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Savannah: Good morning, yourself! Have you been kidnapped? You never text me first.
A line of bouncing response dots appeared and disappeared more than once. Savannah poked her head into both exam rooms, double-checking that everything was in order while she waited. Finally, her phone vibrated in her hand.
Andrew: Sorry about that. I’ll try to do better.
Savannah: Don’t apologize! To what do I owe the pleasure?
Again, the dots appeared and disappeared. Savannah frowned and glanced out into the parking lot, where people and their pets were already climbing from their cars. If Drew didn’t finish his thought soon, she might not get to reply for hours.
Andrew: Ryker and I were just wondering how you are.
Warmth spread up Savannah’s neck and into her cheeks. Had he been thinking about her? That was new . . . but she liked it.
Maybe a little too much.
She hastily typed a response as Mrs. Hyndsver, the front desk receptionist, moved to unlock the lobby door.
Savannah: About to open the clinic. I see two chihuahuas in the parking lot, so it’ll be an interesting morning. Tell Ryker I’ll try to come see him later!
Then she pocketed her phone and greeted the day’s first clients as they came inside. When she checked again three hours later, Drew’s waiting response made her grin.
Andrew: We’re looking forward to it.
Two days later, Savannah was in the clinic’s backroom when the intercom crackled to life, and she barely heard her name over the basset hound in kennel four. She half tripped through the dog room and pressed her ear against the speaker before hitting the button to reply.
“Say that again?” she asked.
“You have a delivery,” Mrs. Hyndsver repeated, and Savannah furrowed her brow in confusion.
A delivery? She never had anything delivered to the clinic. She hit the button again. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, honey. I’m sure. I’ll put it in the break room for you.”
Savannah moved away from the intercom, silently running through a list of possibilities as she finished her cleaning.
Maybe she’d accidentally put her work address on something she’d ordered for her apartment?
She’d never done that before, but she wouldn’t say it was impossible.
Her stomach gurgled loudly as she shut the last kennel door and replaced the cleaning supplies in an upper cabinet.
It was nearly two o’clock, and she still hadn’t slowed down long enough to have lunch.
The sandwich she’d packed herself was probably soggy, and the very thought of it made her stomach grumble again in a completely different way.
Maybe she’d have time to run down the road to Sonic after she sorted out whatever this mystery was.
She scrubbed her hands in the work sink and dried them on a paper towel before heading down the hall toward the clinic’s small break room.
The only thing on the table was a brown paper to-go bag with the Merlin’s Burgers logo printed on the outside.
A long white receipt was stapled to the top fold, and Savannah scanned it quickly.
Extra pickles, no onion . . . crinkle fries . . . call-in for delivery . . . customer name, Andrew Tanner.
A surprised smile spread across her face, and she eagerly ripped open the bag. The scent that rose from the greasy paper instantly made her mouth water; Drew had sent her food!
Wait . . . Drew had sent her food? Good morning texts all week and now lunch?
She unwrapped her burger and took a huge bite, anxious to put something in her stomach before another client walked in. It tasted like Heaven. She yanked her phone from her pocket and opened her text thread with Drew, which had grown exponentially since Monday morning.
Savannah: Did you send me lunch? Thank you! I was starving. How’d you know Merlin’s is my favorite?
A minute or so later, the response came in.
Andrew: Brooklyn told me. Glad you like it. Did they make it right?
Savannah: Extra pickles and no onions. Perfect! Thank you so much! You didn’t have to do that.
Andrew: Bee said she passed by earlier and the parking lot was packed, so I wasn’t sure you’d have gotten anything to eat.
Savannah made short work of the rest of her burger, her mind on overdrive. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think Drew was trying to flirt with her.
But he wasn’t.
Was he?
“You don’t need to go with me. I’m a big girl.”
“I didn’t say you weren’t.”
“Drew, seriously, just drop me off at my car!”
“Not ‘til you say I can come.”
Savannah stared at him as he drove. “Why are you so set on being my bodyguard all of a sudden?” she asked. “I’ve been at the clinic by myself a hundred times.”
“Because it would be too easy for someone to sneak up on you,” he answered, keeping his eyes on the pavement in front of them.
The truck’s headlights lit up the narrow road that stretched between the field he’d been working and where they should have turned into his driveway, but instead of making the stop, they continued on toward the main part of town.
She sighed, finally accepting his stubbornness.
“Fine,” she agreed. “I don’t see that I have much choice. ”
Drew’s lips tipped up in a smile, but he didn’t respond.
“I just have to give meds. You’re wasting your time,” she cautioned again later as he slowed for a four-way stop.
“I don’t care.”
“And you can’t actually help me. It’s a liability.”
“That’s fine.”
“It’ll take five minutes!”
“Savannah, I’m coming,” he said firmly.
She clamped her lips shut and turned her face away to hide a smile. Why did she like it that he didn’t want her to go alone? Was he just being a good friend or something else? She couldn’t seem to tell these days.
