Chapter 1 #2
“It was all stuff I had laying around. I don’t know how much they cost.” Another dismissive wave of his hand before it found perch against the back of his neck. “I did have a question for you though.”
“And what’s that?”
He opened his mouth to speak, then snapped it shut. His smile returned, cheeks burning bright again. “You think we can get this shot done real quick? It’s getting late, and I still gotta pick Lizzie up from school.”
“Right. Obviously.” I started for the door, glancing at him over my shoulder. “You want me to just bring her out? She’s easier to control inside, but if you’re in a hurry—”
“No, no. I’ll just come in, if that’s okay?”
I glanced back at him, assuring him it was fine, and led the way up the steps. Sebastian had come into my cabin a thousand times to give Honey her medicine. What was the apprehension this time?
Honey’s barks erupted on the other side of the door once we were closer.
The fact she hadn’t heard us talking in the driveway had me curious about her quality of hearing these days.
When I opened the door, her barks only got louder.
Her nub of a tail wagged hard enough to shake her whole body as she jumped at me, then Sebastian, licking our hands and faces.
That didn’t stop when we crossed the threshold.
Honey had seen a lot of vets in her life, and even though Sebastian stabbed her with a pain management shot each month for the arthritis in her little legs, she still adored his presence.
I couldn’t blame her. He wasn’t much of a people person, but the way he was with animals could warm any girl’s heart.
Crouched on the ground beside her, he let her lick him all over.
I gave her head a scratch and kicked off my snow-covered boots. “Guess I’m chopped liver.”
“She’d probably like you more if you were,” Sebastian said.
Jaw dropped, I shot him a certain hand signal. He only laughed.
Knowing the two of them, this greeting would last a while. Especially after Sebastian told her, “Go get your toy.”
So while he sat cross-legged on the floor and gave her all the love and attention she desired, I sank onto the old, floral print sofa.
“Alright, easy.” Sebastian shook out his hand at his side and scratched Honey’s head up. “You almost drew blood with that one.”
Toy bear latched between her jaws, she pressed her front paws to the ground, lifted her butt into the air, and wagged her tail.
“Do you need me to hold her?” I asked.
“Nah, I got it.”
He rummaged in his bag and came out with the prefilled syringe in his palm, covered in a handful of treats.
Honey rushed over, nose moving like a bee after a flower.
He tossed the treats a few feet across the floor.
She ran to them. At lightning speed, while she gobbled them down, Sebastian jammed the needle into her flank.
She didn’t so much as flinch.
Watching the two of them in awe, I shook my head. “I don’t know how you do it.”
“Hell of a lot easier with a chunker.” He gave her flank one more pet, smoothing down her fur, and rose from his knees. “The dogs who aren’t food motivated make everything harder.”
“Honey’d eat herself to death if I let her.” I stood with him and reached for my purse on the table. “The usual eighty?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Hands in his pockets, he pressed his lips together. “Unless you wanna make a barter?”
Slowly, I set my wallet back into my purse. “What kinda barter?”
“Well, you know Lizzie.”
“I do know Lizzie,” I said.
Lizzie was Sebastian’s preteen niece. The whole backstory and how he'd wound up with custody of her? No idea. But she was around the ranch on her days off from school while Sebastian worked with Rhiannon’s animals. She was friends with a few of the teens who lived in the apartments in town.
“She sort of—” Sebastian scratched his head and grimaced. “She’s not welcome back at her music school.”
I choked on a laugh and set my purse down. “What the hell’d she do?”
“Nothing serious. Just some inappropriate verbiage she used with a teacher.”
“That checks out.”
“Yeah, so I’m looking for someone to help her with her winter piano recital.
” He nodded out the window. “Rhiannon has her on the solo performance list. But she still needs help with a couple songs, and I know how good you are behind the keys, so I just thought, I don’t know.
Maybe you’d be down to make some extra cash?
I’d rather it go to a teacher she likes anyway. And you guys get along.”
Huh. I squinted at him. While most of my expenses were covered here at the ranch, my nine-to-five didn’t pay the greatest. Like all the other girls here, I was working on building up a nest egg to start a business of my own someday.
“I’m not gonna turn it down.” I leaned against the dinette table. “But I’m not really a teacher.”
“Yeah, I know. But she already knows how to play.” He spoke quickly, hands still jammed into his pockets. Opposed to his usual perfect posture, he slouched the slightest bit. “She’s been playing since kindergarten. Just needs a little guidance when she’s taking on a new song.”
That, I could understand. “In that case, sure. I’m down. What day and time is good for you guys?”
“Her usual lessons were every other Friday at 7, but if that doesn’t work for you, we can figure something else out.”
“I’m usually off by 5 on Fridays, so that’s perfect.”
“Awesome. Great.” Nodding quickly, he raked a hand through his shoulder-length brown waves. “I paid the school two hundred a lesson. So I figured I’d just give that to you?”
“Minus Honey’s shot.” I wasn’t one for handouts. The very reason it’d taken me years longer than it should’ve to wind up in any women’s shelter. “That’s the barter, right?”
“That’s the barter. And uh, I don’t know. Maybe we could go get something to eat after? Just, ya know, my way of saying thanks.”
I cocked my head to the side. “Me, you, and Lizzie?”
“I, uh—I was thinking just me and you. But sure, yeah. If you want Lizzie to come.” He nodded quickly again, throat bobbing with a swallow. “Yeah, that’s fine.”
My head still cocked, I let the corner of my mouth quirk up.
Sebastian was one of the first people I’d met at the ranch, and our friendship budded somewhere in our frequent proximity.
We met each month for Honey’s injection.
Since he was the vet who cared for all Rhiannon’s horses, cows, goats, and chickens, we saw one another around the ranch all the time.
I worked four buildings down from his office in the city, and he walked down each day for lunch.
Two or three dinners a week, we shared a table at the cafeteria in town for dinner.
Suffice it to say, eating together was far from uncommon.
His visible anxiety though? That was new.
Was it a meal he was asking for? Or something else?
I couldn’t say the thought had never crossed my mind. He was handsome in a rough and rugged sort of way, from his six-foot height to his strong jaw and piercing puppy-dog eyes. And that beard—My god, I’d fought the desperate urge to run my fingers through it a thousand times.
But I was used to men who made the move. Sebastian never had.
So I pushed any attraction I had for him into a neat little box in the corner of my mind. This last year was about healing. Maybe I’d date again once I had my shit together.
But was he even asking for a date?
“I mean.” I raised a shoulder. “I’ve been dying to try that hibachi place that just opened in Glacier Ridge. But Lizzie’s picky, isn’t she? I don’t think she’d like hibachi.”
Shoulders releasing, something glimmered in his eyes. “Yeah, she hates hibachi.”
“So just you and me then?”
“Yeah. Yeah, that sounds great.” His smile reached his eyes again. “Just you and me.”