Heal Me (Coopers Creek Book 2)

by Bronwen Evans

  Along with being the best mechanic in Cooper’s Creek, Tucker was one of the nosiest people Ric knew. Still, there was no point in keeping the identity of his date a secret because he knew that it would be all over town anyway. There were times when Ric found the anonymity of New York a huge relief. You could go days without seeing anyone you knew if you didn’t want to. Not so in Cooper’s Creek.

  “Kate Donoghue.”

  Tucker leaned over the table conspiratorially. “The sexy vet?” He let out a low whistle. “Holy smokes. She must really like you.”

  Ric frowned in confusion. “What do you mean?”

  “Word around town is that she doesn’t date.” Tucker finished his coffee and stood up. “Well, I gotta get back to the shop. Hope she doesn’t have to cancel on you. Good seeing you. Don’t be a stranger, Ricky.”

  Ric promised not to be and Tucker sauntered away. Taking out his phone, Ric contemplated calling the vet clinic since he hadn’t gotten Kate’s number from her the other day. He could text Emily for it, but he didn’t want her to know that Kate was late. Or maybe she wasn’t going to show up at all.

  Her hesitancy hadn’t been lost on him and he wondered if he’d come on too strong. Sitting his phone on the table, Ric decided to give her a little more time.

  *****

  Her truck radio blared Miranda Lambert as Kate sat paralyzed behind the steering wheel. Parked just up the street from the Diner, she couldn’t make herself shut off the ignition and go meet Ric. It was just lunch, but suddenly it seemed like more than that.

  And, in a way it was, because it would be the first time since Phil had died that she’d be sitting down to a meal with a single man. What did that signify? Was she ready to move on? Judging by the way she was trembling, it didn’t feel like it.

  Why did I agree to this? Stupid! Anger surfaced as she berated herself for being scared.

  “It’s just lunch! Get the hell in there!”

  She wrenched the ignition off, grabbed her purse, and got out of her blue F150. Decisively, she shut and locked the door. Kate threw her keys in her purse and walked swiftly towards the restaurant. Going inside, she looked around, but she didn’t see Ric at first. Then she spotted an arm waving and her gaze collided with his.

  All of the oxygen seemed to have been sucked out of the place, making it hard to breathe. His dimpled smile and piercing blue eyes almost turned her into a puddle right on the spot. She waved back and gave him what she was sure was a goofy smile before forcing herself to start towards him. Her heart throbbed painfully under her ribcage as she neared him.

  He looked like a cross between a sexy lumberjack and a walking advertisement for L.L. Bean. The blue-and-black checkered flannel shirt he wore emphasized his broad shoulders and brought out the color of his eyes even more. His blond hair was attractively tousled in a way that made her want to run her fingers through it.

  “Hi. Pardon me for not standing.”

  His deep voice washed over her like a warm ocean tide and Kate wanted to get pulled into the undertow.

  Kate smiled at his joke and sat down. “I’ll forgive you this time.”

  “Thanks. How are you?”

  The way he said it told Kate that he was genuinely interested. “I’m good, thanks. Busy. It’s been busy. I guess that’s good, though. Job security.” Suddenly, she felt panicky and wanted to flee.

  She jumped a little when Ric put his hand over hers where it rested on the table and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles.

  “Kate, we’re just having lunch, that’s all. Nothing more, okay?”

  Kate looked at his hand, which was so much larger than her own. His powers of perception were amazing. Ric’s touch was gentle, hypnotizing, and she felt calm enough now to laugh a little. “I’m sorry. I’m being silly. It’s just that I haven’t been out with anyone in a long time.” She bit her bottom lip in trepidation. “Not since my fiancé passed away.”

  Ric’s eyebrows went up and then a look of sympathy crossed his face. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

  He withdrew his hand and she wished he hadn’t. “It’s okay. It was eighteen months ago.”

  “I lost a woman I loved eight years ago and it still hurts sometimes. I know how you feel, but I’m sure it has to be worse for you,” Ric said.

  “How so?”

  His mouth curved a little in a sad smile. “She didn’t love me back.”

