Page 15

CHAPTER 15

Lorissa had just finished tossing the mess from the eaten muffins when Tom returned with a folder. He settled back in his chair and asked her to join him. She sat and looked at him in confusion. “Was it something I said?”

“No, I left something in the truck, and I needed to get it before we continued our conversation. It will make sense.” He nodded with his hands clasped, and resting on the folder.

“First, I agree with what you said. Allowing a female dog or cat to have at least one litter before they are spayed. This is just my personal opinion, but I also believe if you are going to breed them, they you should wait at least two years between litters. This gives the mother plenty of time to recover and get her cycle back on track. However, what I don’t agree with or believe in is the puppy mills. I detest them and feel they are cruel and abusive toward the animals.”

“Thank god, I believe in that too. That’s why I stressed to Dr. Henry to wait until the puppy he gets goes through two cycles, then spay her.”

“Agreed. Anyway, with that being said, I also agree with you that Rose and Baby need to be fixed, but I’d like to hold off until after the babies are completely weaned and at least ten weeks old.”

“Good. Now, the only question is, with Mrs. Bickers gone, what will happen to them?”

“Are you really willing to keep them?”

“I am.” She looked at him with a grin, then giggled. “When I settle down at night, I read on the couch. I have a TV, but I don’t really watch it. I love to read, whether it’s a medical journal, the latest procedures on animals, a sci-fi novel, or a romance novel. I don’t have a preference, as long as I can read. Since moving them into the house, every night I’m on the couch reading Baby climbs up onto my lap, and Rose lies directly on my feet. If I’m stretched out, she lies on my shins.” She laughed and shook her head. “Let’s just say I won’t need socks and slippers on my feet come winter.”

“Cold feet?”

“Yep.”

Tom smiled as he pictured what she described, but in his mind, he was sitting at one end of the couch with Lorissa leaning against him and the dog and cat snuggled with them both. On a happy note at the image, he looked down at the folder beneath his hands and sobered quickly. He drew in a deep breath and let it out in a rush.

“Earlier today, Mrs. Bickers’ lawyer called and asked if I could come in to talk to him. They haven’t had the funeral yet, because of the severity of the charges against Mr. Bickers they want to be thorough in the autopsy.”

“Get all their ducks in a row and have the physical evidence to back it up?”

“Yes. Anyway, her lawyer thought it would be okay to reveal part of her will to me. It seems that Mrs. Bickers had written in her will that I, Dr. Thomas Stolls, was to inherit Rose and Baby upon her death.”

“Oh, my.”

“Yes, anyway, there’s also a stipulation.”

“Which is?”

“If I keep them, my clinic will receive a five-hundred-thousand-dollar donation in their names.”

“And if you don’t want them?”

“I still get them, but I don’t receive the money.”

Lorissa’s expression turned sad as she turned to look into the living room where Rose and Baby were nursing their young. She only turned back to Tom when he took one of her hands in his.

“I asked the lawyer what would happen if you took them. I explained how they came into your possession. I also explained something else, and he said that as long as I was able to see them, then he was fine with fulfilling the contents of the will. There’s only one problem.”

“What’s that, wait, what did you explain?”

Tom drew in a deep breath and held it this time, only releasing it a little at a time as he braced himself for how she might react. “I explained that I liked you, and I wanted to date you. I’m not saying this should happen after the first date, but I want to date you exclusively. Just you and me, no one else. I like you, Lorissa, and I’m sorry for how I treated you that first day, but I don’t feel that way, and to be honest, I never did. I know it’s not an excuse, but I had a bad day the day before. It was the day my date was arrested, and I took it out on you. For that, I’m sorry.”

“It’s water under the bridge now, Tom. If I hadn’t forgiven you, I never would have agreed to go out with you when you went to the hospital.”

“Good. Then with that out of the way, I told the lawyer how you came into possession of Rose and Baby, and that you had voiced that you wanted to keep them until Mrs. Bickers was released from the hospital. Now that she’s passed, and left them with me, he asked if I see them. I told him yes. When he realized I was serious about dating you, he said it was fine, however, he stressed that if we ever broke up, then I had to have possession of Rose and Baby. ”

Lorissa sat there and looked at him, but remained quiet. “What about the money?”

“What about it?”

“What if I kept them, like I am now, we date, what happens with the money.”

“The clinic receives it.”

“What if you don’t want them?”

He laughed and shook his head. “I get them anyway.”

“Ah, so if you don’t want them, you don’t get the money, if you want them, you get the donation, but it’s okay for them to stay with me as long as you can have access to them.”

“Correct. I can give you the lawyer’s card if you want to talk to him about it.”

“No, I trust you.” She nodded. “I would love to keep them with me, and yes, I would also agree to date you.”

“Thank you,” Tom said with a sigh. He couldn’t think of anything else to say, so he remained silent. It was several minutes later before he chuckled and shook his head at her.

“What?”

“What are you doing Thursday of next week?”

“Off the top of my head, I have no clue, why?”

