Doc cleared her throat and tried to seem natural. “What are you all doing here? Don’t tell me this is some sort of intervention,” she quipped, stepping inside and shutting the door behind her.
“Intervention?” Josie grinned. “Why, Doc? Do you have an addiction? Can’t get enough of that O… O… Oooo….” Her voice took on a breathy, high pitched tone that sounded like someone reaching orgasm. “OOOOO-mannnn.”
Doc’s eyes bulged, and she put a finger to her lips. “Shhh!”
Josie waggled her eyebrows.
“It’s not… it’s not whatever you’re thinking,” Doc rushed out, setting the flowers carefully on her desk.
“O… really?” Bethany grinned, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
“Yes, enlighten us, Doc,” Clara added, sitting forward on the couch and putting her chin in her hand. “We’d really love to kn…O.”
“Know what?” Doc asked, feigning innocence. “There’s nothing to know.”
“Right,” Layna smirked. “And we’re just suppOsed to believe that?”
Doc looked at each of her friends, weighing her options. But damn. She was had. They all knew something was cooking in her love life, and they weren’t going to let her off the hook until she gave them a breadcrumb.
“It’s just…”
“Yes?” Josie urged. “In the words of the great Queen Elsa, let it O, let it O…”
Doc crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow at her First Mate’s antics.
“Now, Josie,” Layna drawled. “You know that’s not how that song Os.”
Josie frowned. “O? It isn’t? My mistake. O on, Doc. Fill us in on the details.”
“Come on, you guys.” She’d try to reason with them. “Can’t you just give me a break on this? It’s so new.”
Bethany pretended to check her nails as she mumbled, “That’s not what Mason says.”
Doc frowned. “What?”
“He says you’ve been sampling the O-juice for a while now.” She lifted her eyebrows twice in emphasis. “Squirt, squirt.”
Doc wrinkled her nose. “Ew. You’ve been hanging around Josie too much.”
Bethany shrugged. “Yeah. Probably,” she agreed and then reached over to fist bump Josie.
Something bugged Doc though. How did Mason know about her and Owyn? He’d left his scent on her only yesterday. How would the other cat know they’d been together for longer?
Doc shook her head. “It’s complicated.”
“I’m sure it is,” Bailey said, showing genuine compassion underneath her wide grin.
“What we had before was… different. This,” Doc gestured to the flowers. “This is brand new.”
They were quiet for a moment, absorbing that tiny speck of information.
“Aww,” Clara gushed. “Your love story is in the baby stage. Just beginning.”
But that wasn’t quite true. Their love story started many years ago in a bar in Northwest Arkansas. When the devastation of a brutal forced mating brought them together under a common goal. When an honorable male promised her safety with no expectation of anything in return.
The only thing that had changed was time and their circumstances. Time had taught her Owyn was trustworthy, and their circumstances had altered to allow them to be honest about their feelings.
But these females wouldn’t understand what they’d gone through to get here. And it was private. Between her and Owyn. Hidden in the recesses of their heart.
Doc smiled because she couldn’t help herself. “There is one thing I can tell you.”
They were on the edge of their seats.
“He’s a good man. A mighty good man.”
They blinked practically in unison.
“Wait,” Layna said. “That’s it? That’s all you’re going to divulge? And to think, I missed breakfast for this.”
Doc grinned wide. “That’s all you need to kn…O.”
Chapter Ten
Owyn pulled his truck into the parking spot nearest to the front door and took a deep breath. He hadn’t seen Doc all day. And not for lack of trying. Every time he found a spare minute to run her down, something came up.
First it was the generators. Renner tested them weekly to make sure they’d run properly if bad weather decided to strike. But today, neither machine would start. He and Renner worked for hours, trying to jog whatever was hanging them up, to no avail. They’d have to call a mechanic in the morning.
Then it was a dead tree branch that had fallen over the main road into the lodge. The damn thing was nearly a tree itself, and it had taken him and Clara two hours to turn it into firewood and haul it to the shed.