Where the Deer and the Antelope Play

I nodded. "Yeah, me, too." She seemed to be in a more talkative mood than she'd been on the trip from Denver, so I decided to take a chance. "So what about you? Tell me about Livia Dawes. What are you about? What makes you tick?"

She sighed, as if reluctant to start.

"Or, if you'd rather not, we could just listen to the engine noise and the tires on the road for the next twenty minutes or so as we look mostly at empty cornfields?"

"Yeah, there are a lot of those, aren't there?" she agreed with a smile. "Okay, I'm 36, and I think I told you about my family on the way from Denver. Three brothers are one to four years older than me and the younger was a little over a year behind me, so I had to be a tomboy and pretty tough as a kid to play with them. Mom wanted her little girl, though, so I did all the little girl things, too. You know, dance, gymnastics, skating, and cheerleading, but my favorite in elementary school was soccer. I still did that for a while, but by high school, it was volleyball. I wasn't quite tall enough for a volleyball scholarship, but I played on an IM team in college—"

"Rutgers, right?" I asked, remembering her sweatshirt and cap.

"Yep! I graduated magna cum laude, but my little brother always teases me. His GPA was six-one hundredths higher than mine but he made summa."

"Ouch. Very smart kids, both of you."

She looked at me with that look a woman gives a man when she wants to ask a question but knows she shouldn't. Guessing the question, I decided to volunteer nothing since Alan had helped pull my chestnuts out of more than one academic fire during our college careers.

"What else?" I prompted.

She shook her head as she smiled. "Well, my mom's always been into horses, so she signed me up for riding lessons when I was seven, so I'm a pretty good equestrian, or at least used to be. I run these days to stay in shape, particularly since I love good food, including cooking it, and good wine. Traveling is probably my favorite hobby now, along with reading, and I do some painting every now and then."

"What type of painting?"

"Landscapes mostly. I've done a few sketches of this lonesome prairie that I may try to turn into paintings when I get home, but I don't know if I could do the forlornness of the land the justice it deserves."

"I don't know. I can see it in the art gallery, a blank canvas turned flat sticking out from the wall with the nameplate "A Prairie Scene" or, wait, "The Prairie Seen," I said, spelling out the last word for her. "Because there's not much to see but I've seen quite enough."

"Oh, Ian, it's not that bad!" she scolded through a giggle. "But better not let Alan and Nessa hear you talking like that."

"Don't worry, I've given Alan plenty of grief about it, even before I came out here to see it in person."

The sign we were passing showed Creek City, 5 miles, so Livia continued. "I went to school with plans to become an attorney, but found that my heart wasn't in it so I became a paralegal instead. I had to go back to school for a little while for it. After I got out, I took a job at the same law firm where Nessa's husband, now ex, was one of the senior partners, but I've been with a new firm for almost two years."

"You like it there?"

"Overall, it's much better than the old firm, but I may move eventually. It's a lot smaller, a lot more personal, and there's a lot less stress, most of the time anyway, but the pay's not quite as good either. We're into business law instead of divorce."

"That's good. So tell me, are you single? Married? Divorced?"

She gave me a disapproving frown but then huffed. "I met a guy and almost got married a year or so after getting out of school for good, but we settled into a comfortable engagement and stayed that way until one day about six years later when we realized that we didn't know each other any more."

"Ouch. That hurts."

"Yeah. One day we just realized we weren't meant to be so we went our separate ways without having to pay Redfield Carson and Bonaduce, my old firm, or any other divorce attorneys, to do it. I've had a few boyfriends since—the last one was almost a year—but nothing too serious. What about you?"

"Single," I said. "Always. Marriage is a great limiter if one plans to really live up to the wedding vows...and if one doesn't plan to live up to them, why get married in the first place?"

She nodded slowly, looking intently at me as we entered Creek City. As the GPS told me our next turn was approaching, I saw her reach for her phone and begin typing.

***

There was a "Dental Practice and Building For Sale" sign out front of the nice-sized, single-story office building. It appeared to be well maintained in hopes of attracting a buyer, but I shook my head and silently wished the late dentist's widow well with that.

We pulled in to see Bart leaning against a big Ford pickup truck parked next to a Buick sedan.