“How would you like to have a ‘work date’?” He used his fingers to make air quotes on the last two words.

“What’s that supposed to mean? ”

“I’m scheduled to be over at Erin’s Way for my monthly Riceman Stallions business. I was wondering if you wanted to help me.”

“I’ve heard of it, but what exactly is Riceman Stallions? People try to explain it to me, but I just can’t grasp the concept of what it all entails.”

“It’s hard to explain.”

“Try.”

Tom scrubbed his face, and settled back in his chair. “Do you have a laptop?”

“Of course, would you like me to get it?”

“Please.” He waited for her to return, and after she sat back down, he moved his chair, so he sat next to her and not across from her. Once the computer was up and running, he told her where to go.

“In a nutshell, it’s a dating service for horses.” He grinned when she scowled at him. “Think ABS.”

“Ah, got it. What do you do?”

“I extract the sperm, test it, put it on dry ice, then when someone fills out the form here on the website, Erin passes the paperwork along to Duane and Jake.”

“Who is Jake?”

“Jake Cogburn from the Brotherhood Protectors. He usually does all the background checks for Erin, but he’s been extremely busy lately. He does them, but it takes a few days longer than usual. Duane does his checks, Jake does his, they compare notes, and when everyone passes muster, they pass the paperwork onto me. ”

“What type of background check?”

“They check out both the rancher, horse owner, and the vet they listed.”

“Why the vet? I could understand the owner, it’s to make sure he has enough money, right? If this is like anything else, it’s a one and done, if it doesn’t take, they have to pay again?”

“Correct. Erin wants the vet checked, especially if it’s one we haven’t worked with before.”

“But why?”

“Think of it like this, I hate to even voice this, but I’ve seen and heard it happen before.” He nodded to the screen and pointed to one of the stallions pictured there. “Let’s take this horse for example. See the price the rancher has to pay?” He pointed to a little box in the corner of the description, and nodded at her shocked expression.

“Yes, it’s that expensive, and well worth it. We’re talking about generations of good horse flesh here. These ranchers only want the best. Erin can provide it. Anyway, say the rancher purchases this sample, because a vet is the only one that can inseminate the horse, the sample is shipped directly to the vet. Once it leaves my hands, we are out of it.”

“Crap, and if the vet isn’t reputable, or is hitting hard times, what’s to say that he doesn’t switch out the sample with something inferior to what the rancher expected. Then the foal is born, and it shows problems. He can come after Erin for false advertising, but in reality, the vet kept it and sold it to someone else, pocketing the money.”

“Exactly, with all the background checks and phone calls we make, we try to prevent it. In the last five years we’ve never encountered this problem.”

“However, you don’t want to slack off and this suddenly happens.”

“Correct. Anyway, after Erin gets the request, she passes it to Duane and Jake. They do what they have to, and I get the paperwork.”

“What do you do?”

“I go over it, then go into the lab, take the sanitary precautions of gowning and gloving up, take the sample from storage, box it up, and mail it out. It’s more time consuming than anything else.”

“I probably know, or can imagine, but how do you get the sample?”

Tom grinned at her, then ruined it when his cheeks turned bright red. “I invented or modified a fake female for the stallion to mount. Just before he sticks it into the mare, I slip what the guys calls the horse condom on the stallion. He does his business, and I have the sample gathered at the bottom. I take that sample and secure it before taking it to the lab. Once in the lab, I run genetic tests, to make sure there won’t be any issues when it’s used, have a DNA profile, store it properly, document everything, and wait for the order to come in.” He looked at her with a small smile when she looked at him in confusion. “ The DNA profile is our proof that we went the proper sample.”

“Is there a life-span on the sample?”

“So far, the oldest we have is roughly five years old, and I sent one of those out about three months ago. Erin got a call from the rancher that his mare was pregnant.”

“Great.” Lorissa turned back to the website and started scrolling through it. At one point she looked up when Tom asked what was wrong.

“I don’t recall seeing half of these horses over at Erin’s Way? Are they somewhere else on the ranch?”

Tom leaned over and looked at the couple of horses she pointed back and before he answered her, he asked if he could make a pot of coffee. When she agreed, he made it and began to explain. “Those horses were the ones from the original horses that started Riceman Stallions. They rejected Erin when she got out of the hospital after the accident. The guys, I’m talking Wendell, Floyd, and Virgil, convinced her to move them away from the others and she would work with them in the coming days.”

“Work with how, especially if they rejected her?”

“Approach them to see if they would reject her again.”

“Ah, got it. So, what happened?”

“Even after she was completely healed, with no bandages, just the scar pink and puckered, she came to me to explain the situation. She asked if there was any way for me to extract their sperm so she could sell it on-line. We spent the next year collecting it. When she sold the horses, she had a clause written into the contract that the frozen samples stayed with her, and she kept all the profits from them.”

“Smart business move.”

“Yes, and so far, she hasn’t had any problems with it. Oh, I should add that the sale of those stallions was what purchased the lumber, labor, and horses for Broken. Also, what is now being referred to as Broken Two.”

