Head Over Paws

by Debbie Burns

  Next, Gabe gave her a tour of the back rooms. There was an X-ray and ultrasound room and the operating room. In what might once have been a closet or mudroom in the old house, there was a small recovery and observation room. In it were ten kennels of various sizes, with the cats sequestered in the four smallest ones at the far end. The dog kennels ranged in size from Chihuahua- to Great Dane–sized.

  This evening, only three animals were being kept overnight—a dog and a cat, both of whom Gabe had spayed this morning, and now the Yorkie.

  After he’d introduced her to Janice, who was freshening the water of the two who’d come out of surgery this morning, Olivia lowered her voice so as not to disturb the animals and asked, “Are they sick?”

  Even as undefined as their relationship was, Gabe would happily introduce Olivia to any of his staff, but he was thankful the only one working tonight was Janice. All but one of his six-person staff were female, and Janice was the least likely to join in on the gossip that sometimes permeated the front room. Like him, she didn’t seem that interested in fanfare.

  “This is the Yorkie who had the stone taken out of his bladder just now. He’ll probably doze another few hours. The other two were spayed this morning. They should go home tomorrow, so long as they’re still doing well. As long as their owners are able to keep their activity levels under control, I’m a firm believer that animals recuperate faster in the comfort of their own homes.”

  Olivia nodded. “Makes sense. Though I’m sure keeping an animal still is harder to do with some than others.”

  “Especially with the hyper ones,” Janice added with a wink as she locked the cat’s kennel. “For the most part, animals are better than us at knowing when to lie low.”

  They stepped out of the room and talked for a few more minutes; then Gabe used the very real excuse of being famished and asked Janice to text him an update before leaving.

  “Sure. Are you calling Ms. Bonner, or should I?” Janice asked. “Her number’s on the front counter.”

  “I promised I would. Thanks. I’ll give her a call from the truck.”

  Janice nodded. “Then I’ve got it covered here. I’m not here again till Tuesday. If the Yorkie hasn’t woken by eight, I’ll stick around for a while and make sure he has his wits about him before I leave.” To Olivia, she added, “Some of the smaller dogs tend to stay groggy after anesthesia longer than the bigger ones.”

  “That makes sense.” Olivia offered her a half wave. “It was great to meet you.”

  Gabe locked hands with her as Janice waved them out. As they headed toward the front of the building, Olivia let out a big breath. “This place is great. But I should probably admit I’m more than a touch intimidated.”

  Gabe chuckled. “Whatever for?”

  She leaned into him, her shoulder pressing against his triceps. “You just saved a dog’s life…while I was flipping through the pages of Dogster.”

  “You teach math to eighth graders. Don’t downplay your own talent.”

  “Thanks, although sometimes I feel like all I do is speak a foreign language to them.” She gave a small shrug. “But I love it. I love the breakthroughs, especially with the kids who’ve put up barriers as dense as cement.”

  “I can imagine.” Gabe dropped her hand to swipe the Post-it with Ms. Bonner’s number off the counter. “So, for tonight, you can stay parked here, or you can follow me to my place. It won’t take long, but I’ve got to let Samson out.”

  “I can follow you.” Suddenly Olivia turned bright red. “Or I can leave my car here. I guess it doesn’t matter.”

  Gabe brushed a lock of hair back from her face. “Hey, just a heads-up. There’ll be no pressure tonight. But I should warn you that once you see my place, you’ll probably be a touch less intimidated by my togetherness than you are right now.”

  “Why?” Olivia’s playful smile returned, and she shook her head lightly. “Does Samson do the decorating?”

  Gabe’s thoughts went to his mattress on the floor and his sawed-short nightstand and the saggy middle cushion on the couch where Samson napped. “You have no idea how right you are. And what wasn’t done in his best interest just hasn’t been done.”

  She shrugged. “You know what they say. ‘There’s a time for everything.’”

