Fuzzy Logic (9 page)

“That sounds intense,” Kat said. “But wait...a librarian who almost flunked English? No way.” She stared thoughtfully at her wine as she swirled it around in the glass. “Hey, if you put a cowboy hat on this Michael guy, it sounds like he looks like a younger, hotter version of the Marlboro man.”

“And he can dance!” Maria said. “That’s gonna get my attention every time. He can even dance with hairy white dogs. Impressive.”

“Yes, well, I’ll probably never see him again,” Jan said. “I don’t even know where he lives. He was too busy trying to find his annoying dog or talking to his friends to have much of a conversation with me.”

Maria glanced at Kat and then turned to Jan. “I’m noticing that you don’t get that animated about this Steve guy. Do you even like him? If you’re planning to marry Steve, you should at least like him. I’m a romantic you know, and personally, I prefer to hold out for true love. But even if you’re not like me and you’re gonna settle for this guy, you gotta at least start out with some ‘like’ happening, anyway.”

“Of course I do,” Jan said, sitting up on the sofa again. “We have a comfortable relationship. Maybe it’s not rip-roaring hilarity all the time, but it’s easy being with him. There’s not a lot of stress like there is being around my mother and all her drama. It’s a relief, really.”

Maria widened her eyes. “Sounds boring. I sure hope he isn’t that dull in bed.”

The color rose on Jan’s cheeks, “I, ah, well...”

Kat stood up quickly, and all of the dogs leapt up after her as she started collecting the glasses and various snack foods strewn around the living room. Jan helped her clean up, but kept replaying what Maria had said in her mind. Boring? Was it possible her relationship with Steve had become so routine and humdrum that she hadn’t noticed she didn’t even like him anymore? And after so much time, obviously they weren’t teenagers anymore groping at each other all the time. But it wasn’t that bad. Was it?

After Jan left and Maria had retired to the downstairs bedroom, aka Kat’s office, Kat curled up on the couch with a novel and Lori, who was enjoying having her fuzzy ears scritched while Kat read. Now that it was quiet, Tessa the golden retriever, and Chelsey the small brown-and-white dog, had ventured up to the living room from their lair in the downstairs hallway. They were curled up on the floor with Linus, who was lying flat on his side snoring audibly. Tripod the three-legged cat was ensconced in Kat’s lap. All the fur and snoring around her had a soporific effect and Kat was startled awake when Tripod shot off her lap. All four dogs launched toward the door, barking furiously.

Joel and Lady, his collie mix, walked in, and after much canine greeting and cavorting, they all moved into the living room. Joel had been meeting with an old friend named John who had come up from Las Vegas to talk about a project related to writing software for slot machines. John was staying in Joel’s small cabin, affectionately known as The Shack.

Kat unfolded her legs from under her and wrapped her arms around her knees to try to discourage Tripod from returning to her lap. As Joel walked toward her across the room, Kat enjoyed the delicious fluttery thrill she always got when she saw him. “Hi. How was the meeting? Does John like The Shack?”

Joel sat down on the sofa next to Kat, wrapped his arms around her, and gave her a quick kiss hello. “It was good. John is settling in okay. I think he’s having trouble adjusting to the quiet. Being in the middle of a forest is different from the bright lights of Vegas. At least The Shack smells better now. I think the burnt smell is finally mostly gone now.”

Kat nodded. “Well that’s an improvement, anyway. He probably wasn’t happy when he found out that Allison threw your TV out the window before she tried to set The Shack on fire. I think there are football games on, aren’t there?”

“It’s fall. There are always football games on. I gave him a book about database theory, which will help him sleep. How was your evening? Is Maria still here somewhere?”

Kat moved closer to Joel, snuggling up next to him and nudging Tripod aside. “She has retired to my office. I think she may have indulged in a little too much in the liquid aspect of the Wine and Whine. She didn’t really do much whining herself, but I think she may have stressed out Jan.”

“I’m not finding this particularly difficult to imagine.”

“She said that Jan’s relationship with her fiancé was boring. I think Jan had never really thought of it that way. Maria calls us boring all the time and it doesn’t bother me.”

Joel raised an eyebrow suggestively and smiled. He traced the outline of her jaw with his fingertips. “That’s because you know we’re not always boring.”

Trying not to let him distract her from the point, Kat said, “Well, yes. I do know that. But I felt bad for Jan, since I invited her. She really seemed surprised and upset. But the good news is that I think she figured out the Rosa mystery. Or maybe Lori did.”

“I know border collies are smart, but Lori isn’t that smart.”

Lori raised her head at the sound of her name and Kat reached over to stroke the dog’s soft fur. “Aw, now you’ll give Lori a complex. Actually, she jumped up on the kennel gate and Jan noticed that Lori’s pointy little snout was right near the latch. The current theory is that Rosa pushed the latch up with her nose, went out, and the latch fell back into place. Or she went out and closed the latch.”

Joel shook his head. “I’m not sure I’m buying into this idea.”

“It’s a working theory. And the solution is simple. I can just put a little clip on the latch to keep her in.”

“It’s worth a try. And it’s a cheap fix, which is good. I did some more calculations on the costs for building the kennel and it’s going to be more than we thought. Concrete work is expensive.”

“Well, I still have money from the inheritance.”

“But you’ll want to have something to live on until you get things going.”

“It’s no big deal. Something will work out.”

Joel released her from his embrace and looked into her blue eyes. “I’m serious. Not having any money in Alpine Grove is a problem. You can’t just go and get another job, unless you plan to become a logger. Having a financial buffer gives you some security.”

