Take Your Time Read online

  “Is it true you handle this dog by yourself? I’ve had larger zoo animals easier to manage than Churchill, but they were tranquilized.”

  Trip chuckled. “Actually, I always call out the troops to help.” She brought an orange tabby cat from behind her back and set him on the floor at her feet. When the battle-scarred old tom saw Churchill, he bowed his back and growled. Churchill, who was about to lift his leg on a box of cleaning supplies, froze and then cowered. “He’s scared to death of Otis. Put him back on the table. He won’t give you any more trouble.”

  Dani and Cindy lifted the heavy dog onto the table where he remained still as a statue, his eyes never leaving the cat. Dani quickly performed the required procedure and looked up at Trip. “All done.”

  “Excellent. Another battle won, Otis.” Trip scooped Otis off the floor and headed toward the door. “I’ve got some lunch for you in my office as soon as you get Churchill and Mrs. Swenson on their way.”

  Dani’s face reddened when her stomach growled loudly. “Thanks. I didn’t have time for breakfast, and I’m starving, but the waiting room is full of patients.” Besides, she wasn’t used to leisurely lunches with the boss. The lines were clearer in her last job, but like other things she’d noticed in the South, boundaries blurred here. Was it the heat that made everything feel hazy and undefined or the overfamiliarity of the people?

  Trip shrugged. “The longer they wait, the more they’ll have to talk about when they see their friends in the grocery aisle tomorrow. Besides, most of them are on their cell phones gathering gossip about the woman who drove Eve Gardner’s old Mercedes into the side of the beauty shop this morning. You’ll just interrupt them.”

  Dani chuckled and shook her head. “I am hungry.”

  Cindy popped into the office. “Here you go, Doc. All reheated.” She placed two plates on the desk between them.

  Dani stared at the mound of food. Each plate held an oversized bun stuffed with pulled pork dripping with barbecue sauce and surrounded by finger-sized corn fritters.

  Trip added two Styrofoam containers of potato salad and extra large cups of sweet tea.

  “Eat up. It’s the best barbecue in this half of the state. The only thing better is Friday’s special—Bud’s fried flounder sandwich.”

  They ate in silence for a while, Dani still mulling over the morning’s tasks and comparing them to her former job. How much more would she have to endure before she returned to real life, and how many times a day would she ask herself the same question? She preferred the anonymity of city life—in the workplace, people on the street and in businesses, and in casual relationships. No one asked about her past or questioned why she liked or disliked things.

  “You know, I always block off Wednesdays for surgeries and only see emergency patients. Next week, I have to castrate two yearlings in the morning, but since you’re taking care of the small animal neuters I would have done in the afternoon, how about you and I ride out together to check on some of my special clients?”

  Dani hesitated. Was Trip reading her mood and trying to assure her there was more to rural veterinary medicine than she’d seen so far? “What if there’s an emergency—an animal hit by a car or something?”

  Trip waved a dismissive hand. “Cindy’s a licensed vet tech and will be in the clinic all day. She’ll triage and call us if anything serious comes in.”

  Dani’s expression was wary. “Special animals or special clients?”

  Trip licked her fingers, then stuffed the trash from her lunch into the plastic carryout bag from the diner. She held out her hand for Dani’s trash and stuffed it into the bag before tying it up. “Got a mastitis case to check and a mare to ultrasound, so I’ll throw this in the dumpster on my way out. Ants love Bud’s barbecue sauce as much as I do.” She paused in the doorway and looked back at Dani. “Special? Both the animals and their owners. But don’t worry, I’m not shoving my difficult customers on you, just my unusual ones.”

  Dani wasn’t sure which would be worse but decided anything was better than draining anal glands.

  * * *

  “Pig, pig, pig!” Harry screamed so loud Grace placed a hand over her right ear and drove with the other.

  “Could you please calm down? I’m taking you to the vet. You should be happy.”

  “Mama. Mama!”

