Healing the Vet's Heart

by Annie Claydon

  Cheese on toast apparently took a little longer than two minutes to half-melt the cheese under the grill, and when Drew called her out of her workshop, the cutlery laid out on the breakfast bar was an unequivocal hint that she wouldn’t be eating at her desk. But it was actually worth it. The bread was crispy and there was ham underneath a golden layer of toasted cheese. And there was coffee as well, even if the way Drew made it didn’t take much of the edge off her tiredness.

  ‘She’s not having cheese for lunch?’ Phoenix had scampered through from the workshop with her at the sound of Drew’s voice, and was currently demolishing the contents of a feeding bowl on the floor.

  ‘No, cheese is a treat. She has a properly balanced formula, four times a day.’

  ‘Right.’ Caro eyed the fruit bowl that Drew had placed next to them. Apparently, he was aiming for a properly balanced formula for her as well. She’d be willing to bet that if given the chance he’d be an eat-your-vegetables freak.

  Although the results of vegetable freakery bore thinking about. With the obvious exclusion of his leg, he looked outrageously outdoorsy, well rested and healthy. His strength might well be the kind to impress a girl indoors too.

  ‘Have some more.’ Drew was still on his first slice of ham and cheese, presumably chewing each mouthful the prescribed number of times. Caro hadn’t been able to stop herself from wolfing her two slices down and wishing that there was more. Drew tipped his second slice onto her plate.

  ‘No...um...that’s okay. Aren’t you hungry?’

  ‘I had breakfast.’ Somehow he managed to avoid making that sound like an accusation.

  ‘In that case...’ She picked up the slice. ‘This is really good. I’m a bit tired, and I get hungry when I’m tired.’

  He nodded. ‘Yeah. Your body’s looking for a quick uptick in energy. High-calorie foods will fool it into thinking it has that for a while.’

  Okay. He was beginning to sound like her mother. Caro could ignore that for the time being, since he didn’t look anything like anyone’s mother. She wondered whether pheromones were fooling her body into thinking she wasn’t tired as well.

  ‘I get an idea and I run with it. That’s the way it works.’

  He nodded, picking up an orange from the fruit bowl. ‘Want some?’

  Peel me an orange. Not quite so obviously seductive as Peel me a grape, but it still allowed her to appreciate the delicate precision of his strong hands.

  ‘Yes. Thanks.’

  He deftly stripped the peel from the orange segments, putting more than half on her plate. Was there anything that Drew Trevelyan did that didn’t bear a closer look?

  ‘You broke your femur. Along with your patella?’ She could see through all the things he didn’t say, just as clearly as he seemed to see through her.

  Drew stared at her, suddenly tense. ‘What?’

  ‘I caught you on film. I was going to try filming Phoenix’s movements while you made lunch.’ Suddenly this felt like an intrusion rather than a reply to his fixation with her diet and how much she slept. Maybe she should have asked first.

  ‘And you got that just from my gait? That software’s pretty good, then.’

  ‘It doesn’t catch everything. But, yeah, it’s pretty good at picking up deviations from the norm.’ She shouldn’t have done this. ‘Sorry. Sometimes I forget that everything isn’t an exercise in logistics.’

  ‘Yeah. This is a lot more personal.’ He shot her a warning look.

  ‘Like wanting to know when I last slept?’

  For a moment she thought he was going to take offence. Then suddenly he laughed. It was a nice laugh that emphasised a with instead of an at, and Caro couldn’t help smiling.

  ‘Touché. It’s just like that. And I am impressed with the logistics, I think they could be very useful.’ He reached for the jug of coffee and refreshed both of their mugs. ‘I was in a car accident.’

  ‘Lucas told me. He didn’t say that you had trouble walking, I would have come down to the veterinary centre for this meeting.’

  Drew shook his head. ‘Then I would have missed the delights of your workshop.’

  It sounded like a compliment, and Caro decided to take it as one. ‘Thanks. I like it too. A bit too much sometimes...’

