Sweet Christmas Kisses (34 page)

Mr. Eyebrow took a parcel from the fridge and closed the door again. The fridge rattled and hummed like a beehive.

It's probably twenty years old, if not more.
Joanna stroked the soft fur.

Mr. Eyebrow had just reached the table when the light went out. The humming fridge fell silent. For an instant, it was so quiet inside the kitchen that Joanna could hear her own breath.

“Oh, no.” Mr. Eyebrow said somewhere above her.

“It doesn't matter,” she said. “Dogs prefer their steaks raw.”

“Can you think of anything else but this dog?”

“Yes, I can.” Joanna stroked the head of the little dog with her thumb. “The sofa, for example. I am going back to sleep as soon as I can.”

“Well, I'm glad you've got your plans all fixed up for tonight.” His sarcasm came across even clearer now that she could only see his outline. “But are you aware that radiators stop working if there's a power failure?”

“We still have the fire.” Joanna said.

“Wrong.”

She could hear him opening a drawer. Now that her eyes had accustomed to the darkness, she could see the blade of a knife. “What do you mean, wrong? Of course we still have the fire.”

“You have the fire.” He emphasized the first word. “But the rest of the house will be freezing within the next hour.”

Joanna saw that he took out a cutting board and started to hack at something she couldn't see. “The sofa is big enough for the three of us.”

He laughed. It was a strange sound, harsh and without mirth. “I'm not going to share a room with you.”

Joanna blinked. “Relax,” she said. “I don't eat raw men as a midnight snack.” She made sure her voice sounded light. “I prefer them well-done for lunch.”

Silence. He had stopped chopping, but in the dim light, she couldn't make out his features. 
I hope he isn't a nut case. What if he has paranoia and decides he's only safe after he has killed me?
Joanna held the dog in front of her like a shield. It started to squiggle in her hands.
Maybe I should have kept that joke to myself.
She cleared her throat. “Are you done with that steak? Dimitri is getting a bit impatient here.”

“I'm done.” His voice sounded nice, not unbalanced.

But you never know with nut-cases.
She had seen enough of them in her work as a vet.

“Is His Highness willing to eat off the floor?” His voice dripped irony.

Joanna put Dimitri down. “I guess he is. Just place the steak on the floor; his nose will show him the way.”
I wish my nose was as good in figuring out what kind of guy you are.

They heard the scrabbling of claws on tiles, then the slobbering sound of a happy dog guzzling his meal.

“How do I find the owner?” he asked somewhere to her left.

“Go to the local SCPA as soon as the roads are clear. They are the first to know if someone misses a puppy. The owner has probably already put up a notice.” Joanna yawned. “I'm going to bed. You can do what you want. I promise I won't harm you, but if it makes you happy, feel free to lock me in. Also, don't forget to give Dimitri a blanket, so he won't be cold. Oh, and you should try to convince him to pee before you put him to bed. Good night.”

“Hey, wait.” He appeared out of the dark and stood next to her. “I have no idea how to convince a dog to pee.”

“Just place him in front of the door and wait until he's done.”

“How long will that take?”

Joanna yawned again. “As a rule, not more than twenty minutes.”

When Joanna woke up, her shoulder ached, her mouth felt fuzzy, and she had no idea where she was. She lifted her head in slow motion and looked around. Her glance came to rest on the fire, burning low.

Suddenly, she remembered everything in a flash and sat up with a gasp.
Oh, God.

On the sofa across from her Mr. Eyebrow was asleep, looking a lot less forbidding than awake – and way too attractive with the slight stubble on his clear-cut chin. He lay on his side, an arm around the puppy that had snuggled against him. It looked like an advertisement for winter happiness.

Joanna smiled and got up with care to avoid waking them. She added another log to the fire and turned around once again. Dimitri had opened one eye but didn't look as if he wanted to leave his cozy place.
I don't blame you, buddy.

She turned toward the French doors. Sunlight traced its way across the wooden floorboards beneath the grand piano. After the storm, the sky arched blue and clear above the glittering snow, but snow piles had drifted high against the glass panes. She rubbed her eyes with one hand, as every move with her other arm hurt too much.
What day do we have today?

