Tipping Point (32 page)

“I thought one of the ferrets got to them or something. They might not be able to swallow a slug whole, and it would kill them if they tried, but even licking it would be bad. It was such a careless thing to do. Normally I’m a fanatic about things like that.” Neil smiled and rubbed up and down her arms.

“Well, no worries then. They didn’t get to them. You want some eggs? There are plenty of them this morning. We might end up with too many of them soon, so it looks like we have a lot of baking and dehydrating in the near future.” Mac finally turned to Kelly.

“I’m sorry. I’m naturally rude, so I’m not sure there’s even a point to apologizing for it, but there you have it. It probably won’t get better. Before I forget, though, you’re supposed to eat whatever you like, whenever you like. Just stick the dishes in the dishwasher, and we’ll get along fine.” Kelly smiled at her.

“Neil already told me that. No worries. In fact, he made breakfast for me, and for Annette. She just went back to the bedroom for a while. It wasn’t a good night for her, of course. She was stuck in the room with that guy for two days. At first because he had a knife, and later because she was too beat up to get away.

“Speaking of knives, I forgot to give this back to you last night.” She gave Mac her KA-BAR, and Mac gazed at it lovingly. Kelly laughed at her expression.

“Thank you. I love my toy. It’s how I met my soon-to-be husband.” Neil interrupted briefly to find out from Mac how she wanted her eggs.

“Over easy it is, then,” he said casually.

“You have a very unusual sense of sentimentality, don’t you?”

“I suppose so,” Mac answered Kelly. “Some women like flowers. I like a good old fashioned knife. Well, I suppose the engagement ring has its charms, too.” Neil gave her a look at that, and so she stuck her tongue out at him.

“How long have you two been going out?” Mac kind of smirked at Kelly’s question.

“I’m not sure you could call it ‘going out,’ but we met on Wednesday.” Kelly choked on her coffee.

“Wow! I’ve never seen a whirlwind romance like that before. Annette and I have been together for a couple of years, and we just started talking about getting married. I’d never had a relationship with a woman until I started having feelings for Annette. Yet when it happened it felt like the most natural thing in the world. Is this bothering you that I’m talking about my sexuality?” Mac snorted.

“No. I don’t care if you’re into leprechauns, so long as they’re capable of consent.” Kelly laughed and went on.

“Okay. The marriage thing is going to have to wait now, anyway. There’s just too much going on for me to deal with all that stuff. I don’t know how you guys are managing.”

“It’s been pretty exciting around here, that’s for sure. Neil was a huge exception for me. I’ve never been particularly impulsive with marriage, though I did make two really stupid choices. And I never had with my two ex-husbands what I have now with Neil.” Neil looked up again and grinned.

Kelly nodded, but otherwise didn’t respond. She just sat there stirring her coffee. Mac let her think while she ate the eggs Neil slid in front of her. He cleaned up the counter and stove and left the house. Mac dumped her plate in the dishwasher and poured some coffee into a travel mug to take outside with her, leaving Kelly to her musings.

As soon as Mac was outside she made arrangements to get Leigh and Kirk set up at the cabin. She had seen the mattress on the floor of the living area, so Cam had apparently taken her up on her suggestion. She’d take the tent with Neil tonight if the rain continued to hold off.

Whether Mac wanted a day off or not, things still needed to be done. They got the third and fourth goat pens done, but without any concrete pads or sheds. They had built one so that it was attached to the does’ pen, and the other so it attached to the bucks’ pen. Then they added a gate in between, instead of an exit gate. It saved on wood, since they only had to build three sides for each pen. Once the concrete was dry enough around the posts, they opened the new gates and let the goats wander back and forth. They had double the space, with no need for another shed just yet.

Mac went through the gardens, double-checking that the automated watering system was working properly, and searching for pests. If they ended up with snails or anything, she’d let the chickens into the gardens for a snack. That was why she’d chosen to put the coop so close to the gardens in the first place. All she had to do now was make sure the chickens couldn’t escape the yard if she let them out of the coop. Annette came out of the house while she was standing there.

“I was wondering if you would show me your setup with the animals. I’d like to get familiar with things around here.” Mac nodded and did as she’d asked. When they got to the goats Annette’s face brightened right up.

