Chapter 13

With Mickey back from his trip, it made it a full table at poker, given that Sam, Kevin, and Jeffrey had joined them. Jessie didn't like poker, so she wasn't at the table, though she, Sandy, and Danielle were there. Sam had suggested they take advantage of a warm day to grill, and Mickey had dragged his outdoor grill over from his porch to do it. It had turned into quite the little party, where everyone ponied up some cash to buy some hamburgers and hot dogs, Sam brought two cases of European lagers of different brands for them to try, and Jessie, Danielle, and Sandy had offered to do the actual grilling in return for later favors. They were silent as to what this favor was, but Kit figured it would be something interesting.

It was a swift and calming return to the routine. Jessie was back home, and after their rather exuberant welcome home, it was right back to the way things should be. Poker was the Sunday ritual, and Jessie herself wanted to get back to the routine, even if it was her first day back after being gone for a week. Danielle was new to the gathering, and Sam, Kevin, Sandy, and Jeffrey were still settling into the poker group, so it wasn't entirely routine. It was a little big for Lupe's apartment, but he was happy to have them over.

"Man, Jessie, that smells awesome! What is it?" Mickey asked.

"Baked nuts," she answered as she bent over the oven in the kitchen. "I think you'll like them."

"What kind of food is that?" Lupe asked.

"It's an appetizer," she answered. "Just trust me."

"How was Louisiana, Mick?" Dan asked as he shuffled the cards.

"Dude, it was hot," he answered. "It was ninety degrees! In November!"

"Well, they had six inches of snow on the ground when I left Cincinnati on Friday," Kit chuckled. "I guess the weather's gone totally screwy on us. How warm is it outside right now?"

"It's eighty, when it's usually around sixty for this time of year," Sam answered.

There was a knock at the door, and before Lupe could call out, Sheila poked her head inside. "Hello? Kit?"

Kit sighed. "Can she come in, Lupe?"

"Yah sure," he grinned. "Come in!"

"Kit, Higgins just got here," she told him. "I got my car! Oh, I didn't realize it was a party," she said, looking around.

"Party no, just Sunday poker," Dan said, giving her a toothy grin. "From those eyes, she's a relative of yours, Kit?"

"Yeah. Everyone, this is Sheila Vance Vulpan, one of my cousins. Sheila, this is the poker crew. Dan, Mickey, Sam, Kevin, Jeffrey, you know Lupe, and there in the kitchen are Sandy, Danielle, and my fiancée, Jessie."

Jessie rushed out of the kitchen and immediately took Sheila's paws. Kit couldn't see Jessie's expression, but Sheila looked up at the taller femme with her maw open. "I was hoping to meet you!" Jessie told her happily. "I'm Jessica, but you can call me Jessie."

"We call her JD," Sandy teased from the kitchen.

"So, you're the cat Kit's marrying," Sheila said, looking at her. "I see why he likes you. You're a cat with fox markings."

She laughed. "My grandfather was a fox," she admitted.

"You're mixed? Wow, would my mother ever blow a fuse if she knew that," Sheila laughed. "Then again, they had a meltdown when they heard about you."

"How bad?"

"Bad," she said seriously. "The family's all a bunch of purists."

"And you? What do you think about it?"

"I don't matter," she said simply, a little quietly. "The cousins, we don't really count for anything in the family. Our parents never listen to us."

"Well, I will. Does it bother you that I'm a cat?"

"Me? Naw, not really. I date outside my species all the time, and my mother would have a fit if she found out," she admitted with a slight smile. "If I could only go out with foxes, I'd really be hurting around here," she noted. "Though it's not so bad at home."

"How so?" Sam asked curiously.

"It's Boston," she said, like that explained everything.

"Boston is nearly one half fox by population," Kit explained as Dan dealt. "Because it was a colony, and many of them never left. Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire are predominately fox, while the southern colonies are way more integrated because of the big cities and immigration. But it's cold in Boston, so we didn't get much immigration there, and it shows today in the large segment of foxes that make up the population. In some parts of Massachusetts, you can go to a small town and find nothing but foxes. New England is the most unintegrated part of America."

"It's like that in some parts of bayou country," Mickey said. "Cajuns. You go to a little town and it's all one species, or just two or three."

"That'd be weird," Sandy said. "Living in a town with only one breed?"

"And now you know why purism is so rampant in New England," Kit said to her.

"Well, come to the kitchen," Jessie urged, pulling Sheila's paws as she backed up. "We have to talk!"

"Uh, well, can I come back? Higgins is still here, and I have to get him to the airport. I think he'd poison my tea if I made him take a cab."

Jessie laughed. "Sure! You know where our apartment is?"

"No, but I can just come back here and Lupe can send me in the right direction."

Sheila said her goodbyes and hurried out, and Kit grabbed Jessie's paw as she went back to the kitchen to halt her. "There's a scheme hatching in that pretty head of yours, isn't there?" he demanded.

She laughed. "Scheme? No, I just want to get to know my in-laws, that's all," she grinned.

"Is she like the rest of your family, Kit?" Kevin asked curiously.

"Sheila? No. She's harmless," he said dismissively as Jessie kissed him on the cheek and went back to the kitchen. "Sheila's a party girl. She goes to Harvard, but she doesn't bother showing up for classes. She just parties every night."

"Harvard? Wow."

"Don't read much into that," Kit grunted. "She's a legacy student."

"What's that?" Dan asked.

"She got in only because her father's an alum and she's a Vulpan. She'll graduate with a C average, even if she never shows up for a single class."

"They cheat in Harvard?" Kevin said, with some surprise.

"When the student's name is Vulpan, and the family owns the city where your college is located, you do what they want or they find ways to strangle you," Kit said simply. "The rules are different for the rich, Kev."

"I see," Kevin said, scratching his muzzle thoughtfully.

The baked nuts were excellent. She coated mixed nuts with a spiced glaze and baked them, and served them while they were still warm. They were great, and went very well with the thick, tasty lagers that Sam brought with her. The Cowboys weren't playing today because they played on Thanksgiving, so at least he didn't have to suffer through listening to them harp on the team when Lupe turned on the late game. They put the game on hold when Jessie declared it was time to grill, so they turned off the game, turned on the radio, and moved out onto the porch and courtyard, drank beer, ate hot dogs, hamburgers, and grilled chicken for Sandy and Danielle, and had a wonderful time. They even attracted some of the other tenants, who stopped by to chat–at least the ones that weren't on Lupe's bad side, anyway–and filch a hot dog.

Sheila got back about an hour after leaving, twirling her car keys around one of her fingers. Jessie intercepted her and pulled her into the kitchen, and there the two of them, Sandy, and Danielle talked literally for hours as the poker game raged in the living room. Mickey won the poker game at the showdown, which made Jeffrey laugh since he'd been leading the entire game. After the game, they cleaned up after themselves and said their goodbyes to Lupe. Sheila wandered back to her own apartment, and Kit and Jessie helped take Mickey's grill back over to his porch, then headed home themselves.

"So, you talked to Sheila," Kit noted as he took the camera into the den to upload the pictures they'd taken during poker into the desktop. "What did you think?"

