I must have drifted off to sleep at some point with all these thoughts and memories circling in my head. I dreamed about a beautiful man throwing a stick for a sleek, healthy Golden, and of me being wrapped in the arms of a tall stranger with dark curly hair and brown eyes with flecks of amber.
~*~
There wasn’t much traffic in the clinic the next morning, probably because Dr. Simmons, Megan’s dad, hadn’t ever kept Saturday hours before. The only reason I did was to make more money so I could save to buy the clinic, but I was aware that I was establishing an expectation that was going to keep me working on Saturdays until I could afford to hire a second vet myself. In any case, the town wasn’t used to having it open, so they didn’t think to come in on Saturdays. I kept those hours for walk-ins, no appointments. In between the few people who came in with their pets, I spent all the time I could with Max.
I was going to get him groomed as soon as possible, would have done it myself, except that it was going to take some time and even though traffic was light, there were still enough patients that I didn’t have time for grooming. In the light of day, Max looked some better than I’d thought the night before. Part of the matted fur around his neck came away when I took off the filthy scrap of bandanna that I could now see underneath. It left an open sore that pissed me off. .
How could someone abandon a dog at all, much less with crap tied around his neck that would do this? I knew the clinic would have to advertise his presence, but if someone came forward to claim him, I was going to have my say.
Noon finally came around, and I locked the door before starting to run the day-end report. About fifteen minutes later, a banging on the door interrupted my work and I looked up. There, peering in through the glass, was Jon. What was it with him, couldn’t he ever come during open hours? I yelled, “We’re closed!”
Jon stepped back, stopped banging and formed his hands into a prayerful gesture. “Please,” he mouthed,
Even though I liked him begging more than giving orders, I was exasperated. I hoped he wouldn’t be this much of a pain in the ass for the entire time Max took to recover, because it was going to be a matter of weeks, not days. I got up and went to let him in.
“Sorry I’m late,” he rushed before I could say a word. “Something came up.”
Oh, I could imagine what had come up. Probably his dick, for ‘Babe.’ Not an appropriate observation, though, so I said nothing.
“How’s Max?”
My anger melted in response to him remembering what I’d named the dog. “He’s doing well. Not out of the woods by a long shot, but he’ll make it, and I think the leg will be fine, too. He might have a limp,” I babbled. Why was I suddenly acting like an idiot? This man wouldn’t care whether the dog had a limp, it was nothing to him. But, he surprised me again.
“Is there something you can do, like physical therapy or something, that would help him walk normally?”
“Well, there are canine physical therapists, but none here in Sunshine. He’d have to go to Boulder, and I don’t know how I could manage that.”
“Could I take him? I feel terrible about his injuries.”
I thawed a little more toward him after that. Maybe I’d misjudged him, or maybe his girlfriend had made him see how his carelessness had affected an innocent animal. Women were always more tenderhearted than men, weren’t they? From his side of the conversation last night, I thought she was giving him a hard time for taking so long at the clinic, but maybe I’d been mistaken. Whatever, if he was willing to take the dog for physical therapy, I couldn’t object. It would reduce Max’s pain and help his recovery.
“Sure. But, he’s going to need to stay here for several more weeks, and PT should start sooner rather than later. Do you live here in Sunshine?”
“No, I live in Boulder. I’m just here for a ski week. But, I could take him home with me, or I could come up and get him, then bring him back. It’s only half an hour.”
Now I was really confused. I’d met owners who claimed to love their dogs like their children that would whine about a round trip like that to help an injured animal. This Jon guy was coming up in my estimation, which kind of pissed me off. I hated being wrong.
I led the way back to the kennel where Max waited for me to appear. No thump of the tail this time, and he shrank back when Jon reached for him.
“Let him make the first move,” I said, the order sharp even in my ears.
“Hey, boy,” Jon said in a wheedling voice that seemed to reassure Max. “I just want to see how you’re doing.”
The very tip of Max’s tail flicked his interest. Jon kept speaking softly, a look of tender care on his face that would have been hard to miss. If a man that looked like him ever gave me a gaze like that, I’d probably strip for him instantly, no matter where we were. I straightened with a gasp, drawing a curious glance from Jon before he returned his attention to Max. What the hell was wrong with me? This was a guy who’d carelessly hit a dog, and beautiful face or no, I didn’t need a complication like him while I was establishing myself in the town. Besides, he didn’t even live here. To stop the inconvenient fantasies that kept pushing into my brain whenever I was around him, I thought of Mrs. Padgett’s sick cat. That ought to do it.
Once Jon finally left, I was free to get on with my weekend. My plans weren’t all that exciting, but I had been looking forward to my time off. I had errands to do in Boulder.
