by Levine, Nina
“Yeah, I bet,” I said, stopping myself from saying anymore. This kid knew deep in her soul what a crappy fucking hand she’d been dealt, with her mother; she didn’t need me pointing it out. “Okay, let’s go and get him fixed.”
The relief that washed over her face was clear but I didn’t acknowledge it. Lisa didn’t like attention and she didn’t like people stating the obvious. She was just trying to get through life with as little interruption from others as she could, and I for one, got that. So, I settled her and Monty in my car and we drove to the vet with little conversation passing between us. I think that’s why she and I had the kind of relationship that we did; she appreciated my lack of intrusion into her thoughts and I dug her lack of fucking melodramatics.
As we pushed through the door of the vets, she gave me a quick smile. Blink and I’d have missed it, but I didn’t. She needed reassurance so I gave it to her; I plastered a smile on my face that could have lit a fucking Christmas tree. And fuck me, she saw it and gave me one back. This kid never smiled. Jesus, someone needed to give her some love.
I took my attention off the kid and directed it to the vet’s front desk. My dick jerked when I took in the blonde behind it. Christ, she was a fucking knock out. Long, wavy blonde hair that covered her tits; and they were great tits from what I could tell. Problem was, they were covered up with a white tank top and a shitload of necklaces. And that tank wasn’t a low cut one like most of the chicks I met wore, so her assets weren’t completely on display. As she continued talking to her customer, I angled my head to try and get a better view. Oblivious to the world while I did this, I missed it when she finished up with him and sent her gaze my way.
“You want me to take it off?” she asked, mild irritation in her voice.
I smirked, “Sure. Go right ahead.”
She shook her head and sighed, looking at Lisa. “Because there are children around, I’ll refrain from saying what I want to say.” Then she turned her attention to the cat, “Oh, poor baby. Pass him here, honey,” she said to Lisa who was gripping onto Monty with all her might.
Lisa hesitated, so blondie walked around from behind the counter to come and stand next to her. She knelt down so they were eye to eye, and asked, “What’s happened to him?”
Jesus. This chick had my full attention now. Her legs were painted with the tightest jeans I think I’d ever seen someone wear. They rode low on her hips with her tank tucked in. She was rocking the country look with cowgirl boots and a cowgirl looking belt. Actually, she looked like she’d stepped straight out of fucking Nashville.
“Monty got in a fight the other day and now he’s sick,” Lisa said, in her soft little voice that I could hardly hear. She had her back to me so I couldn’t see her eyes, but I bet they were glued to the floor. She had no confidence and that shit me. How could her mother not see that? Not care enough to fucking fix it?
“His face doesn’t look too good, does it? If you give him to me I can take him out the back to the vet and we can get him better for you,” she said, coaxingly. Yeah, I bet Lisa would hand the cat over now; that voice could charm an alcoholic’s last drink from him.
Lisa gave up Monty, and blondie said, “I’ll be right back.” And with that, she stood and left us as she headed out the back where I guessed the vet was.
I moved to a seat to sit and wait; Lisa followed and sat quietly next to me. She seemed anxious, but then again, she was often like this. Our eyes were drawn to the front door as a guy and his kid came through with their dog. Up until that point we’d been the only ones in the surgery and it was fairly quiet. This guy was talking loudly on his phone, his kid was nagging him about something, trying to get his attention, and his dog was a bundle of energy; suddenly it felt crowded in the tiny waiting room.
He waited at the counter and rung the bell. Blondie didn’t come out and the guy was impatient; he hit the bell again. “Harlow!” he bellowed. His kid tugged his shirt repeatedly, muttering shit I didn’t understand, and the dog was traipsing around the fucking room because they’d let his leash go. I felt my temper fray at the edges; this guy was a deadset dickhead, and I was biting my tongue for once in my life. For Lisa’s sake.
He hit the bell again and then turned to me. “Where the fuck is Harlow?”
I stood up and was about to tell this asshole just what I thought of him when blondie made her way back to the counter.