"I think she has a serious inferiority complex problem," she called from the living room, then she came into the room. "The poor girl thinks she doesn't matter more than pond scum. No wonder she spends all her time drinking and getting stoned. If I felt I was worthless, I'd do the same thing."

"Welcome to the Vulpans," Kit said grimly as he started uploading pictures. "I don't think there's a single sane member of my family. And I'm including me and Vil."

Jessie giggled. "Well, your insanity was just temporary, my handsome fox," she told him, leaning down and kissing him on his injured ear. She laughed raucously when he put up an image of Sam swatting Kevin on the muzzle with her paw, his eyes closed and flinching. "When did she do that?"

"When you went out to start the grill. He asked her how far down her white patch goes."

Jessie laughed. "He deserved it then."

"She told him it goes as far on her as it does on any other skunk. She whacked him when he dared her to prove it."

"Now that sounds like Sam," Jessie giggled. "You know, we should set up a myspace page for the pictures so everyone can see them."

"That would be nice. I wonder how those two get along in private."

"Oh, I know that already," Jessie said teasingly. "Sam is my best friend."

"I'm not that curious, just hoping I didn't do something stupid when I introduced them."

"Oh, no way," she assured him. "Sam and Kevin really get along. They're going out on their fifth date tonight."

"Fifth date in just a week? Wow. That's, like, us levels of dating."

"Yeah," she giggled. "I just feel sorry for Tim."

"Who's that?"

"The guy she was seeing before she met Kevin."

"She had a boyfriend?"

"She had someone she was dating," Jessie told him. "He was alright with it, actually. They moved on to just friends after Sam met Kevin."

"Aww, damn. I never knew that," he grunted.

"No, it was alright. I don't think Sam and Tim would have made it, just like Sandy and Bobby. Sam was too smart for Tim. So don't feel bad about it."

"Eh, well," he sighed, then he leaned back and closed his eyes when Jessie's paws started massaging his shoulders. "Mmm, that's nice," he hummed.

"You're tense."

"I'm tired. I've had about four hours of sleep since I got home on Friday."

"Well, nothing's stopping you from taking a nap, love."

"Yes there is. Did you get your homework done?"

"Homework? That's a silly question."

"So, did you?"

"Well…"

"Uh-huh. Go. Work. Do," he commanded, reaching up and bopping her on the forehead with the back of his paw.

"Don't make me use those long English words on you," Jessie teased, leaning down and biting his right ear.

"Don't make me threaten you with a punishment that we'll both hate if you don't do what you're supposed to do."

"Oh, and what would that be?"

"How would you like to sleep on the couch?" he threatened.

"Girls don't sleep on the couch. Boys do."

"This is my apartment," he countered. "And my back can't handle the couch. So, no homework, no bed, young lady," he said authoritatively.

"Oh, pulling out the nuclear weapons, are we? Threatening to withhold sex?" she giggled, purring in his ear. "You'll cave before I do. I know where your on switch is."

"Flirting with me is not doing your homework," he said coolly in reply. "Go get your homework done, then we can sit on the couch and snuggle."

"Not for too long. I have class in the morning, and I have other things on my mind," she cooed.

"Yeah, sleep," Kit said.

Jessie slapped him on the top of the head.

Sheila decided to come over while Jessie was doing her homework in the den. She was wearing a tank top that ended at her ribcage and a pair of cut-off hip-hugger jeans, showing off as much of her attractive stomach and long legs as possible. She was taking advantage of the balmy Texas climate, when it was below freezing in Boston and would remain so until sometime in April, most likely. It was much warmer than usual, but such warm spells like the one they'd enjoyed today weren't uncommon. It had started off in the 40s that morning, and had warmed up to the 70s… but tomorrow was supposed to be rainy and in the 50s. "Hey cousin," she said, opening the door and peeking in. "Can I come in?"

"Yah sure," he said, then his brow rose when he saw how she was dressed. "That's one way to attract attention," he noted.

She laughed. "I had Higgins pack my summer clothes. You know it was twenty degrees in Boston today?" She patted her bare midriff, showing off her white-furred stomach, which was sleek, toned, and very attractive to any straight male with a pulse. "I have to enjoy it while I can." She came in and sat on the couch with him, grabbing a pillow and putting it in her lap. "Umm, I just wanted to tell you, I'm starting work tomorrow. At the office."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Martha said it'll be good for me, but I'm not so sure about that. I have no idea what to expect. What do you do when you work?"

"Well, what are you going to do?"

"Well, from what Rick said, I'll be an intern. Fetch and carry, go run errands, and I'll be doing some typing and stuff for Rick. He wants me to go with him when he goes to see advertisers, he said. I don't know why."

"Rick's a sly one, Sheila. Odds are, you're there to look pretty and distract them."

"Oh, well, that's something I can do," she giggled. "I'm good at looking pretty. It's about all I really know how to do, to be honest about it."

"Don't talk like that!" Jessie shouted from the den.

"Oh, I thought she was sleeping or something."

"Nah, she's doing homework," Kit answered.

"I'm supposed to go with you when you go to do some surveys or something. Help you out."

"I don't really need all that much help."

"Well, Rick said you'll get more boys to talk to you if I'm there."

Kit laughed. "Rick is a sly one," he repeated. "So, there's your work," he told her. "You'll be a gopher, like one of Aunt Sarah's maids."

"A Vulpan, a maid," she said, making a face. "How will I ever live it down?"

"Then don't do it."

She looked at him. "No, I think I want to try," she said. "I have to stay out of trouble, and I guess, working will help me do that," she said, all but choking on the word working. "Besides, I'm kinda scared of Martha. If I piss her off, she might spank me."

Kit laughed. "She likes you, I think. She wouldn't be wasting her time on you if she didn't, I suppose."

"Well, do you like me, Kit?" she asked directly.

"I don't know yet," he answered honestly. "I'm still very angry at the family, Sheila, and you're part of that family. No, you're not Uncle Zach or Uncle Jake or Aunt Maxine, but when the family turned its back on me, I didn't hear you object. When I got hit by that car, you never visited. You chose money over me, Sheila. After I went to Jessie's house for Thanksgiving, I guess it made me curious when you came out of nowhere at the airport, and made me forgiving enough to at least be civil to you. But you have a lot of ground to make up if you want to be my friend, Sheila."

"Well, there's not much I can say about that, Kit," she told him. "I was afraid of losing my trust fund. We all knew Uncle Luke would do it. Hell, he disowned you, and you were his own son! We were terrified of having it happen to us too. I, I couldn't make it without my money, Kit. I'm just a dumb, ditzy party girl, but I'm smart enough to know that much. Hell, when I decided to stay here in Austin, I had no idea what to do. Where to go. There's no way I could make it on my own. My whole life, I've had servants to do things for me, and Mom's always there to bail me out or hold my paw when I get in over my head. I guess that's why she thinks I'm still a child," she sighed. "Every time I have even a little trouble, I always run to her instead of trying to figure out what to do my by myself. So I guess when I ran to her because Cybil wants to kill me, she just blew me off cause I run to her at least once a week over some stupid shit," she sighed, leaning back on the couch. "I'm the girl who cried wolf," she mused with dark humor. "And the one time it mattered, nobody believed me."