“Oh, they’re so adorable! I love goats, but I don’t know much about breeds or anything. I’ll have a lot of studying to do to catch up on their physiology, of course, but I’d like to familiarize myself with them from the outside in. Tell me what you know about them.”

Mac explained the breeds she’d purchased, and her limited knowledge about breeding and milk production. She was even less knowledgeable about the angoras, so she was pretty vague when she talked about them. She’d let Neil fill her in on the goats he had at the cabin, since she hadn’t asked him about them.

With the number of people at the farm now, combining her household with Neil’s, she was thinking they should buy more of the angoras for breeding. They might actually need that much wool as time went on. She wasn’t trying to save the world’s goat population or anything, but self-sufficiency was important now.

Mac took Annette to the chicken pen, letting her know it was a temporary set-up due to their initial rush.

“In fact, all of this is temporary in a way. You can see the concrete pad over there with the capped pipes sticking out. That’s for the new house. The design of the steel building makes it an easy set-up, and once we have the time it’ll only take a couple of days for it to go up. With three bedrooms it’ll be enough for our family.

“Leigh and Kirk have already gone with Neil over to his cabin, so they’ll be living there for now and looking after the livestock. We’re leaving the animals where they are. Mine are stressed from being moved, so their production isn’t up to par yet. Until they are I don’t want to stress the other ones, and it’s good separation for later breeding.

“You and Kelly are an unexpected gift and surprise for us. Having someone who knows ferrets in addition to a real vet, could make a big difference in the future. You’d both be welcome here anyway, but this keeps us from the hope-and-pray kind of vet care we’d have been forced to resort to.” Annette let out a small chuckle.

“I’m happy to be able to help. I want to thank you again for what you did at the clinic, and also for bringing us here.”

“Thanks aren’t necessary. We’re all helping each other survive however we can.”

When they were done with the short tour, Annette decided to head inside, so Mac asked her to let Kelly know the back door would be locked for a couple of days. She had to start on better ferret accommodations. With the twelve they already had, not including Pickle and Squeaker, and whatever number they would end up with from the other two shelters, the current situation would turn into a disaster.

Mac was finished digging by the time Neil’s truck pulled up to the house. She left the shovel where she’d already plunged it into the dirt, and headed over to let the three of them know about the back door.

“Jesus, honey, don’t you have a hat, or sunblock at least?” Mac touched her face.
Fuck
. No wonder her skin felt tight, even with all the sweat.

“I do, but apparently I’m a big idiot, so why don’t we let that go for now? I didn’t want to forget to tell you not to use the back door.”

“Why? What on earth are you up to that you’ve forgotten any semblance of self-preservation?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. It’s not that bad. Is it?” From the looks on their collective faces, it apparently was.

“Shit. I guess I’d better get my ass inside then. Come on. I’ll tell you what I’m doing when we all get into the house.”

She was naturally very pale-skinned, and now she was being forced to spend a lot of time outside. When Mac checked her face in the bathroom mirror, it became obvious she would not be going outside much in the near future. She looked like a boiled lobster, and her sunblock could only do so much.

After applying burn gel to her face, her skin felt somewhat better and she headed back out to explain what she was doing with the ferret run. She wrote down the measurements for Neil so he could continue where she’d left off. He headed out with Billy right away to get started.

“Man, am I ever going to look stupid tomorrow when we get married,” Mac said to Cameron.

“You kind of look stupid already, wedding or not.”

“Very funny. I need to figure out what to wear tomorrow, though.”

“I’m not sure why you’re even bothering to get married.” Mac looked up sharply at her daughter.

“Well, I am.”

“That’s not what I meant. Relax. Even if I think this is insane, I was talking about the possibility that the world is about to self-destruct. What difference will it make if you’re married?”

“Hard to explain, but it feels important to me, and it’s obviously important to Neil or he’d never have gone out and bought a ring. He wanted to make sure he could get it sized, because he didn’t think there would be anyone around to do it later.” Cameron thought about that for a minute.

