“Jesus, Birdie.” Hitch rested his head on the back of the sofa and looked up at the ceiling.
“I’m not,” she said. “Probably.” She hadn’t yet decided whether she would call in on him.
That morning, he’d called her a taxi and said goodbye at the door. He’d given her cash for the taxi, and a note with his mobile number, his home number in Russell, and the name of his surgery written on it. “Just in case,” he told her with a smile, and that was all he’d said about meeting up again.
Part of her was sure he’d only suggested it out of guilt. She was sure the flicker of attraction she’d felt between them had been in her imagination, and besides, she was hardly ready for a new relationship.
But she liked him, and she wanted to see him again.
“He lives in Russell,” she admitted. “He’s a vet, and he has a surgery there. He comes down to Wellington every two weeks to visit his son. He was telling me about Russell, and he suggested that if I go anywhere near there, I could stay in a hotel or a B and B nearby, and maybe we’ll meet up for dinner or something.”
“I can’t believe this guy,” Hitch snapped. “You’d been jilted at the altar, for fuck’s sake. You’re vulnerable and emotional—he should have rung the police or something, not taken you back to his fucking hotel. And now he wants you to go away with him for the week! Birdie, for crying out loud, can’t you see how fucking screwed up this is?”
Her eyes stung with hot tears. He made Aaron sound like some kind of freak who preyed on young woman. “So you’re telling me there are no good people left in this world? No good men? Nobody can act out of the goodness of their hearts to help someone in trouble? Every guy wants to get in my panties, is that it? Every man’s a potential rapist?”
“That’s not what I’m saying,” he glowered.
“Yes you are. Put yourself in his place, Hitch. He could have walked straight by me, but he didn’t—he and his son took me into their home, such as it was, and treated me with nothing but respect.”
“Where did you sleep?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I slept in the spare bed while Aaron shared with his son.”
“So you didn’t rent another room then?”
“I didn’t have any money. He offered to get me one but it was late by then, and it seemed pointless.”
His glare didn’t fade. Bridget blew out a slow breath, trying to put herself in his shoes. He’d had to care for her his whole life—in many ways he’d taken on the role of father as well as brother. He’d had to watch her take Mal back time after time, and he’d done so—so far—without saying “I told you so.” He was only worried about her.
“I’ll be fine,” she said gently. “I’m okay, really. I’m not going to run off with the first guy I see. But he’s nice and friendly, and I like the idea of spending some time with him.”
“He sounded all right,” Hitch admitted gruffly. “He genuinely seemed worried about you.”
“Tell us about him,” Rowan suggested.
“He’s early to mid-thirties—I forgot to ask, but his son’s seven. He’s divorced, and his ex sounds like a nightmare. She moved to Wellington, so he has to fly down to see his son. She wants to take him back to Spain—she’s Spanish, but he’s taken her to court to stop her, so of course she’s pissed with him about it. It’s not an easy situation, and I do feel sorry for him.”
“What does he look like?”
Bridget thought back to when he’d cupped her face and kissed her forehead. Her pulse picked up speed as she remembered the look in his eyes. He’d wanted to kiss her. Had he been caught up in the moment too, or had there genuinely been an attraction between them? She wasn’t sure, but she wanted to find out.
“He’s tall, not quite as tall as you, Hitch, but big like you, broad shoulders. A nice face. A short beard. Kind gray eyes. He has these lines here,” she touched the outside of her eyes, “that make me think he smiles a lot. Of course I realize that you can’t base everything on first impressions, but even so, he had a good relationship with his son, and he’s a vet. That’s kind of like someone saying they’re a doctor or a fireman, isn’t it? There’s something trustworthy about people in those professions. I think it must be rare for there to be any serial killers who are vets or ambulance drivers.”
