Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
JOSH
“You’ve talked about Erika since we got here.” Milly looked at her phone. “For almost ten minutes.”
“Sorry.” I’d been caught up in rehashing Erika’s surgical moment. I hadn’t been enthused about something related to my job in a long, long time. Usually, I spent my off-time trying to forget the disappointments, the deaths, and the clients angry about things I couldn’t control.
Erika’s confidence even when the dog’s chest filled with blood after removing the arrow wasn’t the Erika I remembered.
As Sarah so aptly put it, the second blood started gushing into the dog’s chest cavity, my ass puckered.
I kept my mouth shut, though. Erika didn’t show any distress, nor did she vocalize a single complaint. She got busy and fixed the dog.
It’d been…just…incredible.
Milly didn’t seem impressed.
I sipped my beer now that the froth had settled.
With forced concentration I took in Milly’s buttoned up pink blouse and styled blonde hair that looked like she’d time-traveled from a 1940s movie set and was waiting for someone to yell “ACTION!” Although well put together, her look screamed hell no on wanting to get laid.
Everything about getting her in bed or even kissing her would be something I’d have to plan out.
I was so tired right now that I wasn’t sure I had the energy to strategize, nor did I feel much enthusiasm.
Milly deserved me being nice. She’d listened this past month when I unloaded work frustrations on her. She had brought me meals a few times after a long day. I should want this kind of relationship no matter how tedious it might be. Shouldn’t I?
I thought of someone who could be in the middle of criticizing my pants while simultaneously making me feel hotter than a ghost pepper.
I refused to dwell on Erika or how hard I came in the shower last night. Erika was leaving. Milly was here.
“You’re still thinking about her.” She sipped her red wine and cast me a judgmental glare.
I should say something complimentary to her for going to all the effort when all I’d done was throw on a non-scrub shirt and jeans. Instead, what popped out of my mouth was about Erika again. “She’s on a whole other level in surgery. It was badass.”
“Sounds like it’d be best if you tell her to go back to where she came from,” she grouched. “She can badass herself somewhere more fast-paced than Vision.”
My mind bounced to what Marty said about Erika’s offhand comment about every woman in this town warning her away from me. A part of me liked knowing Erika had noticed I was doing well now, socially and professionally. It shouldn’t matter. But it did.
“All I’m saying is what she did today took a lot of skill.”
Milly’s lips pouted. “You sound like you want her to move back here.”
This had been the most exciting forty-eight hours of my life. If I had her here more than a week, what else might happen? “I can’t run the business alone. She could be a big help. She’s also in a lot of debt to me. It makes sense for her to help out until I can find a replacement.”
Working with her daily would be tricky. She was the craziest, most breathtaking, and annoyingly stubborn person I’d ever met.
Milly rotated her wine glass and stared at the purple liquid. “Hire a new vet. Work out a debt repayment plan with her so she can go back to her life. She’ll be a pain if she stays.”
“Where am I going to get this new vet who wants to move to Vision? Before Dr. Chomping passed, we’d been trying to hire someone for two years.”
“Try harder.” Her tone reminded me a lot of Cindy from baseball. It was huffy mixed with a hefty dose of I-hate-Erika. I could’ve sworn she muttered under her breath. “Anyone but her.” Louder, she said, “Mark my words, she will try to seduce you into doing what she wants.”
I choked on the swallow of beer. “Seduce me? Not a chance.” I coughed until my eyes watered, then swiped a hand across them. “She threatened to feed me to the bears after I guilted her into doing surgery today. She didn’t flash her tits or even try to charm her way out of the debt she owes me.”
If she had flashed me, I definitely would’ve looked. Hell, I might’ve even been persuaded to renegotiate the loan. The fact that she didn’t try to dodge any of it only raised my respect for her.
Still, my mind drifted to what it would be like if she did try to seduce me.
I’d put up a fight—at least at first—but I could see myself caving, giving her whatever she wanted.
Dante’s words about losing my clothes around Erika flittered through my brain.
Maybe Milly was right. Erika sticking around could turn into a serious pain in the ass.
“Well, that’s a relief I suppose.” She sipped her wine.
After a few stretches of awkward silence, I finally forced out, in my best polite tone, “Anything exciting happen at your work today?”
