Page 6 of August Heat
Chapter 4
SIOBHAN
Krys Madison. Go figure.
That was all Siobhan could think about as she and her aunt Gabriella settled the furry children into the comfiest cage in the office. They kittens werejustsmall enough that they could realistically climb through the lowest bars and tumble a few yards to the floor. For a grown cat, that was nothing, but for little babies in their tiny, growing bodies, Siobhan was taking no chances. Like she took no chances with a flea bath and the vitamin-enriched food she and Gabriella fed them later that night.
Krys. Freakin’. Madison.
“Aren’t they the cutest little floofer-snoofers?” Gabriella was already smitten with every kitten. She went as far as to guess their sexes before her niece had the chance to look.“Two boys and two girls! Perfect!”she had exclaimed. She had also become instantly attached to one of the fluffiest kittens, a young female with a white belly and gray coat. Granted, all the kittens were white and gray with similar markings, but this one? The little girl? She was the fluffiest of the whole litter. Big, blue eyes were already the subject of many pictures. “Can we keep them, Chevy? Can we?”
One would never guess that Gabriella was twenty years older than her niece from the way she begged to keep a few kittens. “I don’t know how Clawdette would feel about that.” Their big, black cat was very much a loner. The whole reason they brought her home from another clinic was because the doctor confessed she had been there for a year, but her anxieties meant she needed a house with no kids or other animals.Sounds like my place.Unless these fluffer-nutters came into the main house once they were given a clean bill of health.
“Clawdette is a big girl now,” Gabriella said with a sniff. “Come on. These babies need a mama. I can be their mama.”
Gabriella’s big heart made her a great addition to the softer side of the business. As long as she wasn’t around for the harder, sadder parts of the job, she was fine. Yet it also meant moments like these happened. A lot.If it were up to her, we’d have five dogs, sixteen cats, five birds, and a garage full of gerbils and hamsters.
“Let’s see how it goes with them first, huh?” They were still young enough that anything could happen. Considering the stress they had been through already in their short lives… ugh. Siobhan didn’t want to think about it. But if she had to do it, she would. That was part of her job. One of the things she signed up for when she insisted on hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt for vet school.
Gabriella was content to coo over the babies as she fluffed them up a bed made of clean blankets and towels doused in Feel-A-Way. Siobhan knew better, though. Her aunt plotted something in that calculating mind of hers. “So, what did you think of that lady who brought them in? She looked pretty. Uh, single, that is. Pretty single.”
Siobhan pretended she hadn’t heard anything. A convenient excuse to go check on the drinking water filter arose. It wasn’t enough. Once Gabriella latched onto something, she kept at it.
“Did you hear me, Chevy?”
“Yeah. I heard you.”
Gabriella wrinkled her nose. “No need to be sound like that. You must know something about her that I don’t, though.”
“Who? Madison?” Siobhan snorted. “I know you don’t know much about it, but she’s one of the biggest playgirls in town. Has a different girlfriend every month, if you can believe it.”In a town that small, anyway. Who knew there were enough women to date?“She pounces on newbies as soon as they roll into town.”
“Sounds like you’ve already dated her!”
“No, but I know somebody who has.”
“Who?”
Siobhan looked up and met her aunt’s eyes. Gabriella tilted her head until it finally sank in. “No,” she said with an exasperated gasp. “You’ve gotta be kidding. Not…”
“Yup.” Siobhan picked up the last of the kittens and placed it with the brothers and sisters looking up at them with big, baby eyes. The cage soon shut in their faces. Gabriella stuck a finger through the bars for one of the kittens to sniff and lick.
“This Madison lady wasn’t the one who…”
“I don’t think so.” Siobhan snapped her work bag closed. “Does it matter, though? It’s for the best that I don’t have anything to do with her.”
“So you admit she’s cute?”
“Says the woman who doesn’t appreciate women like that.”
“I don’t have to be gay to know when one of the butchest women to roll up to our house isgood looking.” Gabriella withdrew her hand from the cage. The kitten looked after her as if it were a tragedy. “She’s basically your type, isn’t she?”
That’s not how it works.Siobhan shut off the lights – except for the one by the kittens – and led her aunt out of the office. “I don’t have a type,” she insisted. “Unless you count someone with integrity as a type.”
Gabriella looked after her withthatlook. The same one she always had when they faced Siobhan’s past. “You can’t stay hung up on that forever, hon. At some point, you’re gonna have to move on. It’s been three years.”
“Not long enough, if you ask me.”
That was Gabriella’s cue to drop it. By the time they reached the house, stomachs growling and heads full of fatigue, Gabriella went off to heat up some instant dinner and Siobhan collapsed on the couch in front of the TV.