  “They do say that, don’t they?” And with Olivia in his life, Gabe realized it might just be time to focus a bit on making the place where he spent over a third of his days a little more like a home.

  Chapter 19

  It seemed to Olivia that every few weeks she was discovering a new area of the city that she’d had no idea existed. She’d driven by the tall, rectangular redbrick homes surrounding Tower Grove Park once in February when she’d met a sixth-grade history teacher for a Saturday walk through the park but had had no idea how expansive the area was. The actual park was massive, stretching well over a mile long. Having grown up in the midst of the flat, fertile farmlands of southern Missouri, she couldn’t recall ever before visiting a park that had been designed for the purpose of being an arboretum, and she’d never walked among such exotic-looking trees as she had that afternoon.

  Now that signs of spring were showing—flowers blossoming and many of the trees beginning to bud—Olivia was determined to walk here again. And with any luck, it’ll be with Gabe. Her heart did a thump and a skitter. She could perfectly envision walks with Gabe under the fresh blossoms, holding hands and laughing and tossing a ball around for Samson. Suddenly, Morgan popped into her daydream. She wondered if the shelter might give her permission to take him for walks here too. The thought of how challenging that would be brought a smile to her face. There were probably so many birds around here that it would be more of a stop and stalk than a walk.

  Most of the homes they were passing as they drove to Gabe’s apartment seemed to be single-family, but she followed him to a side street near the park that had an equal number of multifamily units. When his brake lights lit up, her pulse began to race. She knew that having followed him here could open the door later to something a part of her was really craving.

  He’d said that bit about there being no pressure tonight, and she’d seen that he meant it. Asking her to park here wasn’t an attempt to get her into bed at the end of the night. But what if she was the one applying the pressure later? Where she came from, girls weren’t the ones who initiated sex. And they didn’t say yes on a first date. But she wasn’t a girl anymore, and she wasn’t in the Bootheel any longer. And the fact was that the rural mind-set of girls needing to be chaste mixed with a “boys will be boys” attitude needed some major revamping. Maybe it was the extra decade and maybe it was the city versus country mind-set, but she saw a refreshing bit of progress in the students she was teaching.

  The sight of Gabe tapping his brakes brought Olivia back to the present. She could just make out through the camper shell that he was pointing for her to take the open spot at her right between an SUV and a Prius. Olivia’s stomach filled with unease as she sized up the opening. It seemed just big enough to park in—at least for those who knew how to parallel park and hadn’t learned to drive in a place where parallel parking was almost nonexistent.

  Olivia was pretty sure she’d make the list of worst parallel parkers in the brief history of automobile driving, and typically she went to extreme lengths to avoid it. As she glanced up and down the crowded street, her palms began to sweat. There didn’t seem to be anything bigger than the spot he was waving her into.

  Tension set up in her shoulders, but she did her best to shake it off and pulled forward next to the front car, the SUV, until her mirror was adjacent to the back tire. Then she slipped into reverse and did the hard turn she knew she was supposed to do. Perhaps her inadequacy had something to do with poor depth perception because she immediately began to feel as if she were angled all wrong.

  Seeing that Gabe was busy parking fifty feet up the road, sh
e slipped her car into drive and started over, determined to get it right. After toggling between forward and reverse several times, her confidence swelled. She had managed to park parallel to the curb and equidistant between both cars.

  It wasn’t until she stepped out that she realized she’d done everything else right, but she was a good two and a half feet from the curb, and Gabe, who had parked and was headed for her, seemed to have noticed but had the expression of someone who was trying not to.

  “Ah, yeah, full disclosure. If my survival ever depends on my ability to parallel park on the spot, I’m pretty sure my odds are dismal.”

  Gabe laughed, a deep, rolling laugh that reverberated through his chest and sent pleasure all the way down to her toes. “It’s not so tough once you get used to it. And what you did here isn’t bad, but drivers cut through this street, and I’d hate for you to get clipped. Why don’t you get back in, and I’ll give you a few pointers so it’s easier next time?”

