Chapter Five
S awyer let out more line on Ray’s leash as the little beagle wandered around the clinic yard sniffing. No doubt he’d caught the scent of the rabbits Sawyer had seen out there earlier, and now the dog was determined to find the poor critters. He glanced over at Anna, who had Tink’s leash and was encouraging the cat to walk with her. Tink crouched down in the grass, clearly annoyed by her cone of shame, and no doubt, by having to be outside with such a craven creature as Ray.
Anna checked the area before gracefully sinking down in the grass, crisscrossing her long legs, and slipping the leash around her wrist. “What’s with you, lady?” She tipped her head to peer into the recalcitrant feline’s face. “You’re supposed to be frolicking out here. Instead you’re all hunched down and pouty.”
“She’s in a continual state of pissed off,” Sawyer said, following Ray’s trek along the garden edge. “Hates being here, hates having had surgery, hates us. We’re all beneath her.”
“What was the surgery for?”
“We removed a small tumor from her mammary gland. Benign, thankfully, but it needed to go. They happen sometimes if a cat is spayed later in her life.”
“That makes a difference?” The cat reclined, and Anna stroked her soft fur below the cone, avoiding the shaved spot on her chest where they’d removed the tumor. “It’s okay, Tink, poor girl.”
Sawyer brought Ray closer, but not too close. The last thing he wanted was Tink hissing and spitting at the poor beagle. “Studies show cats are more likely to develop mammary tumors if they’re spayed after they’re about six or seven months old. Her owner says she was spayed at about year, which could be the reason she developed the tumor. The ones that are spayed earlier in life don’t seem as apt to get them.”
She smiled up at him. “How long does it take to become a vet?”
“Eight years. How long to become an architect?”
She arched a brow. “I’m pretty sure I revealed that little factoid to Trixie in confidence.”
He hesitated, debating as he stooped down beside Ray who’d finally exhausted his rabbit search and had tossed himself down on the ground a safe distance from Tink. Should he admit he’d been asking about her? But Annabelle was the first woman who’d piqued his interest in over two years. More than piqued. He was as attracted as he’d ever been to any woman…ever. Might as well go for the truth. “I confess I was eavesdropping on you and Trixie, but I have been getting a lot of scoop from Mac Mackenzie. He’s a veritable fountain of information about everyone in this town.”
She chuffed a laugh. “Not much gets past Mac.”
“I go to the diner every night for supper, sit at the counter. He’s been filling me in on who’s who in River’s Edge.”
“Oh, has he now?”
“Yup.” He winked at her. “I’ve seriously considered bringing along a notebook and taking notes. My head is full of River’s Edge trivia and personalities. Ask me anything.”
She narrowed her eyes at him as her hand continued to smooth the fur along Tink’s side. The cat actually seemed to be relaxing. “Who owns the hardware store?”
“Too easy. Noah Barker, who happens to be dating Dot Higgins from the quilt store. By the way, the name of the quilt shop—Seams Pieceful? Very clever.” He sat all the way down, ignoring the fact that he’d probably end up with stains on the seat of his scrub pants from the now-damp-with-evening-dew grass. “Come on, challenge me.”
“Name the brothers who own Four Irish Brothers Winery.”
“Conor, Sean, Aidan, and Brendan.” He counted the Flahertys off on his fingers. “However, only Conor and Sean actually work there full-time, and I think one of them is also an attorney. Brendan is a writer and some kind of government spy, and Aidan owns the riverboat. I have to be honest, I already knew he was an actor because of his recent Oscar, oh, and Pete from LA Detectives . I didn’t know he lived here, though, until Mac said. Bonus fact, he’s married to the woman who owns the tea shop.”
“And her name is…”
He raked his fingers through his hair, pushing it off his forehead and holding for a moment as he thought. “Hmm…okay, you got me.”
She pointed at him. “Ha! Holly, and by the way, the whole town likes to pretend Bren is a spy, but he’s not.”
“How do you know?” Sawyer was thoroughly enjoying the banter, watching Anna’s eyes sparkle in the lights that had come on as dusk had settled over the clinic yard. “Do you think spies actually introduce themselves as Bond, James Bond, spy ?” He gave it his best 007 reading.