She smiled at him. Fuck knows why, because he didn’t deserve it. “Rod, sorry to keep you waiting,” she said. Her voice was polite but I noticed that it was forced compared to the way she spoke to Lisa before. It was obvious that she knew him and that she didn’t really care for him.
“Yeah, well I’m in a fucking hurry, Harlow, so can we move this along? And just for the fucking record, I’m pissed that I had to bring my dog back. You idiots should have taken care of all this last time I was in.” he said.
My anger exploded out of me; I couldn’t hold it in any longer. “Hey, asshole,” I snapped, “Why don’t you give her a break? She’s busy, and doesn’t need dickheads like you speaking to her that way.”
His head whipped around and furious eyes landed on me. “This is none of your business so I suggest you stay the fuck out of it.”
I stepped into his space, backed him up against the counter, and leant real close. “Now would be the right time for you and your family to leave. I don’t like any of the shit that’s just gone down, so unless you want trouble between the two of us, leave now,” I threatened. When I saw him hesitate, I grabbed a handful of his shirt and snarled, “Did you not understand what I just said, motherfucker?” We glared at each other for a couple of moments before I let him go, shoving him hard against the counter in the process. Keeping my eyes trained on his, I slowly stepped back. Planting my legs wide, I crossed my arms in front of my chest and scowled at him.
Harlow opened her mouth to say something but I caught the movement and flicked my gaze to her for a second, giving her a clear message to stay out of it. She shut her mouth and glared back at me, her eyes widening in a ‘what the fuck’ type gesture. That shocked the shit out of me, and my concentration was diverted from the asshole to her. I’d never been given that look by a chick before; usually it was J or Nash who challenged me like that. I raised my eyebrows at her, and fuck me if she didn’t raise hers right fucking back.
I was snapped out of my distraction when the dickhead decided to listen to me. “Fuck you,” he muttered at me, and then jabbed a finger in Harlow’s direction, “And your boss will be hearing from me.” He grabbed his kid by the arm and his dog by the leash, and made a hasty exit. Not fucking soon enough, as far as I was concerned.
After he left, I looked at Lisa to make sure she was alright. She was looking at me wide eyed but didn’t say a word. “You okay?” I asked her.
She nodded. “He wasn’t very nice but I feel sorry for his dog; he didn’t get to see the vet,” she said.
I crouched down in front of her. “No, he wasn’t a nice person. There are lots of other vets he can go to though so you don’t need to worry about his dog,” I said, and waited a moment before saying, “Okay?”
“Okay,” she agreed.
I stood back up and turned to Harlow. She was standing with her arms folded across her chest and I struggled not to stare at her tits that were now pushed up by her arms. She had one of the best racks I’d ever seen; a man could die happy after getting an eyeful of that. My dick was in agreement with that. Shit, time to rein this in; there was a kid in the room.
I moved my eyes to hers and was greeted with that irritated look again. “Thanks for that,” she said, but I wasn’t entirely sure she meant it.
“You’d rather I’d stayed out of it?”
She dropped her arms and slowly shook her head. “Not necessarily, but it was a bit over the top really. I’m used to dealing with assholes like him, so I didn’t need you to threaten him like that.”
“You shouldn’t have to put up with that shit.”
&n
bsp; She sighed. “No, I shouldn’t have to, but that’s the general public for you.”
“Well, if you have any more trouble from that guy, you call me. I’d be only too fuckin’ happy to sort him out for you.”
She took me in, and I mean, her eyes raked over me, and assessed me, before she muttered, “I bet you would.”
At that moment, we were interrupted by a guy who came from the back room. He looked at me, and asked, “Is Monty your cat?”
Before I could reply, Lisa piped up, “Yes, is he okay?”
Directing his attention to Lisa, he replied, “Well, I need to keep him here overnight because I need to operate on him, but he will be okay. Would you like to come out the back and say goodbye to him?”
Lisa hesitated, looking to me for guidance. “Can I?” she asked me.
I nodded. “Yeah, I’ll wait here for you.”
