A Kiss Before Dawn Read online

  In the first stall she opened, Sierra, a bay, quarter horse mare, was chewing her hay a bit tentatively, obviously attempting to keep it all on one side of her mouth.

  “I may as well have Doc check you while he’s here,” Chris said.

  Sierra was bred to the top Paint horse in the country, but her owners rarely saw her. Still, Chris kept them up-to-date on their horse’s condition. She preferred to operate the farm that way. In her experience, absentee owners were the easiest to manage.

  Typically, a mare’s owner selected a stallion to breed with the mare, paid the breeding fee, and passed the pertinent information to Chris. When the mare went into heat, Chris requested the stallion’s sperm shipped that day to arrive first thing the next morning. Once she received the liquid-nitrogen-cooled parcel, she had Doc come to the farm to perform the artificial insemination.

  Of the ten horses on the property, Chris owned two. The rest were boarded pregnant mares. These eight mares never left her farm; the owners chose to keep them there under her care for the duration of the mare’s breeding career. She already had reservations for the other fifteen stalls. Those horses were scheduled to come during the late fall or early winter, which gave them adequate time to adjust to Chris and their new surroundings before getting down to the business of having foals. Doc’s imminent arrival reminded her she needed to schedule each of the new mares for an examination to ensure they were healthy and in foal.

  Cedar, Cagney, and Sadie were waiting patiently outside the stall doors. Suddenly, all three dogs jumped up and raced to the end of the barn, yipping as they ran. Chris laughed. The girls loved Doc. He was the only visitor whose arrival caused them to act like foolish puppies. She walked down toward the barn entrance just as she heard Cedar bark.

  “What the heck are you barking at?” She asked the Lab, who rarely made a sound.

  A dark-haired woman getting out of the passenger side of the truck piqued her curiosity. The woman appeared a little standoffish as she stood with her arms crossed over her chest. But she seemed more at ease when Doc greeted the dogs in an animated, squeaky voice.

  She had a slight build and was of medium height, though the coveralls she wore made it difficult to judge her shape. Not what Chris would call scrawny, but she was attractive nonetheless. The woman glanced at Chris long enough for her to notice brown eyes.

  Chris leaned against the barn door and waited for Doc to finish his play. He finally looked up and saw her. “Hey there, Doc.” She pushed herself away from the doorway. Doc came over and gave her the anticipated hug and a quick peck on the cheek. She returned the embrace and got a grunt out of him.

  “Easy there, lady, I’m not as spry as I used to be,” he teased.

  She ignored the mock complaint. “Oh, don’t give me that. You’re as tough as they come.”

  Mary Jo stood by quietly while Chris Martel and Doc joked and laughed together. An inexplicable twinge of jealousy struck her as she listened to Chris and Doc’s teasing. Chris’s relaxed stance revealed her obvious affection for the man.

  She attempted subtlety as she checked Chris out. The woman was tall and tan. Her short, dark hair accentuated high cheekbones and a strong jaw line. The loose, V-necked T-shirt showed off broad shoulders, strong arms, and a firm, flat stomach. Cargo shorts and Timberland boots accentuated muscular, well-defined legs.

  Her jealousy confused her.

  The friendly banter came to an end when Doc said, “I’m sorry. Mary Jo this is Chris Martel. Chris, Mary Jo Cavanaugh, my new assistant.”

  “It’s nice to meet you.” Chris extended her hand.

  “Same here.” Mary Jo clasped Chris’s hand and briefly admired the corded muscles in her forearm. She couldn’t help but notice Chris’s deep blue eyes.

  Doc and Chris continued chatting about the horses, and Mary Jo watched mesmerized as a drop of sweat started below Chris’s hairline and gradually worked its way down her temple to the back of her jaw. It eventually ran down her neck before disappearing into the hint of cleavage above the vee of her T-shirt. Mary Jo was staring, and she forced herself to look away and tune into the conversation. In her opinion, the talk proved boring. She wanted to see sick horses.

  She turned around and opened the truck door. She pretended to look for the stethoscope already hanging around her neck, just to give herself something to do.

