatted down beside him. “What can I do?” he asked.

              “You can stick your arm in here and help me turn this little fellow around.”

              “You must be kidding,” Mark said, leaning back.

              “Nevermind. You never were good for much when it came to anything squeamish.”

              “That’s why you’re the vet and I’m the farmer.”

              “I think maybe you should have stuck to crops.”

              Mark laughed again. “You could be right. Although that’s what I have you for.”

              Justin’s phone rang again.

              “You gonna answer that thing?”

              Justin shot him a look. “How do you think I’m gonna answer the phone with my arm stuck up this cow?”

              “I’ll answer it for you.”

              “You’ll do no such thing,” Justin said, itching to pull out his arm. But he was so close to having the calf turned. He couldn’t stop now.

              “Hello.... Hello?” He turned to Justin. “No response.”

              “I can’t imagine why. Put the phone to my ear.”

              “Justin can’t come to the phone right now. He’s, ah, sort of up to his elbows in one of my girls.” He waited a beat, then turned to Justin. “She hung up on me.”

              “Damnation, Mark. I can’t imagine why. You just had to do that, didn’t you?”

              “Well, it’s true.”

              “She’ll never talk to me again.”

              “What? She has no sense of humor? I thought you said she was wonderful.”

              “She is, but she saw me kissing Brenda.”

              “What?? You kissed Brenda? What on earth made you want to do a thing like that?”

              “I didn’t. Trust me. Brenda kissed me and Alley saw. She didn’t talk to me for days. I was just getting her to trust me again.”

              Mark made a face of remorse. “I’m sorry. I’ll call her back and tell her the truth.”

              “Please do.”

              Mark dialed Alley’s number. It went straight to voicemail. “Voicemail,” he said.

              Justin cursed under his breath. “I’m telling you. She’ll never talk to me again.”

              “What do you want a girl like that for anyway? Sounds like high maintenance to me.”

              “Shut up, Mark,” Justin said as he delivered the calf.

              Alley parked her car and hurried into the terminal. It wouldn’t be right to make her grandmother wait any longer.

              The only problem was, she could barely see where she was going, for the tears in her eyes. She knew she looked awful. She knew she was crying in public. Something her mother had taught her never to do.

              But she didn’t care. She was devastated. She had allowed herself to trust Justin. And this time around, she had trusted him more than ever. She had believed in him. And here he was, what had the man said? “up to his elbows in one of my girls”? What kind of statement was that? What did that mean?

              She knew only one thing for certain. It was no good. Whatever it was he was doing with some other girl, she didn’t need to be any part of it.

              It was time for her to cut her losses and move on.

              When she saw Granny standing there, smiling at her, she broke into sobs and stopped walking. When Granny came up to her and tried to find out what was wrong, she only cried harder.

              After leading her to a bench away from the thoroughfare, Granny held Alley close and soothed her with a gentle touch and soft words.

              Thirty minutes later, Granny knew that Justin was the culprit; though she didn’t quite understand how Justin had gone from the stable young man she had watched grow up to the disrespectable cad that Alley described.

              “How could he do that, Granny? Why would he do that?”

              “I don’t know, Honey.”

              “I mean, why would he bother to tell me that he wanted to have something long-lasting, then turn right around and go out to do whatever with other women?”

              “Some men are like that, I suppose,” Granny answered, though for the life of her, she never would have thought Justin to be one of “those” men.

              “What should I do?”

              Granny shook her head. What should she do?

              This is where she wished for the infinite wisdom that purportedly comes with age. Instead, she felt inept. Alley was looking to her for guidance and she had nothing to offer.

              Thinking back on her own life with her husband of thirty eight years, she asked the only thing that seemed to matter in the end. “Do you love him?”

              Alley looked a little stunned for a moment. Sort of like a deer in the headlights. Had she not considered the possibility? Did she think she hadn’t known him long enough?

              “Alley, how do you FEEL about Justin?”

              She nodded slowly. “I am in love with him. I have been from the first time I saw him.”

              “Then it’s really quite simple,” Granny said, matter-of-factly, because indeed, she suddenly believed that it was.

              “Simple?” Alley looked at her as though she had lost her mind. And indeed perhaps she had. Nothing was ever simple when it came to affairs of the heart.

              “In order for this work,” Granny said, “you have to trust me.”

              “I do trust you.”

              “I know you do, Honey, but this might be more difficult than you think.”

              “What can we do, Granny? Just tell me what to do.”

              Granny almost changed her mind - almost backed off. There was no guarantee this would work. In fact, she had to admit to herself that it was probably less likely to work than it was likely to work.

              She took a deep steadying breath. Alley really had very little to lose. Granny hated this. She hated interfering in people’s lives. She just couldn’t leave Alley like this without helping her try something.

              “Here’s what you have to do,” Granny said.