“I had this guy who parked himself at one of the tables for two hours and only bought one cup of coffee. Then he kept asking for free refills. And the ice machine wasn’t working.” She went on, detailing what sounded like an ordinary, uneventful day.
I think I managed a smile and maybe a single nod. The whole time, one thought pressed heavier and heavier on me: I didn’t want to spend the next thirty years trapped in forced small talk with scheduled Friday-night sex. I wanted…
Damn it. My mom’s words about sex echoed in my head. Yes. I wanted that. The kind of sex that knocks the world out from under you.
Music roared from the back-room pool hall, which was separated from the restaurant by a set of swinging café doors. Most people entered the bar and pool hall through a side entrance to the building.
Mike, owner of the Salted Mule Bar and Restaurant, burst out from behind the bar with a tray of seven beers.
Two guys I vaguely remembered from school and Drew opened the swinging doors for Mike.
A round of cheers rent the air. This place never had excitement like this.
Maybe it was someone’s birthday. Or it could mean…
Erika.
I stood. “Excuse me for a sec, I’ve gotta see what Drew is up to back there. I’ll be right back.”
In the pool room, Vinny sat high up on the counter which gave him a great view of the foosball table. The hood was up on his black hoodie, but his grin was a mile wide. He dipped a fry in ketchup and gobbled it down.
A couple of catcalls and a swell of excitement lit the air as Erika sauntered away from the jukebox. She rocked her shoulders back-and-forth to a song I hadn’t heard since high school. I remembered my first real date with her so long ago.
“So, we’re telling secrets now?” Erika gave me a naughty smile and sipped her milkshake. “I have one biggie.”
“I already told you mine. I don’t want to be farm manager for my dad like everyone expects.
I want to go to college and find something else.
Anything else. I’d do anything to play college ball and try out for the pros.
” I threw my arm across the seat of my truck behind her head wondering if I could get her to kiss me on this date or if it’d be on our second.
“I have one superpower.”
“Which is?” I prompted.
“I can rock any pool hall game. Foosball, pool, or air hockey.” She punctuated the admission with an evil villain laugh. “Dad has been dumping me at the Salted Mule when he has a farm call at night since I was a freshman. Mom was sick, you know. I had to go somewhere.”
I couldn’t help but laugh in reaction to her ridiculous cackle. “Are you a hustler?”
“Mike loves it because it brings in lots of money for him at the bar when they buy drinks to work themselves up to playing against me and then beat themselves up afterward.”
“One game.” Erika held up her finger to Drew. “Then I’ve got to be somewhere else.”
Drew had dressed up in jeans and a T-shirt, which for him was practically formal compared to the coveralls he usually lived in. He wore that goofy, trying-too-hard smile of his—the one meant to be charming, but it just made him look like an overeager Care Bear.
“Bet you fifty bucks you can’t beat Drew,” someone in the back of the crowd of about fifteen yelled. “He’s the master of foosball.”
“Fifty, huh?” She twirled the foosball rod closest to her and chewed on her lower lip. How could anyone fall for her fake insecurity? She said, “Okay. I guess I’ll try.”
Watch out, boys. She’s about to steal your money.
I had to see this. I once watched her hustle a pool game.
It was the most unbelievable thing I’d ever seen.
Okay, an amazing second to today when I watched her in surgery.
Drew had to know her secret, but he was so focused on her tits that he didn’t seem to care what went on around him.
Her sixth sense must’ve kicked in, because her gaze slid straight to mine. And then…
She winked.
My heart slammed so hard I instinctively pressed the heel of my hand to my chest, trying to ease the sudden rush.
Then she gave me that wicked grin, sharp and sure, locking onto me with sniper-level precision.
For a beat, I could’ve sworn the whole room froze with everyone else fading into background noise.
Maybe it didn’t actually happen that way, but for that moment, in all the bustle, it was just the two of us.
I wouldn’t allow her to tie me in knots like this again. Maybe Milly was right, and she could be trying to seduce me. However, it looked more like she was working her magic on Drew than me.
With a shrug, she took off her black jacket and laid it next to Vinny.
He grinned at her. I hadn’t seen the kid happier.
A tight, black top contoured plentiful breasts down to a flat abdomen.
What had me swallowing hard were the intricate tattoos she had down both biceps.
The one closest to me was a mix between a firefly and a dragon.
Everything about that tattoo qualified as one hundred percent sexy.