“Yeah.” Hitch’s lips curved up. “Well… if you’re sure you know what you’re doing…”
“No, I’m not sure, but apart from Mal I’ve always been sensible and predictable, haven’t I? I’ve always done the right thing. I’ve never rebelled against you, or gone off the rails. I’ve only ever gone out with one man, for Christ’s sake, I’m hardly a slut. I’m not saying I’m going to the bay to… you know… be with Aaron—I’m not even sure I’m going to see him yet. But if I do, it will be nice to do something different. To be somewhere else. To talk about different things. To be with a man who doesn’t stir up my emotions like someone sticking their finger in a drink and swirling it around.”
“All right. So when are you flying up?”
“I’m going home now, and I’ll check out the flights and see if they have any seats left today or tomorrow. I’ll have my phone, and we can stay in touch. Please don’t worry about me,” she begged. “I am an adult now.”
“It’s not about being grown up.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, to look at her with a furrowed brow. “You’ve been to university and lived on your own for years. I don’t doubt that you can take care of yourself physically. That’s not in question at all. And I don’t doubt your judgment, even though it must sound like it to you. What happened yesterday was horrendous—I can’t explain to you how it felt to look into your eyes and have to tell you that the man you wanted to marry thought so little of you that he hadn’t turned up. It nearly killed me, Birdie. I love you, and I wanted to put my hands around that fucker’s throat and strangle the life out of him.”
“Who hit him?” she asked.
Rowan chuckled. “Rhett. Everyone had come around here to talk, and Mal knocked on the door—I don’t know who let him in the front door, one of the neighbors, I guess. Gene answered, and he immediately had him up against the wall with an arm across his throat. Mal pushed him off, so Rhett decked him. We all cheered.”
“I couldn’t get to him,” Hitch grumbled. “Otherwise he would have been meatloaf.”
“What did he say?” she asked. They exchanged a glance. “Aaron told me that you said Mal said something about still wanting to marry me.”
“Jesus. Clearly there was no point in asking him not to say anything.”
“He was on my side,” Bridget said, and the thought gave her a little glow inside.
“Well anyway, yeah, Mal blubbered on about being sorry and said that he still loved you and still wanted to marry you.”
“I hope you said that it was up to me and you wouldn’t dream of interfering.” She met Rowan’s gaze and winked.
“I told him to fuck off and die,” Hitch said. “Sorry about that.” He didn’t look sorry.
Bridget gave a small laugh. “Yeah, well, I’m glad. I don’t care if I never see him again.”
She tried to inject vehemence into her voice, but it wasn’t easy. He’d hurt her terribly—but she wasn’t sure how she’d feel if she saw him again. She’d invested her life in loving him, and it was a huge wrench to give all that history up overnight.
If he crawled to her on his knees with that sexy smile and his big green eyes and told her he was sorry and that he loved her… Would she tell him to get lost? Or would she cave and hear him out?
Her brain said no—she’d never exchange another word with him—but her heart had never done what her brain told it, so she didn’t know why it would start doing it now. She didn’t want to find out. She wanted to go away and hide where he couldn’t find her.
“Do you have my stuff?” she asked.
“Of course.” Rowan fetched the bag she’d left behind with her purse, phone, and keys.
Brid
get stood, catching sight of herself in the mirror. A melancholy wistfulness swept over her as she remembered how she’d looked the morning before, so full of hope and happiness at the thought that she was marrying the man of her dreams.
Her gaze fell to Aaron’s sweatshirt and his baggy track pants. She could still smell his aftershave on the clothes.
Her lips curved up a little. Yesterday, she’d felt as if her world had ended, but the Earth had kept on turning, and today was a new day. She had a long way to go until she was healed, but maybe she was stronger than she’d thought.
Chapter Nine
Nearly all the animals that came into Aaron’s surgery for operations were frightened, and it was tempting to take all of them home and hand-feed them himself until they recovered. His assistants—Pam and Izzy—knew how susceptible he was to a whimper and the sad face of a dog or cat feeling sorry for itself. They normally banned him from the cages, so he’d trained himself to leave his patients alone once he’d done the stitching up, and let the others tend to their recovery.
