Jake pulled into Vanessa’s place an hour later to find the lights on in the back of the house, but off in the clinic. That made it easier to know where he should pick her up. He parked in her crumbling asphalt driveway to one side of the house and walked up to the door. The doorbell was nowhere to be found. He knocked instead, looking curiously at the hole where a doorbell used to be while he waited.

“Hi, there!” Vanessa happily said as she opened the door.

Jake grabbed his hat and held it in his hand. “Wow, I mean, hello! You look nice.”

Nice wasn’t really the word though. He had toned it down in the name of keeping things on a friend’s level. She was absolutely stunning…no she was hot as hell! Her hair, usually in a ponytail was down. The dark tresses cascaded across her bare shoulders to meet the straps of a simple blue tank dress that only made her eyes appear even bluer. It hugged her every curve in a way that defined her perfect figure but wasn’t so tight to look gaudy.

“Thank you. So do you.”

Jake glanced down at his blue button-down shirt and jeans. He suddenly felt underdressed and wondered if she might not want to scrap going anywhere with him altogether.

“Shall we go then?” she asked.

“Absolutely. I feel a bit like Beauty and the Beast though.”

“You calling me a beast?” she teased.

“Yes. You’re hideous.”

She smiled up at him as he walked with her to the truck. The door squeaked when he pulled it open for her. Vanessa looked a bit out of place in her pretty blue dress sitting in his dusty old pickup, but Jake was pleased she had agreed to go out with him.

“I thought we would go over to Kaycee’s. They have a good choice there.”

“Perfect. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

“I’m right there with you. I’ve been busy today and didn’t eat anything other than a banana I grabbed on my way out the door to the barn.” Jake turned the key and slid the truck into reverse.

“You’ve got to do better than that,” she replied as they began to pull away from her house.

“Probably, I will most likely only do worse.”

“What? Why is that?”

“I had to let my maid go today.”

“Did she do something wrong?”

“No. Just cutting some unnecessary costs. So, I may be living on microwave dinners and fruit for a while.”

“I wish I could say that I’m any better, but I sometimes get home too late to cook a real meal. I’ve started making freezer meals and using the crock pot sometimes. It helps. Otherwise, I’m surviving on a bowl of cereal and a grapefruit.”

“The price of busy lives, I suppose.”

“I suppose you’re right,” she told him softly. “Hey, how is the kid from the accident the other day? Have you heard anything?” Vanessa asked.

“Oh, yeah. Tucker and I went to the hospital today to check on him. He’s going to be just fine. He’ll have a helluva scar on his leg, but they were able to repair the damage. Just keeping him to build up his blood and finish with his antibiotics.”

“Here we are,” he told her as they pulled into Kaycee’s and parked the truck. They were seated quickly. Jake had made reservations so that they wouldn’t have to wait. Walking back to the table, he was pleased to see it was a nice one that overlooked the lake. They ordered a bottle of wine and began looking over the menu.

“Would you like an appetizer?” the waitress asked before leaving.

“Vanessa?” Jake asked.

“No thanks, not me. How about just a house salad before the meal?”

“Very good. And you, sir?”

“Same.”

“Dressing?” the woman asked.

“Just oil and vinegar will do fine for me,” Vanessa told her and Jake nodded to indicate that would work for him too.

“What do you usually have here?” she asked now that they had turned their attention back to their menus.

“The chicken or the fish. They have a fantastic baked cod.” Jake mentioned glancing over the table at her.

“No beef? I thought all you big cattle ranchers ate steaks.”

“No, not this one.” Jake shook his head.

“Any particular reason.”

Jake looked at her for a moment, not wanting to bring a dark cloud in over the conversation, but wanting to tell her the truth. He tried to put it in the simplest terms without getting too involved in the story.

“I have a history of heart failure in my family. I just try to stay as healthy as possible and steer clear of the red meat.”

“That makes sense. I don’t care for it myself,” she told him. “Maybe I’ll have the cod.”