  He nodded, as if he’d already come to that conclusion himself. Caro wanted very badly to know what had happened to him but didn’t dare ask.

  ‘The brakes on my car failed. I was on a coast road, and I managed to avoid plunging off a cliff and ended up in a headlong collision with a tree.’

  Caro took a gulp of her coffee. She was too tired to filter her reactions through the fine mesh of what was appropriate, but maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. ‘It sounds horrible.’

  ‘Yes, it was.’ His hand shook a little, and he glared at it as if it had betrayed him. ‘I broke my femur, and my patella’s been partially replaced.’

  ‘It must hurt you still.’

  ‘Yes, it does. You’re very direct.’ Drew smiled suddenly, as if that wasn’t a problem.

  ‘Sorry. I don’t mean to pry.’

  He shrugged. ‘That’s okay. I sometimes wish that everyone would be a bit less tactful.’

  So she didn’t have any tact? If that was true, she’d have already made many more personal enquiries about his body, somewhere along the lines of whether it was actually as beautiful as it seemed.

  ‘If we’re going to be having business meetings, then it would be easier if you told me what you can and can’t manage. Then I wouldn’t have to guess.’

  He seemed to like that approach. Drew reached across to the canvas bag he’d brought with him and took a blister pack from one of the small pockets at the front.

  ‘I have prescription painkillers, but I’m scaling them down. I only take them when I need them.’

  ‘Like now?’ The blister pack had two tablets missing.

  ‘Yeah. I’m still struggling a little with climbing steps.’

  ‘You might have said. We could have made other arrangements...’ Caro wrapped her thick cardigan around her, as if the warmth might be of some comfort to the guilty feeling of letting Drew come all the way up here.

  ‘I’m a little tired of being the one that everyone else has to make their arrangements around.’ There was a trace of annoyance in his voice.

  ‘Okay, so if I promise not to mention sitting down or taking things easy, will you promise to mention if things really are getting too much for you?’

  Drew smiled suddenly. ‘That sounds like an excellent work arrangement.’

  Did he think that was all it was? Caro suspected that Drew was made for play as well as work, but she’d already experimented with mixing work and pleasure, and the results had been conclusive. Big, bad mistake.

  But she was really too tired to think about it. Her back and legs were aching from fatigue and she wanted to sit down on the sofa. Walking across the room seemed like a gargantuan effort, but it would be worth it just to sink into the cushions for a few minutes...

  * * *

  Someone was calling her name. Caro was wide awake before she even realised she’d been asleep, sitting up before she’d known that she was lying down on the sofa. Maybe he hadn’t noticed that she’d dropped off. Caro hoped she hadn’t given the game away by snoring.

  Only... The throw from her workshop was spread over her legs. Her slippers were lined up neatly on the floor. And she was sure that she felt a pillow crease on her cheek. She decided to brazen it out.

  ‘So...what do you think?’ That was always a good holding question. People were always happy to expound for ages on what they thought and it was a good opportunity to catch up if her mind had wandered.

  Drew grinned. ‘I think your ideas are great. I’ve just been reading about them.’ He indicated her design specification, which lay open on the coffee table. He eithe
r read at the speed of lightning, or her eyes had been closed for more than five minutes.

  Caro puffed out a breath, bowing to the inevitable. ‘I’ve been asleep, haven’t I?’ She craned around so that she could see the kitchen clock, focussing blearily on it. Three o’clock?

  He nodded, getting to his feet. Clearly he’d been resting too, because his movements were more fluid than they had been.

  ‘I’m so sorry...’

  Drew shrugged, as if it was just one of those things. ‘You were very tired. I would have let you sleep longer, but the tide’s on its way out again, and I should be making a move soon.’

  ‘Okay. Give me two minutes, and I’ll walk down with you.’ Maybe she could carry his bag or something. Anything to make the journey back a little easier for Drew than the one here had been.

  ‘I can manage. And I can’t believe I’m the one saying this but stay down for the rest of the day.’ There was a look of quiet humour in his eyes, and Drew was clearly appreciating the irony.