Mandy was different. A beautiful boxer bitch belonging to an adorable family who loved her to pieces, she’d escaped through a gate someone had left open and had been missing all night. Although they’d searched everywhere for her, barely getting any sleep, they’d only found her when the sun had come up, lying by the roadside half a mile away, having been hit by a car. Her front leg was broken, and yet the good-natured dog was neither irritable nor vicious in her pain but just whimpered in Aaron’s arms when he took her from the father to lay her on the table. The two young boys with the dad were in bits, openly sobbing to see their beloved pet broken. Seeing his own son in them, Aaron had promised he’d take special care of her and that he would ring them as soon as she was through surgery.
He x-rayed the dog and gave her a general anesthetic before fixing the leg with pins and metal plates. He then made himself leave her with Izzy in the cages to recover, and rang the family to say she’d made it through but that it would be best if she stayed at the surgery overnight so they could keep an eye on her.
He kept thinking about her, about her large brown eyes and the kids’ heartbroken faces, so before the afternoon clinic started he went to see how she was doing, only to discover Izzy close to tears herself as she listened to the dog’s pathetic whimpers.
“It’s all right, lovely girl,” Izzy whispered to her, fondling the dog’s velvety ears as the bitch shivered with pain and fear. “You’ll be okay.” She turned watery eyes up to Aaron. “I was just about to come and get you. I think the anesthetic’s wearing off. Shall we give her some more pain relief?”
“Yes, of course.” He gave the dog a shot of an opioid analgesic and an anti-inflammatory while Izzy continued to reassure her.
She kissed the dog’s ear. “Aw. Poor little thing. I can’t believe someone would hit an animal and just drive on.”
Mandy gave a heart-breaking whimper and turned her big, sorrowful brown eyes up to him.
He sighed. “Okay, I give in.”
Carefully, so as not to cause her more pain, he wrapped her in a thick blanket and lifted her into his arms. She was a small boxer, a brindle with a black smudge on her nose, and he kissed it as he walked slowly through the surgery, rocking her in his arms and humming to her while he stroked her back.
“Is that a Barry Manilow song?” His partner, Joe, was just making himself a mug of tea in the kitchen before the afternoon clinic started. A steadfast, down-to-earth Maori guy, Joe had been his best mate since high school. He came over as he saw the dog in Aaron’s arms.
“Her name’s Mandy. It seemed appropriate.” Aaron continued to hum the ballad to her.
“Is that the bitch from the accident? Poor thing.” Joe fondled the dog’s head and gave an “Aw,” as she managed to lick his hand. “She’s a sweetie.”
“She really is.” The dog’s large brown eyes looked pleadingly into Aaron’s. “It’s all right, sweetheart. It will get better, I promise. You’ll soon be running around again, right as rain, only next time you have to swear you won’t go out onto the main road.”
The dog stared into his eyes with complete and utter trust. For some reason, it made him think of the way Bridget had looked at him.
“You shouldn’t have picked her up,” Joe said. “Now you’ll never be able to put her down.”
“I don’t care. I’ll hold her all night if I have to.”
Joe rolled his eyes as he headed back to his room. “You’re far too soft. You turn to marshmallow every time you see a creature in need.”
That made him think about Bridget again. “Yeah, I know.” He sighed.
It was Friday, and there had been no sign of her all week. Throughout Monday and Tuesday, he’d waited for her to call to say she was at Kerikeri airport and to ask him to pick her up, but she hadn’t. He’d then spent Wednesday and Thursday cursing himself. Had he really thought she would come? No doubt as soon as she was on her own she’d breathed a sigh of relief that she’d escaped from the madman in one piece and thrown his number in the trash.
He was surprised at how sad that made him feel.
Mandy shivered in his arms, and he rocked her gently as he walked through the surgery, kissing her nose again while he hummed.
“Oh Aaron, you’re going to make me swoon,” said old Mrs. Lyttle where she sat waiting, her cocker spaniel sitting with his head on her knee.
He laughed and glanced over to where someone stood in the doorway, then stopped dead, his eyes widening at the sight of Bridget standing there.
She wore jeans and a pale blue sweater beneath a darker blue jacket. Her face was flushed, and her bright blonde hair was a little wild and windswept, so he suspected she’d just caught the ferry across and had stood out on the deck for part of the journey. She looked young and beautiful, hesitant but hopeful as she waited for his reaction.
