AllFreeNovel
Share Us
This one was quiet, more of a loner. With luck, maybe no one would want to buy him and he could stay at the ranch, even though Mom said they had way too many animals already. What happens if we have to move someday? she’d said. How could we take a dozen dogs and cats somewhere else?
Guilt slithered down Alex’s throat and landed in his stomach, where it wrapped cold tentacles around his insides. The future of the Rocking H—the only home he’d ever known—was uncertain, and that was partly his fault. He also knew there wasn’t a thing he could do about it.
Lost in thought, he didn’t hear anything beyond the sounds of the puppies and Molly until a sharp rap sounded at the door of the barn.
“Hello, anyone here?” a male voice called out.
In the corner of the stall, Katie’s eyes grew wide. Her face paled. She cringed against the wood planks as if trying to disappear—no surprise, since she seemed to be afraid of just about everything on the planet.
Alex opened the stall door a crack, blocking the puppies’ escape route with his leg, and looked out. Silhouetted against the setting sun, a man stood in the open doorway of the barn and peered down the long row of box stalls. He didn’t seem familiar.
Odd, given that everyone knew everyone else in practically the entire county...and with the ranches so far apart out here, chance visitors were rare.
Suddenly wishing he hadn’t left Gabe up at the house, Alex lifted a forefinger to his lips, signaling the girls to be quiet, then he stepped out of the stall and closed the door behind him. “Can I help you?”
The stranger silently watched him approach. Silhouetted against the brighter light outside, his face was shadowed, but he looked like any old tourist—stiffly creased brand-new jeans, a navy T-shirt, a Nike ball cap pulled low over his eyes. Despite the relative gloom of the barn aisle—the lights weren’t turned on—he still had his sunglasses on.
“I’m looking for the Kowalski’s place,” he said. “I’m passing through on my way to California and wanted to say hello.”
“Who?”
“Frank Kowalski.” The guy gave a little shrug. “He and his family are new out here, so maybe you haven’t met them yet. They moved to Fossil Hill during the past month or so.”
“I’ve never heard of them.” There was something weird about the guy. Not the clothes, exactly, or the words he said, but his intense watchfulness made the hairs rise at the back of Alex’s neck.
“You sure?”
Given that strong, ethnic name, Alex had absolutely no doubt. “Maybe you could ask at the post office.”
“It’s closed. Someone in town said some new people moved out this way. What about that place a couple miles from here?”
“Martha Benson’s old place? That’s—” A warning bell sounded in Alex’s head before he could get the words out, followed by a series of images from crime shows on late-night TV. Who knew what this guy might be up to? And he was looking for a Kowalski, not Zach Forrester. “Uh...those people have been there a long time. Years, even.”
The stranger studied him for a long moment. “Thanks, kid,” he murmured. “You’ve been a big help. Maybe I can repay you sometime.”
Those weren’t the words of someone just passing through, Alex thought uneasily as he watched the guy saunter up the driveway.
His car was parked up at the edge of the front lawn, a good hundred feet away. The angle made it impossible to see the license plate, and in the long shadows of sunset its color was dark, indistinct. But it sure wasn’t the cool car of some major-league criminal.
Alex watched the man get in it and drive away. Then he turned back down the aisle. Just some guy who was lost, he realized. No big deal.
All the imagination in the world wasn’t going to bring any real excitement to Fossil Hill.
* * * *
“WELL, MY DATE WAS SURE memorable,” Francie said dryly. “How about yours?”
Dana lifted another tortoiseshell kitten from the tan plastic carrier on the exam table, then peered into its ears with an otoscope. “Ear mites.”
“He had ear mites? My, you certainly were intimate on a first date!” Francie flashed a wicked grin. “I didn’t even get to first base.”
“The kitten, as you well know, is the one with ear mites.” Dana nodded toward the clipboard at the end of the table. “Write it down and don’t get cute. Her temperature...is normal at 101.5. Eyes clear...skin and hair-coat are healthy.”
Adjusting her stethoscope, she listened for normal cardiac and pulmonary sounds. “This one has a good ticker, too. Hand me some Accarex, would you?”
Francie shook one of the small foil packets, tore it open and lifted out an ampule of medication. After snapping off the cap, she handed it to Dana. “This ought to make her feel better.”
Dana squeezed the contents of the ampule into the kitten’s right ear canal and massaged the base of her ear for a few seconds, then repeated the process on the left side. After vaccinating her with Feline Combo vaccine, she stroked the kitten and cuddled her for a moment, then moved her into a box on the floor with her littermates.