  “Mary Jo just joined my practice,” Doc was saying. “As a matter of fact, today is her first day. She specialized in equine breeding at Cornell, so if we get into any pickles here, she’ll be a good asset to have around. She’ll be riding with me for a few weeks until her rig comes in. In the meantime, I’ll be introducing her to as many clients as I can.”

  “Uh-huh. Personally, the less I see of your kind here, the better,” Chris said in a kidding tone.

  Mary Jo felt that weird jealousy needle her again. What’s with that? She was unable to decide if she was jealous of Chris because of her familiarity with Doc or jealous of Doc because he had Chris’s entire attention focused on him—which made no sense as she’d only just met the woman. She decided she was feeling a little put out because she thought Doc should include her in the conversation. After all she was the new vet.

  “All right,” Chris said. “I guess you better come in the barn and check Ruby. I think she has a stone bruise, but I’ll be damned if I can find where.” She started toward the barn before adding, “Oh, and if you have time can you check Sierra? I think she may have a tooth that needs to be filed.”

  “Yup, no problem,” said Doc. “MJ, would you grab the hoof testers and hoof knife? We’ll start with those before we do anything else.” He followed Chris into the barn.

  Mary Jo’s annoyance at Doc was combined with a little embarrassment for his assuming she would be his gofer. “Christ, I hope this isn’t what it’s going to be like till my frickin’ license shows up and I get my own rig,” she said to herself as she went to the truck.

  Requested tools in hand, she strode into the barn and noted the impeccable cleanliness as she moved farther in. “Geez, you could eat off these floors,” she muttered. She caught sight of one of Chris’s cats eating a mouse by the hay room and added under her breath, “Then again, maybe not.”

  As she walked, she noticed the stalls had bars in the front with a feed access door. Each stall had a nameplate containing information such as the name of the horse, age, breeding date, due date, vaccination dates, and owner’s name and phone number.

  To the right of each door was an individual light switch. She recalled the college had similar lighting. When turned on, the light brightly lit only that particular stall, which avoided disturbing the neighboring horses.

  She heard a hissing sound as a horse drank from its automatic waterer.

  “Wow, this place is way nicer than when I first met Bill. They must have done well together,” she said to herself.

  Mary Jo found the stall that contained the horse with the hoof problem. Chris and Doc were already inside.

  “Thanks, MJ,” Doc said. He held the hoof and grunted a bit as Ruby leaned her weight on him. He took the hoof testers, which looked like big pincers, and began squeezing various points around Ruby’s foot. Clearly not detecting any soreness around the outside, he proceeded to pinch the middle of her foot. Finally Ruby jerked her foot almost infinitesimally when he pressed near the sensitive, soft, spongy area in the middle of the hoof. “The frog’s supposed to be a shock absorber for the foot, but it looks like there’s a small bruise at the tip of it.” Doc nodded at Mary Jo and traded the testers for the hoof knife. He then started paring small slices of the sole away.

  As Doc worked, Chris stood at Ruby’s head and softly rubbed the horse’s forehead. Ruby closed her eyes, apparently content despite the interruption of her meal of hay.

  Mary Jo was almost entranced by the quiet, soothing tone Chris used to talk to the horse.

  “I’m not finding a draining tract here, Chris,” Doc said. “I think we should put a poultice on her
for a couple of days and see if we can entice the infection to come out.”

  “Okay. I figured it would come to that, but I wanted you to check her just in case I was missing something.”

  “I’ve not known you to miss much. This one seems so small most people wouldn’t even notice it. But I’m glad to help, and it’s nice to check in, too,” Doc said as he glanced in Chris’s direction.

  Mary Jo knew what Doc would prescribe for Ruby’s treatment, so she headed to the truck to retrieve the necessary items for the poultice. She placed them in a bucket and returned to the stall entrance just as Doc put down the mare’s sore hoof.

  “All right, pretty girl, let’s get you feeling better.” Doc accepted the bucket from Mary Jo, his demeanor quiet as he picked up Ruby’s hoof to begin applying drawing salve, cotton, a piece of surgical drape, and most important, duct tape to wrap the entire hoof after everything was in place.

