"Lorraine! Why don't you just tell Andy, and—"
"You think he's going to believe me when I say I have one of my feelings about this?"
Probably not. Lorraine's 'feelings' were well known, but most people dismissed them. She was convinced they were premonitions, though.
Me? I wasn't sure she was wrong. I had personal experience with something everybody else had thought was nonsense until they realized it wasn't.
I sighed, resigned. "Can I at least tell Jack?"
"Nope. He'll go all rebel commander and try to take over. And if you go behind our backs, Tess Callahan, we'll never forgive you," she threatened.
This was serious. Lorraine didn't play the "never forgive" card lightly.
"Fine," I said, groaning. "But I'm going to have to come up with a good excuse to be out of the house on Christmas Eve Eve."
There was no way Jack was going to believe the goat yoga thing again.
35
Tess
By the time sunset rolled around at six, I'd talked myself into and out of this whole expedition a dozen times. The current thinking was definitely not.
Lou agreed.
No way should I go anywhere after dark with Eleanor and Lorraine, the trouble twins. Look what had happened the last time, when an innocent garden hose was mistaken for a boa constrictor.
No, no, no.
By six-ten, I found myself in the backseat of Lorraine's car, dressed in black jeans, sweater, shoes, and coat, arguing with two stubborn senior citizens.
"It's a terrible idea," I hissed.
"Why are you whispering?" Eleanor, a vision in a dark-purple velour jogging suit, complete with purple sneakers, turned her head to look at me over the back of her seat. "We're still in the car!"
"I'm just getting ready," I snapped at a more normal volume. "To be stealthy, so at least we have a chance of not being caught and hauled into Andy's office for trespassing."
Lorraine pulled the car over to the side of the street a block away from the clinic and turned off the ignition. She was also in stealth mode—if you considered an eye-searingly orange sweatshirt and mustard-yellow polyester pants over a pair of neon-orange orthopedic shoes to be stealthy.
Maybe it was.
OnMars.
"Tess, we have to do what we can to keep that veterinarian in town," Lorraine said, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel for emphasis. "I like that girl and—more important—Andy likes her. I've been worried we'd lose him to the big city if he couldn't find a sweetheart."
I moaned and slumped back in my seat. "So, we're risking life and limb and—more important—arrestto prop up Andy's love life?"
"Oh, sure, now that you have a boyfriend, what do you care?"
"That's not fair," I said hotly. "You know I'm the first to want Andy to be happy. But is this really the way to do it? Why don't we just give them a couple's gift certificate to a nice dinner?"
"And Phin," Eleanor reminded me. "There's no way he's a criminal. Don't you want to clear your friend's name?"
I shot her a narrow-eyed glare, wondering if it would help if I fired her on the spot.
Decided it wouldn't.
Groaned again.