"Hope that's his truck he's leaning against," I grumbled, still not sure why I'd agreed to help him after the trouble he'd caused. Maybe an unexpected helping hand would help him keep his job and be a lesson learned for him.

Livia laughed, though. "I don't think guys like that drive Buicks around here, so unless he walked..."

A white-haired lady opened the door as we pulled into a space.

"Dr. Jenkins?"

"Yes, ma'am. Mrs. Nolan?"

"Yes, welcome!"

We stepped in with Bart following behind us, wearing a frown.

Inside the lobby, I said, "Mrs. Nolan, this is my friend Livia Dawes, and over here, this is Bart, the guy with the dental issue you were told about."

"Hi, Livia, nice to meet you," she said in reply. "And hello, Bart." Turning to us, she added, "I've known Barty, and his mama, since each of them were in diapers. His Grandma Lila is my best friend. We've been thick as thieves since we were in First Grade together, way back when, and we're even 'aunt' to each other's children and grandkids."

"Barty" turned a bit red as he said, "Hi, Aunt Janet," and looked away, trying to hide his embarrassment.

"Bart, why don't you have a seat right here while I show Dr. Jenkins around so he can find what he needs to help you."

She gave me a lot more of a tour than I was expecting, telling me all about her late husband's business, the number of patients, the workload, and his income in recent years. It wasn't anywhere close to what I was making in the city, but his overhead, it turned out, was about a quarter of that of Jenkins Family Dentistry, too. The equipment appeared to be in very good shape, and the supply room was surprisingly well stocked. I wasn't interested in the business per se, but gaining a bit of knowledge about how professionals in other parts of the country operated was always interesting. I nodded politely as a result.

"And financing is readily available through Creek City Bank and Trust, with special low interest rates that would be very attractive to the right buyer," Mrs. Nolan concluded.

"I'm sure someone will be very happy here, particularly with that type of opportunity," I agreed, trying to show a bit of enthusiasm for her. "You know, if I were anything like your late husband, I suspect what I need to fix Bart up will be in there."

"Feel free," she said with a smile and a wave.

Five minutes later, she showed me to a patient treatment room that looked as spotless as those in my own office. Taking a paper towel from the dispenser, I put it on the chair and wiped, bringing away no dust in the process. There was no smell of cleaning products, so I suspected that Mrs. Nolan was having the interior maintained regularly, just like the grounds outside.

"Thank you, Mrs. Nolan. This will do. Let's get Bart back here and I'll fix him up so we can all get out of here."

She nodded, not smiling quite as much as she had been before I didn't jump on the great deal she was offering. She stepped out to the lobby with me and took a seat to make a call while I took Bart to the room. I was surprised when Livia trailed in behind and positioned herself off to the side, out of the way but where she could get a decent view.

"Okay, Bart," I said when he, with obvious reluctance, sat down in the chair, "I'm going to examine your tooth and, assuming it's like I think, we're going to add what's called an extra-coronal bonded splint on the back side of your teeth."

I gave him a brief explanation of the procedure, but it didn't seem to ease his mind. I tried to help by adding, "It won't be long before you'll be as good as new, but you will have to arrange a trip to a dentist to have it removed. Now, now, you can schedule this well in advance as a medical issue—I'll give you a note for your boss—so you shouldn't have any trouble getting off work for it."

"Doc, I, ah, I don't think it feels loose anymore," he said when I started to put the bib around his neck. "I don't think I need that splint doohickey after all."

Livia, standing over to the side observing, put her hand over her mouth to cover a smile as she looked over to me. It was a lovely smile, the bit I saw, and there was laughter in her eyes as the big bully chickened out. I gave her a wink and turned back to him.

"Bart, I'll be the judge of that. Let me take a look."

With the bib in place, I had him angle his head back where I could get a look. His teeth looked well maintained, with no obvious issues other than a couple of fillings that had likely been there for years. His gums looked good—he probably flossed, at least semi-regularly—and there were no cuts or bruises to the gum around the tooth.

The tooth itself looked fine, with no chips or cracks, so I probed a little as Bart squirmed in the chair. Still seeing nothing, I checked each tooth in the area, making sure we weren't looking at the wrong one. Everything was in good order, so I did another check inside his mouth, looking at his tongue for a bite, a cut, or any other signs of trauma that might be associated with his face slam. Finally, I checked the roof of his mouth, the inside of his cheeks, and the inside of his upper and lower lips, but found nothing that would explain his bleeding the evening before.