  Kate’s heart hurt for him. At least she knew that Phil had loved her. Unrequited love was a terrible thing to endure. “Well, I don’t really know you, but something tells me that she was a fool.”

  “Thanks.” His smile reached his eyes this time. “I’m glad we got all of that out of the way.”

  Kate was surprised how relieved and lighter she felt. “Me, too.” Why had she felt so comfortable in confiding in him so quickly? She decided not to examine it.

  Ric shifted a little. “Kate, you need to know that I’m not looking for anything serious. I’m going back to New York as soon as my ankle is healed enough. I head up the Horizon Enterprises division there. But you’re a beautiful, kind, intelligent woman and I’d like to get to know you better.” He sent her a charming, confident smile. “I think we could have some fun before I leave, perhaps we could both do with some fun?

  Fun. Kate couldn’t remember the last time she’d had any real fun. She gone out a few times with her best friend, Robert, to a couple of bars, but that was only because he’d kept pestering her. Besides, she had heard all about Ric’s reputation with the ladies. The High School Jock had been quite the heart breaker and from what she knew of his life in New York that had not changed.

  But Kate reminded herself she wasn’t looking to give her heart to anyone any time soon. Her body… now where would be the harm in that.

  Looking at Ric, whose eyes held a wicked gleam, Kate could well imagine what sort of fun he was talking about. Heat suffused her body and the Diner suddenly seemed overly warm. Her stomach tightened with a sensation she hadn’t felt in so long. Desire. Pure, hot, desire.

  Recklessly, Kate said, “I could stand to have some fun. I don’t want anything serious, either.”

  His smile broadened. “Perfect. Nothing heavy, nothing but two people enjoying time together.”

  It certainly sounded perfect and Kate wondered again what was so different about Ric that she’d agreed to something like that so eagerly? That impulsive voice in her brain told her reasonable side to shut the hell up and Kate listened to it.

  “Exactly. Now, what are you going to have to eat? I’m starving and I have a full afternoon,” she said.

  Ric picked up his menu, looked at it for two seconds, put it down, and gave her a cheeky grin. “I knew what I wanted before I came in here.”

  Kate couldn’t resist his playful behavior. “I’ll just bet you did. I’m afraid to ask.”

  He quirked an eyebrow. “You naughty girl, Dr. Donoghue. I’m not sure what you’re referring to, but I was talking about an open-faced roast beef sandwich with gravy fries and apple pie.”

  “Well, well, Mr. Stanford, you even know what you want for dessert already.”

  “I never kid around about dessert. That’s serious business.” He picked up his menu and pretended that it was a sheaf of papers, which he straightened. “Now, I picked the apple pie because it’s very American, which is very important when you’re trying to convince an American veterinarian to engage in an enjoyable lunch with you.”

  Kate folded her arms. “What if I was British?”

  “I’d still choose American because the British secretly love Americans. Canadians, however, hate us,” Ric said.

  “Canadians hate us?”

  Ric nodded. “With a passion. I know a guy who used to work at a call center for a heating company that had a bunch of franchises in Canada. If the Canadians figured out that he was American when they called to set up service calls, he got ripped a new one. Most of the time, the customers demanded to talk to whatever Canadian supervisor was around
.”

  Kate laughed. “What did he do?”

  Ric grinned. “What could he do? He put the customer on hold and came back after a minute and pretended to be Canadian.”

  “How do you pretend to be Canadian?”

  “Well, there are certain words that they pronounce differently than us and they don’t say the letter ‘z’ like us. They say ‘zed’. X,Y, Zed. Stuff like that.”

  “So he faked being a Canadian supervisor so that he didn’t get yelled at by Canadians?”

  “Mmm hmm. Which is hard to do with a Texan accent. But my friend is resourceful like that,” Ric told her.

  “He sounds funny.”

  “He is, but back to this pie situation. What kind are you going to have?”

  “We haven’t even gotten to order lunch yet,” Kate said.

  Ric held up a hand and waved. “Cletus! Where’s Portia? We’re starving over here!”

