Page 3

CHAPTER 3

Tom sat in his truck as he finished up a call with a rancher, and told him he would be out there as soon as he could. Based on the call, it wasn’t an emergency so he knew he could do this ‘date’ thing with Leslie. After talking it over with Duane the day before, he hadn’t realized how pissed he was that he would have been played if he hadn’t gone with his gut and had Duane do a background check on his date. He looked up when he saw people walking in and out of the bakery, and hadn’t realized how nervous or upset he wasn’t sure what yet, until he saw both Stone and Jake walk into the building.

On a sigh, he looked at his watch and noted that it was about two minutes away from the time he said he would meet Leslie. He put his phone away, made sure his wallet was locked in his glove box, because there was no way he could leave it at home, and put the cash he’d withdrawn earlier in his pocket. As he exited his truck, he saw a woman approach the bakery and called out while she was still several feet away.

“Leslie?” Tom didn’t know if he should be worried when she didn’t answer right away, and he had to call her name a couple of times. She finally acknowledged him when he stopped in front of her. “Leslie?” This time he was hesitant to ask.

“Oh, yes, Tom, right? I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you calling me before.”

Tom knew immediately that it was a lie, because why would she say she didn’t hear him call her name if she had heard him and hadn’t realized he was calling her. His first thought was whether Leslie really was her name, or was it the name of one of her victims?

“Yes, I’m Tom,” he said as they turned, and he opened the door for her. “What would you like?”

“If you give me your credit card, I’ll order for us, if you want to sit down.” She was brazen at her request and all Tom could do was raise his brows in shock.

“I’m sorry, but I wasn’t raised that way. It goes against my nature to have the woman pay when we are out on a date.” He knew she had told him to give her his credit card, but he played dumb.

“I’m not paying, I said you should give me your credit card and I’ll pay. ”

“Sorry, all I have on me is cash. What would you like?” His answer seemed to upset her, but he didn’t care. He wanted to get this done and over with so he could get on with his day.

They stepped up to the counter and he didn’t know if it was normal for Leslie to order something small, or if she was trying to impress him. He tried to study her profile as she studied the menu, but her looks didn’t impress him. As she placed her order, he placed his for a black coffee and a blueberry muffin. As they stood there waiting, Tom felt someone hit him hard in the back of the leg and whipped around. He immediately began laughing when a gigantic dog sat on its haunches staring at him. He swore Tator grinned.

“Tate,” Tom cried out in joy, and he rubbed the dog down, then stood and held out his hand to his owner. “Kent, how are you?”

“Good, you, sorry about Tator, he saw you and got excited.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Tom laughed as he went to pick up their order and went over to a table close to the corner. He ended up sitting with his back to the wall and two tables over sat Stone and Jake. He ignored them as he put the food down and held out the chair for Leslie. As he sat and sipped his coffee he looked at her and frowned.

“What’s wrong?”

“Why did you pet that nasty animal? ”

“Excuse me?”

“That dog, it shouldn’t be allowed in public places, it needs to be chained up outside.”

“First of all, did you even read my profile before you agreed to go on a date?”

“Of course I did.”

“What did you read?” Tom was too pissed to eat, so he crossed his forearms on the table to lean into them as he stared her down.

“That you’re a vet.”

“Do you even know what that means?”

“Not really, I thought it meant you served your country in the military.”

“No, unfortunately as much as I wanted to serve my country, I wasn’t able to. I am a veterinarian. That means that I work with animals. All kinds of animals. Dogs, cats, rabbits, horses, cows, goats, sheep, you name it, I work on them. Tate happens to be one of my patients, and he is a search and rescue dog. I’m going to say this right now so you can decide if this will go further than this one date.” He looked at her and shook his head.

“No, this will not go beyond today. Your comment about having an animal chained up and left outside is considered abuse to me. I will not go out with anyone who believes it is okay to abuse animals. I am a veterinarian and have been for a long time. I am on call twenty-four seven. To me, the animals will always come first. ”

“What about me?”

“What about you?”

“Why won’t you put me first?”

“One, because I don’t know you. Two, because you don’t like animals. Three…” He was interrupted before he could continue. He looked up when someone stood slightly behind Leslie and called his name.

“Tom? How are you?”

“Sparrow, hi, I’m good. You?”

“I’m good too.”

“What brings you here?”

“Just stopping in to have coffee with my husband.”

“Excuse me,” Leslie looked over her shoulder at Sparrow, the deputy sheriff, but she was wearing jeans and a tee shirt, not her uniform. Leslie didn’t wait for Sparrow to answer. “You’re homing in on my date. That’s very rude of you.”

“Sparrow, this is Leslie Warren, my date.” Tom cringed when he called her that.

“Leslie Warren from Colorado Springs?” Sparrow asked.

“How did you know that?”

From behind Sparrow Jim Faulkner arrived, and said, “Leslie Warren you’re under arrest. You are being taken into custody on the felony warrants out for you.”

When Leslie tried to bolt, Sparrow was right there trying to slap the cuffs on her, Jake and Stone was there backing her and Jim up, and when Leslie struggled and got a few feet away, Tate was right there to stop her. She froze and was taken to the ground before they could get the cuffs on her.

When they brought her to her feet, Tom looked at her and shook his head. “I don’t have to tell you that the date is over, and I never want to see you again.” He turned his back on her while Sparrow and Jim escorted her out. When they were gone, Tate nudged his nose into Tom’s hand, and he laughed as he rubbed him down again.

“I’m okay, Tate,” he said, and actually got down on one knee and hugged the dog. His real name was Tator, but since he had his vest on, Tom knew to call him Tate. He stood up and looked at the three men standing before him. “I’m good.”