  Mary Jo left Doc to work and wandered to the front of the barn to a stall that contained a big, black Thoroughbred mare. The mare stood backed into the corner. Her ears pricked forward as she bobbed her head. Her gaze seemed to follow Mary Jo’s every move. When Mary Jo began to move away, the mare stomped a hoof and regained her attention.

  Mary Jo returned to the stall door and glanced at the nameplate. “Your name is Top Hat, huh, big girl?” She looked down the aisle toward Ruby’s stall. Chris and Doc were still working on Ruby and jabbering together like they hadn’t seen each other in years. She returned her concentration to the horse and assumed Top Hat wanted some attention.

  She lifted the latch, eased the stall door open, and slipped inside. Top Hat continued bobbing her head. As Mary Jo reached to touch her, the mare suddenly pinned her ears back and lunged, knocking her down with a shoulder.

  She landed hard, flat on her back, and screamed as the horse gnashed big yellow teeth mere inches from her face. The seemingly gentle mare had turned into a she-devil! Mary Jo quickly curled into a ball to protect her vitals. She was trapped.

  She screamed again and cringed as hooves slammed perilously close to her head. To her relief, she heard boots slapping the concrete. Chris was there in seconds. She slid the door open and darted inside. She positioned herself over Mary Jo and talked in a whisper that the horse obviously understood. At once Top Hat focused her entire attention on Chris. After a few tense moments, the mare relaxed completely. Mary Jo only had a brief moment to admire the legs straddled over her.

  “Get up slowly and get out of this stall,” Chris said through clenched teeth.

  Mary Jo crawled to the door on all fours and finally stood when she was able to slide the door open enough to escape. Once out, she collapsed on her butt and panted with the realization that she had just escaped death.

  Doc, who had followed Chris to the stall at a quick clip asked, “Are you okay?”

  Mary Jo was still trying to catch her breath but managed to stammer, “I… I think so.”

  Chris stormed out of the stall and closed the door behind her. “Jesus H. Christ, are you fucking crazy? You never, ever go into a stall without me. You had no right to go in there, and you were completely out of line.” Although she wasn’t shouting, she managed to deliver the message loud and clear. Her eyes were full of fire as she stared at Mary Jo.

  Mary Jo mumbled an apology. She got up, brushed shavings off her coveralls, and marched toward the barn door. Chris continued talking in a heated tone, but the words were unintelligible.

  What the hell happened in there? Mary Jo hadn’t done anything to antagonize the horse. She had felt competent enough to approach the mare. “Bitch,” she said under her breath. After a moment of thought, she began to doubt herself. Could she have been disillusioned enough to think she could approach any animal and have them respond to her? Maybe she’d gone in there just a little too cocky.

  She returned to the truck to wait for Doc.

  Chris stared at Doc. “What the hell kind of help you hiring, Doc?”

  “Now, Chris, calm down. You know that mare is mostly bluff, and both of them are fine.” Doc put a hand on Chris’s shoulder. “She made a mistake. All rookie vets do it. I’d be willing to bet she never pulls something like that again.”

  Chris glared at him. “That’s beside the point. That mare’s foal is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the owners found out a stunt like that caused her to miscarry, I could lose a lot of clients.”

  “Chris, Top Hat is fine. Look at her. She’s eating her hay like nothing happened,” he said. “I’ll go check on MJ and get my mouth speculum and file for Sierra. I’ll meet you at her stall.”

  By force of habit, Chris looked for the dogs. She knew they sensed her anxiety because both Labs walked over and took places on either side of her. She knelt down and buried her face in Cedar’s neck. She hugged them both tightly until her pulse slowed. “You beasties are such good therapy,” she said. She rose and patted them both.

  By the time she got to Sierra’s stall, Doc had returned from the truck with his tools. “MJ’s fine in case you were wondering,” he said.

  Chris ignored him. She grabbed a lead rope and went into the mare’s stall. Talking in a quiet tone, she slung the rope around Sierra’s neck and led her into the aisle.