"I don't really believe you either," he admitted. "But I can see that since you believe it, then it's important enough to at least act like you're right. Better safe than sorry."

"Yeah, I guess so," she said, her slender fingers digging into the pillow in her lap. "What did Vil say?"

"She doesn't believe you either, but you know her. She'll look into it."

"I just want her to go home," Sheila complained. "I won't go back to Boston until Cybil takes her mangy ass back to England. Then everything can go back to normal. I'll get out of your hair, I can go back to school, back to my friends, back to what's normal."

"Do you really go to school?"

She looked at him. "Yeah, I really do," she admitted. "Does that surprise you?"

"A little. I figured you either blew it off or slept through class."

"I miss my morning class sometimes, but it's boring," she complained. "But I'm there for the business and accounting classes."

"So, business interests you?"

"Well, I'm good at it," she said. "It's not much of a question of being interested. I just don't feel like a dumbshit in those classes. Then I go to computer science class and feel like a dumbshit all over again," she sighed.

Kit gave her a slight smile. "Then maybe you should talk to Rick, and see what running a business is really about," he prompted. "What you learn in class is much different than the real world."

"As soon as I figure out Excel," she said. "I just can't wrap my brain around that thing, but that's all we use in accounting class."

"Well, I guess I can help you there," he said. "I know Excel fairly well. I use it at work all the time."

"You do the books for Rick?"

"Nah, I use it in my research. It does a lot more than just do math."

"I didn't know that. Does Rick do his own books?"

"Yes and no," he said. "He does the books himself, but an accounting agency shadows his own accounting and does the books come tax time."

"Oh, so he just takes his stuff to them at tax time and they check it over, then do his taxes?"

"Yeah, more or less," he nodded.

"What's Jessie's major? She told me, but I forgot," she said, her cheeks ruffling.

"English," he answered. "She wants to teach."

"Teach snobby, arrogant little brats? No thank you."

"You are one of those snobby, arrogant brats," Kit told her pointedly.

She laughed. "I guess I am. You have anything to drink around here?"

"Not for you," he answered bluntly. "Remember when I said you'd better stay legal? That applies."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "I don't want to get smashed, I just want a glass of wine!"

He gave her a glance. "Over the stove."

"Hig–" she started to shout, then laughed ruefully. "Uh, guess I'd better go get it."

"If you want it, you'd better," Kit agreed mildly.

She bounded into the kitchen, he heard glasses clinking, and she returned a moment later with two glasses of dark red wine. She gave him one and sat back down, taking a sip of it. "Ooh, nice. This a local label?"

"It's one of those cheap Californian mass produced wines," he told her calmly. "But, as you can tell, it's good."

"Who'd have thunk it," she mused, taking another sip.

Jessie came from the den and gave them a curious look. "Contributing to the delinquency of a minor, Kit?" she teased.

"Pft," Sheila snorted. "Vulpans start drinking wine when they're still in the crib," she informed her.

"That's a family-wide trait, I'm afraid," Kit agreed. "I had my first glass of wine when I was ten. Vulpans don't believe in the majority age deal. Just an example of what I told you, pretty kitty. Vulpans ignore laws that don't suit them."

"Ooh, maybe after we get married I can start running red lights," she giggled.

"Maybe if you were in Boston," Sheila laughed. "Want a glass?"

"Sure. Unlike you, I am old enough," she grinned.

"Like that ever stopped me before," Sheila said flippantly, standing up. "I gotta get used to being a gopher, so lemme get it for you."

Jessie sat down, and immediately snuggled up against him. He put an arm around her and gripped her shoulder. "Hey there, future Misses Vulpan. Got your homework done?"

"It's printing now," she answered.

Sheila came back out, and Jessie extricated herself from him to take the glass she offered. "Thanks," she said, pulling her legs up under herself and sitting demurely against his side. "I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised that your family lets you drink, Sheila."

"Well, they let me drink something like this, but they frown on me clubbing," she grinned. "Oh, I meant to ask. Where do you work out? Someone as thin as you has to go to a gym, and I gotta work to keep this figure."

"I use the university, they have a gym," she answered. "Every day after lunch."

"What about you, Kit? Where do you go?"

"Nowhere. I just don't eat a lot, and my work keeps me pretty busy, even if I do sit a lot. But I've been thinking about it."

"Well, let's go in with a group package, so I have a place to work out, and it's cheaper for all of us."

"You have money, and you worry about cheap?" Jessie grinned at her.

"I have money because I'm a miser," Sheila said immediately. "Why do you think I had so much money saved up? I go out a lot and party, but I also learned that if I'm careful with my money in other places, I can spend as much as I want when I go clubbing and not worry about it. My brothers and sisters are all broke by the end of the month, but I'm never broke," she declared, a little smugly.

"How can you be broke when you're rich?"

"We get checks off our trusts," she answered. "Mine are set up for every week. Every Friday, it gets deposited in my bank account. My brother Sam gets his every month, but that's a stupid way to do it, in my opinion. He gets that huge wad of cash on the first, but by the twentieth he's broke."

Jessie looked around Kit and gave her a long, curious look. "You're not as dumb as you think you are, Sheila," Jessie said approvingly. "I think you're actually pretty smart."

"Aww, thanks," she said, her cheeks ruffling. "We gotta go out and party, Jessie. Then you get to see the real me," she grinned.

"How about Friday?" she offered.

"Why not tomorrow?"

"Because I have morning classes, and I don't miss school. No way right now, because finals are coming up," she grunted. "I get to do finals while we're getting ready for the wedding."

"Ooh, when!"

"The eighteenth."

"Oh, wow, that soon? Can I come?"

"Well, I guess," Kit said after a moment's thought. "We have a lot to do on the way up to it."

"When's the blood test again? For some reason, I just can't keep that in my head," Jessie said with a sour grunt.

"The fifth. We have the final fitting of our wedding clothes on Thursday, and the monsignor wants to have a couple of conferences with us about the wedding, but I haven't scheduled those yet. You know, when we give him our planned script for the ceremony, he has to know what's going on. We have two rehearsals, on the fifteenth and seventeenth. What about your side?"

"The florists and decorations are all set up," she answered. "The church will let them set up the arrangements the day before. The Four Corners is booked and the decorations are picked out. Vil reserved some space at the airport for her plane, and she said our flight to Boston and Florida are both filed and ready. What does filed mean?"

"She filed the flight plans with the FAA," he answered. "Private planes do have leeway and can file flight plans sometimes literally at the spur of the moment, but the FAA does like to have planned flight plans filed as early as possible."

"Ah."

"You still have your pilot's license, Kit?" Sheila asked.

"I keep it up to date," he nodded. "That reminds me, I have to find a flight school. I have my logged hours all done this year, but I'll need logged hours for next year."

"You could fly us around," she grinned.

"No, renting planes is expensive," Kit shook his head.

"Wait a minute, you're going to Boston?"

"Because both me and Vil promised our mom we'd get married at the Holy Cross," Kit answered. "I'm going to have my ceremony down here, but afterwards we're flying to Boston to have a quick ceremony at the Holy Cross before we go on to our honeymoon in Florida."

"Oh. Well, that's sweet of you, cousin, fulfilling your mom's wish."

"Jessie, wanna go help me find a dress for the wedding after w–work tomorrow?" Sheila asked.