She followed the vet, leaving Harlow and I alone. Harlow gave me a strange look and I waited to see what she was going to say. She opened her mouth but then shut it quickly, like she’d thought better of it. Instead, she reached under the counter and produced a sheet of paper. Sliding it, and a pen towards me, she said, “Please fill these details in for Monty. Just make sure you leave us the best number to contact you on in case of an emergency.”
“You think something’s going to happen to the cat?” I asked. Christ, Lisa would fucking lose it if that cat died.
“He should be okay, but just in case.”
“Good, because that kid doesn’t need to lose anything else in her life.”
Her eyebrows pinched together and she looked confused.
“What?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
“Don’t give me that bullshit. If you’ve got something to say, say it.”
Her eyes flared with surprise, and then she replied, “Okay, why did you leave it so long to bring Monty in, especially when your daughter obviously loves - ”
And then the vet came out, interrupting us again. “Monty needs an operation on his face as he has a cat fight abscess and it’s been left too long to be able to treat it with just antibiotics,” he said, giving me the look I was sure he reserved for pet owners who didn’t look after their pets properly. “We’ll call you tomorrow when he’s ready to be collected.”
I didn’t have the time or the fucking inclination to check him on his attitude. “Fine,” I said, curtly, and picked up the pen Harlow had given me and filled out their paperwork.
Once I’d filled it out, I slid it back to her and asked, “What time tomorrow do you think it will be? I’ve got a lot on so it’d be good if you could give me a heads up.”
She appraised me, probably noting my shortness with her. I gave zero fucks about what she was thinking. A minute ago, I wanted to rip those jeans off her; now I had no interest in her judgmental ass. Stuck up pussy was my least favourite kind.
“You’ll probably be able to collect him anytime after lunch. I’ll call you to confirm that,” she replied, coolly.
I nodded once, and then said, “Thank you.” Turning to Lisa, I asked, “You ready to go, darlin’?”
“Yes.” She sounded anything but sure.
“Monty’s in the best place tonight. The vet will get him better and then tomorrow we’ll come and get him. Yeah?”
“Yeah.” That was better; she at least sounded like she believed me.
“Okay, let’s go, kiddo,” I said, and gently guided her to the front door, giving Harlow one last glance before leaving. It was a shame about her; my hands on her tits would have been a spectacular sight.
Chapter 2
Harlow
“Hey, Ma,” I called out as I pulled our front door open and headed inside.
Thank God today was over; it’d been one of the longest days at work in a long time. We’d had lots of sick pets come in for emergency care, not to mention a couple of asshole customers. Scott Cole flashed through my mind as I thought of the assholes. Yeah, I’d totally memorised his name when he filled in his cat’s paperwork. He was freaking hot; how could I not remember his name? But he wouldn’t pass my checklist. What checklist, you might ask. The one I’d written after the last guy I dated cheated and lied his way through our three year relationship. That checklist. The one that forbade me to even look at a guy who oozed sex the way Scott did. I also didn’t do guys who had a temper like his, guys who didn’t love animals as much as I did, and I preferred single men with no children. Kids weren’t a complete no go for me, but I could do without the added baggage. Oh, and not to forget the fact that he was a biker. I liked my men a little rugged but that was taking it to the extreme in my opinion. Never having met a biker before, I couldn’t be sure, but the image I had in my mind was that of a chauvinistic, domineering man who couldn’t commit to one woman. So, Scott was off limits. I mean, what kind of pet owner wouldn’t bring their pet to the vet as soon as it got sick? Not the kind of man I wanted to date.
“I’m in the kitchen,” my mother called out. I smiled; it was a good sign when she was in the kitchen after a day at work in a kitchen.
I found her a minute later, arm deep in dough. “You’re making bread!” I loved her bread, as did lots of other people. My mum was renowned for her bread making skills. People from all over Brisbane flocked to her café to satisfy their desire for it. Well, they used to anyway. These days her café wasn’t doing so well; it was the reason I’d recently moved back home with her. She needed help financially to keep her business afloat, so I’d come home to help her out. I now divided my time between my part time job at the vets and working with mum in her café. Besides, after I’d kicked that cheating asshole to the curb, leaving my life in Gympie behind hadn’t been a hard thing to do. A fresh start was just what I needed.
