Stray Hearts (14 page)

Matt unlocked the back door, and he and Kay stepped into the kitchen. The big old house was silent, with the only illumination coming from the full moon as it poured in through the window, casting a warm glow around the room.

Kay reached for the light switch near the wall phone. But instead of flipping it on, her hand hovered over it for a moment, then withdrew. Slowly she turned to face him.

In the pale glow of moonlight, her eyes took on a luminescent quality that mesmerized him. The silence of the big old house and the darkness and the late hour made it seem as if the two of them were a million miles away from the rest of humanity, and every other problem he had in his life all at once seemed totally insignificant.

“I really did have a wonderful time tonight,” she said.

“Yeah. Me too.”

Each second that ticked away seemed to draw them closer together, until the only thing that existed in the world was a dilapidated, tum-of-the-century house and the two of them staring at one another. Kay’s gaze spelled out very clearly what was on her mind, and it was so close to what was on his mind that a shiver of raw awareness coursed through him. He had no business having these feelings.
Roommate, roommate, roommate,
he repeated to himself, doing that compartmentalizing thing that was supposed to keep friendly thoughts in one part of his brain and erotic thoughts in another. Unfortunately, with Kay standing there looking so beautiful, with moonlight warming her blond hair and her eyes a pair of perfect blue sapphires, compartmentalizing was pretty much out of the question. It would be easy, so easy, to lean closer, lay his hand against her cheek and—

Answer the phone.

The second it rang, they both jumped backward. Matt yanked up the receiver, resisting the urge to rip the whole damned thing off the wall.

“Hello?...Oh. Yes. Hello, Mrs. Feinstein.” He rolled his eyes and shrugged.

Kay couldn’t believe it. How did she know? How did Mrs. Feinstein know
exactly
the moment to call that would bother her the most?

While Matt talked, Kay went to the refrigerator and opened the door, pretending to be searching for something but really wanting to feel a blast of cold air because it suddenly seemed so
warm
in here. Being close to Matt tended to raise her body temperature, and right now she could have popped the top right off a thermometer. Not that anything would have happened between them if Mrs. Feinstein hadn’t called, no matter how long she stood staring at him in the moonlight. She’d hit too many dead ends with Matt already to think things were going to change now. But just for a moment there, she could have sworn...

She pulled a soda out of the fridge, opened it and took a long drink. The fizzy liquid took the edge off whatever alcohol high she had left and brought her back down to planet Earth.

“Maybe you’d better bring him on over,” she heard Matt say. “No, it’s all right. I’ll be here.”

“What is it this time?” Kay asked as he hung up.

“Seems Andre’s running a bit of a fever.”

“She actually took his temperature?”

“No. She felt his forehead.”

“Can you tell a dog has a fever like that?”

“Nope.” Matt smiled, then checked his watch. “It’s only a little after ten. Would you like to stay up a while? Watch a little TV? It’s Friday night.”

“Sure.”

“I shouldn’t be long. There’s bound to be something on TV later. I’ll be up soon.”

Kay went upstairs, and a few minutes later she heard Mrs. Feinstein’s panicked little flurry of knocks on the front door. She flopped on the sofa and rested her head on a pillow, then turned on a dumb sitcom to watch until Matt returned.

Until she’d moved in with him, she’d had no idea how much time he put into his work. Several times she’d seen him answer a page, and she’d often hear him on the telephone listening to problems and giving advice. And he always took a few minutes in the evening to phone the owners of some of the patients he’d seen that day, dogs or cats who’d had surgery or had been particularly ill. Once the phone rang in the middle of the night and she heard him go downstairs, and she wondered how many more times he’d done that and she hadn’t realized it. And he did all that in addition to seeing patients during his regular office hours and keeping the shelter running.

And more than once she’d seen him at the kitchen table, opening mail, going through what looked like bills. He never discussed the specifics of the shelter’s finances with her, but she knew by the look on his face and the way he’d toss the letters aside with a worried expression that things had to be bad.

She closed her eyes for a moment, wondering what else she might be able to do to bring more money or more supplies into the shelter. Wondering what she could do to make Matt think of her as more than just his roommate. Wondering how he’d react if he came back upstairs to find her lying naked on the sofa.