Jessie laughed. "If you keep practicing, you'll eventually be able to say that word."

"It's a four letter word to a Vulpan," she grinned, elbowing Kit lightly. "Well, except this one."

"Sure, I'll go shopping with you," Jessie answered. "We need to hang out a little anyway. You're part of the in-laws, I need to get to know you."

"I'm no in-law," she said, then she laughed. "And don't think the family's like me. I'm just a dumb, ditzy party girl. I'm harmless. You haven't met the real Vulpans, Jessie, like my mom, or Uncle Zach, or Uncle Jake, or Aunt Maxine."

"How many aunts and uncles do you have, Kit?" Jessie asked. "I've always meant to ask you that, but I guess I've never got around to it."

"I have six," Kit answered. "Grandpa had seven kids, five boys and two girls."

"My mom Sarah's the third youngest," Sheila answered. "Kit's dad was the oldest. Uncle Brian's the youngest. It goes Uncle Luke, Uncle Zach, Aunt Maxine, Uncle Jake, my mom, Uncle Tom, and then Uncle Brian." She leaned over Kit and looked at Jessie. "My mom was like grandma, she had a lot of kids. Mom had six kids. I'm the second youngest. My brother Sam's the oldest, he's twenty-six. My younger sister Christine is fifteen."

"How can you two be so close together in age if your parents are far apart?"

"Because my mom didn't have Vil til dad was like twenty-six," Kit answered.

"And my mom got married and started cranking out babies when she was eighteen," Sheila answered. "The oldest of the cousins are like, what Kit, twenty-nine?"

"Around that. I think Bridgette is thirty."

"Wow, so Vil's not the oldest cousin?"

"No, Uncle Zach was married when he was eighteen and his wife had Bridgette while my dad was still in school," Kit answered. "The oldest male Vulpan cousin is Patrick, he's twenty-seven. He's Maxine's first. Vil is actually the third oldest of the cousins, at twenty-six, with Sheila's brother just two weeks behind her."

"Where are you in there?"

"Me? I'm on the front end of the middle," he answered. "The average age of the cousins is one year younger than me. And they've already started working on the next generation. Bridgette and Patrick both have kids of their own."

"I hope to have our own contribution next year," Jessie giggled, leaning against Kit.

"Too bad our kids'll never see another Vulpan outside of me and Vil," Kit told her.

"Hey, and me!" Sheila said indignantly.

"Seriously, love, if I showed up in Boston with a mixed breed baby, I think it would make the universe explode," he said to her. "When you get pregnant, we just stay very quiet and stay as far from Massachusetts as possible. If we raise a fuss, there might be another hitman coming down here to pay us a little visit."

"He's not joking," Sheila agreed when Jessie was about to discount him. "If you put your baby in Uncle Zach's face, he might try to kill it right on the spot. Don't judge our family by me and Kit, Jessie. Most of them are rabid purists. All my brothers and sisters are purists. My mom's a purist, my dad's a purist, all our aunts and uncles are purists, and virtually all our cousins are purists except for a couple of them. I think I'm not a purist just to rebel against them," she said clinically.

"Which ones said they're not purists?" Kit asked curiously.

"Muffy, Angela, Victor, and Steve. Vil, well, you can never tell anything about Vil anyway. I don't know about her."

"Muffy?" Jessie laughed. "Now that's a rich girl name!"

"Her real name is Eugenia Minerva Vulpan, but she hates it, so everyone calls her Muffy," Sheila explained. "Then again, she's forgotten why we call her that."

"She took it as a badge of honor I think," Kit nodded, then he chuckled.

"Why did you call her Muffy?"

"She used to go around her house naked all the time, even well into her teens," Sheila explained with a grin. "Since she showed off her muff to anyone who'd look at her, we called her Muffy. It just kinda stuck after a while. She's still like that. Muffy just can't keep her clothes on."

"Girls who are almost there themselves shouldn't be ragging on cousins," Kit noted.

Sheila laughed. "I'm not shy about showing off what God gave me," she said with an outrageous grin.

"Well, there's nothing wrong with that," Jessie said. "I'm not above wearing some nice things that show me off when I'm in the right company," she said, patting Kit's knee meaningfully.

"Ah, you two are having sex already?"

"Naturally," Jessie told her. "We do live together, after all."

"Good. If you don't have sex before marriage, how do you know you're gonna be satisfied after you tie the knot?"

"Interesting position for a Catholic to take," Jessie giggled.

"Pft, I'm as Catholic as the Dalai Lhama," she snorted in reply. "Besides, you won't find a more notorious bunch of adulterers than a Catholic family. After all, when all you have to do is confess, you're not afraid to sin."

"That's an interesting way to look at it," Jessie noted, taking a sip of wine.

"So, you two have sex, eh? He any good?" Sheila asked, giving Jessie a grin.

Jessie's face poofed out, then she laughed. "Why am I not surprised you'd ask that?"

"Girls who dress like this aren't afraid to ask questions like that," she said brazenly, motioning at her skimpy attire.

"You realize you're asking about your own cousin."

"He has to maintain the family reputation, even if he's not in the family anymore," she grinned at him. "All Vulpans are good at two things, business and sex. Male Vulpans are notorious femanizers, and femme Vulpans are almost legendary for their availability. So, is he a true Vulpan?"

"Oh, he's a real Vulpan alright in some ways," Jessie said with her face poofed out, but giving him a naughty smile. "But if I catch him chasing after another femme's tail, I'll cut his off and hang it on the wall."

Sheila laughed. "No in-law has tamed a Vulpan since Aunt Beth tamed Uncle Luke," she declared. "Every other Vulpan cheats on their spouses, even my own mom."

"Well, I'm tamed," Kit told Sheila. "This is the only femme for me. She's almost too much femme," he chuckled, putting his arm around Jessie.

"I just know how to keep my male happy, that's all," she purred, nuzzling his muzzle. "He doesn't have to go roaming to find what makes him happy."

"You're part fox, I guess you have a genetic understanding of a young fox's needs," Sheila grinned as she picked up her wine glass. "Now if I could just find a male version of you," she complained. "Clubbing is fun, I meet bunches of handsome guys and I have lots of good sex, but I've been looking for something, well, more lately," she said, a little distantly, swirling her wine in its glass before drinking about half of what was left in one swallow.

"I should introduce you to my brother," Jessie offered. "You'd like him. He's big as a barn, but gentle like a teddy bear."

"That's incest," Sheila giggled.

"Not when you're in-laws it's not," Jessie told her. "That way my brother can leech off your trust fund and never have to worry about money, so he can focus all his attention on playing football."

Sheila laughed. "The true motive revealed! Wait, he plays football?" Sheila asked.

"You just lost your brother," Kit noted to Jessie.

"I love football!" Sheila exclaimed. "I know that makes me a mutant, a girl that likes football, but I love it!"

"Really?" Jessie asked. "You're talking to a girl from a football family, Sheila. Our dad's like the ultimate Bengals fan, so we grew up with football."

"I just love the game. So, your brother plays?"

She nodded. "He'll be playing for a college team next year. He doesn't know which one yet, but he should start getting offers soon. He figures as soon as his high school finishes the playoffs."