  ‘People tell you to stay down quite a lot, do they?’

  ‘All the time. I thought I’d try it out on you to see if you like it any better than I do.’

  ‘Actually... I don’t mind it.’ Being looked after like this was a novel experience.

  ‘I’ll give you the full treatment, then.’ His lips curved into a delicious smile. If she’d been greeted by that when she’s woken up, goodness only knew what might have happened, and Caro thanked her lucky stars that he’d saved it until now.

  Phoenix had wandered over, it obviously having occurred to her that something might be happening without her. Caro swung her legs off the sofa, and Drew arranged the throw across them carefully, lifting the puppy up and putting her onto Caro’s lap.

  ‘Uh...what am I supposed to do now?’ Caro was beginning to wonder exactly what the full treatment would entail.

  ‘Same as you do with Clarice...’ He shot the words over his shoulder as he walked towards the kitchen.

  Presumably that didn’t mean tinkering with Phoenix’s programming. Caro stroked the little dog, and she started to lick her hand. ‘She’s not going to bite me, is she?’

  ‘She might give it a go, but it’ll only be in play. Don’t bite her back.’ He grinned, opening the fridge door.

  That was all very unpredictable. As was the way that Phoenix snuggled into her lap, looking up at Caro as if she was at the very centre of her world. But it was nice to have someone there who could make her feel that nothing was so urgent that it couldn’t wait a little while.

  She stroked Phoenix while Drew clattered around in the kitchen, looking up when he walked towards her, carrying two mugs. ‘What’s this?’

  ‘It’s the next stage. Random drinks.’ He put the mugs down on the coffee table.

  ‘Hot soup. That’s nice.’ Caro had rather been hoping for coffee, strong enough to jolt her out of this feeling of delicious laziness.

  ‘Yeah. Nourishing and unlikely to keep you awake.’ He lowered himself onto the sofa next to her. ‘Now. Afternoon TV. I’m quite an aficionado.’

  He reached for the remote, turning on the television that was mounted on the wall in the corner of the room. ‘What do you fancy? Home improvements?’

  Caro shook her head. You needed to have a home in order to improve it. He flipped through the channels, listing the options.

  ‘Or you can have a whodunit... Sherlock Holmes?’

  ‘I don’t mind that.’

  Drew grinned. ‘Perfect. You don’t want anything that you like too much in case it encourages you to think.’

  ‘You’re enjoying this a bit too much, Drew.’

  He chuckled, leaning back against the cushions. ‘You have to admit that I’m very good at it, though.’

  Yeah. Something told Caro that Drew was good at everything he did. Even the process of letting an afternoon slip by, without having done anything constructive. He’d probably had a little too much of that recently.

  She leaned forward to pick up her mug, and Phoenix escaped her lap in favour of Drew’s. ‘Okay. So when we’ve done with the hot drinks and the afternoon TV...?’

  ‘I’ll go home. You can watch some more TV and then get some sleep.’

  ‘That sounds thrilling. And what about the project?’

  ‘I’ve got a proposition for you.’

  ‘Sounds exciting.’ Damn! That had just slipped out. The proposition was almost certainly work related...

  ‘Wait till you hear it.’ Drew took a moment to reach for his own mug and take a sip from it, and Caro wondered if he was trying for a Master of Suspense effect, or if the soup and the TV were having an effect on him also.

  ‘Write a couple of introductory paragraphs about your project. You can be as vague as you like, there’s no need to give away anything you don’t want anyone to know. I’ll append that to an email asking some of our dog owners if they’d like to participate in the initial study.’

  ‘Okay, thanks. I’ll do that...’ Caro pulled the throw away from her legs. She could apply her mind to that simple task while Sherlock Holmes tackled the more difficult question of tracking down a criminal mastermind.

  She felt Drew’s hand on her shoulder, and Phoenix scrambled out of the way as he leaned across to arrange the throw across her legs again. ‘Tomorrow’s soon enough. Are you going to stay put?’

