Free Point of Attraction by Margaret Van Der Wolf Page A

now, and made into a second spare bedroom. Steven
and Paula had helped her pack everything with all the love this
little family had nurtured.
    Sam was the best veterinarian to be
had, and a thoroughbred mare at Prime-Breed Ranch was in trouble
with a breach birth. They worked with the mare all night; saved
both her and the foal. Instead of spending the night at the ranch,
he drove home, but the roads had iced up during the cold October
night, and her Sam hit a patch of black ice.
    I didn’t even get the
chance to say good-bye to you , she sighed,
wiped away the tears, and turned off the light.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter eight
     
    Georgie poured soymilk creamer into her
morning oatmeal, flavoring it with her sugar free Hazelnut coffee
syrup. While the steaming breakfast cooled, she dressed. When the
phone rang and the ID said it was Cassie, Georgie put it on
speaker, and sat to eat her oatmeal as she listened.
    “I see the salesman from the twilight
zone was here,” Cassie said.
    “Oh, yeah. Nick was in the shop when
the police were there about Raggs.”
    “He told me.” Cassie’s laughter was the
clear twinkling of crystal glass in a chandelier, and Georgie
prepared herself.
    “Who did?” Georgie asked, her first
thought going to Mason wanting to check out Nick’s story with
Cassie.
    “The nut case himself, who
else? He told me he pulled the Spook thing on the cop.” Cassie
finally stopped laughing and took a breath. “We had coffee last
night while waiting for yet another boy-arrival into this
world.”
    “I wonder if Nick’ll ever grow up; get
married.”
    “Naaahh,” Cassie said. “Never happen.
He’s Peter Pan, our brother is.”
    “Cassie, don’t encourage
him.”
    “God, you are such a sourpuss in the
morning,” Cassie said, followed with a loud overdone sigh. “You
know what you need?”
    “Hanging up now,” Georgie said, more
than ready to end this call.
    “Okay, okay, dropping it. Nick said it
was M&M that came out to check on Raggs.”
    “He is a policeman after all.” Georgie
swallowed the spoonful of oatmeal and made a mental note to do Nick
great bodily harm when she saw him again.
    “And how many policemen does Portland
have?”
    Georgie didn’t even try to stifle her
own sigh of frustration. “Did it occur to you that the other
policemen may have gotten important assignments and poor Mason got
stuck with mine. I should never have called them.”
    “Oh, it’s poor Mason now, is it?
And why not call? It was Mason that said you should.”
    “Okay, I can see this is
turning into a KOBAYASHI MARU situation.”
    “Don’t talk your Trekie lingo to
me.”
    “ At least you recognized
it. This is progress.” Georgie’s spoon clinked loudly in the now
empty bowl as she stood staring at the phone in its cradle on the
table. “It’s a term for a no-win situation, no right answer that
doesn’t land you in quicksand. So, Doctor Blanes, you go deliver
another baby. I am going to work. You tell Nick...”
    “Which reminds me,” Cassie said, as
though she’d heard nothing of a good-bye. “Nick asked me the
strangest thing.”
    “And this really surprises
you?”
    “He asked me if I thought M&M was
the type to leave a rose on a windshield?”
    Georgie slowly turned to
stare at the rose in the vase on the counter corner where Nick had
shoved it. What was it Nick had answered? Oh, that rose . But he never did say
it was he that put it under the windshield wiper.
    “Georgie? Georgie, are you there? Did
you hang up on me?”
    “No, I’m here.”
    “Why would he ask that?”
    “Don’t know,” Georgie said, going to
the vase. “Why does Nick do anything he does?” She poked at the
rose, struck a thorn, and jerked back her finger. “I have to get
going. I want to get an hour’s worth of writing before I leave for
the shop.”
    “I sure wish I had a job where I could
just decide to write for an hour before going