Stray (12 page)

I woke up early, just before my alarm would have gone off. That was a new one for me, the inveterate sleepyhead. But, once Jon kissed me and told me he had to get back to the hotel, I curled up and rolled over to sleep in a cozy ball of sensuous laziness. I
’d slept deeply, my demons exorcised, and when I woke was surprised to learn I was well-rested. I also felt like I’d won some sort of competition with Greg, a satisfying sensation of
aha!
spreading through me as I realized I’d never had so much as two orgasms with him, much less the four earth-shattering explosions I’d had with Jon last night.

Since I was wide-awake, I decided to get dressed and go for a brisk walk in the freezing air before getting ready for work. Maybe I could come to a reasonable conclusion about what had happened. Did I expect Jon to call or come by again, now that he’d made his conquest? Maybe not, but he had said it wasn’t just a one-night stand. How did I feel about that if he did want to keep seeing me? Could I resist that sexy arrogance, the body of a god and the face of an angel? Did I even want to? And, if so, why?

I got to the clinic early, too, so I took Max out the front door to see if he could handle a longer walk. This was Thursday, the day Jon had said the therapist wanted to see Max again. Just thinking about the fact that I’d see Jon that afternoon made me happy. Max wasn’t doing too badly on three legs, but I didn’t want to tire him enough that he couldn’t make it back to the clinic under his own steam, so we didn’t go far, maybe four blocks, before turning around and heading back to the clinic.

Jon’s BMW was parked in the front, much earlier than I’d expected him. We hurried back as fast as Max could tolerate, to find Jon trying to sweet-talk Megan into a better mood. He had brought her chocolates, and the look on her face, both distrusting and greedy, was too funny.

“Hey, Jon. Didn’t expect you so early,” I said.

“I didn’t expect to be here so early,” he answered, kissing me on the cheek despite Megan’s wide eyes. “I need a favor.”

“Let me get Max settled. Come on back and tell me what’s on your mind.”

Jon followed me back to the boarding kennel, where Max was the only resident at the moment. He bent down to ruffle Max’s fur and scratch behind his ears, then watched me put him back into his kennel. When I stood, he took me in his arms for a leisurely kiss that set my blood singing.

“I’ve wanted to do that ever since I got up this morning,” he said. “Too bad you weren’t there with me.”

“As I recall, you were the one who got up and left,” I teased. I was in too good a mood to confront the elephant in the room, the girlfriend he’d no doubt gone back to, though I’d have to ask him soon. I didn’t have any intention of being the other woman. One night, all right, I’d broken my rule. But it couldn’t continue if he was still with her. I thought that might be what he’d come to talk about. Maybe he wanted to be sure I wouldn’t say anything, as if I would brag that I’d been with him. Well, he could count on that. I didn’t want anyone to know, especially not Megan, who must suspect something already after that kiss she witnessed.

I was completely unprepared for what he did ask, though. It had nothing to do with us.

“Megan mentioned that you might be at Doc McGraw’s this morning,” he said. “Were you?”

“No, I was walking the dog. You saw that. Why would I have been at Doc’s, and why is it any of your business?” Maybe I was a little miffed that the conversation wasn’t going as I’d anticipated. My words sounded like an overreaction, even to me. Jon had drawn back, surprised.

“It isn’t, I mean, why you were there, or might have been there, is none of my business. I just wondered if you were friends with him, that’s all.”

“I guess so. I like him, and he seems to like me. As a friend,” I corrected, made awkward by my earlier overreaction and not understanding where this was going. “Why?”

“Can you come out with me for a cup of coffee? I need to ask you a favor, and I can see I’ll have to tell you the whole story first. Will Megan throw a hissy fit?”

“Maybe. But, as long as there are no patients waiting or scheduled, I could go across the street to Papa’s for fifteen or twenty minutes. Let me check.” With a feeling that I may regret this later, I asked Megan what was on the schedule for the day. Thursdays were our light day, usually, and today was no exception. No appointments until around eleven, and then only the one. I told her I’d be across the street and to text me if anyone came in, and left with Jon trailing on my heels.

“How much do you know about the town and the resort?” he asked me, when we were settled into a corner booth for the most privacy we could get.

“A little. In fact, Doc McGraw was the one to tell me. I understand there’s bad blood.”

Jon sighed. “You could say that. And if you got the story from Doc McGraw, I’m surprised you even speak to me.”

I tilted my head in a silent question. What did he have to do with it, besides working for the resort? He saw that I was willing to hear him out, so he went on.

“My father was one of the original developers of the resort. He and Doc McGraw’s brother were tight, saw the potential back in the seventies, before I was born. They used their connections in town to get control of a lot of land around here, swapping shares and lies for ownership.”

“Wait, your
dad…”

“Yeah. Maybe you don’t know, but the holding company that owns the resort is Miles-McGraw Enterprises. My dad and Doc’s brother told the locals that there wouldn’t be excessive development. My grandfather and Doc McGraw’s dad were among the largest landowners. Grandpa went along with the ideas they had planned, because it was his son. Doc McGraw’s dad had two sons, and Doc didn’t want anything to do with the other’s plans. But old Mr. McGraw went ahead anyway. Doc inherited half the shares when his father passed away, which is ironic.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because something happened between his brother and my dad. They dissolved the partnership in the holding company. McGraw sold his shares to the current CEO, Rowland Egren, but Doc held onto his so he could try to influence or at least slow down the development that was happening in spite of the promises Dad and his brother had made.”

