Chapter 4

Tyler held out the movie toward him. “Homeward Bound? This is a kid’s flick.”

As Matt reached for it, Kat grabbed it from Tyler’s hand and began to read the cover jacket. “This is The Incredible Journey. I had to read this in elementary school. I didn’t know it was a movie.”

Matt grinned. “This is the remake.”

Farrah tapped his arm. “They’re too young to know that. They wouldn’t have seen the original movie. To them, this one is the original.”

Actually, the only reason Matt had seen the original was because his parents had taped it for him off the television using a VCR.

Kat pointed to the list of credits of the main characters. “Who are these people?”

Farrah smiled. “The voice of the cat is Sally Field. Her first major credit was The Flying Nun.”

Kat looked up. “The what?”

“I used to watch it all the time when I was a kid.”

Matt looked at Farrah. He’d heard about The Flying Nun but never seen it. His parents hadn’t got their first VCR until he was in middle school.

Kat looked down at the cover jacket again. “I’ve heard of Michael J. Fox.”

Matt grinned. “He starred in my favorite movie series when I was a kid. Back to the Future. I think it was one of the first movies they made into a video game for NES.”

“NES? What’s that?”

Inwardly, Matt cringed. He wasn’t quite forty, but sometimes the teens made him feel like he was fifty. “Never mind. It was state of the art in its day. Let’s put the movie on. It used to be Tyler’s mother’s favorite movie.” He neglected to add, “when she was little” on purpose.

Kat’s eyes widened. “If it was your mom’s favorite movie, I want to watch it. I don’t know what my mom’s favorite movie was.” Her voice dropped down, and she spoke with a tremor. “I wish I had paid more attention to stuff like that. Now I’ll never know.”

Tyler’s eyes softened. “I’m sure she would have liked it just like my mom did. Let’s watch it.”

Now Matt knew he’d picked the wrong movie. He hadn’t meant to make Kat sad. He’d actually thought parts of the movie were pretty funny. The funniest was that his sister cried every time it looked like Shadow wasn’t going to make it, regardless of how many hundreds of times she’d watched it. No matter how old he was, he always thought it was funny making his sister cry. But he hadn’t wanted to make Kat cry.

Farrah tapped his arm again. “This was a good choice. It will be good for Kat to think of her mother watching this movie.”

All he could do was stare at Farrah, wondering if she’d read his mind.

As the movie progressed, Matt was relieved to see that Kat and Tyler enjoyed it and amused that Farrah commented on certain parts she remembered watching with Cindy.

By the time the movie was nearly over, in exactly the part where his sister had always started to cry, so did Kat. He didn’t know whether it was good or bad that Tyler slipped his arm around Kat while she sniffled. Since he and Farrah were watching, he wrote it off as harmless, but this was something he would tell his sister to keep an eye on. To give Farrah credit, she didn’t sniffle, but she chose that very moment to clean up the remnants of the nachos.

They sat around and chatted for a little while, but it didn’t take long for Matt to start feeling tired. He’d been up at 6:00 a.m. to do a surgery at the clinic, and after he’d worked all day, he’d gone to the shelter. It was now nearly midnight, and he was feeling every minute.

Beside him, Farrah stifled a yawn.

Matt stood. “Come on, Tyler. It’s time for me to take you home. I’m tired; it’s been a long day.”

Farrah and Kat escorted them to the door. He kept an eye on the two teens, as did Farrah, to make sure there were no parting smooches. Although, strangely, he wanted to give Farrah a little peck on the cheek.

He might have, too, if Tyler and Kat hadn’t been watching him.

It had been a long time since he’d spent an evening in the company of a woman, and even though she didn’t know it was supposed to be a date, it had almost felt like one. Actually, no, tonight hadn’t been a date, it had been an entrapment. Except that he’d enjoyed himself and wished they could do it again.

He turned to Farrah. “This was good. Thank you. I guess I’ll see you the next time we cross paths at the shelter.”

She nodded, mumbled a good night, and the door closed as Matt and Tyler walked to the car.

“Well? Wasn’t she nice? Did you like her?”

Matt sighed. “You promised me you were going to drop this. I’m not getting involved in any matchmaking schemes, so you can stop it right now.”

“Sorry, Uncle Matt.”

The trouble was, Matt was sorry, too. Farrah was a nice woman, and if he’d been in the market for a match, he had a feeling that Farrah would be a keeper. It was almost too bad that the chances of their crossing paths again at the clinic would be small. Probably for the best.

“Aren’t the puppies cute?” Kat nearly purred as she picked up the runt of the litter and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Farrah couldn’t help herself. She picked up one of the larger pups and hugged it. “Yes, they’re adorable. And you’re right, it’s a lot of work to look after all these puppies. Tyler’s grandparents were very generous to commit to taking care of all of them.” Although Theresa and Bill weren’t the frail old couple she’d been led to believe. They were only a dozen years older than she was and excited about all the fun things they were going to do when they retired. They’d clearly been active; Theresa looked every day of her sixty-two years, either from too much time in the sun or simply genetics.

Farrah had never been one to suntan, and she’d been lucky with her genetics. Like her own mother, she always looked ten years younger than her actual age—something she’d really grown to appreciate. She didn’t have any wrinkles yet, and the last time she’d checked, she only had one gray hair, which she hadn’t bothered to pull out, despite the mortification of her friends. And now that she’d turned fifty, Farrah had also been thinking of what she was going to do when she retired. Probably not much traveling, considering her teacher’s pension, but she had good friends and family.