  Kate’s face turned pink as she giggled, but Ric’s confident, authoritative manner wasn’t lost on her. Obviously, he was the sort of man who was used to being obeyed when he gave an order.

  “Portia! Go get Ricky’s order!” hollered a man from the kitchen.

  “Ricky, huh?” Kate teased.

  Ric made a face. “Cletus has known me since I was born. Portia and I went to high school together.” He sighed. “I’ll always be Ricky to some of the people around here.”

  “Your sister doesn’t call you that.”

  “Nope. Took a while to break her, though,” Ric said as a slim blonde sashayed up to their table.

  “Hi, Ricky. Sorry to keep you waiting.” She pointedly ignored Kate as she smiled ingratiatingly at Ric. “How’s your ankle?”

  Kate was startled to see Ric’s whole demeanor change. One minute, he’d been warm and amusing and the next cold and businesslike.

  “Fine, thanks. We’d like to order, please.”

  Portia pouted at his abrupt statement. “Fine. What’ll you have?”

  They placed their order and Portia left, but the angry glint in Ric’s eyes didn’t completely fade.

  “Is there something wrong?” Kate asked.

  Ric shook his head. “No. I just have to put a stop to Portia’s behavior before she makes things awkward. She’s always had a thing for me, but I’ve never been attracted to her. I’d rather not give her any hope than respond to her flirting. She doesn’t know when to quit so I have to make sure she doesn’t even start.”

  Kate said, “Remind me not to piss you off. You’re a little scary.”

  Ric laughed. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be. Well, sometimes I do, but not with sexy veterinarians who clean up after puppies when people are too wacked out on pain meds to do it.”

  And with his witty remark, the previous playful mood was restored and the next half-hour went by before Kate knew it. Ric was so engaging and genuine that she hadn’t been paying attention to the time until her text message alert went off.

  “Sorry,” she said as she hit the message icon. Alarm shot through her when she read the text from Robert. “Oh, God! I’m ten minutes late for an appointment! I have to go. I forgot to set my alarm.” She hastily grabbed her coat and stood up. “I had a great time. Thanks so much.”

  Ric nodded. “Me, too. Is it okay if I call you?”

  “Yes. Absolutely.” Kate was so rattled that she bent down and kissed Ric’s cheek. “Oh, God! I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have… I mean, um, I’ll see you later.”

  Kate knew her face was beet red with embarrassment because it felt like it was on fire. She turned and fled the Diner before she did something to make herself look like an even bigger idiot. All the way to her truck, she mentally kicked her ass and when she climbed in the cab, she rested her forehead on the steering wheel and groaned at her stupidity.

  Then she started the truck and peeled away, flooring it as she hurried off to the clinic, certain that she’d seen the last of Ric.

  Chapter Four

  That night, Ric paid for having his ankle down so much during the day, but his lunch with Kate had been worth it. Especially the part at the end where she’d gotten flustered and kissed him. She’d been adorable and hot at the same time and he’d been amused as hell by her.

  As he laid awake in what had been Tyler’s room when they’d been in high school, playing games on his tablet, Ric contemplated how he was going to go about seeing her again. It was hard when he was laid up. Dancing was out, so was going for romantic moonlight walks or—he jumped when his Skype notification went off loudly in his ear.

  He’d put in his earbuds so he could still hear the game without waking anyone up, and so he didn’t have to hear anything down the hall he didn’t want to. Stifling a laugh when he saw Chase’s goofy profile pic, he hit the answer button.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “I’m on the trampoline. Wanna jump with me?” Chase asked.

  Ric grinned. “Why are you on the trampoline at ten-thirty at night? Why aren’t you at a club or something?”

  The view of the city in back of Chase rose and fell as Chase bounced on the apparatus. “I have a lovely lady friend stoppin’ by later, but for now I’m bouncing like Tigger. Hoo hoo!”

  It was a good thing his door was shut because Ric couldn’t contain his laughter over Chase’s antics. “You’re such a fucking dork.”

  Chase laughed. “I’m just getting ready to bounce her, that’s all. So, I heard through the grapevine that you had a lunch date today.”

