Page 4 of August Heat
“Hello?” Krys looked between the old house at the end of the driveway and the big garage beside her. The garage was markedClinic,but it didn’t look like anyone was inside. So much for being prepared and picking up the kittens while she thought about it. Maybe she should put them back in the car, in case…
A door popped open beside her. “You must be Krys. Madison, right?”
Krys whipped around, jostling the poor kittens in their box. Mews of displeasure peppered the muggy air.
Yet Krys didn’t have much sympathy for the kittens who had already accomplished such a big day. She was too taken aback by the woman standing in the doorway to her clinical office, arms crossed and demeanor bold enough to start a few fires.Guess I’m the one to do that around…Krys knew something about putting out fires.
She also knew about stoking them.
The woman in front of her couldn’t have been much older than thirty-five, possibly younger. Not exactly the picture Krys had summoned when she heard about a rural vet with an older, more traditional name. Yet she wasn’t that far from her picture of someone namedSiobhan O’Connor.She may have lacked some age, but she had orange-red hair that was the color of flickering flames before they turned into raging fires. Freckles that were as plentiful as they were emboldened with a golden-brown hue dotted her pointed face. Such a self-assured attitude cocked against the doorway, a flowy white top hanging loosely from a willowy frame. Black yoga pants added an air of countryside authority before Krys got a load of the dirty, old,wornwork boots scraping against the ground.Those things look like they’ve walked through a few cowpies.
It didn’t detract from Siobhan’s beauty, though. If anything, it only made her look like a bigger badass.
“Uh, yeah.” Krys was reminded that she was there to get something taken care of when a kitten lightly bit her thumb. “I called earlier about the kittens from the fire? They ain’t got no owner, and I’m worried they might have some smoke damage in their lungs. Just little guys, you know?” Their lungs were probably the size of Krys’s fingertip. Granted, she had pretty big fingers, but that meant nothing when it came to filtering air!
Siobhan craned her head up and peered into the box. “How many?”
“Four. Keep counting them to make sure they’re all there.”
Finally, Siobhan kicked herself out of the doorway and motioned for Krys to come in with the kittens. “Bring them on in and we’ll have a look at ‘em. Tell me what you can.”
Krys spilled everything she knew, which wasn’t much. By the time she placed the box on an exam table in a tiny room with only one window, she had said everything there was to say. While Siobhan sprayed something on a bath towel and draped it across the table, Krys said, “Thanks so much for doing this. I didn’t wanna take them to Dr. Global because…”
“It’s all right. I don’t have any other critters here right now, let alone something that might like a tasty kitten for a snack.” Siobhan placed a stethoscope around her neck, washed her hands, and pulled gloves up to her wrists. Between those and the wire-rim glasses now gracing her face, she looked like any other doctor from the area.She ain’t no Brandelyn Meyer, though.All right, so they were both intimidating as hell to be around, but Krys always got through her appointments with Dr. Meyer by reminding herself that she was a damn firefighter. If she could stand in the face of flickering flames, she could handle a pretty lady sticking her hand up her shirt – to listen to her heartbeat, of course.
“Do me a favor and put these on.” Siobhan tossed Krys another pair of gloves. “With four of the buggers, I might need a little help.”
Krys slipped the gloves over her hands, one eye always on the box of fun currently scooting along the exam table. Two of the kittens had taken to throwing themselves against one side of the box, as if theyknewtheir mother awaited them over the far edge of the table.Don't think you're gonna find much down there but a big bump on the head.At least they were in the right place for it. “I don't have any training beyond some EMT stuff. I can put an oxygen mask on a dog, but that's about it.”
Siobhan snapped a surgeon's mask against her face. Was she expecting these cats to carry the next plague? Should Krys be wearing a mask? Or was she already doomed? “You don't need anything a competent layman couldn't accomplish.” She lowered her mask far enough to expose her upper lip. “You're a competent layman, right?”
“Prefer laywoman, if it's all the same.” Jeez, could she turn up the smarm any more?This isn't the kind of woman you make “hey! Notice me! As a woman!” jokes around.Siobhan could perfectly tell that Krys was a woman of a certain persuasion. What did that make Dr. O'Connor? Was she attached? Did she have a husband? A wife? Boyfriend?Girlfriend?Krys was usually on top of her gaydar, but that day had already been a wild ride. Between the fire and these kittens, the last thing she expected was discovering a woman like Siobhan living in Paradise Valley.This might be the first time in several months I've got the hots for someone.Here she thought she was entering a new phase of her life. One where the hormones finally settled the hell down and she could focus on other things beyond dating, drinking, and fighting fires.I've already cut back on the drinking.Since hitting thirty, Krys had discovered she couldn't pound the beers like she used to. She still wasn't sure how she felt about that.
She knew how she felt about this veterinarian, though.
“Hey, did you hear me?”
Krys snapped to attention. A kitten was already halfway into her hand. “No... no, sorry. I'm still a bit weird after the fire earlier. Takes some time to decompress, you know...”
“Less fantasizing, more attention on the cats. We've got four of them to examine, and I'm gonna make sure it's done right.”
Krys didn't know what she expected when she brought the kittens here. Dropping them off and leaving? Giving a report? Watching the vet do her work before heading out? Asking what she could do to help them get adopted? It certainly wasn't this. Krys Madison had not woken up that day to meet a pretty veterinarian and cuddle kittens in the clinic with her.
Or maybe she had, and she simply didn’t know it yet.
One by one the kittens were weighed, inspected, and checked for fleas and ticks. At the announcement that all four of them were flead the hell up, Krys took a giant step back. Siobhan could only laugh.
“Fleas are everywhere, especially around here. Bet you have some in your house.”
“Oh, hell no,” Krys said. “My roommate is kinda gross, but not that gross.”
“You’ll be fine. It’s these guys I’m worried about.” Siobhan withdrew a cream from one of her drawers. On second inspection, she tossed it back in and grabbed another. “Especially if I’m trying to give them adult formula and not kitten. Their little systems are shocked enough.”
Krys knew next to nothing about de-fleaing kittens. She barely knew anything about grown cats. Dogs? Sure. She had a dog with fleas before. Took multiple doses of whatever flea medication was the hot thing ten years ago to get rid of it.Back when I was a blushing twenty-year-old.Any fantasies she entertained about owning a dog now were gone with Siobhan’s gloves in the trash.
“So, now what?” Krys scratched the back of her head.Oh, God, I ain’t got fleas now, do I?How quickly could fleas transfer from a kitten to a grown woman? Was what Siobhan said about fleas being everywhere true? What if Krys picked them up in the woods where she found these guys? “I can’t really take them home with me. We have a no pet policy at my place.”
Siobhan shrugged, as if she hadn’t expected Krys to do anything. “I can keep an eye on them for a few days. I’ve got connections in some shelters around here. Kittens this young are fast adoptions. Granted, they’re a little young to be totally weaned and eating solid food, but I don’t think I need to bust out the eyedroppers.”