She blinked sleepily as she mulled over the possibilities. The next thing she knew, a hand was on her shoulder. She blinked her eyes open to find Matt staring down at her.

“Come on, Sleeping Beauty. It’s time for bed.”

Kay rose on one elbow. “What time is it?”

“Almost midnight.”

Midnight? Matt had been downstairs almost two hours? “Wow. Her dog must have really been sick this time.”

“No. He’s fine.”

Kay yawned, then sat up on the edge of the sofa. “Fever?”

“No. I finally convinced her he was all right.”

Kay couldn’t believe the things Matt put up with sometimes. If she’d been him, she’d have told the old lady to come back when her dog was really sick. Matt was pulled in ten different directions as it was, so why did he let people waste his time?

“Great,” she said. “A hypochondriac pet owner. I bet that drives you crazy, doesn’t it?”

“Oh, Mrs. Feinstein’s okay. It’s just that she lost her husband about six months ago, and her family doesn’t have much to do with her. That poodle’s about all she’s got left, and she’s afraid he’s going to be next. I think sometimes all she wants to do is talk to someone. No big deal.”

Kay just stared at him. No big deal?

Robert had once put off an hysterical client for two days because he couldn’t stand the perfume she wore, and here was Matt taking huge chunks of time for a lonely old lady who didn’t have anyone else to talk to. And he didn’t think twice about it.

In that instant it was as if everything came together, and Kay understood. She finally understood that it wasn’t just the animals Matt was so heavily invested in, but the lives of the people they touched.

And that was the moment she realized she loved him.

On Saturday morning, Kay hopped out of bed and made it over to the shelter by eight. She wanted to make sure she worked at least four hours—from eight to noon. She was closing in on completing her hundred hours, and she wanted to make sure she finished by the contract date. Robert would hold her to it—no doubt about that.

When she came through the door, Hazel handed her a courier package that had arrived late the day before. Kay noted the return address and smiled knowingly.

“What’s in there?” Hazel asked.

Kay headed toward the Cat Room. “You’ll see.”

Twenty minutes later Hazel came to the doorway of the Cat Room, right about the time Kay buckled the last collar on the last cat. The old woman’s gaze circled the room, going from one stray cat to the next, apparently unable to believe that every one of them was wearing a gaudy rhinestone collar.

“They’re freebies from Cat’s Meow,” Kay said. “It’s kind of like draping bag ladies in haute couture, but every little bit helps.” Kay turned the Siamese and his stunning new collar around for Hazel’s inspection. “What do you think? Pretty snazzy, huh?”

Hazel just stared.

“Wait till Matt sees them,” Kay said, delighted at the thought. He’d roll his eyes as if it was the silliest thing he’d ever seen, then glare at her admonishingly. Then, when he couldn’t keep up the stem facade any longer, his face would crack open into a smile as bright as the Fourth of July. It made her feel warm all over just to think about it.

If only she could feel that way forever.

Hazel turned her gaze from the cats back to Kay. “I’ve got to go over to the clinic for a few minutes. Will you watch the front desk for me?”

“Sure.”

Hazel eyed the cats again, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully. “You know, maybe those collars aren’t such a bad idea. Gives ’em a little attitude.”

“So you like them?

“Yeah. Good thinking. And the bulletin board out front looks nice, too. Good job.”

As Hazel walked away, Kay stared after her with astonishment. Had Hazel actually said she’d done something
right
?

Then she realized this was the third time in a week that Hazel had asked her to fill in at the front desk. And she rarely frowned anymore. In fact, she actually smiled once in a while. Hazel was a taskmaster, to be sure, but she never asked Kay to do anything she wasn’t willing to do herself in a pinch. Kay felt a flush of warmth as she realized she was actually starting to like the old lady. Maybe Hazel was starting to like her, too.

She scooped up the packing peanuts and stuffed them along with the box into the trash. Then she went to the front desk, sat down and picked up Hazel’s crossword puzzle. Fourteen down: a three-letter word for “ostrich cousin.” She stared at the crossword a moment longer, then tossed it aside. All she could think about was the four-letter word for how she felt about Matt.

