Cinderella Hour

Pinewood Veterinary Clinic Meadow View Drive Quail Ridge, Illinois Saturday, October 29, 5:45 p.m. Present day "Wow." Bea Evans, who'd been on the living room couch consulting the television listings for the evening, sprang to her feet. "You look absolutely positively fabulous." Mira Larken, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, acknowledged this with a self-deprecating smile. "I look different, Bea." "Absolutely positively fabulous." The retired school nurse made a twirling motion with her fingers. When the lilac-gowned Mira complied with a 360-degree turn, she added, "From every angle." "Well. Thanks. Okay, so you know where I'll be." "The Starlight Ballroom at the Wind Chimes Hotel. I have the number right here." "I'm also taking my pager." "Why? You'd never hear it over the gala sounds." "I've set it on vibrate." "Where is it?" Mira pointed to the gown's satin sash. The pager was thin, the bulge scarcely visible. But Bea was having none of it. "Hand that over, Dr. Larken. If I need you, I'll find you. Besides, our girl's on the mend." Their girl was a calico cat named Agatha. Thirty-six hours post-op from the removal of an infected gallbladder, she was doing so well Mira hoped to release her at noon tomorrow. For the moment, Agatha was indeed "theirs." Bea was the best veterinary assistant Mira had ever known -- and the best mother. Mira's biological mother, Marielle, was flourishing in Palm Beach. She would've approved, as Bea had, of Mira's Pearl Moon gown, but for a very different reason -- relief that her fashion-averse daughter was dressed appropriately for the charity ball. To Marielle DuMonde Larken, appearance was all. Beatrice Evans didn't give a hoot about appearance. Her enthusiasm was purely for Mira. Bea simply hoped she'd have an enjoyable evening out on the town. Mira hadn't appreciated what she'd been missing in the mother department until the nurse she'd last seen during her school days at Hilltop Elementary wandered across Meadow View Drive to welcome Mira -- and her in-home veterinary clinic -- to Pinewood. That was three months ago. Bea had been mothering her and the creatures in their care ever since. And Bea was right. Agatha was on the mend. Besides, if the calico so much as turned a whisker, Bea would be on the case. Mira relinquished her pager to Bea's outstretched hand. "I'm not sure when I'll be home." "Whenever Vivian's ready to come home. And not a second before. Or after." There wasn't an ounce of criticism in Bea's remark -- or in Mira's reply. Facts were facts. "Good point. Unless, of course, Blaine wants to stay until the very end. He might, since it's a hospital event and he's in his final days as chief of staff. If so, Vivian will agree. She's pretty happy doing whatever Blaine wants, as long as they're together." "Do you suppose she'll ever thank you for introducing her to the man of her dreams?" "No. Which is fine. It was a referral, not an introduction. And let's face it, Bea, matchmaking couldn't have been farther from my mind when Blaine asked me if Vivian would be a good choice for the kind of legal advice he wanted. He already knew she specialized in family law, and might well have contacted her on his own. I'd never have predicted they'd fall in love -- much less within a second of laying eyes on each other." Mira hadn't known either of the lovebirds very well, not the once-divorced fifty-two-year-old psychiatrist or her twice-engaged never-married thirty-four-year-old sister. But she was thrilled for the deliriously in love -- though no less judgmental -- Vivian and the equally in love Blaine Prescott, M.D. "So don't worry," Bea said. "I'll see you when I see you. If I get sleepy, I'll take a nap in the guest bedroom. What would you like me to do if you-know-who calls? I'd be delighted to give him a piece of my mind." "I know you would, Bea. I was thStone, Katherine is the author of 'Cinderella Hour ', published 2006 under ISBN 9780778323273 and ISBN 0778323277.