“Good choice.”

The waiter returned with wine and salads, taking their order while at the table. With food ordered, they resumed their conversation as they got started on their salads. He found that he was more than a little curious about the woman across the table from him.

“So, what brought you out here to Arkansas?” he asked.

Vanessa shrugged then swallowed and said, “Misfortune, I guess you could say.” She averted Jake’s eyes for a moment then turned back to face him. “I had a busy practice out in Texas and saw mostly house pets. Every once in a while, someone would bring an exotic pet in, but it was usually just spoiled cats and dogs.” Pausing, she peered down at her hands then cleared her throat. When she continued her voice was softer. “Then, I met the other vet in the area. We had a lot in common, got to know one another, started seeing each other. Things seemed to be going well, at first, but I always felt like he was keeping something from me. Turns out, that thing was a wife and family across the border in Juarez.”

“You’re kidding me, right? So you wanted to put it all behind you?”

“Yes and no. I honestly wasn’t invested in the relationship that much. I just chalked it up to a bad experience. The problem was that each time my doctor friend told me he was going to a conference or seminar somewhere, he would ask me to cover for him in his large animal practice.”

“I don’t follow,” Jake told her, taking another bite of his salad.

“It’s a long story. The short version is.... the last time I covered for him, one of the doctor's ranchers called me out on an emergency. The rancher’s entire head of cattle were coming down with something that I couldn’t put my finger on. Over two hundred head of cattle all staggering and falling over completely. By the time I got there, things looked grim. I treated them, brought in some help and spent an entire night administering injections, but it was too late.”

“That’s crazy. What happened to them?”

“I’m still not sure. It had to be some sort of poison or toxin. Tests were run later, but nothing was isolated. Their food and water supply — clean. It appeared to be purposeful from everything I could gather. The worst part was that the medication I gave them to counteract their symptoms seemed to speed up their demise.”

“What? How is that possible?” Jake scowled.

“I’m still not sure. I wasn’t given a chance to examine them further. The owner blamed me and the vet I was covering for, my boyfriend at the time, sided with the rancher. He examined the cows and insisted that I had made a mistake.”

Jake shrugged and shook his head. “But you didn’t —”

“I did, but one that any vet would have made. Any veterinarian in that situation would have done exactly what I did, and I know that for a fact. The rancher sued me for malpractice and lost, mainly because at least six veterinarians testified on my behalf, saying that after a review of the information provided, they would have administered the same treatment.”

“I’m guessing that one of those vets was not your boyfriend.”

“You are guessing right. In fact, there was a period when I felt like the ranch owner and my ex might have set it all up. That ranch was already in trouble financially, and the livestock was insured,” Vanessa explained.

“That would be my guess too from what I know. You sound like you aren’t so sure anymore though,” Jake observed.

“Well, that gets to the reason that I came here. When everything was over, the rancher began harassing me. He said I ruined him, killed his cattle and provided testimony that kept the insurance company from paying out… due to suspected tampering.”

“Harassing you how?” Jake leaned forward in his chair not missing a word.

“It started out with just threatening phone calls; then he would show up at my clinic and eventually, my house. Finally, he came after me one night while I was on the road driving home. He ran me off the road and would have done who knows what if not for the blind luck of someone happening along and stopping to check on me.”

“The police did nothing about him?” Jake questioned.

“They tried, but he was always one step ahead of them,” Vanessa explained.

“And the boyfriend?”

“In the process of all the court dealings, it came out that he was married and such. We were already done since he had turned his back on me when I had been doing him a favor. Finding out about the wife and kids was just the nail in the coffin.”

“Wow. You poor thing. That’s a lot to deal with.” Jake shook his head.

“It’s just life. Stuff happens, and you deal with it. I wanted peace though. I sold my clinic, my house, my car, everything. I found the practice here was for sale and I bought it, moved far away from the insanity.”

“I can’t blame you one bit for that.”

