She never forgot a thing.
“It’s not a date,” he said. Or not exactly. “I’m heading into Coeur d’Alene for a friend of a friend’s birthday party.”
“Yeah, I know. I get the messages on the machine, remember?” She clicked over to another of her spreadsheets on the computer. “Your friend of a friend left a message reminding you that he wants to introduce you to-and let me give a direct quote here”-she read from her screen-“Mandy, a stacked blonde who’s hoping to play dirty doctor with a doctor.” Jade swiveled back to arch a brow in his direction.
He shrugged. “You can’t believe all of what Kenny says.”
“What percentage?”
“What?”
Her expression was classic don’t mess with me. “What percentage of what Kenny says can we believe?”
“Half.” He lifted a shoulder. “Maybe forty percent.”
“Okay, so by sheer odds, you’re either meeting a stacked blonde, or playing dirty doctor.”
Dell laughed and came around the counter. Good Christ, had she smelled that delicious all day long? He leaned over her chair and took another whiff.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Seeing what’s left on your spreadsheet.”
“Hey.” She pushed him with her shoulder. “Personal space intrusion.” She pushed him again as she dialed Lilah. She had to leave a message, which she did while keeping a narrowed eye on him at the same time. The same sort of narrowed eye the kitten still had on him.
Two females, both suspicious. Both wary.
Both having been hurt.
Dell would have laid money down that Jade had no idea how much of herself she gave away when she looked at him like that. And to be fair, she was good at hiding.
But he was better. The skill had been hard earned from his growing-up years, further honed by the nature of his job. There were no words when it came to animals, and out of necessity he’d become the master at reading anyone and anything. He could see past Jade’s dazzling clothes and tough-girl exterior, past the uptight perfectionist to the vulnerable woman beneath.
Yeah, the woman was definitely hiding.
What he didn’t know was why. He had a few ideas, none of which he liked, but whatever the reason, it made him a little heartsick for her, it the same way he felt for the kitten, sitting quiet but not compliant in the crook of his arm. Unfortunately, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that only the kitten was going to allow him to help her. He smiled down at her as he stroked her beneath the chin, which seemed to be the magic ticket because she let out a rumbling, rusty purr. “You’re sweet,” he murmured, rubbing his jaw along the top of her little head.
“Aw thanks,” Jade said. “I try.”
Dell smiled because that was a lie and they both knew it. Then she surprised him.
“I’ll take the kitten,” she said, and in her usual efficient way stepped back from her desk and critically eyed the clean surface as she slung her purse over her shoulder. Heels clicking, she moved to the wall of storage cabinets. Without hesitation, she opened one and pulled out a kitten carrier. Then she went to another cabinet, bending low to grab a bed liner, expertly lining the kitten carrier. “Grab me some food? And a litter box, too,” she said over her shoulder.
He didn’t move. “You’re going to take the kitten overnight,” he repeated dubiously.
“Yes.” Her hand and arm brushed his chest as she relieved him of the kitten. “Why do you look so flummoxed?”
“Well, maybe because you’ve never done such a thing before. Hell, Jade, you’ve never even let any of us come to your place.”
Ignoring that, Jade carefully slid the kitten into the carrier and turned her back on him, heading to the door.
They were the last two in the building. Keith, his animal tech, and Mike, his vet nurse, had both already left. Jade hit all the lights except one interior, casting them in a soft glow. “Look,” she said. “My job is running this front reception room like a well-oiled machine, right? That includes any loose ends.”
He stepped between her and the door. “And the stray is a loose end?”
“At this point, Doctor, you’re a loose end. Everything in the back handled?”
The “back” consisted of two exam rooms, a surgical suite, an x-ray and ultrasonic suite, and his and Adam’s offices. “Closed up tighter than a drum,” he assured her.
“Hmm.” She didn’t look impressed. She liked it better when she made the last walk through. And with good reason. He’d been known to be distracted enough to forget to turn something off or to even lock himself out. He opened the front door for her, then put a hand on her arm, waiting until she met his gaze. “I owe you. Lunch tomorrow?”
“We can never agree on a place.”
“Name it, then,” he said. “Name your price.”
This appeared to interest her given how she cocked her head. “That’s a lot of power.”
She had no idea how much power she already had. “Anything.”
She considered this so seriously he smiled. Then she flashed him a rare one of her own and his heart actually stuttered. “You’re not going to like it,” she warned.
Oh, how wrong she was. “There’s not much I don’t like, Jade.”
She poked a finger in his chest. “Okay, what did I tell you about flirting with me, about using my name in that sex-on-a-stick voice?”
Now this interested him. “You think my voice is sex on a stick?”
She poked him again. He liked to think it was because she had a secret thing for touching him, but then again, he was a realist. If she’d wanted him that way, she’d have let him know by now.
“I want you to let me take care of the stack of bills on your desk,” she said. “The one that’s threatening to fall over and hit the floor.”
They both knew that the state of his desk, which looked like it had been napalmed, drove her organized, anal heart absolutely nuts. As did how he could be counted on to lose his keys, wallet, or hell, his own brain in the mess at least once a week. But though he hated paperwork with the same passion that he hated vegetables, he wasn’t going to hand over the reins of his admittedly sloppy accounting. He realized that meant that he trusted the animals in his care more than he did the humans, but hell, everyone had their faults. “If you took care of the mess on my desk,” he said, “that would be you doing me the favor.”
“Not really. I need to organize that desk, Dell. And you hate handling the bills, I heard you swearing at them just this morning.”
“I was swearing at the news. Another vet clinic was robbed last night.” There’d been a series of vet robberies between here and Spokane in the past week. The threat of it happening here, at his place, the one he’d built with his own sweat and blood, pissed him off. “Just after closing time. This time a tech was still in the building, working late, and was knocked out.”
“Oh my God,” she said, covering her mouth. “What did they take?”
“Ketamine.”
“Ketamine.” She frowned. “Horse tranq?”
“Turns out it’s a good human narcotic as well.” Not to mention an effective date rape drug but she’d gone very still, very pale. “Hey. You okay?”
“That’s why you stayed tonight,” she said. “You wanted to walk me out to make sure I was safe.”
“And the kitten. I wanted the kitten to be safe, too.” He smiled, but Jade didn’t. Instead, she looked out the window into the dark parking lot with obvious unease, making him doubly glad he’d stayed.
Belle Haven was just outside of their small town of Sunshine, five miles down a narrow, winding road. Their closest neighbor-Lilah’s kennels-was a quarter mile away. They were surrounded by the rugged, majestic Idaho Bitterroot mountain range, the peaks looming high. To say that they were isolated out here was an understatement.