  Before she knew what was happening, Gabe was jogging around to the passenger side and hopping in. Too late, Olivia spotted the lip balm, mascara, and vanilla-scented vegan perfume—a bottle gifted to her by Aunt Becky—on her center console from when she’d freshened up after leaving the shelter. Oh well, she determined, not everyone was able to step out of surgery looking like they were auditioning for a role on Grey’s Anatomy. It was those hazel-green eyes, that dimple, and that smile. They melted her into a puddle every time she had a moment to really take him in.

  “It works best when you start the ignition,” Gabe said, chuckling.

  Get a grip, Olivia!

  She cleared her throat and started the car, then reversed so she could pull back onto the street. “I know to start with my front tire next to the SUV’s back one.”

  “I’ve heard that, but want to try something else?”

  “Uh, you just saw how I parked. I’m open to suggestions.”

  “Pull up even with the Highlander, then start backing up straight, no turning your steering wheel. Glance behind you, and when you can see the Corolla’s bumper in the small side window of your back-passenger door, start turning.”

  Olivia did as he suggested, then took his advice again when he said to look out her driver’s-side mirror for the next step, then began to straighten the wheel as she backed up.

  “You’ve got this,” Gabe said. “All you have to do now is watch for the moment when your passenger-side mirror blocks the Highlander’s bumper, then steer to the left, and you’re in.”

  Somehow everything he said made sense, and Olivia parked as smoothly as a knife slicing through warm butter. “Wow,” she said after pulling forward to get centered between the cars again. “Can you be in my car every time I need to parallel park?”

  “Something tells me you won’t need me next time, but yeah, I’d be good with that.”

  Olivia turned off her ignition as his words sank in. Not just the words, his tone. There was heat in it, and it lit a flame inside her, racing down her belly and pooling between her legs. He was so damn sexy.

  “You know, there’s a benefit to getting in your car that I didn’t think about.”

  Was he was reading her thoughts? She suspected she knew what he was going to say but asked anyway. “What’s that?”

  “Getting a chance to kiss you before Samson butts in.”

  She nodded slowly. “He’s a doll, but I’d be okay with that.”

  Burying the fingers of one hand in her hair, Gabe leaned in. Olivia met him, pressing her lips against his, delight budding across her chest. It hadn’t even been a full week, but it felt as if it had been months since she’d savored his kiss, experienced the firmness in his lips, and inhaled his scent. Everything about it was as foreign as it was familiar. She reached for him, letting her fingers cradle both sides of his neck and her thumbs trail along the ridge of his jaw.

  Just as his tongue was brushing against hers, there was a smack against the passenger-side window that was hard enough to shake the car.

  Gabe jerked away, and Olivia let out a half-stifled scream before realizing a dog had pounced with his front paws against the pane. And not just any dog. A senior-aged golden retriever. Samson. A few feet away, a woman was holding his leash with a look of complete shock on her face.

  “What the—” Gabe’s surprise quickly morphed into recognition. “Samson, you nut! Down, buddy.” He squeezed Olivia’s hand before pulling open the door handle. “I may not have mentioned this, but Samson’s got a bit of a jealous streak. Come on out. There’s someone I want you to meet.”

  Shaking off the heat of the kiss and a swell of confusion, Olivia stepped out to the woman’s apology.

  “Sorry, man. I had no idea you were in there until he jumped at the window like that. So, I’m guessing this is her?” The woman looked from Gabe to Olivia and back to him as Samson whined and did a whole-body rub against the jeans he’d changed into before leaving the office.

  Her? The way she’d said it, that single word carried a lot of power.

  “Yeah, it is. Thanks for swinging by. When you didn’t text back, I wasn’t sure if you could.”

  “Didn’t I reply? Sorry, it’s been one of those afternoons.”

  Gabe waved Olivia over. “Olivia, this is Yun, one of my best friends. Yun, this is Olivia.”