Moments later, the waiter brought their food and retrieved their salad plates. He refilled Vanessa’s wine, but Jake was still nursing his. He didn’t want to drink too much since he was driving.

Vanessa smiled and closed her eyes. “Oh, this food is delicious,” she said after taking her first bite.

“I told you,” Jake replied, digging into his own plate of spinach and mushroom ravioli.

“That looks pretty nice too.”

Jake nodded. “It is. Want to try some?”

“No. Thanks though… I’m enjoying my fish,” she told him.

The conversation lightened up a bit after that. Each of them switching to talk about their childhoods and what the local community was like here. They were having such a great conversation by the time they had finished dinner that Jake hated for it to end.

“Do you like to dance?” he asked.

“Dance? What kind of dancing are we talking about?”

“Just a little gliding across the floor to some old tunes. Nothing crazy.”

“Sure, why not.”

Jake took care of the check, and they headed out of the restaurant, driving closer to town until they reached a brick building to one side. Jake pulled into a parking space and shut off the engine. She was looking at him with wide eyes. Vanessa cocked her head to one side. “Meadow Gold Retirement Home?” she asked, reading the sign on the front lawn.

“Yes.”

“I thought we were going dancing.” Vanessa smiled.

“We are. Come on.”

Vanessa glanced at him curiously as they made their way from the truck and went inside. He opened the door for her and walked down the hall toward a large rec room to one side. It was filled with elderly people dressed in what passed for their finest duds. Glenn Miller tunes flowed from an old speaker as they slowly glided across the floor. Jake held his arm out. She wrapped her’s in his with a wide smile on her face.

Stepping out onto the floor, they mingled in with the people already there. Vanessa whirled about with him, giggling playfully as they waltzed their way from couple to couple, each smiling at them kindly as they joined them in their monthly dance.

“This is crazy,” Vanessa said. “How did you know they had dancing here?”

“I come here all the time. Usually, my date is one of these lovely blue-haired ladies though.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“No, not one little bit. When I came home from the service, it was a bit of therapy for me to give back a little. I started coming here to read to some of the patients who couldn’t do so themselves, for various reasons. One of them invited me to come dance with her, and I thought “what the hell.” It just became a regular thing.”

“So, now you bring all your dates here to dance with you?” she prodded.

“No. You are the first one I thought might actually get a kick out of it, but you aren’t really a date. Just friends, remember?”

“Yes. Just friends,” she replied.

Jake smiled down at her, not missing the hint of disappointment he saw in her eyes at his reminder that this wasn’t really a date. For something that wasn’t a date, it sure felt like the best one he’d had for a very long time.

“May I cut in?” a little old man asked from behind them.

“Okay, but you watch yourself, Tom. I’ll have my eye on you,” Jake teased before handing her over.

“You can’t. You’ll have your eyes on me,” a lady's voice came from beside them.

“Maude! How’s my best girl?” he asked, taking her in his arms as Glenn Miller was replaced by Herb Alpert.

They danced side by side with Tom and Vanessa, Maude chatting away to him about her grandson’s upcoming wedding. After a while, the song faded away and they broke apart, Maude making her way toward a snack table close by and he retrieved Vanessa from Tom, who had her rolling with laughter from whatever he was saying.

They shared a few more dances as the music kicked off again, whirling around as if neither of them had a single care in the world. When the music faded away again, Jake pulled Vanessa to the side of the dance floor, looking down at her thoughtfully.

“Ready to get out of here?” he asked.

“I’m fine if you want to stay a while. They’re just lovely,” she replied.

“Yes, but they’ll all be calling it a night in about ten minutes anyway. It’s almost nine, and you don’t want to be in their way when the nurse comes to give them their bedtime meds.”

“Ah, I see,” she laughed. “I suppose we should go then if there is going to be a stampede.”

“You say that in jest, but you’d be surprised.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Vanessa laughed.

“Come on, and I’ll get you home,” Jake said.

“I would say that the night is still young, but in the morning I have to catch up on some visits to people I missed during the week and didn’t make it out to see them today either,” she said.