  Doc put on a lighted headlamp. Gently putting his hand into the side of Sierra’s mouth, he grabbed her tongue and pulled it out to the side. This caused her to open her mouth without any danger of her biting him. He reached in and felt the surfaces of the horse’s teeth. He withdrew his hand, adjusted his headlight, and peered into her mouth to check for ulcers.

  “She has one little point back there on the right,” he told Chris. “She does have a fresh ulcer, too, so I think she may have just done that. You were fortunate to catch it at the right time. Many horses don’t even react to small ulcers. They simply heal, and the owner never knows there was a problem until the horse’s teeth are checked.”

  “Good.” Chris’s hand never left Sierra’s neck. “You can work your magic on her, and she’ll be all the better then.”

  Doc said quietly, “You were a little hard on her, you know.”

  “Oh, please,” Chris answered. “If that performance was any indication, your new vet has a lot to learn about being around these guys.”

  “MJ is still green. She hasn’t yet honed the instincts that you take for granted every day. She would do well to learn from you.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m still mad about what happened.” But some of Chris’s anger had already dissipated. Doc’s calm demeanor, in addition to the calming energy her dogs had given her earlier, helped to ease her upset.

  “Uh-huh, sure you are. I remember a time two years ago when you were at the mercy of that very horse.” Doc gave Chris a knowing look.

  Despite the embarrassment and anxiety she’d felt at the time, Chris couldn’t help laughing at the memory.

  The day Top Hat had arrived on the farm, Chris had gone into the mare’s stall to remove her shipping leg wraps. The mare charged her and held her hostage in the corner for what seemed like hours until Chris remembered the treats in her pocket. She’d tossed one into Top Hat’s feed bucket and the others to different parts of her stall. While the horse was preoccupied, Chris had slipped quietly out of the stall.

  “I suppose I could go and talk to Mary Jo.”

  Doc grinned. “That would be nice.”

  * * *

  Mary Jo’s heart finally slowed to normal. She had stomped out of the barn humiliated and angry at herself and at Chris. “She must be crazy keeping a horse like that in her barn. That horse must have great bloodlines for her to keep breeding the bitch.” She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the truck.

  She felt something against her leg and looked down. Chris’s Jack Russell stared at her with a ball in its mouth. The terrier wagged its stumpy tail in anticipation as she waited for Mary Jo to catch on and throw the ball. The dog impatiently pawed Mary Jo’s leg again to get her attention.

/>   “Okay, little one,” she said. “Give me the ball.”

  The terrier dropped the ball and tensed up to run after it when Mary Jo picked it up. She tossed the ball away, and the little dog scurried after it.

  “That’s Sadie’s favorite game.”

  Mary Jo started. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn’t heard Chris come up behind her. Her body involuntarily stiffened as she turned to see Chris leaning against the barn door. Mary Jo stood up straight, and her shirt stuck to her sweaty torso. The temperature was already in the eighties with barely a breeze. She felt like perspiration and embarrassment were radiating from her body. Based on the squint of Chris’s eyes, Mary Jo knew the woman was reading her like one of the horses. A stream of sweat ran between her shoulder blades.

  “I guess I was a little harsh in there,” Chris said.

  “You think?” Mary Jo replied. “Between you and that horse, I’m not sure who I was more scared of, or which one was nastier.”

  Chris pointed a finger at her and snapped, “You had no business going into that stall.” She raised her shoulders. “And you have no right to be sarcastic, let alone stand there with a righteous attitude.”

  “I seriously don’t want to talk to you about it. I said I was sorry.” Annoyed, Mary Jo turned her head. She didn’t want to look at Chris. She wanted to stay angry. She knew she was being unprofessional and immature, but she was being forced to eat humble pie and she didn’t like it one bit.

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw Chris shrug, turn around, and walk back into the barn. Mary Jo overheard her parting shot, “The hell with her, let’s hope I don’t have any reason to need her back.” Chris scooped Sadie up just before she disappeared into the barn.