She did a quick calculation in her mind. Tuesday, the first December. And outside, a picture-perfect winter-wonderland scenery, as if to put her into the right Christmas mood. With a smile, Joanna checked her watch. It was ten thirty-five.

She gasped. When had that happened? No doubt Bernice, her assistant, would be frantic by now, as the waiting room filled with patients. Or maybe that was wishful thinking? Things had become too quiet over the last weeks. She frowned. During the four years she had been in her own veterinary clinic, the waiting room had been packed. But as of late, her customers seemed to be avoiding her. She shook her head in confusion.

Stop thinking about it. You have to call Bernice.
Now
. She looked around the living room, but no phone was in sight. On socks, she retreated until she had closed the living room door behind her. The house was icy, and she could see her every breath as a white cloud.
Thank God for that fire place.
She searched the kitchen, the hall and the bathroom. No phone.
If only I hadn't forgotten to reload my cell.

Joanna noticed a door further down and forced herself to peek inside. If Mr. Eyebrow with his snooping complex would discover her now, he'd go mental. A huge bed with brass knobs dominated the room, but she couldn't discover what she was looking for.

She closed the door again and turned away. No phone in the whole, stupid, freezing house. He probably had a cell phone somewhere, but she was not going to search further with him being so paranoid about his privacy. First, she had to find the Jeep and see if maybe she had misjudged the situation last night, tired and exhausted as she had been, with the darkness and the snow to intimidate her. She slipped into her boots, rolled her wet clothes into a bundle, threw on her torn coat and left the house in a hurry.

The pure air and sparkling sunshine caught her by surprise. How could the snow, a thing of such beauty, have scared her so much yesterday?

Maybe she had panicked without reason. She lifted her feet high in order to scramble over a snowbank and could feel her muscles strain. When she raised an arm to balance herself, her shoulder ached with pain. No, she had panicked with good reason. She wasn't one of those silly girl who threw hysterics without cause.

But the rude man with his flexible eyebrows, his strangely attractive ponytail and an obsession for his privacy – had she dreamed the whole thing? She shook her head and walked further out into the drifts, leaving deep marks in the snow. No doubt he had noticed how exhausted she had been. Strange guy. A case of strong paranoia obviously. Very sad.

The wind kicked up and blew cold air through the torn part of her coat. Joanna hugged herself as she came to the end of the driveway. The drifts were so high, they hid part of the wooden fence that marked the edge of the property.

Joanna turned around trying to remember which side of the house she had approached yesterday. She must have come from the East, where nobody had bothered with a fence.

Joanna scrambled past the wooden gate and stopped again, trying to orient herself. If this was in fact the end of the drive, she had to be on some sort of street by now. She knew the area well, but couldn't find a single familiar landmark. Should she turn right or left? At random, she turned left and continued walking. If she didn't find her Jeep soon, she'd be forced to return to the house. The idea filled her with foreboding. She wasn't in the mood to confront the rude stranger again. She didn't even know his name.

After twenty minutes, she came upon a crossing and discovered the imprint of wide tires in the snow. Someone had driven along this road after the storm! A tractor, no doubt. What other piece of equipment could manage in that weather? She bent forward and inspected the imprint. The edges of the traces were still sharp, not softened by the hefty wind. Joanna lifted her head when the faint sound of a motor played out in the distance. Her mood lifted with one exuberant jump at the thought of meeting someone who might be able to get her Jeep onto the road again. She followed the imprints around a snow-covered hedge that stood at right angles to the road and discovered three blobs of color in the vast whiteness ahead. A green tractor chugged beside her red Jeep, still lying on its side, half covered by snow. A wiry man, muffled up to his ears with a bright-blue scarf, stood in front of it, contemplating the scene.

She rushed forward and shouted a greeting.

The man turned with a quick move, lifted both arms and came running to her. “Ms. Damanti! Are you all right?”

Now she recognized him. “Mr. Allard.” She hurried toward him. “You can't imagine how glad I am to see you!”