“Working on a Sunday? I guess that is my fault. I kept you too long the day of the accident.”

“Don’t be silly. I was glad I was there to help. Things happen.”

“I suppose they do. I have an early morning myself. It’s Tucker’s day off,” Jake told her.

“Listen to us. Headed home at nine o’clock because we have to get up early. We might as well be in this home ourselves.”

“That’s far too close to the truth!” Jake replied as they exited the doors and got back into the truck to go home.

Jake and Vanessa made their way in silence, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. It was the quiet that exists between two people who are happy enough just to be in one another’s company. As they pulled into her driveway, Jake stopped the truck and shut it down.

“You don’t have to walk me to the door, Jake. I’ll be fine getting in,” Vanessa said.

“I know, but my father would kill me for letting a lady go unescorted to her front door. It is just the way I was raised.”

“Well, can’t have you murdered by your father,” she replied grinning.

Jake realized that he hadn’t really discussed his father and wasn’t sure if she knew he wasn’t still around, but it was hardly something he was going to point out to her as they parted ways for the night. They walked toward her door, and he waited for her to unlock it.

“Well… good night,” she said.

Jake looked at her. There was something in the way she hesitated that said she was perhaps open to being more than friends, but he couldn’t be sure. He didn’t want to cross any lines, but the urge to kiss her was overwhelming, and there was just some little something telling him that she might want that too.

He waited as she put the keys in the lock and turned them to open it, pausing to tell him goodnight one last time. Seizing the opportunity, he pulled her to him and kissed her. It was a light kiss, at first, but she seemed to respond to it, so he stopped holding back, exploring her mouth with his own as his body felt a deep ache he hadn’t experienced for quite some time.

“I…um, goodnight,” she said as she pulled away and pushed open the door behind her.

Jake stood awkwardly on the doorstep, feeling confused. He had felt like she wanted him to kiss her and she had felt like she was enjoying it, but the way she suddenly bolted said something completely different. He started to knock, to ask if he was out of line. Perhaps he should apologize. Vanessa had, after all, made it clear that this was a friends only night out. Instead, he put his hand down and walked back to the truck, climbing behind the wheel and heading home.

****

Several days later Vanessa returned to the ranch to do a final check on Tamara. Jake was eating breakfast and noticed Vanessa had arrived earlier than usual. He watched as she rushed into the barn and came out just as he stepped to the porch and began walking toward her. She raised her hand to wave but continued toward the mobile clinic.

“Hey, Vanessa wait. Can we talk for a moment?” Jake hollered rushing toward her.

“I’ve already told Tucker all you need to know about Tamara. She’s fine. I’d give her another week of just light walking exercises before putting any weight on her, but she should be good to go with the limitations we discussed before.”

“Thanks, but if we could speak alone. I’d like to talk to you about Saturday night and about me,” Jake insisted glancing over his shoulder expecting Tucker to appear around the corner at any minute.

“Look, Jake. It was just a mistake, on both our parts. After I told you about my ex and what happened to me before I came here, I was reminded I’m just not ready for a relationship, even a casual one.”

He had been prepared to tell her about his PTSD and his anxiety, hoping she would accept his explanation as for the reason he didn’t want to pursue things further. Jake had been disappointed that she had run away so quickly after the kiss, but it seemed a mute point after her statement, so he just left it at that. “Fair enough. Still, I don’t want us to avoid one another. I hope we can at least keep things professional. Maybe we’ll even become friends again soon.”

“We never stopped being friends, Jake.” Vanessa clarified.

“That’s good to hear. I’ll let you get on with your rounds.”

“Take care,” she told him, climbing into the mobile unit and pulling away.

Jake walked back toward the barn feeling almost numb. It was one thing to say that he didn’t want a relationship either, but he knew down deep that he was attracted to her. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to get closer, but he was afraid Vanessa would eventually find out about his dealings with Kessler and would never want to see him again. He had never felt lonelier.