A smile spread across his face, and he walked up to her. “Hey.”
“Hello.” She shoved her hands in the pockets of her jeans and hunched her shoulders. “It’s me.”
“So I see.” He was so thrilled he couldn’t think what to say, so for a long moment they just studied each other, smiling. Was it his imagination, or had the sun just come out?
Eventually, she dropped her gaze to the dog in his arms. “Who’s this?”
“This is Mandy.” He wondered if she’d think he was foolish. Nita would have rolled her eyes and mocked him for treating a dog like a baby. “She was knocked down by a car yesterday. She broke her leg, and she’s a bit scared after her op. I’m just… um… reassuring her.”
“Aw.” She stroked the dog’s head, and Aaron had a flare of jealousy at the way she fondled Mandy’s ear. “Poor sweetheart. Will she be okay?”
“She’ll be fine. She’s young, and the break wasn’t too bad.” He kissed the dog’s nose again. “Some of my patients need a personal touch, that’s all.”
“Yes, we do,” Bridget whispered with a smile.
He met her gaze again, loving her blue eyes, the color of the evening sky. “I’m glad you came.”
She gave a little shrug. “I’ve spent a few days travelling around the Northland, battling with myself. I wasn’t going to come—I thought it would be stupid to be so impulsive when I hardly know you, but I…” She dropped her gaze back to the dog and stroked her nose. “I wanted to see you again. Is that crazy?”
“If it is, then I’m crazy too.”
Her face filled with relief, as if she’d worried she might turn up and he’d be disappointed to see her. Did she have no idea what effect she’d had on him?
She looked over her shoulder as a woman walked into the surgery with a cat in a box. “I shouldn’t keep you—you’re obviously busy.”
He wanted to beg her to stay, but the afternoon clinic was about to kick off. “Maybe we can catch up later?”
“I’d like that.”
“Where are you staying?”
“At a bed and breakfast called Jacaranda Lodge, not f
ar from the church.”
“I know it,” he said. “How about I pick you up from there at six, and I’ll take you somewhere nice for dinner?”
She nodded happily. “Okay.”
“All right then. See you later.”
He watched her walk out of the door and blew out a long breath.
“Pretty girl,” Mrs. Lyttle said.
“Almost as pretty as Mandy here.” He winked at the old lady and walked back across the waiting room, stopping when he saw Joe leaning against the door, his arms crossed.
“She came, then,” Joe said.
“Yeah.” While drowning his sorrows in a glass of malt whisky the night before, Aaron had told him what had happened on Saturday.
Joe gave him an appraising look. “Are you sure about this?”
“About what? I’m taking her out to dinner, that’s all.”
“Yeah. She’s come all this way for the Sweet Penguin’s seafood chowder.”
“She might have. It’s world famous in New Zealand.” He kissed Mandy’s head. The pain relief combined with the comforting cuddle was having an effect. She’d stopped shivering and her eyelids had drooped.
Joe gave a short laugh. “So if anything else was on the table, you wouldn’t be interested?”
“I’d be interested wherever she offered it, including the table, but that’s not the point.” He stopped for a moment and glanced over his shoulder. There were now five people in the waiting room, and they all gazed intently at their feet or at the ceiling, studiously avoiding his gaze—all except Mrs. Lyttle, whose eyebrows had risen into her hairline as she stared at him.
“Sorry,” he said.
“Don’t apologize,” Mrs. Lyttle replied. “We’ve all been waiting for some young thing to sweep you off your feet. It’s about time you settled down, Aaron.”
He cleared his throat, ignoring Joe’s snort of laughter and the smirks from the other customers. “Yes, well. Anyway…” He sidled into the corridor, bringing Joe with him with a jerk of his head. “As I said, that’s not the point.”
“The point is that she’s on the rebound like a tennis ball hit by Andy Murray.”
Persuading Spring: A Sexy New Zealand Romance (The Four Seasons Book 4) Page 7