"Cool! They good?"

"They're very good," Jessie said proudly. "Won the 4A championship for two straight years, and they play for the championship next Friday. Ben told me that colleges won't make any offers until the season's over, and since they're still playing, he's just waiting."

"What position does he play?"

"Running back, but he also sometimes plays linebacker and plays special teams. He's really strong, but he's also very fast and he knows how to tackle. His coach told him that the more skills he has when he moves up to college, the more playtime he'll get in college, and the better chance he has to make it pro when he graduates. So his coach has taught him how to play all three phases of a game, offense defense and special teams."

"Is he any good?"

"He's fantastic," Jessie said proudly. "Whenever the team needs a first down, they give him the ball. He's got the school and state records for rushing yards. He'll get to pick which school he goes to, he'll get a bunch of offers."

"Sounds like I really wanna meet this guy," Sheila grinned.

"I have some pictures of him," Jessie offered.

"Oh, show me!"

Jessie got her laptop and opened it, put it on the coffee table, and dug up her pictures of her family. "That's him. This is my family, Sheila. That's my sister Jenny, my mom, and my dad. My cousin George was with us, and he took the picture for us. We were at King's Dominion when we took this picture, that's what that tower is in the background."

"Wow, he's gorgeous! He have a girlfriend?"

"He's had a few," Jessie giggled.

Sheila looked at Kit. "I'm glad I came down here."

"Why?"

"Because now I have a good reason to look forward to your wedding," she winked. "I think I'm gonna get to know this fine hunk of cat right here," she said with a predatory edge to her voice.

"Keep your panties on," Kit warned. "I have issues with her parents, Sheila. If you start going after Ben, you're gonna make Jessie's mom go nuclear."

"Yeah, it will," Jessie sighed. "Mom objects to our marriage, Sheila. She's coming to the wedding under protest, and that's a direct quote from her. So I'd have to side with Kit here. I'd like you to meet my family, but don't do anything that'll piss off my mom."

"Well, okay, but it won't be easy," she said, looking at Ben in the picture again. "Vulpans aren't used to being denied what they want."

"Except when another Vulpan wants something else," Kit warned. "You're on my turf, cousin. This is Austin, not Boston. You live in my apartment complex, and you're working in my office."

"Yeah, yeah, I accede to your ownership," she sighed. "I promised I'd behave when you took me in, and I'll honor my word. If I piss you off and get kicked out, I don't have anywhere else to go."

"Well, don't talk like he has his finger over the trigger," Jessie told her.

She yawned, showing off her impressive canines. Like Kit, all the Vulpans had hybrid teeth, normal fur teeth but with pronounced canines. Some carnivore furs filed their teeth down like Barry did, but some were born with their teeth that way. The Vulpans weren't like that, and neither was Jessie's family. "Well, I think I'm gonna head home. Lupe came over and helped me put the TV and entertainment center together. I thanked him by letting him see my boobs through the window when he left," she grinned. "He was staring at them the whole time anyway, I figured why not just let him get the full experience. I knew he'd look back when he went out the door, so I pulled my shirt off like I was heading back to my bedroom."

Jessie laughed. "I'd never do something like that," she said.

"It's easy. Just pull your shirt up," Sheila winked as she finished her wine then stood up. "Then stand there and let him worship you like the goddess you are!" She gave them a naughty smile. "Now, if you're sleeping with the guy, you give all your orders while you have your shirt up. When he's staring at your chest, he'll agree to anything you say. Males are powerless against breasts!"

"Go home, brat, before you corrupt my fiancée," Kit warned.

"Going home," she grinned. "See you tomorrow at work, then?"

"Not me. I have Mondays off."

"Oh. Oh, okay. So, I'll see you tomorrow after work then? We have to go shopping, and I hope you'll go with us."

"I can do that. See you tomorrow."

"Night Sheila," Jessie said.

"I'll call you tomorrow before we leave, okay? Can I have your number?"

"Sure," Jessie said, grabbing the notepad on the coffee table and scribbling down a couple of numbers. "The top one is my cell, the middle one is Kit's work cell, and the bottom one is his personal cell."

"Here, this is my cell," she said, leaning over and writing a number down on the pad. "See you guys tomorrow."

Sheila left, and Kit and Jessie looked at each other in silence for a moment. "So, what do you think?" he finally asked.

"I like her," she declared. "I like her a lot. There's a lot more to her than she lets on, or even thinks herself." She stood up and squared off before him, grinning down at him. "But I'll have to try out her suggestion."

She reached under her shirt and unhooked her bra in the front, grabbed the hem and pulled it up, exposing her breasts to him. "Now, you will do the dishes!" she commanded imperiously. "Then we'll watch sappy love story movies, then you will give me a foot massage!"

Kit laughed raucously. "It won't work," he said with a grin. "I saw this coming the instant Sheila closed the door."

She laughed. "Another myth debunked," she lamented, moving to reconnect her bra, but Kit's upraised paws stopped her.

"Not yet," he hummed, staring at her perfect glory, which made her laugh raucously.

"Maybe it's not debunked after all," she teased, giving him a cherubic grin.

"I can appreciate them without being enslaved by them," he said, a little tauntingly. "Now, if you want my slavish obedience," he trailed off, leaning forward and grabbing her belt buckle, "let's go back to the bedroom."

"I thought you'd never ask," she giggled as he stood up and wrapped his arms around her. She laughed as he picked her up off her feet by his grip on her waist. "Now, if only I could get you to obey like this all the time!"

"What fun would I be then," he hummed.

"You know, it's not even eight o'clock!"

"Now you know why I told you to do your homework early," he told her as he carted her off to the bedroom.


Sheila's addition to the office and his life was surprisingly orderly.

For some strange, mysterious, downright odd reason, she didn't seem to cause much trouble at work. She did what she was told, and spent most of the first day chatting away with the people there and learning her way around. Kit called about once an hour to check on her, and he was surprised to hear from them that she was an amiable, friendly girl that seemed honestly curious about what they did at the magazine, and was willing to work.

That just about floored him. It made him wonder just what was going on in her head, since it was so much unlike the Sheila he knew that for a little while he wondered if she was a plant or a spy sent down by the family to check him out. Kit hung on to that idea until he talked to Vil to confirm the Thursday appointment for their final fitting, and she told him that what she'd told him had been more or less true. Someone had attacked her, it was a matter of police record and with witnesses.

It was as he was talking with Vil that he felt that he understood what happened. Kit and Jessie, and Rick and Martha, they believed her… up to a point. But the important thing was, they took her seriously. They listened to her, and they moved to help her and protect her. To Sheila, who was an issue of annoyance for her parents because she was a party girl, someone actually paying attention to her, and being nice to her, and taking her seriously was something new to her. That explained why she was so attached to Rick and Martha, and wanted to please them, because they'd been so nice to her. Sheila was a ditz, but she was also starved for attention, and she was getting all kinds of positive attention here in Austin, from both family and from friends of family. Rick and Martha gave her the kind of attention she never got from her own parents. She didn't have to compete with five other siblings, and she was listened to and her opinion was valued, but the relationship was placed in a venue which Sheila could understand and accept, at least to begin with. Rick and Martha treated her like an adult, but also gave her the attention a child would crave, and it was the perfect combination that earned them Sheila's undying loyalty.