“The other businesses she’s opening, the therapy ones?”

“Correct.”

“Wow, it sounds like she has her head screwed on straight.”

“She does, and I’m in awe of what she has accomplished. I asked her once why she did all that she did, and she told me that after waking in the hospital with her missing hand, finding both parents had perished in the accident, and not being able to get ahold of her brother, she had to do something. She couldn’t rely on anyone to make the decisions for her, or hold her hand, she needed to pull up her big girl panties and be like the ancestor she was named after. She also hated the fact that the doctors and nurses kept referring to her as disabled, and she didn’t feel that way. She felt challenged, and didn’t want to wallow in self-pity.” Tom shrugged, not knowing what else to say .

“Who was she named after?”

“Erin Riceman from back in the eighteen thirties. That Erin woke one day to find her husband had left her with a covered wagon with a broken wheel, half the money, two of their four horses, a two-year-old child, and pregnant. That Erin cut her dress into trousers, pulled up her suspenders and was able to start Erin’s Way.”

“Wow, what a wonderful woman to look up to.”

“I agree, and since getting out of the hospital whatever Erin had as an idea, she has been able to turn it into what it is today. I don’t know if you get over to where the cabins are on Broken?”

“Not really, I mainly stick to the barns at Erin’s Way, Broken, and New Double, plus anything in the surrounding area. Oh, wait, Nana and I stayed in one of the two-story cabins when I came out to be interviewed by Erin. There were six already occupied, while others are being built.”

“Correct, as far as I know, right now, Manny and Ann will get one, Scott and Julie will get another. Erin wants to have at least a dozen more constructed in case others come to live and work for her. It seemed to luck out that you were able to take over this place.”

“Yeah, Erin explained that Old Man Atherton, then his granddaughter were farriers. It made sense for me to stay here so I can do my work here with the set-up already in place. The two doublewides worked great for Mom and Nana.”

“I know it’s none of my business, but could you tell me why you got the big house?”

Lorissa laughed as she took the mug of fresh coffee from him. She liked that he had given her the mug she always used. It proved he was observant of her. She gave a shake of her head and smiled at him.

“Mom said it was because she couldn’t go up and down the stairs easily, because of her knee. All the bedrooms are up there along with two of the bathrooms.”

“I can see where that might be a problem. And your grandmother?”

“Nana says that it was too big for her. Her home back east was about this size and she had wanted to downsize for years, but couldn’t see moving and paying rent or a mortgage on a place that was already paid off. She wanted everything on one level.”

“I can see that happening too. I’ve never been inside the doublewides, but is there room for them, even with Duane living with your mom?”

“Yes, Mom and Duane have four bedrooms, and three bathrooms. Nana has three and two. Each have a large eat-in kitchen, separate dining room, living room, and a bonus room that Mom and Dad turned into a shared office, while the same room in Nana’s home she turned it into a pantry slash growing room. Nana loves growing things, and she dabbled at it over the years, but she says she going to get into canning and preserving next year once she can put in a garden. That’s why she’s in the doublewide over by the greenhouses.”

“Have her go over to New Double and talk with Ducky.”

“Why?”

“Ann wants to put in a gigantic garden that everyone can plant what they want. Like a community project. Ducky said his wife used to can everything, and after she passed, he put her canning supplies in the basement. I heard he told everyone to start stocking up on the canning jars so that there would be enough next year when it came time to harvest.”

“I’ll have to tell her that. I know she’s cleaned out the greenhouses and is starting to cut off her herbs. Maybe the others would want an herb garden closer to their house.” Lorissa laughed as she rose to her feet, went to the cupboards, and opened one of them. Tom looked in and saw several plain containers with paper labels on them.

“These are the herbs Nana grew, dehydrated, and ground up for me. I don’t think I’ve purchased any basil, oregano, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, or rosemary in over a decade.”

“Wow, and she gets these from her plants?”

“Yes.”

Tom shook his head at the sheer volume of spices, and they sat down at the table to enjoy their coffee. As much as he wanted to stick around, he didn’t want to overstay his welcome, so after finishing his drink, he looked at her with a raised brow.

“Next Thursday?”

“What time?”

“Is eight too early?”

“Not at all, since I get up at six every day.”

“Okay, I’ll see you at eight in the morning on next Thursday.” He stood and waited for her to rise.

“It’s a date.” She laughed and he nodded as he leaned in and kissed her on the side of the mouth, she turned her head at the last moment, and when Tom finally left, they were both breathing hard, but he couldn’t wait until they saw one another again. He was whistling by the time he reached his truck. Because it was a work day, and he didn’t have any calls to any outlying ranches, he headed to his clinic to tackle the paperwork he suspected buried his desk. After the kiss he shared with Lorissa, nothing could bring his mood down. On his way to town, he had a thought and called the lawyer to see if he could use the money donated from Mrs. Bickers to stock Lorissa’s small clinic with. He liked that the lawyer reassured him that he could do whatever he wanted with the donation.