“Are you still planning to come tomorrow?” Drew asked, and his question broke the stillness that had settled over the cab.
Savannah normally hated when conversations lapsed, but silence with Drew was a new kind of creature—one that seemed to purr rather than scratch. “Yeah. When is kickoff?”
“Five thirty,” he answered. Then he turned into the empty parking lot outside the Cypress Valley Veterinary Clinic. “Do you have keys to this place?”
“Yes, I do,” she said, fishing in her purse. After she pulled her keys out, she reached across the cab and dangled them in Drew’s face. “Do you want to turn them for me, too?” she teased.
He batted her hand away with the back of his arm. “Smart alec,” he muttered, but the smile that graced his cheeks gave her the reaction she’d wanted.
She climbed down from the truck and approached the side entrance she always used, feeling Drew at her back like a shield. When she reached for the knob, she paused, holding up the key ring again. “You sure? Last chance!”
“Just open it,” he ordered, though his voice seemed lower than usual and the words rumbled very close to her ear. A cascade of goose bumps crashed along the length of her spine as she turned her key in the lock and let them both into the building.
Drew stepped in behind her and pulled the door shut before testing that it was fully latched. “This locks from the outside, right?”
“Oh, I have to lock it?” she asked, feigning innocence.
Drew narrowed his eyes in her direction, and she smiled, just to get under his skin.
“Yes, honey, I locked the boogieman out,” she said, goading him.
Then she flipped on the hallway lights and started toward the supply room.
“I’ll be in the back if guard duty gets lonely!
” she called over her shoulder. She thought she heard him grumble something about it being dark and isolated, and she chuckled to herself.
He was such a worrywart. She’d never been afraid to be at the clinic alone, not even after dark, but she had to admit she’d also never felt safer.
She stopped by the pharmacy cabinet to gather what she needed before heading into the dog room.
“Hello, darlings!” she cooed at the kennel’s current inhabitants.
There were Meera and Neyli, both gray pit bulls; Lucy, a little black labrador; and Rosie, a sable-colored Shetland sheepdog.
They all barked their welcomes at a deafening volume.
“I know, I know, I’m disturbing you. I’m sorry!
” Savannah apologized. “I’ll only be a second.
” She walked through another door and into the post-op isolation kennel, where a giant pile of hair was waiting for her.
She laid her supplies on a prep table and clicked her tongue.
A massive Bernese mountain dog raised his head; the name tag on his kennel said “Miles.”
“Hey there, ol’ boy,” she crooned, kneeling to his level.
She opened the kennel door and stroked the big dog’s ears before trailing her hand down his back.
“I’m just gonna check your ouchies. Don’t mind me,” she said.
Miles lay still while she made sure the bandages around his back leg were securely in place and didn’t need changing.
“Good boy!” she praised when she’d finished. Then she turned and picked up a peanut butter treat she’d gotten from the cabinet. “I brought you something yummy!” she declared.
Miles sniffed the treat suspiciously, as if he knew she’d hidden his medicine inside it, but then he slurped the offering out of her hand with his giant tongue. Savannah checked his mouth to make sure the antibiotics had gone down.
“Good job! You’re just a big ol’ teddy bear, aren’t you?
” she cooed. She rubbed the dog’s head again, and then she bent and touched her forehead to his.
“You’re gonna be just fine, you know. You’ll go home soon.
” She stood and closed the door of his kennel.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay? Get some good sleep,” she added.
The big boy’s tail thumped loudly against the floor, and Savannah made her way back through the main kennel and out to the quieter exam area.
She was washing her hands when she heard footsteps behind her.
“So, what was your plan?” she asked aloud, throwing the question over her shoulder as she turned off the tap with her forearm.
“My . . . what?” Drew replied.
“Your plan. For if we’re invaded?” She turned and smirked at him while she dried her hands.
“Oh, uh, well, I guess I would stop him,” Drew explained vaguely, adjusting his ball cap. He shifted to lean one shoulder against the doorframe, effectively blocking her exit into the hall.
Savannah launched her used paper towel into the trash can and flattened her hands against the counter behind her. “But what if you got hurt?” she asked.
“Well, better me than you.”
Something in Savannah’s chest grew tight, and she barely kept herself from pressing her hand against it and swooning like women did in movies. She bit the inside of her lip instead. “Why, Andrew,” she teased softly, “are you trying to make me love you?”
Drew’s gaze held hers, strong and unwavering, but he didn’t answer.
Then Savannah heard the scrape of keys in the outside lock. Drew turned to look down the hall, and the moment was broken.
“Hello?” a voice called. It was Dr. Madden. “Who’s here?”
“It’s me!” Savannah answered. Disappointment surged into her veins as she pushed off the counter and slipped past Drew on her way out of the room. If he had to think about his answer, it probably wasn’t good.