  “You’re seriously annoying me right now, bird. I’m trying to be patient because your mama abandoned you, but you’re acting like a temperamental toddler.”

  Harry shrieked and lobbed a piece of orange that landed in Grace’s hair. Another volley hit the side of her face and fell in her lap.

  “Thanks.” She pulled into Trip’s vet clinic but didn’t see her horse trailer. She hadn’t mentioned going anywhere else on her way back from the accident scene. Grace had been clear the situation with Dirty Harry was urgent. Maybe the new vet had taken the trailer on another call. At the very least, she’d leave Harry in the air-conditioned clinic until she got off work.

  Grace draped the bath sheet over Harry’s small travel cage, scooped it up in her arms, and walked into the clinic. Nobody staffed the reception desk, which was unusual. “Hello?” If Brenda was out, a vet tech usually checked clients in and regaled them with the latest gossip, a requirement of any public job in Pine Cone. “Hello?”

  “A moment, please,” a disembodied voice called from the back, not Brenda’s smoke-thickened one or Trip’s.

  Harry flapped impatiently against the sides of his cage, and Grace folded the towel back. “Can you just wait?” He squawked at his highest pitch, and two feathers landed on the towel covering her right arm.

  “What have you done to that poor bird?” A tall androgynous woman stood in the doorway leading into the examining rooms and inclined her head toward Harry’s cage. Her eyes sparked with flecks of gold as she glared at Grace with a chastising look that made her cringe.

  “I…nothing.”

  The woman casually raked her hand through short ebony hair, a gesture that relayed confidence in her appearance and in her assessment of Grace. “Looks like something.” She tugged at the collar of a flannel shirt that peeked from under the Beaumont Vet Clinic smock and continued to stare. Heat and curiosity leapt from the depths of her eyes, and Grace’s gaydar pinged all over the place. She opened her mouth but nothing came out.

  “Jail bait,” Harry called. “Jail bait.”

  “Quiet, Harry.” She tried to think of something clever and charming to say.

  “Is that your parrot?”

  Grace nodded. “I mean no.”

  “Then I repeat, what have you done to him?”

  The implication registered, and Grace slipped into cop mode. “What have I done to him? I’d like to see Trip. She told me to come by. Without an appointment. We’re friends. And you are?” The woman walked toward Grace but stopped within touching distance, towering over her by at least three inches, which both intimidated and tantalized. Her stomach did a tumble.

  “Dani Wingate, the new vet.”

  Grace breathed a long sigh, releasing some of her annoyance and a bit of sexual tension as well. “I’m sorry. I just assumed—”

  “Figures.”

  “I beg your pardon?” Dani Wingate seemed determined to insult her.

  “Where I come from law enforcement types make a lot of wrong assumptions.” Dani stepped to Harry’s cage and cooed at him in a soft melodious tone, totally different from the strident one she used with Grace.

  She considered firing off an equally snarky remark but chose the high road. “I hate to shatter your image of brutal police officers, but in this case, I’m the victim.” She removed her right arm from beneath Harry’s towel and offered it for Dani’s inspection. “He doesn’t like me very much either and he’s known me longer, but please don’t take that as a character reference. His owner abandoned him, and he’s taking it out on me. I’m Grace Booker by the way.” Dani stared at the scratches and bites on Grace’s arm until she could’ve sworn they started to ti
ngle and burn under the scrutiny.

  “Keep antibiotic ointment on those until they start to heal. Bird bites can become infected if not properly treated. Sorry I jumped to the wrong conclusion.”

  Dani’s voice had softened and settled into a sultry calming timbre that Grace enjoyed. She shook herself, realizing she’d been staring, and that Dani’s apology required a response. “No problem. It’s easy to get the wrong impression. Look at us.” She motioned between her arm and Harry. “So, you’re the newest guest at the B and B. Sorry I haven’t met you before, but the last few days have been crazy at work with new officers, training…” She trailed off, realizing she was rambling and that Dani probably had no interest in anything she was saying.

  Dani ignored the comment. “Why doesn’t he—what’s his name?”