“It’s so weird to think about. All these things we can do now, and soon they won’t be there. Things we maybe didn’t think about, because it wasn’t important to us, but might be later. If you’d met Neil a few weeks from now, he’d never have been able to get you that ring. Or maybe he’d have looted it, but it might not have fit, so you’d have to go through the store’s inventory to find one that did.”

“You’re probably wondering what will happen if you end up finding someone you actually want to make a commitment to. Well, you know, Billy sure seems to be interested. Maybe you should tell him your ring size just in case.”

“Mom! For God’s sake. He’s only eighteen.”

“I was just teasing you, though he’s a mature eighteen. A couple of years from now and he’ll fill out enough that you’ll be drooling over him. He’ll get over some of his shyness, too. That doesn’t mean you’ll be interested, of course, but he sure won’t seem so young then.” Cam smiled wickedly.

“It’s not that. He’s already a total hottie. He’s just too young for me. His shyness also makes him seem like he has no confidence, and that bugs me. I’ve noticed the way he looks at me, but I’ve been ignoring it. If I react in any way it will lead into the big talk I don’t wanna have.”

“I’m glad I’m not either one of you. Those conversations suck from both ends.

“Can you run out and ask Neil what his ring size is? Maybe I can find something online and call to have it sized and ready for pick-up tomorrow. He put some thought into my ring, so I want to give him something other than a plain gold band.”

Cameron ran out and Mac went into her bedroom. She found a single jewelry store in town, which thankfully had a website, so she began her search there. Cam found her a couple of minutes later.

“Nice,” she said when she saw the band with the channel-set rubies Mackenzie was looking at. “Why rubies?”

“His birthday’s in July. I looked it up on Facebook.” Cameron smirked.

“Anyway, he said he’s an eleven, but he was grinning. I hope he wasn’t joking or anything. You know, like a scale of one to ten kind of deal?” Mac laughed.

“I doubt it. He probably figures I’ll catch the reference, though. Either that or he’s just happy I’m making wedding plans. Let me call them.” Cameron waited while Mackenzie made the arrangements.

“I don’t suppose you’ll be able to do that for your clothes, huh?” Cameron wanted to know as soon as she hung up.

“Probably not. I can check out stock types maybe, but I still have to try things on. I was thinking maybe a sundress and some strappy sandals. They won’t have much value later on, but I don’t care. I want something nice to get married in. Maybe I can get a big, floppy hat that will shade my ridiculous face.”

“What about flowers? You’ve got seeds for a flower garden, but haven’t put one in yet, so you’ll have to buy them. I should probably get something to wear, too.”

“Good point. As stupid as I feel about doing a bunch of online shopping while the men-folk do all the hard work, let’s see what we can find for stores in this town.” A knock at the door had them looking up. Kelly was standing there, visible from the waist up through the half-door.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Sure. The ferrets are asleep, but watch out for their ninja escape tactics. Squeaker’s very good at it.” Kelly smiled as she came in, her eyes watching the floor until she closed the bottom half of the door again.

“Does he hide under furniture to sneak up to the door?” Mac smiled back at her.

“He sure does. Little bugger. He’s the one we got from your shelter. We got Pickle through a friend of a friend. Something about attacking cats, though I originally thought they meant the cats were attacking the ferret. Until I got him home and realized just how feisty he was.” Kelly was laughing by then.

“Ferrets are insane aren’t they?” They chatted about the ferrets for a few minutes, before Kelly came to the point.

“Do you already have a wedding official? Like a minister or something?” Mac was surprised at the topic, but answered.

“No. I figured I’d ask for a list of locals when we picked up the licence in Parry Sound. Neither of us is religious. Neil hasn’t said anything about it at any rate, and I would think he’d have done so by now with all my ‘goddamnits.’“

“Don’t forget the ‘forchrist’ssakes,’“ Cameron added.

“Oh, yes. Mustn’t forget those. Why do you ask?”

“Well, if you need someone, and neither of you has anyone in mind, I’m a Justice of the Peace. It was a good way to support the shelter.”

“I’ll talk to Neil. He might have someone in mind, but I don’t think so. I’ll let you know.” A quick grin had Mac smiling in return. Friends weren’t always such a bad deal.