“So, this looks like you’ve made progress. Shall I start sorting by procedure or—”
“No!” I flailed a paper in his face. “Sorry, no, just…no. I have a system. Wendy and I have a system. Each printed paper is read over carefully then placed into a pile for that week. Then weeks will go into a folder of months. Then years. Procedures aren’t part of my system. Sorry, I like…” I glanced down at the papers from a slightly shocked Aiden. “Things have to be tidy, or my head gets…itchy.”
“Okay, sure, that’s understandable.” He sat back with a smile that made his dark eyes dance. “That’s amazing you’re so neat and focused. I’m just the opposite. I tend to toss things into a box or drawer and then move on to the next thing that happens. Then, after about ten years, I have to do a Marie Kondo on whatever is holding my chaos.”
That made me chuckle. “A chaos container.” I chanced a peek. His back rested on the desk, long legs bent into a lotus, his whole being seemingly locked on me. It was erotic to have such a hot guy so tuned into me, as if what I was saying was clever.
“Something like that. Generally, a chaos closet.”
“I like Marie Kondo. She’s so organized, it makes me feel not odd watching her.”
“Odd?” he asked just as the door alarm went off. He sat up straighter when someone entered the outer portion with a shout. “Be right there!” Aiden yelled, pushing to his feet and hustling out of the egg box room. That’s what I was starting to call it. Hisgaze moved from the empty doorway to me. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“Nice to come back to find you here, Ford,” he said softly, his deep brown eyes smoky.
I was about to reply with something lame, I was sure, when he disappeared from view like a bullet train. I followed, taking time to place a note from August of three years ago in the correct stack before rushing out to find Ollie Ahoka standing on the other side of the desk with a tricolor, longish-haired dog wrapped in a blanket in his arms. Its face was mostly red with a white muzzle, but it had some black in its fur on its side where the blanket was gaped open.
Aiden was already around the desk. “What happened here?” The professional vet was back now, all traces of winky, flirty Aiden gone.
“Rip Leary shot at her. Said she was chasing his sheep and had them cornered ready to attack,” Ollie replied, shifting the dog over to the vet, with small patches of red on his left sleeve. The dog whimpered softly as the transfer was made. “Rip’s wife called it in because she’s a soft-hearted woman. Found the dog about a quarter mile from their farm, limping pretty badly. She come right to me. No tags or collar.”
“We’ll scan her for chips after we get the gunshot wound tended to,” Aiden said as he carried the dog to an exam room. The lone one at this office, I had learned just today. “Why didn’t she call me directly?”
“She said Rip hates you as much as he hates me, but since I’m the law, he won’t fill my ass with buckshot,” Ollie answered matter-of-factly.
“Yeah, sounds about right. He never got over me calling you out to his place two years ago over a starving horse. Likes to remind me whenever we run into each other that fag vets whorun to fag cops are looking to find themselves in trouble. Then he tacks on ‘with the Lord’ to cover his threats.”
Learys. Yeah, we knew them. They were a bad bunch of bigots. They’d put one of Bella’s dresses on a scarecrow after finding their mom with it in her closet. Dahn had taken to running around with the younger Learys for a bit. His dad had put a stop to that fast after they’d gotten into trouble with the law. The Learys were trouble.
“I’ll have to have a talk with him about his problematic attitude,” Ollie mumbled as we gathered around the exam table. “You’ll want to look for buckshot according to what Patience Leary told me.” Ollie gave me a nod as we filed into the room after Aiden.
“Don’t. It will only make him worse. Those kinds don’t learn. They don’t want to learn. They just want to hate. We need to get her stabilized then sedated.”
“How can I help?” I asked. Aiden looked up from the dog, who was lying on the exam table like a very good girl. Her back leg was bloody. She gave my hand a lick as it hung by my side.
“You can help by grabbing me supplies from the cabinets behind us.”
I dashed over to the cabinet, opened it, and waited anxiously. The poor dog was being so good, so patient, never snarling or anything mean-spirited, even though she had to be in pain. Aiden called out for several things in rapid-fire succession. The cabinet was in such disarray it took me three times as long as it should have to find what I was looking for. Tomorrow I was coming in after morning chores to tidy this cabinet. I’d not be able to sleep tonight knowing it was this chaotic.
“Gums are nice and red, pulse is steady, limbs are warm. I’m not seeing any signs of shock. I’ll need some saline and sterile gauze. The wounds aren’t bleeding too badly, but I will have to sedate her to remove any pellets that may be in her flesh.”
“Poor Lady,” I cooed as I rifled around in the medical cabinet chaos. Maybe this would be tidied up as soon as Lady was resting comfortably.
“You two look like you have things in hand. I’m going to run home to get a clean shirt then finish my shift. Ford, if you want, come by our place after you get done here. Dodge is making fajitas for dinner.”
“Okay, sure, as long as she’s okay,” I said with a nod at the heavily panting dog. “Are you going to go out and arrest that shithead for shooting this good girl?”
“Sorry, I can’t. She was attacking his sheep, and as a rancher, he has the right to shoot any dog on his property that’s threatening his livestock. I wish I could, Ford, truly I do, as she’s a good dog. Didn’t even try to bite me when I found her on the road, even though she was clearly in pain.”
“That’s a stupid law,” I snarled, which made the dog whine. “Sorry, I’m not mad at you, Lady,” I whispered, and her fluffy tail thumped the table a time or two. I glanced at Ollie, who might someday maybe be my brother-in-law. Half-brother-in-law? Not sure how that would work out. Still, he was Dodge’s boyfriend and a cop, so I did not want to push him in any way. “I’m not mad at you either, Ollie.”
“Good to know.” He gave me a wan smile then left us to tend to Lady. With my help, Aiden soon had things under control. Lady was sedated, x-rayed, and had four pellets removed from the meaty part of her upper leg. She’d been scanned for a microchip but one wasn’t found. Aiden placed a cone on her as she slept. I carried her to a pen in the back, indoors still but away from the exam room. It was large, obviously for large animals like goats or sheep, and it was thick with fresh hay bedding over pine shavings, which gave off a pleasant smell. We gated off a section and placed non-slip pads, what Aiden called vet bedding, in her space. I placed some water in a bowl and placed it close to her.
Once she was settled and sleeping peacefully, I stepped out of the pen, closed the gate, and found Aiden staring at me with open approval. I blushed red hot.
“I’m impressed,” he said as I fumbled with the latch on the gate. Rubbing it between my fingers made the metal warm up. “You did really well assisting me in there. You stayed calm, never lost your focus, and were quick to hand me what I asked for. Have you ever trained in any kind of medical setting?”
“Me? No.” I clipped a dog clip onto the latch—added to the pen closure to thwart goats who were known escape artists, ask me how I know—then turned to look at him. “I’m not smart enough for anything like that.”
