“Wow,Theo, now you are on my shit list.Anyway, he’s just helping me out by going with me to do the PPE on that mare I told y'all about,” I said, trying desperately to change the subject of this conversation.
Thankfully, my dad helped to divert it. “Sounds like a good guy to me. I was telling Adds earlier today that Dr. Davis couldn’t say enough good things about the guy. I’m looking forward to meeting him myself.”
“He came into the coffee shop the other morning, and let me tell you, if I were thirty-five years younger, I would climb that man like a tree,” Mrs. Williams said as Mr. Williams barked out a laugh along with the entire table. “Good luck, Addi. I don’t know if I could handle being alone in a truck with him for a couple of minutes, let alone a couple of hours. That is one good-looking man…and I hear he’s single.” She waggled her brows at me while taking a sip of her wine.
Mr. Williams grabbed her wineglass and said jokingly, “Okay, Grace, no more wine for you tonight.” She quickly grabbed it back from him, and everyone at the table laughed.
I felt my cheeks heat at her comments and hoped no one noticed. “I think I’ll be fine. I just got out of an engagement not even six months ago. Men are the last thing on my mind,” I said as I grabbed my wineglass to take a much-needed large drink after this conversation.
“Noah was a douchebag,” Ava and Walker said at the same time, causing even more laughter from the table. I just shook my head and couldn’t help but join in.
Luckily, the conversation turned to everyone asking meabout my plans for the hunter/jumper training facility I wanted to open, and after that, I seemed to be out of the hot seat.
We had all started eating dinner and continuing casual conversation around the table when I found my thoughts drifting off to Dr. Dean Adler. He had the kind of easy confidence that made people trust him before he even opened his mouth. And of course he had to be good-looking—annoyingly so. I’d forced myself to look away more times than I cared to admit during his farm call. I hadn’t even unpacked my life yet, and my energy belonged to one thing: getting my business off the ground. I’d lost myself in a man once before, and I wasn’t making that mistake again. Not when everything I wanted was finally within reach. The last thing I needed was to start eyeing the town vet like he was anything other than what he was—essential for my horses, and completely off-limits.
Noah:
Are you just never going to speak to me again?
Chapter 4
Dean
Addison:
Hey, are you sure you want to drive to Magnolia Valley with me to check out that horse? It’s about a 2-hour drive. You can say no…
Haha, I don’t mind. It’ll save me time on my schedule to knock it out now, so really I’m going for selfish reasons.
Addison:
Oh, you weren’t going because it was impossible to resist my charm?
That was my second reason.
Addison:
Good answer. We can take Walker’s trailer, granted everything works out and we bring her home. Do you mind hauling it with your truck? I figured it would be easier, since your truck has everything you need for the PPE.
That works. I’ll pick you up around 8:30 tomorrow morning. Does that work?
Addison:
Perfect. See you tomorrow.
I woke up earlier than usual, and I couldn’t ignore the fact that I was looking forward to being in a car for two hours with Addison. I didn’t know what it was about her, but I couldn’t seem to get her out of my head. It had been about a week since I last saw her, which had been about a week of me gripping my cock in the shower to entirely unprofessional images of her.
Jesus Christ, I needed to get laid.
After pounding a cup of coffee, I tucked a navy polo shirt with “Primrose Veterinary Hospital” embroidered in the corner—since this was technically a work trip—into a pair of jeans and threw on my worn cowboy boots. Once Coal was fed, I headed outside to take inventory of my work truck to ensure I had everything I needed to check the horse out. Afterward, I made a quick call to my office.
“Hey, Rebecca, who’s on the schedule today for Grant and Lottie?” I asked my office manager. Rebecca was in her fifties and had served as the office manager for Dr. Davis for the past fifteen years. She knew everything and everyone. I quickly learned that she was going to be my right hand in keeping this practice functioning properly. Grant and Lottie were my two certified veterinary technicians, and they handled a lot of our annual checkups and appointments that came up when I was out of the office or on a farm call.
“Hey, boss. Happy Friday! Nothing too crazy today for them while you are out. Ms. Peterson is bringing in her chocolate lab again because she swears Daisy has fleas, but we will once again explain to her that it’s allergies and Daisy needs an allergy shot.” I could hear the annoyance in Rebecca’s voice and couldn’t help but laugh. Ms. Peterson was terrified that the allergy shot would hurt her poor, sweet Daisy. “Other than that, we just have a couple of annual wellness checks with vaccinations, and Mr. Jones is bringing Bandit in to get some blood work,” she finished. Bandit was an old basset hound that we performed routine blood work on to ensure his medication was still at the correct dosage for his Cushing’s disease.
“All right, sounds good. Thanks for holding down the fort. Tell Grant and Lottie to call or text me if they need anything. I’ll see you guys next week.”
“Sure thing. Have fun with Addi today. You know she’s single, right? And those James girls sure are gorgeous,” Rebecca suggested.