Theresa reached into the basket and also picked up one of the pups. “Are you and your daughter considering keeping one of these?”

Farrah smiled graciously at Theresa. The tragedy of losing Kat’s parents and the complicated relationship between them was difficult to explain to strangers, so they’d both learned to respond politely rather than let the situation become awkward.

“No,” Kat said. “I already have a dog. I’m just here to help.”

“Good morning, ladies,” a smooth male voice sounded behind them. “Fancy meeting you here. Hi, Mom. I see you’ve met Kat and Farrah.”

Farrah turned to greet Matt. She shouldn’t have been surprised to see him. Now that she thought about it, Tyler’s grandparents were, of course, Matt’s parents.

Theresa handed the pup in her arms to Matt. “I see Tyler is here. Where’s Stephanie? Or did you bring him?”

“I brought him. He wanted me to have a look at one of the pups. He says that one’s not gaining weight as fast as the others and I should have a look at it.”

Kat jumped up. “That would be this one. She’s so little.”

Matt handed the large pup back to Theresa and took the small one from Kat. “This is the runt of the litter. She’s probably getting outmuscled because she’s outnumbered. Being the smallest, she has the least fight. Sometimes we have to help by giving the smallest ones a bottle.”

Kat’s eyes widened. “Can I do that?”

“You certainly can.” He reached into his pocket and handed her his car keys. “There’s a box on the backseat.”

Kat grabbed the keys and was already on the run before Matt finished his sentence.

He smiled at her disappearing figure. “She’s a good kid. I can see why Tyler likes her.”

“She also likes Tyler, but I don’t know Tyler well enough to comment.”

“He’s a good kid, too. Because he’s so tall and the girls watch him, he plays the part in front of his friends, but he’s really not like that. I keep telling him that if he acts like that in front of his friends, that’s what everyone’s going to think.” Matt paused and tickled the little runt. “But he’s only got eyes for Kat. Ever since she first joined the hockey team.”

Farrah sighed. “Hockey. I’m afraid to mention hockey around Cindy, especially since her love of the game has rubbed off so much on Kat. I’m afraid I’m not really a fan.”

“Me neither. I’m more into baseball myself.”

Kat returned with the box Matt had instructed her to get, and Tyler followed close behind. Farrah stood aside and watched as Matt instructed them how to mix the formula ingredients, warm it in the microwave, and pour it into the bottle that was especially for puppies.

It made Farrah wonder why a man who was so gentle and caring with animals wasn’t married and doing the same for children.

As he stood back to watch Kat feeding the pup, Farrah moved closer to Matt. “I know you see everyone else’s pets all day long, but do you have any pets of your own?”

“Yeah. It’s a proverbial zoo at my place. I have a dog, a cat, a lizard, and a rabbit. No birds, though. I couldn’t stand the noise. Besides, I don’t think a cat and a bird make compatible housemates.”

“What about the cat and the rabbit?”

“It’s a really big rabbit and a very small cat.” He turned to her and grinned. “What about you?”

She shook her head. “No pets, just a couple of fish. I don’t like to leave pets home alone while I’m at work.”

“I leave the cat and the lizard and the rabbit at home all day, and they’re fine. But I take Rex to the clinic every day. He thinks he’s our mascot, and he gets really upset if he thinks I’m going to work and not taking him with me. Here, Kat, try this.”

When he hunkered down to give Kat a little help with the pup, Farrah studied Matt. She couldn’t count the times Kat had told her how hot Matt was for an older guy. She had to admit that he was a handsome man, and not so old, probably a decade younger than she was. But more than good looks, he had a soft heart for both pets and the teens. She wondered again why he wasn’t married with a dozen kids of his own instead of spending so much time with his nephew and, now that she knew, a plethora of pets.

After Matt showed Kat how to burp the puppy, he once again stood and stepped back.

Still sitting on the ground and not looking like she wanted to put the puppy down, Kat looked up at Farrah with big, wide eyes. “I don’t want to go home yet. Can I stay here? I also just thought of something. I think I forgot to let Tippy out. Maybe you and Dr. Matt should go back to Uncle Luke’s and let her out. And I’m getting hungry. The two of you could stop somewhere for lunch and then bring back a couple of burgers or a pizza or something for me and Tyler.”

Matt’s eyes narrowed and he glared at Tyler, whose cheeks and ears turned a brilliant shade of red. “Tyler?” he muttered between his teeth.

Tyler cleared his throat. “I never thought of that. I really didn’t. But I think it’s a great idea. Can we stay with the puppies and Gramma and Grampa? You guys can come back later for us.”

“You know Gramma and Grampa will give you lunch.”

“Yeah, but maybe it would be a nice treat for you to bring them lunch, too. After all, they’re doing a lot of work with these puppies. Don’t you think?”

Matt slumped. Farrah could almost see the waves of guilt stabbing at him.

Then he sighed. “That’s fine with me, what about you?” He turned to Farrah. “I don’t mind driving you back to let Tippy out then picking up lunch for everyone.”

Tyler grinned, and some of the color faded from his cheeks. “No rush. You two can take your time. Right, Kat?”

Kat nodded. “Right.”

Farrah didn’t understand why the two teens were trying to get rid of them, but she did know that they were in good hands with the puppies and Matt’s parents watching them. Maybe she needed to talk to Matt about this, although she wasn’t quite sure what to ask.

She turned to him. “That sounds good. Your car or mine?”