It amazed him sometimes. Rick had taken one look at her, and seemed to know exactly what to do to help her in the way that mattered most, to start allowing her develop a little confidence and self respect, both of which she had neither.

There were a few issues, though. Kit's "no comment" policy was something that the gang and the girls over at the sorority also followed, but nobody seemed to tell Sheila. When Kit came down the office after lunch to get something out of his office, she told him what had happened. She was accosted out in front of the office during lunch, and she was more than willing to talk to the Boston Globe reporter that stopped her, who called her by name. Sheila told him everything. She quite happily told him why she was in Austin, getting quite a few digs in on Cybil at the same time in telling the reporter that she feared Cybil tried to kill her, which was why she fled to Austin to seek refuge with her disowned cousin, because Vilenne Vulpan protected him ever since the failed attempt on his life, had control of Austin, and she was staying where it was safe until Cybil went back to England. She told them that Kit was no part of the suit in Boston, and just wanted to be left alone, but she was quite happy to tell them all about him from her point of view. She told them all about him, and Jessie, and the fact that he was very happy and content living in Austin and having nothing to do with the family or its money.

"I can't believe you did that!" Kit growled.

"What, nobody told me not to talk to them!" she protested. "It's not like I said anything bad about you, Kit!"

He stalked away, muttering to himself.

Kit was a bit ticked off at Sheila, but he got over it by the time they went shopping. Kit got to watch Sheila and Jessie interact, but they weren't alone. Sandy and Sam came along with them, as well as Jeffrey and Kevin. They went to the mall, and while the girls took Sheila out to look for dresses, Kit, Jeffrey, and Kevin roamed around. They checked out some clothing stores, music stores, and computer stores. Kit bought Jessie a couple of music CDs, and Jeffrey bought Sandy a digital camera for the wedding. Kevin grilled them about Sam most of the time, asking them what she liked, what she didn't, stories about her, anything they knew about her. "Dude," Jeffrey laughed as they went into the bookstore, "why don't you ask her?"

"Because I want to surprise her," he answered. "Christmas is coming Jeffrey. I gotta find her something good, and the only way to do that is find out what she likes and doesn't like… and even though I know her pretty well, I want to make sure I get her something really, really special. Would you ask Sandy what she wants for Christmas, or would you rather surprise her with something?"

"Oh. Ohhhh, crap, I gotta buy her a Christmas present!" Jeffrey gasped, giving Kit a wild look. "Jessie's their best friend, dude. Have her tell us what they like, would ya?"

"I have to get Jessie something too," Kit sighed. "You could always tell Sandy that camera's her early Christmas present."

"Yeah, like she'll care come Christmas time," Jeffrey snorted.

"Well, you're fellow rodents, what do rodents like?" Kevin asked.

"Dude, Sam's a skunk. What do femme skunks like?" Jeffrey challenged. When Kevin said nothing, he just gave him a smug look. "I thought so."

"Jewelry, you never go wrong with jewelry," Kit chuckled. "Buy them some necklaces or something."

"What are you going to get Jessie?" Kevin asked.

"Not sure. I'll be pretty much well broke after the wedding and honeymoon, so it can't be anything big. I need to get presents for Jessie's family too," he said, scratching his chin absently. "John'll be easy. Anything with the Bengals logo on it will make him happy. Jenny and Ben won't be hard either, but Hannah's gonna be tricky. Hmm," he pondered, lost in thought a long moment as he considered the problem.

"So, you got very far with Sam yet?" Jeffrey asked.

"Well, that depends on what you mean," Kevin answered. "We've been out almost every night since we met, so I'm doing pretty well with her. We have a lot of common interests, so our dates are always fun."

"Yeah, but have you managed to bring it home yet?" Jeffrey asked with a grin.

"Haven't really thought of it yet," he answered honestly. "We're not Kit and Jessie, bud."

Kit laughed. "I'm not sure if that was a complement or an insult."

"Dude, three months from meet to marry? That's like the ultimate fast track. How long was it before you slept together? Two weeks? Three?"

"We're a special case, Jeffrey," Kit said calmly. "We were love at first sight. Well, it was for me, anyway. I had to work on Jessie a little to get her to come around."

"I'd never have believed in that if I didn't know you," the mouse laughed. "Okay, so anyway, dudes, we still have a problem in front of us."

"Christmas," Kit and Kevin said in unison.

"Which is no doubt why Sam and Sandy wanted to come, and they brought us along," Jeffrey reasoned as they left the bookstore.

Kit's phone rang. He saw it was Jessie, and flipped it open. "Yeah love?"

"We're done. Meet us at the food court, okay? We're hungry."

"Be there in a few." He closed the phone. "They're finished, but they want something to eat."

"Food court!" Jeffrey proclaimed, pointing down the mall imperiously.

They met outside the seating area, then split up again to get what they wanted. They gathered at a pair of tables near the edge. Kit and Jessie went to get steak sandwiches, Sam got Chinese, Jeffrey and Kevin got pizza, and Sandy got a salad from The Salad Bowl, a vegetarian specialty restaurant. Sheila came in last with a tray holding a taco salad. "Damn, you gonna eat all that?" Jeffrey laughed as she sat down at Kit's table.

"Every bite. Wanna watch?" she asked in a way that made Jeffrey's grayish-white fur ruffle, and he looked at Sandy quite deliberately.

"Be nice," Kit murmured. "What kind of dress did you find?"

"Oh, it's gorgeous!" Sheila gushed. "It's a spaghetti strap dress with a flared neckline and lace, in a beautiful cream color not far from Jessie's fur," she described.

"Where is it?"

"Already in the truck," she answered. "What did you guys do?"

"Looked at possible Christmas presents," Kit answered. "And we picked up a few little things," he added, motioning at the bag on the table by his tray.

"Well, I don't believe it, you did what you were supposed to do," Sandy said with a grin at Jeffrey. "So, what you gonna get me for Christmas, baby?" she asked Jeffrey directly.

"You'll find out at Christmas, won't you?" he challenged. "I did buy you this, though. You said you don't have a camera, so I got you a little digital one. It's pretty good, perfect for the amateur photographer."

"Wow, for me? You're so sweet," she grinned across the table at him. "I gotta get ready for the wedding too, and I do need a camera. I gotta take pictures!"

"Lilly and Mike will handle that for me," Jeffrey chuckled. "God knows, they'll take about a thousand of them between the two of them."

"And we'll have a professional photographers there too," Jessie added. "They're gonna make a DVD of the ceremony and some of the reception and take some pictures."

"That can't be cheap."

"Vil's paying for it, so eh," Jessie shrugged with a grin. "She paid for everything."

"Must be nice."

"Yeah well, she wanted to get really crazy, but I had to keep a leash on her," Jessie laughed. "She wanted to hire an orchestra to play at the wedding, and was gonna hire Jennifer Lopez to sing at the reception."

"Wow, that's extravagant," Kevin laughed.

"As much as I'd love to have Hollywood at my wedding, I had to put my foot down," Jessie giggled. "Kit is letting me indulge a little, but he really wants to keep it simple, so I'm riding the fence between him and Vil. I do want a little pomp and circumstance, it is my wedding after all, but I don't want to turn it into a Royal affair."