Could she really be in love with him? After her experience with Robert, as well as a few other ill-fated relationships, she wasn’t even sure she knew what love felt like. She’d tried to put it out of her mind all day long, because it scared her to death to even think it. How pitiful was it to have those feelings for a man who felt nothing for her in return?

Kay heard a car door outside, bringing her thoughts back to earth. A minute later the door opened and a man came in, trailed by a kid about ten years old.

“We’re thinking about adopting a dog,” the man said.

Kay stood up. “You’ve come to the right place. As a matter of fact,” she told the kid, “we’ve got a very nice dog here I think you’re really going to like.”

Kay held her breath as she took the man and his son to the Dog Room and stopped in front of Chester’s cage. Chester stood up and wagged his tail, pouring on what little charm he had, but Kay could tell he was coming up short.

“Him?” the kid said, screwing his face up with distaste.

“Yeah. He’s a really good dog.”

“But how’s he supposed to play ball and stuff?”

“Oh, he can learn to play games. Maybe he’s not as fast as the other dogs, but...”

The kid pointed to the cage next door. “Dad! Look at the big black dog!
That’s
the one I want!”

Chester watched the kid a moment more, then limped to the back of his cage and lay down again. As Kay stared down at him she felt that funny twinge again, hating the way people dismissed him without so much as a second thought.

“I don’t know, son,” his father said, eyeing Rambo with great trepidation. “You think you can handle a big dog like that?”

“Sure I can!” The kid turned to Kay with an earnest expression. “Can you take him out? Can I play with him?”

Kay turned to the father. He shrugged helplessly.

Kay opened up Rambo’s cage and he came shooting out. He headed straight for the kid, who wrapped his arms around his neck as Rambo slapped wild doggie kisses across his face.

“Dad, please! This is
such
a cool dog!”

“Our yard’s really not that big—”

“I’ll walk him every day!”

“I’ll bet he eats like a horse.”

The kid stood up and faced his father. “I’ll pay for his food with my allowance. I promise. Please, Dad. Please!”

As the kid negotiated with his father, Rambo circled the small space. He sniffed everything in sight—the other dogs through their cages, the kid’s shoes, the father’s crotch.

The man’s face reddened. He pushed Rambo away, then turned to Kay with a reluctant sigh. “Is he housebroken?”

“Housebroken? Uh, I’m sure that won’t be a problem.” Kay told herself that while her answer wasn’t a no it wasn’t exactly a yes, either, so she hadn’t really fibbed.

“See?” the kid said. “Mom won’t go ballistic as long as he’s housebroken. And he’s got short hair. She’ll like that, too.”

Rambo was still sniffing. He was sniffing so much, in fact, that Kay started to wonder why. And unfortunately, when he galloped over and started sniffing her, the light didn’t dawn quickly enough. Rambo lifted his leg, and a second later Kay felt a warm trickle from her knee to her ankle.

“Rambo!”

“Wow!” the kid said. “Look at that! He peed all over you!”

“I thought you said he was housebroken,” his father muttered.

Kay didn’t respond. She couldn’t respond. As the distinctive odor of dog urine floated up to her nostrils, all she could think about was wrapping her hands around Rambo’s neck and squeezing until his beady little eyes bugged out.

“Well, hello there, Kay.”

Kay froze at the sound of that all-too-familiar voice. It couldn’t be.

Slowly she turned around, and in that instant the indignity of the moment multiplied a hundredfold.

Robert.

Chapter 10

Robert leaned against the doorframe wearing a crisp Italian suit, a conservative silk tie and a self-satisfied grin that made Kay wish she could knock his mouthful of cosmetic dental work right down his throat. She glared at him. “What are
you
doing here?”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “I was in the neighborhood.”

Mortified, Kay grabbed Rambo by the collar and shooed him back into his cage. At the same time the father shooed his kid out the door, apparently deciding this was not the day to go dog shopping after all.

Kay strode past Robert out of the Dog Room. He stepped quickly out of her way, making a big show of giving her a wide berth. She went to the kitchen, retrieved a handful of paper towel and dabbed hopelessly at her leg. Robert stood at the door and stared at her, still wearing that insidious little grin.