  Free of the leash, Yun met her halfway around the car. She was shorter than Olivia by a few inches but average height, and she was as cute as she was striking with shoulder-length silky, straight black hair, warm, brown eyes, and a great smile. She was in a lighter-colored pair of scrubs similar to what Gabe had been wearing earlier.

  “Yun and I went to vet school together,” Gabe said as Samson dragged him closer to them. “I’m pretty sure without her, I’d never have made it through.”

  “It’s nice to meet you.” Olivia noted the easy confidence in Yun’s handshake. “Gabe mentioned you when we met last week.” As soon as he was in leash reach, Samson pressed against Olivia, pushing in between her and Yun and dragging the full length of his body against her leg. His hips and tail wagged happily as he did.

  “Someone’s happy to see you,” Yun said. Then she shot Gabe a pointed look. “If he’s talked about me, he probably told you I spend way too much time attempting to manage his life. It’s a control thing; there’s no denying it. I get it from my mom, but I’m in recovery mode.”

  Gabe chuckled. “I didn’t tell her anything close to that, but Yun’s not kidding. We almost had a parting of ways a couple years ago when she gave me a thesis-length study schedule for final exams.”

  Yun gave him a dismissive wave. “He can be a little too fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants, in case you haven’t noticed yet.”

  Olivia laughed, and the unease slipped away that had formed at the realization Gabe had such a close friend who was clearly both beautiful and brilliant. The more they talked, the more it was obvious that while Gabe and Yun were close, it was a familial sort of closeness. “Is he? Based on all the equipment and supplies he keeps in the back of his truck, I wouldn’t have guessed that.”

  “You’ve got a point. He’s a well-prepared free spirit. So, I don’t want to be a third wheel, but I ran by my parents’ on the way here. My mom had the day off work, and she turned it into one of her big cooking days. I dropped off a couple containers of gimbap and kimchi. They’re on your counter.”

  Gabe had been reaching down to unclip Samson’s leash, and when he stood back up, he flattened a hand over that washboard stomach visible through his shirt. “Ahh, gimbap. Man, I love your mom.” To Olivia, he said, “It’s my favorite thing she makes. If you’re up for it, we could hang out in the park and have some appetizers before we head out. You ever had it?”

  “That sounds great, and I don’t think so. The name isn’t familiar. I like kimchi though.” Her sister had been on a kick recently of having a small serving of the spicy pickled vege
tables before each meal. Each week, she bought a few jars from a global grocery store down the street from her house. Whenever Olivia was over for a meal, Ava almost always served a plate of kimchi as an appetizer.

  Yun cocked her head to the side as if debating how to answer. “Gimbap looks like the rolls you find at sushi places, and it’s wrapped in seaweed, but the stuff mixed with the rice is different, and instead of fish, the meat is usually Korean ground beef, and everything is fully cooked.”

  Olivia shrugged. She’d once been squeamish about sushi rolls because of the seaweed factor, but she’d gotten over it. “Sounds great.”

  Yun glanced at Gabe. “Why don’t you two head for the park with Sambo, and I’ll run in and throw a plate together.”

  They headed off in separate directions, and after looking back and forth between them, Samson trotted along next to Olivia, sniffing the occasional tree or miscellaneous spot on the grass as they headed down the sidewalk. Gabe slung his leash over his shoulder and locked his hand around Olivia’s.

  “You good with this? I promise not to let it derail our night, but this way we can pick a place to eat without being in a rush.” He squeezed her hand affectionately. “It’s not often a beautiful woman wants to take me to dinner, and I want to make the most of it…first by making her wait, then by forcing her to hang out with a friend. Yeah, guess I’m not making the best impression, am I?”

  Olivia laughed and leaned into him. “You’re making a great impression, and I’m good with this. Absolutely. Yun seems really sweet. And it’s a good way to see a different side of you.”

  He pressed her hand against his lips. “Next time I’ll head out your way and check out that town you’ve been talking about. And meet that aunt of yours.”