She laughed and his heart gave a little stutter. It was a great laugh—full and real and exactly what a laugh should be. “Nice Sean Connery impression there, Doc.”
He gave a little self-conscious shrug. “That’s not the only one I can do.”
“You do impressions?” The idea clearly surprised her.
“I’m a man of vast and varied talents.” He nudged Ray. “Go run, lazy.”
The dog lifted his head and gave him a look that said Go run yourself before lying back down and closing his eyes.
“Who else can you do?” Anna’s expression was full of curiosity, and he was once again taken aback by how incredibly lovely she was. Her skin was peachy and if she had on makeup, it was so natural, he couldn’t tell. Her full lips were pink and tempting, her nose narrow and rather patrician and those eyes…a blue so clear and perfect, she had to be wearing colored contact lenses. She was obviously in her thirties, maybe thirty-five, and she wasn’t wearing a ring.
He ignored her question and went for his own. “Can I ask you something?”
“Um…okay, but only if you ask it in Jamie Fraser’s voice.”
He snorted, then with a shrug, complied. “Are ye marrit, lass?” The deep Scots accent sounded pretty fair to him.
She laughed before giving him a long look. “What? Mac didn’t include all my vital statistics?”
“Mac is pretty circumspect, not really gossipy and to be honest, I didn’t ask for too many details. Felt creepy asking about you.” He shot her a wry smile. “Figured I could ask you myself.”
She nodded and turned her attention back to Tink, who was, miracle of miracles, purring.
“I’ve never heard that cat purr before,” he said. “You have a nice touch with animals.”
“We always had cats when I was a kid. My mom would have one now if she and Dad stayed in one place long enough.” She met his eyes. “My brother has one. Well, two actually, since he brought a kitten home to his girlfriend from the earthquake in Missouri a few months ago.”
“Your brother was in that earthquake?” Sawyer shuddered, remembering the horrible news footage from the disaster. The vet school had sent a vanload of fourth-year students and a couple of surgeons down to help out.
“Right after—he’s in the reserves, so he went to help.”
“Nice.” He cleared his throat. She still hadn’t answered his question. “So, are you?”
“Am I what?”
“Married?”
Anna shifted, switched her leg position, then finally said, “No, I’m not. Are you?”
He shook his head. “Never even been close.” He hesitated, unsure if he should probe any further. She didn’t seem very forthcoming. She was as wary and close-mouthed about herself as a government spy, and he didn’t want to scare her off. May as well go for broke. “You dating anyone?”
“Are you trying to ask me out, Dr. Braxton?”
“Not very subtle, am I?”
“Well, the direct approach is easier. If I’m involved, I’ll turn you down.”
“Anna, would you like to have dinner with me tonight?”
For a few seconds, she didn’t respond, instead she scooped up Tink and in one lithe move, rose to her feet—impressive with a cat in her arms.
He stood too, not quite so elegantly, and tugged on Ray’s leash. “Well?”
“I was going to grab a pizza tonight. You’re welcome to join me, as long as you don’t want anchovies or onions.”
“So that’s a no then?”
Her brow furrowed. “No, that was a yes .”
He chuckled. “I mean, no you’re not involved, so yes, you’ll have dinner with me?”
She headed for the door, tossing over her shoulder, “Not if you confuse the heck out of me.”
He just shook his head. She was an enigma. “Let’s get these critters back in their crates. I need to check on the boarders and make sure nobody is in distress. Travis can let them out when he comes back from dinner. I’ll change out of my scrubs, and lock up.”
“I’ll head to Mario’s and get our order in.” She glanced at the smartwatch on her slim wrist. “He closes at ten, so don’t dawdle.”
“Dawdle?” He chuckled. “I won’t dawdle .”
“Are you making fun of my vocabulary?”
“Never. I just haven’t ever heard anyone under the age of seventy say don’t dawdle .”
“That’s my big secret, Doc.” She set Tink in her crate, handily removed the Velcro-ed roman harness without disturbing her e-collar, and latched the door. “There you go, missy. Sleep well.”
