medicine. “Huh.” She slipped the needle into a fold of Mordecai’s flesh. He didn’t even flinch.
“You’re good at that,” Lily said.
“I practiced that a lot in vet school ... giving shots so they wouldn’t hurt so much.” She scratchedone of Mordecai’s ears. “Poor feller’s already hurting, no need for me to make it worse. Actually, y’all arelucky I was in this afternoon. I got called out to the Weaver farm at four o’ clock this mornin’ to help acow in calf. I was so beat at lunch today I thought about not coming back to the office this afternoon. I dolarge animal calls in the mornin’, small animals in the afternoon.” She gave Mordecai another affectionatescratch. “Not that you’d really call ole Mordy here a small animal.”
Dr. Jack’s grin was contagious, and Lily felt herself miling, too. “So do any of the local farmersact surprised when they see the vet’s a woman?”
“Aah, I reckon they’d be surprised if it was any other woman, but my daddy was the county vetbefore me, and I used to go out with him on farm calls when I wasn’t any bigger than a minute. Daddyraised me by himself, so he never wanted to leave me alone in the house when he took off in the middleof the night to help birth a colt or somethin’. So I always went with him. I was helping deliver farmbabies when I was practically a baby myself. People just always figured I’d take over Daddy’s practicewhen he retired.” She lightly touched Mordecai’s wounded foot. “He’s numb. Time to sew him up. ’Scuseme if I don’t talk during this part.”
Dr. Jack’s big hands worked deftly, neatly stitching together Mordecai’s torn flesh. Mimi wasgetting restless, so Lily walked her around the exam room, pointing out the posters of puppies and kittens.
“Okay,” Dr. Jack said, “one more shot, and ole Mordy’ll be good to go.” She looked down at Mimias she went to retrieve more medicine from the refrigerator. “Is little doll face there Benny Jack’s?”
“Uh-huh,” Lily said, reminding herself to preserve the myth.
“Well, whaddaya know?” Dr. Jack cackled. “I wouldn’ta thought he had it in him.” Her smilefaded. “I didn’t mean anything by that. I just meant —”
Lily smiled. “I think I know what you meant.”
Their eyes locked for a moment, in the straight-forward way that only gay people look at eachother. I know what she is, Lily thought, but she’s still trying to figure out what the hell I am ... trying toreconcile the gaydar with the husband and baby.
Dr. Jack broke her gaze, rifled through a drawer, and produced a roll of bandages. “You’ll need to