SBC Fighter: Tails Of Love Part 5

Al three animals looked at her for the longest time. If cats could sneer, Rose thought the expression on Clawdia's elegant face would be a sneer.

"Oh, my," Rose said and felt herself sag with relief. The cat nuzzled d.i.c.kens and Madeleine who just stood there and . . . Madeleine licked Clawdia!

"You are so good," Rose told them. "Sweet, dear things.

You could teach the world a lot about different people getting along."

Awkwardly, she patted each animal's head. The cat flashed her tail. d.i.c.kens and Madeleine wriggled a little.

The dogs walked around Clawdia, who purred loudly and curled up in a puddle of sun by the run door, as if waiting for her friends to get back.

Simon liked loblol y pines. He liked their long, spiky needles and the sound of their name. He also real y got into their sharp scent. This was a good place, up here on this hil . He wanted to stay. Or he thought he did most of the time.

Then there were the encounters with Rose.

Darn, he'd lost al his social graces when it came to women, unless he wasn't interested in them. That meant he did just fine with every woman he encountered-except Rose Gibb.

He had bought a place up here to get out of the city. The lot was perfect, remote and with just the right sized clearing for his double-wide house trailer. Everyone who knew him wondered why a successful, syndicated cartoonist lived where and how he did. Let them wonder. This was where he wanted to be.

His life would be bliss if it weren't for Rose. "That's not what you mean, Falzone," he muttered. "It would be perfect if you had Rose."

He got hot al over, then cold. What was the matter with him? He was thirty-five and sophisticated, so why did one sweetly beautiful woman with a quiet, charming manner, reduce him to quivering incoherence?

"Forget it. You've got work to do. Clawdia!"

He left his drafting table and shoved open the door to his screened-in porch. Clawdia liked to curl up out there on the seat of his bentwood chair.

The chair was empty.

"Clawdia!" He raised his voice a notch. She was one of the inspirations for his cartoons, which had always featured cats.

First he toured the whole trailer but when he didn't find his buddy, he went outside and cal ed her name repeatedly.

He did worry about her being outside on her own in case something large, alive, and predatory took a fancy to her, but she didn't usual y venture more than a few yards from home.

The light had started to fade.

Concerned, Simon strode rapidly along the cut that led through the trees to the lane beyond. "Clawdia," he shouted.

Rose came into view, climbing the hil . Two white dogs with black and brown splotches came with her. Simon could hear Rose breathing hard and he frowned. With al the running around she must do at the hospital he was certain she was fit, so why was she out of breath?

He considered turning back before she saw him. Oh, h.e.l.l . . . "Hey, there, Rose," he said. What kind of man ran away from a woman he wanted to see?

"Hel o, Simon."

She was panting. He looked at the dogs. They weren't leaping around much either.

"Been for a walk?" he said and felt ridiculous.

"Yes."

Rose never said much.

"Whose dogs are you babysitting?"

"Mine," she said.

He nodded, and squinted. "You got two, huh?"

"Two, yes."

"You decided against starting out with one?"

Rose stopped a few feet from him and the dogs promptly sat, then flopped al the way down. "They're together," Rose said.

"A pair?" Simon asked.

"Brother and sister."

"Ah." They looked as if they had terrier in them, maybe Jack Russel , but there was Sheltie in the ful tails and pointed noses, and the ears weren't right for Russel s.

"They're cute."

"Yes."

"You went for a long walk?"

"Yes."

This was getting hard. "You'l put us al to shame," he said. "You'l be so fit."

Rose gave a short laugh. "If I get rid of some fat it wil be worth it." She flushed scarlet to the roots of her curly blond hair.

"What fat?" he said. He shouldn't say anything at al , he guessed, but he hated to see her embarra.s.sed like that.

"You don't have any fat to lose. You're just right."

Wel , she didn't . . . and she was just right. She had the kind of figure a woman ought to have as far as he was concerned.

"Take care," she said and scurried off so fast the dogs had to scramble to their feet and run.

"I was looking for my cat," he cal ed after Rose. "Clawdia.

She's a tabby with long legs and pretty markings. Her tail -"

"Oh, yes." Rose turned around at once. "Clawdia was visiting at my place. I'm sorry. I should have made sure she went home but I didn't think. I'm not practical about things like that. Um, she could stil be here."

"Great."

"No, what am I thinking?" Rose said. "She wouldn't be here now. That was a couple of hours ago when I . . . wel , you don't care if I was leaving for a walk two hours ago."

He did. Yes, he cared a great deal what Rose did. "I see," he said. "If you do see her, could you give me a cal ?"

She fluttered a hand. "Yes."