I was still learning about Sunshine, though there wasn’t much to learn. I’d been making an effort to get to know the people who worked in the dozen or so small shops, attractions and the museum, starting with the shop the furthest out from the clinic and visiting one each Saturday. This would help me meet my new neighbors and pick up any gossip that might help me understand the townspeople and their animals. So far I’d been well-received except for Megan’s obvious dislike.
I thought that getting to know people outside the clinic would help them trust me when their animals needed vet care, and it had paid off from the first week when Mrs. Padgett, who owned a cattery, was my first conquest. I had no idea how she turned a profit with a business like that in this tiny town, but it turned out that hers was a breeding operation, quite famous in the region for her Persians, Siamese and Burmese lines.
Today I needed to break my routine, though, because after a month I was out of a number of things that I could get at Walmart, saving enough over local prices to make the trip to town economical.
Before I left, I checked to make sure Max was comfortable, fed him and refreshed his water bowl. He still couldn’t get around much, so I carried him out back to relieve himself, and back in when he was done. Much more of this and I was going to develop superhero muscles. He looked at me with expressive eyes, accusing me of something, leaving him lonely I suspected.
“I’ll be back tonight, boy,” I promised.
A few people waved at me as I drove out of town. I thought I was going to enjoy living in a small town, in spite of my mother’s warning that in a small town, everyone knows everyone else’s business. The good thing about that was that, like in the old sitcom Cheers, everybody knows your name. I didn’t yet know what the bad part was, but I would learn soon.
CHAPTER FIVE
On Monday morning, Miss Sunshine herself, Megan Simmons, was at her place behind the front counter when I arrived. Surprised that the front door was unlocked, I expected to see her, but was still startled when she popped up from her seat to confront me.
“Thanks to you, my boyfriend broke up with me,” she pouted, pointing at me with a shaking finger. I seriously doubted it was my fault; if she treated him the way she treated me, he should have run for the hills long ago. Nevertheless, I said the only thing that came to mind after being hit with a frontal attack first thing on a Monday morning.
Good for him. No, I didn’t say that, though I wanted to. Instead, I said, “Oh, Megan, I’m sorry. How was it that I’m at fault again?”
“I told you I had plans on Friday. He
didn’t like being stood up.”
“Well, what’s done is done. I’m sorry it happened, but we’ve already had this discussion. Perhaps you should have sent him a text explaining that you were detained at work.”
“Perhaps,” she mocked, “you should have left the fucking door closed when I told you to.”
I looked at my watch. Two minutes to opening, I didn’t have time for a Starbucks run out to the resort. I’d have to make do with counting to ten. I added ‘inappropriate language and insubordination’ to my mental list of the reasons for firing Megan when I had the chance, and went on through to the back to check on Max.
The sweet boy lifted his head when I opened his kennel. He struggled to rise to his three good feet, and came to lick my hand. I was amazed at his progress, not to mention grateful that I wouldn’t be schlepping his fifty or so pounds outside for his potty breaks any more. Even in his emaciated condition, probably fifteen pounds under what he should be, Max was a heavy load for me.
I coaxed him out step by step with treats, and he was a perfect gentleman on command. Someone had loved this dog at one time, trained him well and then, for some unknown reason, had abandoned him to his fate. How could people do such a thing?
I had time to get him back into his kennel and settled again before the first patient of the day arrived, a boxer with hip dysplasia that I’d been treating with Omega 3 supplements, antioxidants and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. Unfortunately, she was overweight and little could be done about it, because her pain kept her from playing and exercising. It was time to start medicating her with steroids, but her owner needed to know that it would be the beginning of the end unless they wanted to consider total hip replacement.
Every time I saw a purebred dog with this condition, I cursed the puppy mills that doomed their stock to such a painful condition. By the time I’d explained the options and the potential outcomes, both the owner and I were in tears.
It was noon before I had enough of a break to check on Megan again. I found her filing her nails at her desk, an activity of which I disapproved, but not enough to have a fight over it. I was picking my battles these days.
“Megan, I’d like to discuss clinic policy with you again, regarding emergencies. I know your plans for Friday blew up because I let in a patient after hours, but your father made me understand that we’re the only vet in the area. That’s why there’s an emergency number on the door, and that’s why we, or at least I, need to be available if at all possible.”
“Yeah, YOU do, but I don’t,” she said, her tone as sullen as ever.
“I understand that. And you would have been welcome to go if you had finished the day-end report as I asked. Megan, I don’t know what else to do to have a decent working relationship with you, but the current state of affairs is unacceptable. We need to work this out.”
“You’re supposed to run the day-end,” she retorted.
I was just about at the end of my rope. “And you’re supposed to properly clean the examining rooms. If you’ll recall, you flatly refused, and when I checked another room I discovered you hadn’t done that one, either. I can’t do it all, and if you won’t do it, I’m going to have to talk to your father about finding someone who will.”
Her eyes narrowed, sending out an almost-visible toxic death-ray of hate toward me.