  “Let me guess; Emily told you.”

  “Bingo! How’d that go?”

  Ric recounted the events of that afternoon.

  “You gonna see her again?” Chase asked. “Last jump. Watch this.”

  Chase executed a flip and Ric felt like he was right there with him as he watched the world spin. He’d jumped on Chase’s trampoline and it was fun as hell doing it while watching the L.A. skyline.

  The world righted and Chase came back into sight. “Okay. Answer me now.”

  “I’m definitely going to see her again. She’ll have to pick me up, though. I’m not going to have Emily keep driving me everywhere,” Ric said.

  “Yeah. I can understand that. Pretty embarrassing when you call her to come get you after a spending the night at Kate’s house,” Chase said. “She can drop you off before she goes to work.”

  Ric laughed. “Thanks for helping me figure that out. I never thought of that.”

  “Of course, then you’ll have Emily wondering where you are. Better turn your phone off. Don’t want it ringing at that special moment. Major buzz kill.”

  “Tell me about it. I’ll give her strict instructions not to call me unless it involves life and limb,” Ric said.

  “Good idea. You gonna take her to dinner?”

  “Yeah, I guess.” An idea occurred to Ric. “Actually, no. I have a better idea.”

  “Lay it on me, big man.”

  “Nah. I’m going to keep you in suspense. Plus, I’d rather wait until after the fact in case it winds up being a clusterfuck.”

  Chase nodded. “Okay. Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

  “Hey, speaking of sleeping at night, how come you’re not? And don’t feed me a line of bullshit about Creative sessions, either.”

  A sigh escaped Chase as he flopped down in a chair. “Brenda called me last week and it stirred up my bees’ nest of a past. She’s getting out of prison next month and wanted to know if I’d hire her. I said to do what? Rob me blind? I don’t think so. Then she tried to get me to loan her money. I turned her down flat. I can’t go down that road again, Ric.”

  After the hell that Chase’s sister—and practically his whole family—had put him through, Ric didn’t blame his buddy. “Good. I’m glad you didn’t let her talk you into it.”

  “Hell, no. But you know how it twists my guts. She’s family,” Chase said.

  “Sorry. I really don’t know what to say that I haven’t said before, but you’ve given her so many chances already.�
�� Ric put a hand over his eyes. “I like that we have each other’s backs.”

  Chase cracked up. “Me to. You mean well. Okay, I gotta go shower and get ready for Her Hotness.”

  “Shelly?”

  “Naw. Shelly got pissed when I asked if Danielle could join us,” Chase replied. “So, it’s a new lovely lady.”

  “So you essentially gave Shelly the heave-ho by using your fictitious friend again?”

  “Better that they hate me when it’s time to say goodbye. Shelly’s a great girl, but I think she was measuring my windows for curtains, if you know what I mean,” Chase said.

  “What are you going to do when you find a woman who says yes when you suggest Danielle coming over?” Ric asked.

  Chase’s laugh was infectious. “That’s the girl I’ll marry.” He winked and hit the end button.

  Ric laughed as he went back to playing his game and figured out the logistics of his plan.

  *****

  Kate clicked her way around an accounting spreadsheet, playing with numbers to see where her profits were going to end up for the month of April. Business was good, especially because her staff was following her instructions to push flea control products and healthy pet treats.

  When her phone rang, she picked it up and hit the answer button without looking to see who it was. “Hello, Doc. How’s the sexiest veterinarian I know?”

  Kate almost dropped the phone in surprise as she recognized his voice. “Ric?”

  “Yeah. How are you?”

  “I’m, uh, fine, and you?” Kate cursed herself for tripping all over her tongue, but she was shocked to hear from him.

  “I’m good. I was wondering if you were free for dinner tonight?”

  His voice was a cross between sandpaper and satin and it stirred her nerve endings. If he affected her this way by just talking to her, she could only imagine what it would be like to kiss him, or—

  “Kate? You there?”

  “Yeah. I’m just surprised to hear from you after the other day,” she said.

  “You mean because you kissed me?”

  A blush spread over her cheeks even though she couldn’t see him. “Yes.”