"Here." He fished his wal et from his back jeans pocket and took out one of his cards. "My number's on here. We should know each other's numbers anyway, just in case there's ever a reason . . . If you need help or just need something or someone, cal me. Please cal me."

Once more she blushed. "Thank you."

She hurried through the opening in the wooden fence around her property and quickly left his view.

For a while Simon stared in the direction she had taken.

He noted the roof of her house, tiled blue, and trees: ash, oak, pine. He hadn't actual y been into her yard but he imagined it would be fil ed with flowers.

"Simon!"

He heard Rose cal his name and took off after her. His feet pounded on tamped-down bark and pine needles in her driveway. The little yel ow Astra she drove stood in front of the one-story house.

"Rose, where are you?" He couldn't see her. "Rose, what's happened?"

She came from the far side of the house. "Clawdia's stil here. I don't think she wants me to pick her up or I'd bring her to you."

Simon slowed down. He took a narrow path that led past flower beds encircling the house. Just as he'd imagined, there were tons of flowers and standing where she was, the setting sun turning her blond curls into a bright nimbus around her face, Rose looked just right. Her eyes were dark brown and bright with intel igence and, he had to admit, uncertainty.

"I'l get her," he said. He was unsettling Rose. That made him angry with himself. "Don't trouble yourself. You go about your business and I'l deal with the cat."

"Wel -"

"Real y," he said grimly. "She's making a nuisance of herself. I'l make sure it doesn't happen again."

"It's scary out here in the dark," Madeleine said, later that same evening. She and d.i.c.kens huddled together inside the roomy wooden shelter Rose had provided for them. "Do you think anything could get in here? Like a bear, I mean?"

d.i.c.kens snorted. "A bear. I should think not. If a bear came anywhere near I'd scare it off." He squeezed closer to her.

"Would that be before or after he ate you?" Madeleine said and immediately felt mean. "Sorry. You're trying to make me feel better. I wish Rose would take us in with her.

We'd be ever so good."

Now d.i.c.kens was shivering although it was a warm night.

"I like her," he said. "I like the way she talks to us, too, like we've got minds."

"We do have minds, sil y," Madeleine said.

"Didn't she look nice in that outfit she was wearing?"

"Very nice," Medeleine agreed. She thought about their walk. "I love getting out but once Rose starts, she doesn't quit."

"Nope," d.i.c.kens said. "She goes like a machine. And she doesn't know about letting us sniff and stuff. I'm worn out."

"Did you get a whiff of that big, black rock with the moss on it? Wow, I want to check that out again."

"Don't rub it in," d.i.c.kens said. "I was on the wrong side of Rose. Missed the whole thing."

Madeleine yawned. "If I wasn't nervous, I'd be sleeping like a dog."

"You are-"

"Yeah," Madeleine snapped. "I know, I am a dog. And I'm dog-tired." She sn.i.g.g.e.red.

They fel silent. Lightning bugs zigzagged in the gloom.

"Do you believe what the al ey cat said?" d.i.c.kens said.

"Try to be kinder," Madeleine said. "She's a sn.o.b without a cause and you should feel sorry for her."

"She's got a big head and a bigger mouth," d.i.c.kens said and made a grumbly sound. "What's in it for us if Simon and Rose start liking each other a lot?"

"Clawdia's person turns al happy," Madeleine said.

"He does scowl a lot," d.i.c.kens remarked. "But I stil don't see why it should make any difference to us."

"You know cats," Madeleine told him. "Selfish bunch.

She'l probably get better food or something. We won't get anything."

"You sure of that?" d.i.c.kens said.

Madeleine thought about it. "Nope. Rose could get happier, too, if Simon's happier and does nice things for her."

"What would he do?"

"How would I know?" Madeleine said. She was tired but too nervous to sleep. "Scratch her ears? Pat her back?"

"Mmm, " d.i.c.kens said with a longing sigh. "What about scratch her bel y? I bet that would make her so happy she'd definitely let us inside at night."

She only had nine lives and the way things were going, or not going, she'd use them al up before Simon and Rose got together. That being the case, Clawdia thought she would end her days stil putting up with Simon's unpredictable moods. Unpredictable moods meant divided attention for a deserving cat, and that would not do. It just would not.

He'd locked the door to the outside before he went to bed. She knew how to get out easily enough-through a window in the bathroom-but from the noises Simon was making, he could erupt from his bedroom again at any moment.

Sounds of the bed groaning and the sheets tugging while Simon tossed around came from the bedroom. He would get more crotchety by the second.

Oh, grow up and calm down, Simon. Why couldn't people be more like cats; too sensibly concerned for themselves to need anyone too much.

Actual y, she did need Simon. She even liked him, which could be inconvenient.

He was making so much noise he'd never hear her leave.