“Bernice called me and asked me to look for you. She said you left Mr. John's house in the middle of the night and that was the last they heard of you.” He wiped his gloved hand across his wrinkled face. “When I saw your Jeep, I feared the worst.”

She stretched out her hand and shook his. “Thank you for coming. I do appreciate it.” Mr. Allard was one of her most important clients, specialized in breeding horses. Thank God he seemed to stick to her unlike her other clients. As a hobby, he had a small herd of highland cattle, and because they held a special place in his heart, she had gotten to know the herd quite well and had learned more about the breeding of highland cattle than she'd ever have suspected. Joanna turned to the fallen Jeep. It lay at a crooked angle at the side of the road. “Gosh. Do you think we'll get it out?”

Mr. Allard nodded. “I should think so, Ms. Damanti. I've brought a rope.”

It took them almost forty minutes, but finally, the Jeep was on the road again.

Joanna started the motor and heaved a sigh of relief when she heard the familiar purr. She opened the window, thanked Mr. Allard once again, then waved at him as she turned her Jeep into the direction of Stony Brook.

For an instant, she wondered if she should return to Mr. Eyebrow to thank him, but her waiting patients made her hesitate.
Besides, he doesn't deserve it.
She accelerated with care.

The road was still snowed under, but with the sun shining, she could make out where she was going. Twice she had to get out and use the shovel to clear the road. Her shoulder still hurt, but not once did she feel in danger or overcome by fear.
I wasn't myself last night.
She wondered if Mr. Eyebrow had woken up in the meantime, and if he had remembered to put Dimitri outside in time. She should have left him a note, telling him what a dog needed. Well, too late. If she was lucky, she would never see him again.

When she parked in front of the clinic, the door opened and Bernice came running. She flung her arms around Joanna and hugged her. “Joanna! Thank God! Mr. Allard called and said you were on the way.” She took one step back and looked her over, her blond hair flying around her head like fluffy feathers. “You're wearing funny clothes. Where did you spend the night? Why didn't you call? The clinic is full, well, kind of, and everybody is worried. Come in, I'll make you a cup of tea.”

Joanna grinned. “You're not expecting me to answer all of these questions at once, are you?”

Bernice pulled her toward the door. “Of course not. We'll talk later.” She flung open the door, pulled Joanna through and shouted. “Here she is! Mr. Allard pulled her out of a snow-pile, and she'll be ready for you in a few minutes!”

Joanna laughed and shook her head, but her customers didn't seem to find anything strange in the behavior of her exuberant assistant. She only saw smiling faces and bobbing heads. Crissy, Mrs. Lefarge's aged terrier started a high-pitched bark, and Mr. Brown's parrot cawed, “Here comes the Queen!” Everybody laughed.

The next hours, Joanna worked as if she had been set in a fast-forward mode. By four o'clock, she saw things in a blur. “Are there still a lot of people waiting?” she asked Bernice as she washed her hands with disinfectant.

“Just one. I've already closed the front door, so we should be able to finish soon.”

“Good.” For once, Joanna was relieved to hear that. She yawned. “I need to catch up on sleep tonight.” The shock of last night still sat deep inside her, and she yearned to snuggle up in her bed, to feel the comfort of her home around her. When she had finished treating her last patient, she said a quick good-bye to Bernice, staggered to her Jeep and drove the short way home with half-closed eyes.

She pulled with a practiced arc into her carport. As dusk was falling already, the motion detector kicked into action and illuminated the carport and all the way to her front door with little spotlights. Joanna took a deep breath. How close she had come to freezing to death, far away from the safety of her home.
It's good to be back.

She jumped down from the Jeep. When she looked up, a boy appeared in front of her, one she had never seen before.

He eyed her with interest, his arms crossed in front of his chest, his blond hair standing up. His face was a mixture of curiosity and bravado, and his stance – splayed out legs, chin up - showed that he tried his utmost to impress her but wasn't sure if he was succeeding.

Joanna estimated him to be about nine years old. Her legs felt as if someone had filled them with wet sand, but she managed to smile at him. “Hi.”

The corners of his mouth lifted in a cautious smile. “Hi.” He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, looked at his feet, then up at her again.