  “Dirty Harry. Again, not my doing. His ex-owner thought it was cute.”

  “Why doesn’t Harry like you?”

  Dani’s eyebrows drew together creating railroad tracks between her inquisitive eyes, a look Grace associated with more suspicion or at least disapproval. “I really wish I had an answer. I don’t know what’s going on with him, but something is obviously wrong.” Maybe if she distracted Dani from her suspicion of Grace as a bird abuser, she’d lighten up a bit. “By the way, where’s your receptionist?”

  “Got an emergency call from her cousin. Seems her beauty salon was under attack.”

  Grace laughed. “Guess you could call it that. A car ran into the corner of the shop. I forgot Brenda and Connie are related. Now you know how small-town gossip gets started.”

  Dani grinned just enough to expose a tiny space between her front teeth revealing a softer side to her stoic exterior. Not quite as flawless as Grace initially thought, but Dani Wingate was the most enticing woman Grace had seen in Pine Cone in years, which probably meant she wouldn’t be staying long, if Grace’s luck with women held out.

  “Where did you say you’re from?”

  “I didn’t.”

  Grace stepped closer. “I’ve lived in Pine Cone most of my life and never want to leave.”

  “How nice for you.” Her tone indicated she thought it was anything but. Dani took Harry’s cage and started toward the back. “I’ll need some background information. Come with me.”

  Gladly. Grace followed close enough to detect a clean soapy fragrance as Dani walked and a hint of dog when she brushed dark hairs from her smock. “So, how did you end up in Pine Cone, Georgia?”

  “Not a very exciting story. Can you tell me about Harry? I’m expecting the afternoon rush any minute with Trip doing farm calls.”

  “Sure.” Grace reminded herself she was on the job and probably shouldn’t be flirting quite so freely, but Dani’s evasiveness spiked her interest. She wanted to know everything about her before Trip or Clay homed in on her. Trip had mentioned getting someone on a trial basis but had been stingy with details. If she wanted to bed Dani, she’d probably already done it. Maybe that was why Dani was avoiding personal details or perhaps she was just shy. Grace placed her hand over her stomach at the thought of Trip and Dani together.

  “Spread ’em,” Harry cried. “Spread ’em, perp.”

  “Quite a vocabulary,” Dani said as she set Harry’s cage on an examining table and edged closer.

  “My ex thought it was funny to teach him police terms to annoy me. Well, she’s not exactly an ex, just a woman I let move in. I mean we did have—”

  “Probably less awkward if we stick to the facts about Harry.”

  “Right.” Grace brushed the front of her prickly uniform shirt, and nervous perspiration tickled her underarms. “His owner moved out yesterday. He never liked me and that’s gotten worse since she took off. I don’t know anything about parrots or what they need.”

  “Did she spend a lot of time with Harry? Parrots are loyal and usually attach for life.”

  “She was with him all day.”

  “No job?” Dani gave her a glance that made her feel foolish. She’d gotten the same you-dumb-ass look from Trip, Clay, and Mary Jane when she let Karla move in temporarily.

  “She lost her job, and I gave her a place to stay during her transition.”

  Dani openly stared, her eyes pinpoints of scrutiny. “Why? Not that it’s really any of my business.”

  Grace was suddenly self-conscious. She’d sound pathetic if she told the truth, that she couldn’t bear for anyone to suffer or struggle unnecessarily. Dani would think she was a bleeding heart with no business in law enforcement. If she tried to make up something, Dani would know immediately because Grace was a terrible liar. So she shrugged and said nothing.

  “You’re either really nice or very naïve, which is hard to believe for a cop.”

  That was the second time Dani maligned Grace’s profession as if being in law enforcement explained who she was. “Bad experience with cops?”

  Dani hesitated as she reached for the door to Harry’s cage. “Just the usual stuff.” She inched the lock open without making a sound.

  “I wouldn’t do that.” She wanted to know more about Dani’s comment, but safety took priority. “He looks friendly enough, but he can be vicious. You have seen my arm.”

