Warm Nights in Magnolia Bay, Babette Jongh [book club books txt] 📗

the parking lot when her phone dinged with an incoming text. She checked the screen and unlocked the car door. When she saw that it was Quinn, her heart gave a little skip of excitement.

Her skipping heart calmed down when she read his message: Fence down again, crumpled beyond repair. Goats wreaking havoc, eating everything not nailed down. Please come ASAP. Bring 50’ wrapped-wire fencing, 9 posts, small bag fence clips.

Her heart skipped again at his last, romantic words: I’ll help.

Chapter 9

As Abby stood in the parking lot of Magnolia Bay Animal Clinic, a battered Ford pickup sailed into the lot and rocked to a stop beside her. The vet himself, Mack McNeil, stepped out. At fiftysomething, Mack still had the sort of muscles that came from a lifetime of wrestling headstrong horses, cantankerous cows, ornery sheep, and who-knew-what-else. Today, his jeans and shirt were liberally covered with red dirt, and his short dark hair stuck straight up, not with hair gel, but with a good coating of dirt and sweat.

“Hey, Abby.” He smiled, crow’s-feet crinkling at the corners of his amber eyes.

“Hey, Mack.” She’d known him since she… Well, since before she could remember. She’d spent just about every summer at Aunt Reva’s farm, and Mack had been good friends with Reva’s husband. “You look like you’ve been having fun.”

“Just delivered a foal.” He grinned in delight; clearly, Mack loved his job. “Cutest thing ever.” He slammed the truck door and leaned on the bed’s side rail. “You coming or going?”

“Going. I had an appointment, but you didn’t show.”

“Awww, I’m sorry. New kitten appointment, right?” He gave a puzzled look around the parking lot, then at the dim, lights-out office. “I don’t know why Patricia isn’t here. But at least I caught you before you left. Come on in.”

She shook her head. “Sorry, but I’ve got to run back to the farm and mend a fence, and I’ve got to stop for supplies first.”

“Aww, please. I’ll feel really bad if you leave now. Come on in and let’s tend to that kitten. I promise I’ll get you out of here in five minutes or less.” He reached out for the crate, and as she handed it over, he glanced around the parking lot with an irritated scowl on his face. “I’ll give you my cell number so you can reach me directly if this ever happens again.”

“Thanks, Mack.”

Abby followed Mack back to the office and—not quite as promised but still pretty darn good—he gave the kitten an exam, wormer, and shots in ten minutes, and gave Abby a tube of antibiotic for the road rash. When Abby asked about payment, Mack waved her away. “Nah. I don’t know anything about billing, and I don’t want to learn. If Patricia wanted to charge you, she should have been here to do it.”

As Abby was driving home, Reva called. “Hey, I’m sorry I haven’t been able to call before now. How’s that new kitten doing?”

“Fine,” Abby said. “She’s had her shots, and her road rash is much better. I’ve named her Stella.”

“That’s perfect,” Reva said. “How’s everything at the farm going?”

“Welp, the goats and donkeys keep knocking down the fence between us and the new neighbor. I’m on my way to the hardware store right now for supplies.”

“New neighbor? What new neighbor? Somebody bought the place next door?” Disappointment rang in Reva’s voice. As long as the place remained on the market, there had been a chance—a slim one—that the city might still buy it to convert into an animal shelter. “Well, hell. I guess that’s that, then.”

“I know,” Abby said. “But I think you’ll like him. He’s pretty nice. He’s going to help me repair the fence.”

“That’s good,” Reva said, but her voice still sounded subdued. “What else is going on? I have to admit that I’ve been too exhausted to check in with the animals like I promised. Georgia keeps pinging me, though. Something about a new dog? I’m too tired to really connect in and get a clear picture. They’re working us from dawn till dark at this place. I’m surprised I’m paying them instead of the other way ’round.”

“Aw.” Maybe that was a good thing; the animals wouldn’t be telling on Abby. “Yep, there’s a stray dog hanging out across the street. I’ve been feeding him, but he won’t come close. I’ve only actually seen him once.” She didn’t add that it was when he tried to kill a chicken. “How are the classes?”

“Amazing. I’m learning a lot that isn’t in the manual. I’m glad I decided to learn hands-on instead of just studying the manual and taking the test.”

Abby pulled into the local hardware store’s parking lot. “Hey, well, I’m here at the hardware store,” she said.

“Oh, okay. I’ll let you go, then. You’re using the Bayside Barn credit card for all that stuff, right?”

“Yes, ma’am, I am.”

“And you’re paying the bills as soon as they come in, right?”

So far, she’d just been piling the mail in a stack, but she planned to catch up on that tomorrow. “Yes, ma’am. But hey, let me let you go so Quinn and I can get this fence repair done before dark.”

“Quinn, hmmm?” The speculative tone in Reva’s voice sounded like her psychic powers might be kicking in. “Is he cute?”

Time to get off the phone. “I’ll tell you all about him later. I’m hanging up now. Bye, Aunt Reva.”

* * *

Quinn sacrificed a new bag of generic-brand Fruity Loops that he’d bought for Sean. Shaking the bag as bait, he led the goats into an empty barn stall, tossed in the bag, then locked them in before they knew they’d been fooled. The unhappy baaa’s didn’t begin until after he’d lured the donkeys into another stall with a granola bar.

The damn goats had skinned the hedge down to its toughest branches, eaten the top three cardboard boxes of laminate flooring he’d left stacked in the bed of his truck—just the boxes, not the flooring, thank God—and scattered