“Oh, yeah? Well, good luck. I could refuse to come to work at all if you’re going to treat me this way, and YOU’d be the one to get fired. Besides, that, I knew who that guy was, and he’s one of the resort people. We don’t need to kiss his ass. Or treat his dog.”
That brought me up short. This was the first time I’d heard we didn’t want business from the resort people, whatever that meant. But, I took my responsibilities toward sick and injured animals seriously. No matter who brought the dog in, he’d been suffering, and deserved at least a minimum of care, even if that meant putting him down humanely rather than leaving him to suffer. If Megan didn’t share that sense of responsibility, and I was damn near certain she didn’t, I didn’t want her working here. But, I didn’t have the authority to fire her, so I still had to talk to her dad. Meanwhile, I needed to understand what she’d said about ‘resort people’.
“What do you mean, resort people?” I asked.
“You know. The come-heres, newcomers. The people who don’t belong here. They came in and ruined the mountainsides with their ski runs and groomed trails, walk around here like they own the place and look down on us. Haven’t you figured out yet that the locals don’t like them?”
Well, no, I hadn’t. In fact, I thought they were the only reason there was still a viable town here, but I’d only been here a month. If the locals hated newcomers so much, were they just pretending to like me and stabbing me in the back as soon as I’d turned it?
What an appalling concept! Maybe they only came to me to support Dr. Simmons’ business and it had nothing to do with my skill as a vet. Suddenly, I felt like crying, like a little kid with no friends. I nodded glumly and left without discussing it further. I needed to see Max, because at least he wasn’t two-faced. Right now, he felt like my only friend.
This time, he got to his feet, though still with difficulty, and came out of the kennel without being bribed. Outside, after he’d done his business, I called him to my side and sat down beside him, hugging him as if he were a long-lost sibling. He sat patiently, wagging his tail slightly, until I as able to pull myself together.
“Thanks, Max, buddy,” I said, petting his noble head. “Damn, I wish I had room for you in my apartment. I’m going to hate to give you up.”
Max looked up at me with trust and a little confusion in his eyes, as if to say, ‘Hey, Erin, it’s okay. But, what do you mean give me up? I’m yours now.’ If only we could make that happen, both of us would be ecstatic. But, my apartment was an addition over my landlady’s garage, and she had cats. My lease specifically said I couldn’t have pets, not even a goldfish. When my lunch break was over, I went inside to do my best to get through the afternoon, but my heart wasn’t going to be in it, and because I’d skipped eating, I was going to hit the granddaddy of all mid-afternoon slumps, barring a miracle.
I’d forgotten that Jon intended to take Max for physical therapy, so when he showed up at around three, it was a shock. I had to say the man cleaned up nicely. Today he was in a business suit, but he didn’t seem to care that Max was going to shed all over him as he insisted on carrying him to the car. Correction, he was going to shed all over Jon and his BMW. It shouldn’t have shocked me that he drove an expensive car, or that he dressed in perfectly-tailored suits, but it did.
I didn’t think at the time to wonder about a business suit during a ski week; that would come later. After all, people who carried the kind of cash he’d flashed on Friday night obviously had to be well-off. But he’d seemed more like himself in the designer jeans he’d worn that night and on Sunday. Except, who was I kidding? What did I know about him, or what he should be wearing? I barely knew the man, and if Megan’s assessment was accurate, he was out of my league and not someone I’d encounter once Max was fully recovered anyway.
I agreed to meet him back at the clinic at six, an hour after tonight’s closing time, so that he could get Max to Boulder for a physical therapy appointment and then grooming before bringing him back. It was one less thing I had to worry about, after all, and I wouldn’t need Megan on hand for this so there’d be no blowups about keeping her overtime. In fact, it gave me time to get to my after-hours doctor appointment, a courtesy that Doc McGraw extended to me in complete opposition to Greg’s attitude. Dr. McGraw said we doctors have to do each other favors because we never know when we’ll need them ourselves. At least he didn’t taunt me about not being a real doctor.
~*~
I left Megan to close when our last patient was done. When I was finished with my own doctor appointment, I would come back and run the day-end, so she was just going to lock up and leave right behind me. It had been a beautiful su
nny day, if somewhat chilly in the mid-forties. One of the biggest surprises I encountered in Colorado was how low the temperature could go and still be relatively comfortable. It was going to be quite cold before I got back to the clinic, though, since the sun was already down behind the peaks that towered over our little high canyon and obscured the sun even earlier than on the plains to the east. I walked to the doctor’s office just two blocks from our clinic, grateful for my new winter coat, a down jacket that nipped in at the waist and flared out again to accommodate my hips and butt.
My nose was red and running by the time I navigated the two blocks, though. I’d have to re-think not wearing a hat, and maybe even a facemask if it got much colder, an observation that made Doc McGraw throw back his head and bray like a donkey.
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