“No. I’m not going to go chop down trees for a living,” Kat said. “Chain saws disturb me. But I do have some freelance-writing money. And the house is paid for.” She grinned. “Plus, I’m hoping you’ll feed me if I start to starve.”

Joel leaned back away from her on the couch. “You’re kidding, right?”

Kat picked some dog hair off her jeans and threw it on the floor. What was this about? “Have I ever asked you for money? Let me answer for you. No, I haven’t.”

Joel crossed his arms across his chest. “Of course you haven’t, because you just inherited money. Why would you?”

Sensing dissent, Tessa stood up and put her golden snout on Kat’s thigh. Kat rubbed the velvety fur. “It’s okay, Tessa. We’re talking about money.” She turned to Joel. “And it seems Joel is going to be weird about it.”

“I don’t think it’s weird to say that you should have savings. In case things don’t work out.”

“What things do you mean, exactly?”

“Well, the dog-boarding business. Or writing. Things. You’ve only boarded one dog so far. What if you hate owning a kennel?”

“Don’t you think I’ve thought about that? I boarded one dog and she immediately escaped. So far my track record is not good.” As if she weren’t already insecure enough about starting a business, she’d been bested by a fat Labrador retriever. How pathetic.

The hard glint in Joel’s green eyes softened and he leaned over to kiss her gently. “I’m not saying you can’t do it. Just that it’s good to have a back-up plan. And that requires money. When I lost my job, it was a good thing I had some money saved up and that I’d paid for The Shack in cash, so I’d have a place to live.”

Kat tilted her head. “So how much money
do
you have? Are you secretly a gazillionaire?”

“Hardly. But I have savings.”

“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

Joel narrowed his eyes and leaned away from her again. “So do you want to look at my bank statements?”

Kat shook her head and raised both hands in surrender. “No. I’m not suggesting anything. You brought it up. I’m not some gold digger trying to get into your wallet. It’s your money.”

“Okay.”

Kat got up off the couch and the dogs all stood up expectantly. “Okay.” But she was pretty sure it wasn’t okay.

In bed, curled up with a book and her black-and-white cat Murphee, Kat listened to the sound of feline snoring and tried to get into the plot of her novel. It wasn’t working, because she kept reliving the conversation with Joel in her mind.

Because he spent daylight hours working on repairing the house, Joel usually spent a few hours at night working on various projects on his computer downstairs. He was a night owl and whatever he did was something nerdy related to programming circuit boards. Kat wasn’t entirely sure. The geek factor was way too high for her to even want to know.

Was he feeling like she was taking advantage of him? After his money? What money? His last girlfriend had been a super model. She didn’t need money. Since Kat had gotten her inheritance from her Great-Aunt Abigail, she now had money, too. Not super-model-level money, but some money. Maybe his negative reaction to her joke about money was a male ego thing. Being the breadwinner? Maybe underneath it all he was a complete cheapskate. But it didn’t seem like he was most of the time. She loved Joel, but he could be pretty close-mouthed about a lot of things. Annoying herself with her endless circular thoughts, Kat sighed and flopped over onto her back. Murphee squalled loudly, expressing her displeasure at being squished.

“Sorry Murph. You could move, you know.” The cat stood up, stretched, and walked across Kat’s stomach to find a warm spot. Kat closed her eyes and tried to will her brain to shut up.

She stirred when Joel crawled into bed. He wrapped his arms around her and pushed her long wavy hair aside so he could nuzzle her neck. Kat turned her head to look at him. “I guess you’re not mad at me anymore.”

“I wasn’t mad. And you’re all warm. I’m not really thinking about that anymore.”

“So it seems. But I am.”

Joel lifted his head from her neck, looked at her face, and sighed. “Oh.”

“Maria keeps leaving her
Cosmo
magazines here and I read an article about how most couples break up because of fights about money. Didn’t we just have a money fight? It seems like we did.”

Joel propped himself up on his elbows and looked down at her face in the moonlight. “I think we had a discussion about money. Not a fight.”

“Shouldn’t we talk about it? I don’t know why you reacted the way you did. And I don’t want to break up.”

“I think you may be reading a lot more into one conversation than you should.”

Kat sat up and wrapped her arms around her knees. “I don’t know. Are you an investor if you help build the kennel? Should we have contracts and legal stuff? For the business? Should I set up an LLC? I’m not sure what LLC even stands for. I guess it’s a type of corporation, right?”

Joel sat up next to her and put his arm around her. “Okay, now you’re really over-thinking this. I said maybe you should have savings. Not that you have to become the Donald Trump of the dog-boarding world. And you know I’ll help. By the way, before you mention it again or worry about it—no, I definitely don’t want to break up.” He leaned over to kiss her for emphasis.

Kat poked him gently in the ribs. “So does that mean you are just a cheapskate then? Because when I was kidding around about feeding me, you got all weird.”

He tilted his head slightly. “I suppose maybe I was a little weird. I spent a lot of years taking care of my sister. Figuring out how to feed her was on my mind a lot back then.”

Kat ran her hand through his dark blonde hair and gazed into his eyes. “I didn’t think about that. Okay. I get it.”

He smiled. “But I still might be kind of a cheapskate, too. I had to be frugal for a long time.”

Kat smiled in return. She had an over-active imagination sometimes and Joel’s unflappable, rational nature often had a way of calming her down. It was a relief to understand what he was thinking. Like a dark cloud had lifted. “Being frugal is great if you’re calculating how to save money on fixing the house and building the kennel. But when it comes to my birthday, you can feel free to splurge.”