Sheila laughed. "Jess, you're marrying royalty," she grinned. "The Vulpans are the royal family of Boston."

"I'm not part of them anymore, Sheila."

"Pft, that'll last as long as Cybil's in America," she said. "I think that Vil's gonna win the lawsuit, and when she kills Uncle Luke's will, you'll be back in the fold."

"Yeah, if I wanted anything to do with them," Kit snorted. "I'm happy here, Sheila. Why on earth would I want to go back to Boston? All my friends are here. My job is here. My and my fiancée's life is here. There's nothing in Boston for me but bad memories."

"You can stay here and still be part of the family, Kit. There's a few of us that miss you, you know," she said with a smile at him. "Austin can be the southern outpost of the Vulpan family, with you running things here while Vil runs Boston."

"No thank you," he said firmly.

"Well, I think I'll be down here in the winter," she giggled.

"It gets cold here come January," Sam told her. "If you want balmy, you have to go to Brownsville or head to Mexico."

"Trust me, it's warmer than Boston," Sheila laughed. "Come May, I'm out in a bikini in fifty degree weather. We Vulpans have thick fur," she winked.

"Kit certainly does," Jessie laughed. "I love his fur, it's thick and soft and cuddly."

"That's something I didn't need to know, Jessie," Jeffrey laughed.


Kit's first day of working with Sheila actually went pretty well. She was the office gopher, doing all the fetching, carrying, and running things between Marty, Kit, Rick, and the main office, but she was a refreshing breath of fresh air in the place. She was saucy and sharp-tongued, but she had a pretty tolerant sense of humor when they gang made jokes at her expense. She fit in very well with the group, like a little sister everyone teased but also watched out for.

But she was also everyone's assistant, and since Kit had outside work to do with Project A, Sheila was tagged to go along with him as he ventured onto campus to take student surveys. It felt a little weird going out alone with her, since she was a member of his family, and she kept wanting to talk about their childhood once she got him alone. Kit and Sheila weren't close to the same age and would have been in different social groups among the cousins, Kit with the older cousins and Sheila with the younger ones, but there was a special relationship between Kit and Sheila's families. His father and Aunt Sarah had been very close, and after his mother died, Aunt Sarah was the only one that really came over to check on his father in a personal or intimate sense. That put Sarah's younger kids in the house with him and Vil quite a bit, so he'd gotten to know Sheila, Bill, and Christine better than he knew most of the younger cousins. The three of them were barely more than toddlers when his mother died–well, Sheila was five, Randy was three, and Christine was two. But as the years passed after that, Sarah kept coming over, and Kit sort of grew up with more contact with Sheila, Randy, and Christine than with most of the other cousins. It was why he knew so much about her. If Bess or Lynn or Travis had come down instead of her, he'd have rejected them outright and without question, but he knew Sheila pretty well… as far as the cousins went. Though Suzy was the first sexual encounter he'd had, his first non-normal experience with the opposite gender had been skinny-dipping in the big pool with Sheila. Sheila was the first live female outside of his immediate family he'd seen naked, though since she was age ten, there wasn't all that much to see. He'd been fourteen at the time, and three weeks after the skinny-dipping episode, Suzy would lure him into an empty room at the Boston Country Club and deflower him. Sheila had instigated the skinny dipping, as he recalled, talking him into taking off his swim trunks after she shed her one piece on the poolside, kicking her feet in the water as she basically teased him into matching her bravery. Even at a very young age, Sheila was a bit more bold than the average girl, and not just in a sexual manner. Sheila had been a very brave and daring child, willing to push the limits and test her mother, but after Kit was disowned and things changed, well, Sheila became much more timid once she realized that she could realistically lose everything if she made Uncle Luke angry. She toned it way down after Kit was disowned, and it took a few years before she worked up the nerve to be rebellious again. But her boldness and rebellion were just fronts in a bid to get attention, a behavior that Kit knew very well, as he'd done the same thing himself in the years leading up to his being disowned. He'd also yelled and shouted, broke things, disobeyed, ran away, he even once set fire to one of his father's cars.

The past between Sheila, Kit, and Vil was probably why she thought to come to Austin when she got this wild idea that Cybil tried to kill her. She was one of the few cousins that had a much more extensive understanding of the enigmatic children of Uncle Luke, who were much, much different from the other cousins. Vil and Kit were raised different, had received deferential treatment, and were regarded with quite a bit of jealousy among the cousins, for their parents treated Kit and Vil better than they treated their own children… because they were the children of the family patriarch. Kit was fairly sure that quite a few of them were silently happy when Kit was disowned, glad to see the child that got all their parents' attention get what was coming to him, in their eyes. But Sheila had seen the inner workings, as it were, and knew just how dysfunctional life was in the east wing of Stonebrook Manor, which was the personal abode of the family of the patriarch. Sheila knew Kit and Vil better than most of the other cousins, knew that the bond between Kit and Vil was still strong, was probably even stronger since he'd been disowned. She knew that the key to getting to Vil was through Kit, and knew that since Vil was so protective over her younger brother, safety could be found under the umbrella she opened over the city of Austin.

Sheila was immature. Sheila was flighty, selfish, shallow, and vapid. But Sheila was not stupid. In fact, since she'd crashed into his life on Friday, he'd been starting to see just how clever Sheila really was. He wasn't sure if it was book smarts or intelligence in the classic sense, but she was very clever. Cunning was a good word for it, which wasn't a surprising trait in a Vulpan.

And so she was here, and so far, Kit couldn't really complain very much. Outside of talking to the reporters, she'd been behaving herself, and he kinda liked talking to her on Sunday. But time would tell, and he hadn't passed judgment quite yet.

"So, how do we go about this?" she asked as she tugged at her high-tailed tee shirt. Sheila, like many young girls, dressed in the current midriff-baring style, despite the fact that it was only fifty degrees out. For a Bostonian, fifty was balmy in November, so she was decked out in her waist-ending tee that showed off cleavage and a pair of hip-hugger jeans that showed off a surprising expanse of belly both above and below her navel. She got a ton of appreciative looks from males on campus, but that wasn't surprising. Sheila had a rich girl's figure; toned, sleek, and buxom, and she'd turn any male's head, even Kit's own if she wasn't a blood relative.

"Well, since Rick made us an appointment, what we're going to do is sit at a table in the main rec center and try to get students to stop and answer some questions."

"What questions?"

"Well, we're asking age, if they're registered to vote, if they're registered for a party, and who their favorite candidate is for President," he answered. "When we're done, we'll compare our statistics to state and national statistics for college age furs who vote and see if U.T. is mainstream."

"Oh, that sounds easy."

"Yah, it's not bad. Lots of students know who we are, so plenty stop to talk to us."

"How do you mean?"

"These are the furs we make the magazine for," he told her. "College kids. Our pictures are in the magazine, Sheila, a lot of them know my face. And we have a Lone Star banner we keep in the rec center when we use the table that I'll hang over us so people who don't know me know why we're there. When we come on campus like this, it's because we're looking for student feedback."

"Ah, cool."