He did the same with Ray, who offered a pitiful woof when he shut the crate door, so he walked to the cupboard to grab a bag of treats. “You have a big secret?”
“I’m actually a seventy-three-year-old woman with great genes.” She wiggled her fingers in his direction. “Mario’s is at the corner of Main and Harrison, across from the big Victorian. Parking is on the street or in the public parking a couple of blocks south.”
And before he could get the bag of bacon treats open, she was gone.
*
Anna rested her head against the hard back of the booth at Mario’s, closed her eyes, and released a long breath. It’s only a pizza. With a guy. It’s not a big deal . “Just pizza,” she whispered.
“But it’s darn good pizza.” A voice above her brought her head up. Her friend Sam Flaherty stood over the table, her hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “What’s got you all broody?”
“Hey, Sam. Have a seat?” Anna gestured to the bench across from her. “Hi, Ali.”
“For a sec. We’re not staying. Just nabbed this kiddo from Mom’s, and we’re grabbing a pizza to go.” Sam, dressed in her yoga clothes, plopped down across from Anna and eight-year-old Ali smiled and perched on her mom’s knee. “Missed you at yoga. You okay?”
“Yeah.” Anna rubbed her face and thrust her fingers through her hair, shoving her bangs back, but they flopped right back down over her forehead. “I’m fine. I went by Price’s to check on this little puppy I found when I went for a bike ride on Saturday. Some sleaze dumped the poor thing.”
“You got a puppy?” Ali squealed and clapped her hands.
Anna shook her head. “I did not get a puppy. I found a stray and it was hurt. Coincidentally, the new vet who started at Price’s this week came along, which was good because my bike had developed a flat tire. He not only took the puppy, he also gave me and my bike a lift back to town.”
Sam raised one auburn brow. “ Coincidentally ? Did I ever tell you how I met Conor? I heard this new vet is cute. Like cute , cute.”
Anna narrowed her eyes. “I’ve heard the flat tire in the rain meet-cute story. This was completely different, so don’t start with me.”
“Um…flat tire, handsome guy comes to the rescue, only difference is yours was a bicycle.” Sam chuckled. “Throw in that puppy and we’ve got ourselves the start of a romance novel.”
Anna gave her friend a warning glare. “Sam…”
Ali leaned away from her mom. “There’s a new vet? What about Dr. John?”
Sam tapped the little girl’s nose lightly. “Dr. John is still working. This new vet is here to help him.”
Ali nodded, her expression very serious. “Oh, okay.”
Sam merely pressed her lips together before glancing up as the bell over the door to the restaurant jingled. “If this guy is your vet, he’s got romance hero written all over him.”
“I don’t see anything written on him but P-u-r-d-u-e on his sweatshirt,” Ali piped up. “Oh, that must be him, though, ’cause there’s a cat and a dog and a horse and a bunny and a goat under the letters,” she enumerated and looked back at her mother. “He must like taking care of all animals.”
Anna leaned forward. Sawyer, dressed in jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt, was scanning the room, so she waved her hand. He caught sight of her and grinned. There was that killer dimple and that lock of hair that fell over his forehead. His eyes lit up behind the professorial glasses as he loped toward her.
“Hey.”
“Are you the new vet?” Ali asked before anyone else had a chance to say anything.
“Yup.” Sawyer gave her a smile and held out his hand. “Dr. Sawyer Braxton. Do you need a veterinarian, young lady?”
Ali beamed and shook his hand. “I’m Ali Flaherty. We got a dog named Lily and two cats, Zin and Merlot, but Dr. John takes care of them for us.”
“Is that so?” He jerked his head toward Anna. “Shove over, Anna. I want to hear about these pets.”
Anna slid across the wooden bench, too aware that her cheeks were heating as Sam gave her big eyes.
Sawyer folded his hands in front of him on the table, his entire focus on Ali and Sam. “Is this your mom?”
“Yup. She’s a lawyer.”
Sam chuckled and held out her hand. “Sam Flaherty. Nice to meet you.”
