Chapter One
“Stop rolling your eyes.You know I’m right.Thisisa bad idea. Maybe your worst to date. Probably ever. Most definitely, this year.”
“I’m not rolling my eyes. You areneverright. And this isn’t even the worst idea I’ve had today,” she snorted, just barely keeping the laughter out of her voice.
"Yeah, well, I still think…."
“I know. I know. Youthinkthat you should come with me, right? I'm well aware. It’s not like I’m new here.” Turning around, Macy pretended to glare at her best friend. Of course, it didn't help that the guy also just happened to be married to her sister. Dadgummit, he knew all her tricks – even the ones she’d forgotten.
But that didn’t matter. This was a battle of sarcastic wit, and she wasn’t about to lose.
Working hard to school her expression, Macy raised a single eyebrow and gave the next words out of her mouth an extra large dose of her famous Southern sass. “Know how I know that’s what’s rollin’ around in that melon of yours?”
“‘Cause that’s what’s always rollin’ around up there,” he mouthed as she said the words. Of course, he added a sarcastic eye roll and pointed at Macy’s head, then stuck out his tongue just to try to make her laugh.
It was so hard to keep a straight face, and dammit, Dr. Lou McDonald knew it. He was her brother, not just in-law, but in every way that truly counted. Moreover, the loveable goofball - originally from New York, of all things – possessed a quick wit that rivaled her own and a crooked smile he knew how to use.
It also helped that he’d fought tooth and nail to get into Texas A&M’s veterinary college when everybody else said he couldn’t do it. And it damned sure sealed the deal when he crashed into her heart at first-year orientation with a wink, a grin, and a snappy comeback.
Yep. It was a fact she’d come to terms with long ago - Lou was one of the best guy’s she’d ever met.
Of course, they both thought about romance from the get-go. What eighteen-year-old doesn’t? Talk about raging hormones – colleges should find a vaccine for that shit. But it only took one, single,horribledate lasting less than thirty minutes before it became obvious that they were meant to be friends.
No. Check that. She and Lou were meant to befamilyfor life and leave romance far,farout of the picture.
And that meant she could tease him mercilessly, pick at him like he was lint on her black dress pants, and laugh at him when he screwed up. After all, that was love, right?
Working hard to keep a straight face, knowing damn good and well Lou was concocting one hell of a comeback, Macy slowly nodded. Refusing to look away, she tried –unsuccessfully– to intimidate him with a furrowed brow and a robust frown. Then, reaching forward, she laid her hand on his shoulder and tilted her head to the side.
Pausing even longer just to be a snot, knowing full well that her silence was driving the man who just happened to be married to her older sister stark raving mad, switched the arch in her eyebrow from one to the other. Counting to three, the muscles in her cheeks hurting from the effort it took not to laugh out loud, she waited until her brother-in-law had literally opened his mouth to speak before jumping in with a snappy retort that had him wheezing with laughter.
“But we bothknow, beyond all shadow of a doubt, that your pregnant wife – aka, my big sister - will kick your ass and skin me alive if you're late for dinner one more time." Holding up her index finger to keep him from interrupting, Macy snorted. "I've already been properly threatened with bodily harm and a crappy burial in a shallow grave in the middle of the desert where the vermin will dig me up and gnaw on my bones if I keep you one second after six. Furthermore, I had to swear on a stack of bibles, all my back issues of Today’s Veterinary Practice, and every book written by the great Claude Bourgelat and my personal hero, Elinor McGrath, that I would do nothing to make you late getting home until your soon-to-be-born son is at least ten years old.”
“Whatever,” he pffted. “Rox was just messin’ around. You know your sister. She’s all huff and puff, no blow. She’ll understand. She knows how important our work is. Hell, she’s the one who’s been keeping up on your progress like it’s one of those murder mystery shows she loves so much. She knows better than we do that it’s been six damned weeks since you started tracking the wild animal we’re all calling Big Foot.”
More like eight, but who’s countin’?
“This is a huge deal. He’s in a whole other league. Those paw prints look positively prehistoric. They are gargantuan.”
Sure, they're big but gargantuan? Yeah, that's right. I said it. Trying – unsuccessfully – to be humble. I can see it now, Dr. Macy Lindon, DMV lecturing at the finest colleges, universities, and…
"What if he's a whole new species?" Lou's question pulled Macy from her most recent flight of fancy. "Maybe he's a Shifter? One of the elusive Dragons – not the regular Dragon Shifters like the MacAllens…."
“You know, there’s something seriously wrong with you, my friend. Sayin’ that the MacAllens are regular Dragon Shifters? That shit could get you turned into a pile of ash in these parts,” Macy snickered, not surprised when Lou kept right on going like she hadn’t said a word.
“From all the stories your dad used to tell us. What if he is…?”
“Ummm, stop right there, Yankee Man,” she teased, finally getting her brother-in-law to take a breath. “First of all, why’s it gotta be male? You never heard of girls with big feet?” Lifting her size ten boots, Macy teased, “My momma and daddy didn’t make no tiny-toed daughters there, Buster. Hell, you're married to my sister and about to have a baby with her. I sure hope y'all have already put back loads of extra money for all the super-sized shoes you're gonna have to buy." Shaking her head, she snorted as she kept right on teasin'. "That kid is gonna go through boots like diapers – and his boots better be Lucchese or nuthin' at all, Bub."
“Shut up, you know what I mean.”
"Yeah, I do, and you're stalling. It doesn't matter if whatever's leaving those footprints is purple with pink spots, just one of the MacAllen Dragons or the second coming of the Goddess herself. If your happy ass isn’t sitting at the table with a smile on your face at six-thirty on the dot, we’ll both be dead with a capital D.”
Once again, holding up her finger as Lou opened his mouth to interrupt for the umpteenth time, Macy kept going, "You know as well as I do that Roxanne Lindon-McDonald doesnotmess around. No way. No how. Not ever. Not in all of Heaven or Hell or the great state of Texas does she play – especially when it comes to you having your happy heiney at the table for dinner. Nor will she understand.”
Waving her finger back and forth just because she knew it irritated her brother-in-law, the Vet kept right on going. “As you well know, her hormones are all over the place right now. Understanding isnota virtue she’s possessed any other time in her entire life, but now? Eight-and-a-half months into her first pregnancy? She couldn't give two hoots if she was an owl sittin' in a tree."
Throwing out her arms and leaning forward, she refused to stop until Lou was doubled over with laughter. “At this point in time, she couldn’t give less of a shit how important our work is. We could be findin’ good homes for all the little puppies, kitties, lizards, and birdies in the whole dadgum world, and she would not be impressed. Bless her heart, the only thing that matters to my amazing big sis is you being where she wants you to be when she wants you to be there. Period.”