Capri slid her chair back and stood.
“Where are you going?” Reva asked.
“Annie’s swamped. I’m going to go get us another round.” When the girls all went for their purses, she shook her head. “This one’s on me.”
Charlie Grace watched her friend weave through the crowd. “What about you, Lila? How’s vet school going?”
Her pretty dark-haired friend rolled her blue eyes and sighed. “It’s much harder than I thought it would be. We had a visiting prof from UC Davis here this week.”
Lila had already obtained her DVM designation. Based on dozens of recommendations, she’d landed a coveted spot in UC Davis’s large animal veterinary extension program. The extra classes while interning for Doc Tillman had her burning candles at both ends.
“Oh? Tell us more,” Reva urged.
Lila fidgeted with her beer bottle. “His presentation was on the nonsurgical obstetric management of dystocia. While a transverse presentation is very rare in cattle, the condition is found more often in horses ending in lost foals.” She shuddered. “Next week, I have a clinical where I will practice repulsion and rotation. They bring in a life-sized dummy horse.”
Charlie Grace grimaced. “Sounds painful…even if the horse is made of plastic.”
“Don’t I know? Camille was born breech. Remember?”
Reva nodded. “How can we forget? We were so worried that night.”
Capri showed back up at the table with a tray filled with bottles and glasses. “Worried about what?” she asked as she distributed the drinks.
Reva reached for her glass and slipped her empty onto Capri’s waiting tray. “We were remembering the night Camille was born.”
Lila laughed. “I thought that nothing could be harder than a scary birth. It turns out I was wrong. Having a teenage daughter in the house is a lot like running a blender without a top on it.”
Charlie Grace quickly empathized. “And no one is more passionate about their child-rearing opinions than women who don’t have kids.”
Reva frowned. “Hey, now.”
Charlie Grace playfully punched her girlfriend’s upper arm. “Not you. I was talking about….” She let her voice drift and nodded toward Nicola Cavendish, who had just entered the bar and was heading for Oma’s table with her knitting bag in hand. “I’m not trying to talk trash, but when Nicola wears her hair up like that, doesn’t she look a lot like Mrs. Oleson inLittle House on the Prairie?”
“Mrs. Oleson didn’t wear jeans.” Capri fixed her gaze on the woman’s boots. “And custom Lucchese’s.”
Reva turned. “Oh, my goodness. Those are gorgeous.”
“Down, girl. You already own at least six pairs,” Charlie Grace reminded.
Reva frowned. “Not every aspect of life needs to be approached with caution. I was being spontaneous when I bought each and every pair of those boots. You know what that word means, right?”
Lila laughed. “Are you speaking to Charlie Grace?”
“I’m spontaneous,” Charlie Grace argued, then added tongue-in-cheek, “Just because I’m a divorced mom who runs a ranch and works from morning until night doesn’t mean I don’t know how to have spur-of-the-moment fun.”
They all nodded. “Right.”
Capri gathered the remaining empty bottles and put them on the tray. “Speaking of fun, how’s Jason Griffith these days?”
Charlie Grace’s shoulders stiffened. “He’s just fine. Why?”
Reva’s eyes sparkled with amusement. “The man celebrated your one-year dating anniversary by giving you a box set of flavored mustards.”
Charlie Grace was quick to defend him. “He ordered them online from Poland. He says their popular Kamis Stolowais extraordinarily flavorful, a Dijon highly reminiscent of horse radish.”
Capri hoisted the tray onto her shoulder. “No offense, Charlie Grace, but a truckload of spicy mustard won’t erase the fact that the guy you’re dating is bland.” She tilted her head in the direction of the bar. “Unlike that guy. Man, he’s hot. I mean, he looks just like McDreamy fromGrey’s Anatomy.”
They all turned to check the guy out.