The rec center was a huge room filled with tables, couches, chairs, and plasma TV screens hanging on a couple of walls. Upstairs there was a little restaurant and pool room, and downstairs there was a five lane bowling alley and a video game room. There was a bookstore on one side and a food court and a couple of little shops on the other, almost like a little miniature mall. Kit got his magazine's banner out of the storage shed with the help of a center staffer, found the table near the door which they'd been given for the day, and set it up. Sheila and Kit sat down and he pulled out his laptop, and they got down to business, which usually meant asking passers-by if they had a minute to answer a few very quick questions. It was boring work usually, and Kit spent much of the time just chatting with students that wandered by, or talking with Sheila… but Sheila seemed dissatisfied with the pace of their information gathering. Rick was clever to send Sheila, for she was very cute, and more than one male wandered by and took the survey just to talk to her, just as Kit may have lured a female or two in with his smile to take the survey.

"How many surveys do we need to be done?" she asked after two hours.

"The more the better, that gives us a more accurate overview," he said. "But a few hundred at least. Just settle in, Sheila, this usually takes a while. Sometimes it takes a couple of days to get a reliable sample we can work with."

"Well then, let's pick up the pace a little," she said, standing up, pulling her shirt up almost to her bra, then pushing down on her jeans to make them as low as possible without getting arrested for indecent exposure. Then, to Kit's surprise, she climbed up onto the table, turned around to face the huge room, put two fingers to her muzzle, and unleashed an ear-splitting whistle that totally stopped all activity in the rec center in a heartbeat.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kit hissed.

"Getting our surveys," she said as she glanced down at him with a slight smile, then she looked out at the students. "Lone Star Magazine is doing a quick survey about students and voting for an upcoming article!" she shouted, hitching a hip in a very model-like pose as her tail swished behind her seductively, which no doubt got the attention of every male in the place. "Why don't some of you handsome guys come talk to us? You'll be doing your civic duty, and we only ask four questions! You'll be done before you know it!"

"And that accomplishes what outside of getting us booted from the rec center?" he asked archly as she hopped down off the table.

"Watch and learn, cousin," she winked as she pushed the chair back so anyone on the other side could see as much of her as possible, then sat back down.

Kit was a little surprised at her tactics, but she did get results. They almost had a line as students, both males and females surprisingly enough, wandered over to take the survey. Both Kit and Sheila were busy asking questions, Kit using his laptop and Sheila marking things down in a spiral, but she also made sure to chat with the males and flirt just a little bit, giving them smiles and smoky-eyed looks through her lashes. So many of them asked if they were related that it almost became annoying, but Sheila was much more cordial about it. "Yeah, he's my cousin," she answered for the hundredth time, leaning over and elbowing Kit lightly in the arm. "He set it up so I could come intern at his magazine. He's pretty cool, for a cousin anyway."

After two more hours, they had nearly five hundred surveys, because the people at their table attracted more people who wanted to see what was going on, and it kept them busy almost continually after Sheila got things moving. Another hour after that, they had enough surveys for Kit to proclaim they had a viable sample base to use for the statistics they needed.

"So, we're done?"

"At least here, yeah," he answered. They did take a few more surveys from some males, or at least Sheila did as Kit took down their banner and took it to the concession stand, then put it in the storeroom when a rec center worker came to help him. Sheila was chatting coyly with three males, one of which Kit recognized was on the football team, being typically flirtatious. Kit cut them short, but not before the football player asked for Sheila's number. "Oh no, baby, I never give out my number," she winked at him. "I'm the one who makes the calls, not takes them. So, give me your number, and we'll see if you get lucky."

Kit thought that was a bit outrageous, but the football player did it. He gave her his cell number, then the three of them wandered off, glancing back at her repeatedly.

"I thought you wanted to meet Ben," he noted, a bit accusingly.

"Gotta have a plan B in case that doesn't pan out," she grinned. "And a plan C, and a plan D, and a plan E, and–"

Kit rolled up a college newspaper and whacked her with it, which made her laugh.

They returned to the office after lunch, which made Rick a bit curious. "Done already?" he asked as Sheila gave him her spiral and went into the main office.

"Yeah, Sheila decided to be a little… active, in getting surveys," he grunted. When he described what she did, Rick just laughed. "The little twerp. I almost grabbed her tail and yanked her back down."

"She's certainly something," Rick agreed with a chuckle.

"I hope I'm something good," Sheila grinned as she wormed under Rick's arm in the doorway and came into Kit's office. Mike came up behind Rick holding a camera. "Where do you want me?"

"You're his cousin, sit in his lap," Mike grinned mischievously. "An introduction pic for Sheila we're putting in the next issue," Mike explained to Kit's confused look, as Sheila spilled herself into her cousin's lap for Mike. Sheila hooked an arm around Kit's shoulder and waved to the camera with the other as Rick moved for Mike, and Mike took two shots. He looked at them on the screen, then nodded. "Got it. Barry's whipping up a little intro bio on you, Sheila. When they're done, I'll have Savid work it in and you'll get to see it."

"Cool! I've never been in a magazine that wasn't a tabloid before!"

Mike laughed. "Well, now, if you want to let me take some tabloid-esque pictures, we could talk about that," he said.

"Only if you pay me. A minimum hundred dollars per exposed square foot of fur, but there's a white fur surcharge," she said, which made both Rick and Mike laugh. "White fur costs extra. Those are the good parts, you know," she added with a wink, patting her white-furred midriff.

"I'm not that rich, not on what Rick pays me," Mike grinned, then hurried off to his own tiny office before Rick could reply.

"She's a Vulpan alright," Rick chuckled as he went back to his office.

"Was there any doubt?" Sheila called loudly after him.

Kit saw the intro they were putting in page two beside the usual group shot while Sheila was out running an errand for Rick, showing a brightly smiling Sheila sitting in his lap, waving to the camera. Barry had finished the bio as well:

The Yankees keep coming!
Everyone welcome Sheila Vulpan to the Lone Star family! Sheila is Kit's cousin, who is also from Boston, who's come down to intern with us and learn the magazine business hands-on while on sabbatical from Harvard University… and to get away from the cold Boston winter.
So show her some Texas hospitality, Austin. She's another Yankee, but hey, the first one turned out pretty well.
At least this Vulpan is cute! The males of the office are very, very, very, very, very happy she's here!
Did we mention we're happy she's here? Well, we're happy she's here.
Really.
Pictures of Sheila will be available in the new pay area of the website, at one hundred dollars per square foot of fur revealed, with an additional surcharge for exposed white fur.
Yes, this is a joke. Don't email us asking where it is.
And yes, Sheila approved of this bio before we published it.

Kit chuckled when he read it, and gave Mike a smile.

"Think she'll get her tail in a twist over that?" Barry asked.

"Nah, she'll think it's funny," he answered. "Sheila's not priggish."

Not at all. She thought it was a riot when she read it. "Oh, you gotta put a link for that pay site on the magazine website, and have it link to kid's website like Disneyworld!" she laughed when Savid showed it to him. "No, no, have it link to some anti-porn crusader website!"

Mike stopped in mid-maw opening, then broke out into laughter. "I'll go do that right now!" he said, rushing back to his office.

"Oh, I can smell the hate already," Barry mused, then the entire office exploded into laughter.

Chapter 14