“I hope you don’t mind that I got things started,” Stone said after he shook Tom’s hand and petted Tate. “I overheard her ask for your credit card to pay. I thought that was weird and sent a text to Sparrow to come in earlier than planned.”

“You had this all planned out?” Tom asked in shock.

“We did,” Jake said. “Manchester called us yesterday with his findings and we did some more digging. We couldn’t go as deep as he did, but we had enough to bring Sparrow in. Actually, she happened to be at the office when we got the information. Between the three of us, Manchester, Brotherhood Protectors, and the Sheriff’s office, we were able to get a lot of information on your Leslie Warren.”

“She’s not my anything. Is Leslie even her real name? Because when I called her out on the street she was oblivious to the name.”

“Probably not her legal name, but there is a Leslie Warren that had her identity stolen. That might be why she didn’t acknowledge you right away.”

“Yeah, I figured as much,” Tom said on a sigh. “Well, as much as I hate to leave this party, I have a rancher in need of my skills.” Tom shook their hands and started out the door. Once outside he went to his truck, but was stopped by Sheriff Jim.

“Can you come down to the station and give a statement?”

“I can, but not right now, I have to get out to the Coleman ranch.”

“That’s fine, stop in when you get a minute. Because of all the warrants out for her arrest, we’ll have to sort it out as to who gets her first. I only have one question.”

“What’s that?”

“How did you get the information you did?”

“Oh, I was out at Erin’s Way, and there’s a guy there that’s former FBI. He works for Erin as her security guy. He runs background checks on the people that want a sample for Riceman Stallions.”

“I don’t even want to know,” Jim said on a chuckle and held up his hands. “I’ve heard about it, and I don’t want to know.”

Tom laughed and sighed. “Talk to Duane Manchester out at Erin’s Way, he’s the one that did the background check on Leslie.” Tom then went on to tell him, and actually showed him the text messages from his other date from the dating service and Jim only shook his head and said he was sorry.

“Yeah, I figure if there’s someone out there for me, God and Grandpa will shove them at me, and then I’ll pay attention.” They shared another laugh and Tom got into his truck to head out to the Coleman ranch.

Hours later, Tom looked up at Jared Coleman and shook his head. “I’ve done what I can, and it should ease his pain, but you’re going to need a farrier to fix this hoof.”

“Do you know of any around here?”

“I might. Like I said, what I did will ease his pain for a couple of days, but let me look around and I’ll get back to you.”

“Thanks, Tom.” Jared held his hand out and he shook it. They made small talk as Tom cleaned up his tools, then his hands and loaded them back into his truck. On the way back to the office he wracked his brain as to where to find a farrier, then it struck him. He looked at his watch, then the clock on the dash and sighed heavily. It was too late to make a house call, so he decided to go back to the office, check the day’s paperwork, then call it a night. He made sure that he would go out to the farrier he knew of first thing in the morning. Until then, there wasn’t anything he could do for Jared Coleman’s young stallion.

Tom was at work early the next morning, and by seven o’clock his entire staff was present so he called an impromptu meeting in the back as the boarded animals were being fed and taken out back for a walk to relieve themselves. When everyone was gathered around again, Tom got right to the point.

“First, I want to thank all of you who came together to put my name out there on that dating app.”

“Did you find someone?” his receptionist asked in glee.

“No, and I’ve only been on two dates, well, technically only one. The first one canceled on me because I refused to take her to Denver to a restaurant where the cheapest thing on the menu is one hundred and fifty dollars. It’s not that I’m a cheap bastard, it’s just that in my personal opinion, I refuse to fork out hundreds of dollars on a meal if the date isn’t going to work out. Again, in my humble opinion, a date like that is for something special, like if you’re going to ask someone to marry you, or for an anniversary. Not a first date. ”

“What happened?”

“She canceled saying I was too cheap for her standards.”

“Gold digger,” someone in the group called out.

“Yeah, I thought so too. Anyway, my second date was yesterday. I took her to Kora’s for a coffee and treat. That’s my style to get to know someone.”

“What happened?”

“She was arrested.”

“WHAT!” several people yelled at the same time. Tom held up his hand until they calmed down.

“You heard me right, she was arrested. Three days after the first date canceled, I accepted a date with a woman by the name of Leslie. Long story short, I was out at Erin’s Way working with the Riceman Stallions account and asked Erin’s new security guy to do a background check on Leslie.” Tom shook his head sadly. “It turned out that she’s wanted in ten states and all have a warrant out for her arrest.”

“For what?” several people asked.

“Identity theft. It also turns out that Leslie wasn’t her real name. Sheriff Jim contacted me late last night, and she used two names from the people she stole from to make up the name Leslie Warren.”

“Holy crap, what are you going to do now?”

“I’m trying to cancel the membership on the app, as well as trying to remove my profile, and sent in a long e-mail to the people running the app about my experiences and told them they needed to do better background checks on the people they allow there. I haven’t heard back from them yet, and I don’t expect to.” He looked around the room at all fifteen people standing there and shook his head at them.

“I’m only going to say this once. Thank you for thinking of me, however, if any of you try to put me on a dating app again, you’ll be fired on the spot. I’m just a country boy, and I believe in God and family. With that said, if God wants me to have a wife, he will provide one for me. I honestly believe that if he believes I’m ready, then he will show me the right person.” He nodded, then told them he was done. He discussed the day with everyone and by noon, he was out the door to head out to the farrier he knew of. He first stopped at Mattie’s Diner and had lunch, since he didn’t know when he would get a call and be unable to grab a meal.