“Do he and your dad see eye-to-eye?” I ventured. Jon’s laugh rang out, causing a few diners to look our way. I turned my head so as not to be recognized, still concerned about Megan’s and Doc’s belief that being seen with Jon could hurt my business.

“No, they most definitely do not. That’s another story, but it’s the reason for the favor I need to ask.”

I began to get a bad feeling about this. Would Jon ask me to do something that would harm my friendship with the doctor? I couldn’t do it. For one thing, I was dependent on Doc’s care of me to be able to continue to do my job. Without those shots, I’d have to turn away all cat patients. It would break my landlady’s heart, too.

“What is it?” I asked, the apprehension dripping from my voice and I was sure showing in my face.

“Well, I’m not going to ask you to do anything that’s going to hurt Doc,” he said, reading me like a book. “Actually, I need to tell you that I’m one of the majority shareholders, and I’ve been gathering proxy votes to try to unseat Egren. They’re about to build another high-rise hotel on the resort property if I can’t stop it, and that’s going to kill this town and the canyon, environmentally. But, I need to be sure Doc won’t vote with Egren just because he hated my dad, and I can’t even get him to talk to me.”

The rest of the story had come out in such a rush that I wasn’t even sure what I’d just heard. Jon was an owner of the resort, not an employee? Not only that, but a majority owner? Did he say
hated
instead of
hates
? What was that about? And did I understand correctly that it was Jon who wanted to protect the environment of the canyon, and Doc was the one threatening it? So many questions were whirling in my head that I didn’t even know which one to ask first.

The one that came out was one I hadn’t consciously thought, so it came out without filters. “How did you get a majority share?”

Jon had been gazing at me intently, waiting until my confusion passed, was my guess. But it wasn’t going to pass, not without some answers.

“My grandfather passed a little over three years ago, leaving me his shares because he and Dad had a falling out, over the resort of course. I used to spend summers here, and because Gramps treated me like an adult and discussed his values with me, I learned how the resort was destroying the canyon, eating it in huge gulps with every new hotel.

“Then Dad was killed in an auto accident a few months later, passing the rest of the Miles shares to me. It’s about thirty percent of the company, now, not enough to swing a vote on my own. But I have enough proxies to win if Doc McGraw either abstains or votes with me. If he votes against me, I’m sunk, and so is this canyon. I just need to know what he’s going to do.”

There were more questions. Jon hadn’t mentioned his mother. Where was she in this picture? And exactly what did he want me to do? I judged the first one irrelevant to the project at hand. So I asked the second one.

“Can you ask him? Maybe put in a good word for me? He won’t talk to me; won’t take my calls, won’t answer my emails. I tried to see him at home this morning because he threw me out of his office the other day. He set his dogs on me.” Jon’s expression was so rueful that I almost laughed.

“Did they hurt you?”

“No,” he scoffed. “What are a pack of Yorkies going to do, anyway, bite my ankles ‘til I die?” The mental picture that gave me did make me laugh, I couldn’t help it.

“How many Yorkies does he have?”

“A dozen? No, I’m kidding. Three or four , I think. Hell, they all look alike, and they were milling around like sheep in a pen, rushing at me and yapping, and then retreating like they were scared of me.”

“They probably were. You’re pretty scary,” I teased. That brought his laugh, too, and more attention to us. By now I knew that if his bid were successful, he’d be a hero in town instead of a villain. If I could help, I would. If not, then I guessed my desire to buy the clinic would have to be re-evaluated. Jon’s prediction for the town if the hotel were built wasn’t rosy. Maybe a vet practice here wasn’t a good investment after all.

I still hadn’t answered Jon’s question about talking to Doc McGraw. “How soon do you need to know?”

“The sooner the better. I’ve been disguising my business up here by taking Egren’s daughter skiing.”

So that’s who ‘Babe’ was. Jon’s stock in my estimation dipped several points as I considered the implications. Abruptly, I stood to leave.

“I’ll talk to him today. Thanks for the coffee.” If I’d gone any faster, I would have been running. As I went through the door, I glanced back to see him staring after me, a questioning frown on his face. If he couldn’t figure out what I was pissed about, he wasn’t as smart as I’d thought.

~*~

The rest of the day was quiet, as usual. The eleven o
’clock appointment was just immunizations, and we didn’t have a walk-in all morning. I used the time to take inventory of the medications and prepare an order to restock, but it gave me time to mull over everything that had happened since Jon crashed into my life last Friday evening. I didn’t recall another time, ever, when meeting someone had disrupted my thoughts so profoundly.

Of course, I couldn’t lay it all at his feet. Finding out the truth about Greg and my so-called friends had shattered my conception of my history from before I graduated veterinary school until now. Jon’s appearance had been just a coincidence as far as that went. But last night…last night had gone a long way toward healing a four-year challenge to my self-esteem and six months of broken heart. How could that be? What was one night of passion against a relationship that spanned four years?

Lunchtime came and I sent Megan first, because I had decided to use my break to see Doc McGraw and do what I could to either help Jon or understand why I shouldn’t. I’d have to tell him the truth, that Jon and I were becoming friends. Very good friends, in fact. By the time Jon came by to pick up Max for his physical therapy trip, I hoped to have his answer for him. If not, I’d probably have more questions.