  Who in their right mind would want to move now? When he was so close and the bulk of his body, along with the tenderness of his hands, were so very apparent.

  ‘If you insist.’

  He smiled. Before Caro could wonder whether his lips were as soft as they looked, he’d moved away.

  ‘Of course I insist. Are you doing anything tomorrow? If you want, we can meet up at the clinic and send out the email. Maybe you could set up your testing equipment and show me what’s involved.’

  ‘You’re going to help me, then?’ Caro hadn’t wanted to take his participation for granted.

  ‘Yeah, of course I am. It’s an exciting project. I want to see where it goes.’

  ‘Thanks. What time shall I come?’

  ‘Any time after eight?’

  ‘Okay. Eight’s fine. I’ll be there.’

  ‘Great.’ He drained his own mug and picked up hers. It was probably better not to tell him she’d deal with the mugs, and she watched the TV while Drew added them to the rest of the things in the dishwasher and set it running.

  ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, then.’ He seemed positively breezy now. Moving more easily, even taking a few short steps without his stick. Obviously an afternoon spent sitting down and reading, while she’d slept, had satisfied both his restless mind and his need for physical rest.

  ‘Yeah, okay. You’re sure you’ll be all right down the steps?’

  ‘Positive.’ He called Phoenix and she leapt off the sofa and went careening towards him. He clipped her lead onto her collar and put his coat on, shouldering his canvas bag. ‘Watch the TV. And don’t sleep in your clothes tonight...’

  Caro shot him a look, calculated to imply that sleeping in her clothes was the last thing she’d ever consider doing. Drew chuckled, opening the front door and waiting for Phoenix to follow him through it. Then he was gone.

  Now she could stop this game and get on with something. Caro couldn’t quite think for the moment exactly what. Maybe she’d just watch through to the end of the film...

  Beneath all the playfulness, Drew was obviously frustrated and bored. He still needed some downtime to recuperate from his injuries, but his restless mind also needed stimulation, and quite by accident she’d managed to contrive both today.

  Allowing him to look after her had just been a joke, but... It had obviously fed a deeper need for Drew. Maybe a deeper need for her too. No one had ever looked after her like this.

  Not even Blake Harmer. He had been the handsome
lecturer and she the budding inventor. Ten years older than her, and touched by the California sun, she’d felt pale and unworldly next to him, but somehow he’d chosen her. She’d fallen in love harder and faster than she’d realised was possible, and when he’d asked her to move in with him Caro had finally found the home that her parents’ itinerant lifestyle had never given her.

  She’d ignored the voices that had whispered behind their backs, saying she was the more talented of the two. They hadn’t understood.

  But then it had become obvious that it was Caro who didn’t understand. The water feature in their garden had been leaking, and she’d fixed it by making a self-cleaning valve. By the time she’d realised the potential for its use in developing countries, Blake had patented it as his own.

  She’d hoped it was all a mistake, but had then found out that the companies Blake had been negotiating with wouldn’t waive their exclusive rights to the new valve for charitable and non-profit agencies. They’d argued, and she’d seen the glint of avarice in his eyes.

  ‘Suck it up, Caro. You can play with your robots and your wild dreams all you like, someone has to deal with the money side of things. Since you don’t seem capable of doing that, you should leave it to me...’

  When the news had got out that Blake had lucrative offers for the rights to the valve, and was leaving his teaching post, the whispers had begun again. What had he seen in Caro anyway? Had it only been the chance to make money from her inventions? This time Caro believed them. Blake hadn’t ever wanted her for herself, just what she could do for him.

  She’d run. Put her legal claim against Blake into the hands of an attorney and fled back to England. This time her designs would be used for the purpose that she intended. This time her heart wouldn’t break.

  Now she saw things more clearly. Someone like Drew could never find her attractive. He might want to work with her. He might even like her a little. He’d even attempted to address the cost of making her wild dreams work, in effort and time, which was something that Blake had never done. But she shouldn’t get carried away and think that there was anything more to it than just an attempt to be nice.