He shook her hand. “Sawyer. Nice to meet you.” He turned his attention back to Ali. “Zin and Merlot, huh? That must mean that your dad is either Conor or Sean Flaherty, the winemakers.”
Ali gave a gasp of surprise. “My dad is Conor. Sean is my uncle. How did you know that?” Then she clapped a hand to her forehead. “Oh, wait, the cats’ names are also wine names. That’s how you know.” She leaned conspiratorially toward Sawyer. “They’re getting kind of old and grumpy. They stay up in the winery all the time and hide behind the bottle racks.”
“Are they boys or girls?” Sawyer asked.
“They’re girls, but they’re fixed.” Ali turned to her mom. “What’s that called again? When you fix a kitty so she can’t have babies?”
“Spayed,” Sam offered, setting Ali away and standing. “We gotta go, kiddo. I’m sure our pizza is ready, and Dad and your brothers will be hungry if we don’t get home with it.”
“It’s an extra-large and I got to pick the stuff for on top. So, we got sausage and mushrooms and black olives and green peppers,” Ali said.
Sawyer laughed. “I don’t know what’s on ours. Miss Anna here is surprising me. But we agreed no fish, no onions.”
Anna gave him a surprised look. “We did? Oh no, I ordered double anchovies and extra onions.”
Ali scrunched up her face. “Ewww.” She put one hand to her cheek and spoke in a stage-whisper to Sawyer. “I think she’s teasing you.”
“She does that a lot,” Sawyer whispered back, and stood up. “Nice to meet you, Ali, and you, Sam. I think we might see each other again because Dr. John has asked me to look after all the dogs and cats and other small animals, so he can concentrate on taking care of the horses and farm animals.”
Sam’s lips curved up as she reached for Ali’s hand. “Yup, Lily has a checkup due next month.”
“See you soon, Ali.” Sawyer waved as they walked away, then rose, and slid onto the bench opposite Anna. “Hi.”
“You’re good with kids.”
He shrugged. “I like them. They’re honest, like animals. What you see is what you get.”
Anna’s stomach tightened. “Sad they can’t stay that way forever.”
He quirked a dark brow. “That’s kind of a gloomy outlook on adulthood.”
She sucked in her cheeks, not really prepared to discuss anything deeper than what he liked on his pizza. She’d own that she sometimes had a darker view of her fellow humans—men in particular—but never because of anyone in River’s Edge. Best to keep to safe neutral topics. Instead, she returned his shrug. “Eight years.”
He rubbed his chin. “Eight years is…”
“How long it takes to become an architect. Five years in school, three in an internship—about eighteen hundred hours under a licensed architect in a firm. After that you take the ARE, a six-part twenty-one-hour exam, and if you pass it, you can apply for a license. There’s a hefty fee for the privilege.”
He pulled back a little. “Wow… I knew about the five years—a buddy of mine spent five years at Ball State getting a degree. I guess I didn’t realize he was in an internship those first years at the firm in Indy.”
“I went to Ball State, too. Did your friend tell you we also have to do twenty-four hours of continuing education every two years to maintain our licenses?”
He shook his head. “No, I haven’t really talked to him since he moved to Indy. Forty hours of continuing ed every two years for vets.” He placed his palms on the table. “Okay. So we’re a couple of overeducated thirty-somethings living in a small town on the Ohio River and…” He tilted his head and peered at her over the top of his glasses. “Just doing our best?”
“Seems like,” she agreed, happy to see the server headed their way.
This was the first time she’d had dinner alone with a man she wasn’t related to in months, and although she didn’t really consider this a date, her nervousness belied that impression. He was here, she was here, they were about to share a pizza—anyone observing them would assume it was a date. His rather bedazzled expression intimated that he definitely thought it was a date.
The thing was, even though she was attracted to Dr. Sawyer Braxton, she didn’t want to date him or anyone else for that matter. A friend with benefits she might be open to, because he was awfully sexy with that dimple and those broad shoulders and his warm dark eyes that were entirely focused on her, but she didn’t want a man in her life. Not after all the heartache she’d recently gone through with Daniel. It had taken several months to start to heal, and in those months, she’d discovered life was way easier, way less painful, alone.