"Bart, have you ever had your teeth bleed like last night before?"

"Uh, no. I try to take care of my teeth like Dr. Nolan always said. Something wrong?"

"No, nothing, as far as I can tell. You appear to be a very quick healer, with your tooth and your mouth both healing overnight. Care to explain that?"

"So I don't need the splint thingy, right?"

"Nope, doesn't look like it," I agreed. "As long as you take care of it and don't eat anything hard for a couple of weeks, I'd say you're good to go."

He pulled the bib off and was out of the chair in a second. "Thanks, Doc. I've got to get back to work. Bye!"

He hurried out the door of the treatment room and down the hall, so I followed behind, stopping just inside the door to the lobby as he went out the front door of the building, calling, "Bye, Aunt Janet!"

"Thanks, Bart!" she replied, barely audibly. I silently returned to the treatment room and cleaned up as Livia looked on questioningly.

"Did you get him all fixed up?" asked Mrs. Nolan. "We could sure use a dentist like you around here."

"Yeah, I think he's good," I agreed. "Thanks again for letting me borrow your office to help him."

"Any time! Would you and Livia like to have lunch with me?"

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Nolan, but we're running behind schedule, so we need to go now."

***

"Ian, what the heck was going on in there?" asked Livia once we pulled out of the parking lot.

"I'm not sure but I suspect that Mrs. Nolan had Bart—" and, I wondered, possibly the lovely Sophie? "—pull a ruse on me to get me into that office so Mrs. Nolan could show it to me in hopes I might pull up stakes and 'go west, young man.' She'd be able to sell the practice and maybe the building, too, and Bumpkin Creek here would solve its dentist problem. Trouble is, I'm not big on being tricked, and I really don't like being taken advantage of."

"So Bart really wasn't hurt? What about all the blood you guys said you saw?"

"Not hurt in the least, as far as I could see."

The GPS broke in, telling me to make a turn toward our next destination.

"And as for the blood, it could have been theatrical blood or—damn, it was a barbecue place, maybe sauce or even ketchup, for all I know. He didn't let me get a good look last night, holding it for a while, and he very well could have pulled out a tube or vial or whatever while we weren't looking. I never got a good look at the tooth last night, either, except when he flashed it at me and I saw it wasn't hanging by its root."

I gritted my teeth—an exceptionally bad practice, as any dentist worth their salt, including me, will tell you—as we made our next turn and saw the sign for the building we were seeking just ahead.

"It doesn't make sense, though, Ian. How would Bart have known there'd have been a dentist at that restaurant at that particular time?"

That was bothering me, too, and I didn't know how to answer. Maybe I was imagining it all. There was a second question bothering me, though. If it really had been a set-up, I didn't know whether the lovely Sophie had been in on it. I'd enjoyed our time together, but hated to think she'd done it to trick me...but it all fit so well.

For the first time in a long time, I felt used and I wasn't happy about it.

***

Having completed our first errand in silence, Livia waited until we got back in the rental car to ask, "Ian, you want to get some lunch? I'm a pretty good listener if you want to get anything off your chest."

I programmed the next address into the maps app on my phone without replying and then pulled out of the parking lot onto the street as directed. Knowing I didn't want to tell Livia about my time with Sophie and the possibility of her having used her feminine charms to great effect on me, I sighed and said, "Yeah, lunch sounds good; we can find something on the way, as long as it's not barbecue, if that's okay with you."

She gave me a warm smile and agreed. Looking down at her phone, she said, "The map app says there's a Chinese restaurant a couple blocks ahead. How about that?"

"Sounds good," I agreed and pulled into the lot a minute or so later. Inside, we found it was a buffet so we spoke with the hostess, made our selections at the buffet counters, and then had a seat to eat.

Livia smiled looking at my plate, which, admittedly, had more food on it than it should have had. "Someone didn't eat breakfast?"

"Nope. Slept late and only had time for coffee. I skip breakfast fairly often, though, and then try no to overdo it at lunch."

Grinning, she snickered, "Try?"