She paused and looked up at me, her nose coated in flour and a look of total happiness on her face. When she broke out in a huge smile, my spirit soared. I hadn’t seen her smile like that since I’d come home, and that had been three months ago. Watching my mother going through the motions of life but not feeling it had been a hard thing to do.
“I’m making bread,” she said, simply, but there was nothing simple about that statement. Those three words told me so much more than just the fact she was making bread. This kitchen, and that bread was her happy place; a place she hadn’t been in for too long.
I placed my handbag and keys on the kitchen table before making my way to the kettle to make a coffee. Mum’s kitchen was huge with a big island bench in the centre where she did all her cooking. One side of the bench had stools and I pulled one out and sat on it after I put the kettle on.
“So, you had a good day. What happened?” I placed my elbows on the counter and rested my chin in my palms as I waited to hear what had brightened her day.
“A couple of restaurants placed standing orders for cakes today, and I picked up a stack of wedding cake orders too.”
The other thing my mother was known for? You guessed it, cakes. They were to die for and I’d always been surprised that she didn’t sell more than she did. I’d spent the last couple of weeks marketing her cakes to local businesses and it looked like my work was paying off.
“That’s great. You’ll have to teach me how to make some of these cakes so that I can help you with the orders.”
“Pfft, you don’t need teaching. I already did that while you were growing up. Your baking skills are as good as mine, love.”
“So, we’re going to be busy making cakes. I really should try to find a night job so that I can work with you every day rather than at the vet’s.”
“Well, you know how I feel about you working there. That man treats you so badly and expects you to put up with a lot from his customers.” My mother didn’t like my boss and had tried many times to get me to quit my job, but I’d been looking for another job and there just wasn’t anything out there at the moment. I needed a part time job to help my mum pay the bills; working full time in her café just wasn’t financially possible
yet.
“I know, Mum. I’m looking, I promise.” The kettle boiled and I hopped up to make coffee for us both.
“Good,” she said, as she continued to knead the dough. “Now, tell me about your day.”
***
I was reminded of my promise to look for a new job the next morning when the first customer of the day abused me for the vet being late to work. Biting my tongue, I calmly made up an excuse for why my boss wasn’t at work yet. I was quickly running out of excuses because this was becoming a common occurrence. So far, his whole family was either sick or dead, his car was ready for the scrap heap due to the number of times it had broken down and he’d suffered from enough illnesses that his immune system should have packed it in weeks ago. Yeah, I was over this; it really was time to ditch this job.
Four hours later, Scott Cole strode through the front doors and caused an explosion of sensations in my tummy. This was the last thing I wanted to feel when I saw him but a girl can’t always control these things. Shit, I needed to get laid; it had been awhile and even longer since a guy had actually managed to get me to scream without faking it. I bet Scott would have me screaming all night long with no faking required. Just looking at him turned me on; god he was built. I could happily sit for hours letting my eyes roam over those muscles. His hair was light brown and cut close to his head; another turn on for me because really, you didn’t want hair to get in the way of a good time, right? I’d had friends who loved guys with long hair, but I always wondered if all that hair would just be in the way when he got down and dirty. Yeah, give me really short hair any day. Now, the thing that really did me in where Scott was concerned; his lips. They were full and pouty, and I shivered at the thought of what those lips could do to me. My gaze dropped to his chest and I took in his tight black t-shirt and his biker vest. I’d seen the name of his club on the back of it yesterday when he left; the Storm Motorcycle Club. The vest was the only thing about Scott that did nothing for me.
“I’ve come to collect Monty,” he stated, like I may have forgotten which pet was his. Not likely. I doubted anyone ever forgot Scott; there was an indescribable something about him that was not easily forgotten. He projected male dominance and total confidence, along with a don’t-fuck-with-me attitude. Actually, Scott was unlike any man I’d ever met before. Sure, I’d dated some guys that had that alpha personality about them, but Scott was alpha to the extreme from what I’d seen. He filled the room when he was in it; his presence totally dominated it and commanded your attention.