"I'm on vacation, okay, and I probably won't eat it all. You know, sample everything, and then indulge in the good stuff. Actually, that's sort of my philosophy on life."

Looking at my plate, she smiled. "We'll see how much is left when you're done. As for your 'philosophy,' you're a hedonist then? That could be great, I think, as long as it doesn't go too far. One of those ancient Greeks, Hesiod, I think, said something about that, all things being good in moderation?"

"Yeah, I think there's something to be said for hedonism. Why not? We only have so many years before we're too old to be able to enjoy them. Regarding your quote, I recall it, but I think it was actually something like moderation was best in all things, not whether the things would actually be so good."

She was watching me closely as I said that before slowly nodding. "It's been a long time since my college Classics course, but I think you may be right. And I guess that's true, too, at least to a degree. Of course, Oscar Wilde thought otherwise, believing if you were going to do something, do it to excess."

I raised my cup of tea. "To Oscar and excess," leading Livia to smile and clink her cup to mine.

We ate in silence for a bit before Livia put down her chopsticks. "So...I think our conversation was a little one-sided in the car earlier; it's your turn now, tell me more about yourself. What was your phrase? What makes Ian Jenkins tick?"

I chuckled and nodded. "Guess that's fair." I told her about myself, a little more about my background, with only a quick mention of my father, before sneaking in a question about her. We spent the rest of lunch talking, enjoying the conversation and company while chowing down on more food that we intended.

She asked the tough question when were back in the car. "Ian, you said you'd never married. Never even been engaged? And you said marriage was a limitation. You don't believe in it or is it something else? Do you just not like the idea of living with someone else?"

"Mmm, no, living together really isn't an issue at all, nor is marriage as an institution if you go into it planning to do it right. It's actually a lot simpler than that. I've just never fallen in love, and without that, there's no reason to even think about engagement or marriage. Way too many marriages fail even with the people claiming they love each other, so why would anyone want to push forward when that vital part is missing? I saw my parents and what happened to them, so not me, no way, no how. Maybe that will change someday...or maybe not."

She had an understanding look on her face as she nodded but then looked down at her phone as we continued our way toward Bettleys Corners.

***

I pulled into Nessa's driveway off County Route 132.

"Want to come in and take a look at Nessa's house? I think she wants to sell it to me if I decide to move out here."

"Sure, lead on. So she's trying to convince you to move out here and to buy her house? Sounds like a conflict of interest to me," I said with a laugh as we got out of the car.

"Yeah, that will never happen. Even if I were to decide to move out here, the nearest law firm where I could work is way too far away...though it does have an incredible hot tub! Well, come on in."

I was surprised when she took my hand and led me around to the front door. Her hand was soft and warm. Her holding my hand was, in itself, an innocent gesture, but I suddenly felt excitement at the possibilities but an unusual sense of shame that she was more like a friend than my typical potential conquest.

It was a lovely house, the part we saw, and I loved the in-ground hot tub around back, immediately thinking of how much fun it could be with Livia. Realizing what I was thinking, I turned away only to see Livia bringing in a surprise.

"This is Moby, Nessa's dog," she said. "Moby loves to play. Come join us!"

He was a little thing, a Shih Tzu or something like that, but he seemed to think himself king of the world having two devoted servants at his playful command. Nessa had fenced the back yard so he could play off leash in addition to having a pretty good size dog walk connected to the house for protection, Livia said, against wolves, coyotes, and pterodactyls.

My head swiveled toward her when she said it, only to see her grinning as she playfully poked my arm. "Just making sure you were listening. There haven't been any pterodactyl sightings around here in, oh, at least the past few years."

Something about that look made me want to pull her into my arms and kiss her, but decorum, or at least uncertainty about what she expected considering what we had to do over the next twenty-four hours or so, prevailed and I resisted. "No dinosaurs, no pterodactyls, and no buffalo," I replied, smiling. "Alan said there are quite a few deer, though, dear, and even some antelope, pronghorns, sometimes."

She gave me a surprised look when I slipped up and said "dear," but said nothing about it. Instead, she continued the line of light banter. "No telling what kind of trouble they could get into with their play, if they tried, just like this little guy. And speaking of which, time to go inside, Moby!" She scooped him up and went inside, with me watching the curves of her sexy jeans the whole way.