  Without looking up, Dani opened the cage door. “The key is to approach slowly. If Harry is used to being handled, I could towel him inside the cage without any trouble, but I prefer to let him come to me.”

  Harry turned toward Grace, squawked loudly, and flapped his wings. “Five-O, five-O.”

  “He’s obviously disturbed by you. Would you step outside please?”

  Grace left but poked her head around the door. Harry immediately calmed. Damn. Dani easily soothed Harry while stirring riotous emotions in her.

  “Interesting,” Dani said and opened the cage door wider. Harry hopped onto her outstretched hand. She breathed deeply and refocused. With Grace Booker on the other side of the door, Dani concentrated on her patient instead of the way Grace scanned her body and scrutinized every move. Grace was direct, unfiltered, and never stopped talking—Dani’s exact opposite.

  “I’ve never seen him take to anyone except his owner…my ex…err…you’re amazing,” Grace said.

  If she’d met Grace in Baltimore, out of uniform, she might’ve pursued her. What wasn’t to like about that package? Grace was attractive, compassionate, and personable. She took a woman into her home because she lost her job and looked after her parrot when she didn’t have to. But Dani wasn’t looking for a woman like Grace. Her job alone eliminated her from the fling list, especially after Dani witnessed her arresting the girl at the drugstore. Besides, Grace was probably a forever type, and Dani wasn’t staying in Pine Cone one minute longer than necessary.

  Losing her ideal job at the Maryland Zoo because of budget cuts and low seniority had been an unexpected blow. Fortunately, she’d seen Trip Beaumont’s ad online. Some varied animal experience couldn’t hurt while she waited for the next perfect job up North. Rural life did not agree with her—too many bad memories, too much gossip, too little to do, and not nearly enough women to go around. The sooner she got out of here the better off she’d be. Keeping her distance from Grace would be a priority.

  Dani concentrated on Harry and mentally clicked off each part of him as she checked them with her fingers. He didn’t have any injuries she could detect by feel, but the poor bird was traumatized by his abandonment. Dani disliked people who got pets without knowing how to properly care for them and then shoved them aside when they proved inconvenient. At least Grace was concerned enough to bring Harry in, which spoke well of her, despite what Dani had seen at the drugstore.

  “How did you do that? Where did you study?” Grace’s eyes were wide and curiosity lit her face.

  She felt a swell of pride and softened in response to Grace’s awe. “I’m not really an avian vet, but you learn to deal with most animals in school and a variety of others in a zoo.” How much longer would she have to dodge Grace’s questions? Eventually, she’d get the hint that
small talk was not Dani’s forte and sharing life histories wasn’t going to be part of their professional relationship.

  “What was your favorite animal in the zoo? I know it’s probably not PC to have favorites, but everybody does.”

  Semi-professional question, requiring no personal information. Dani could do this. “The giraffe, I guess.”

  “Why?”

  “He’s tall, obvi, and sort of regal, but he also seems happy all the time. Kids can get close and feed him without worrying he’ll have a bad day and snap at them or worse. And I had a stuffed giraffe when I was a kid.” Why did I say that? No personal details, Wingate. “Besides, who can argue with a tongue that long?” Damn, that was a bit out there. Her skin heated and she shifted back into work mode.

  Grace chuckled. “I see.”

  Dani felt Grace’s gaze follow her as she lifted Harry’s wings, turned his head from side to side, and palpated his chest. “Has he been sick at all?” Grace was obviously not listening, her attention focused entirely on Dani’s hands. “Hell—o?”

  “What?” Grace shook her head and finally made eye contact, her eyes adjusting slowly.

  Dani forced her attention back to Harry. Grace examined her too closely, and if encouraged, could potentially divine much more than Dani wanted to reveal. “I asked if Harry has been sick. Throwing up? Diarrhea?”

  Grace shrugged. “Maybe a bit more poop than usual. I wasn’t the one who took care of him, so I didn’t really notice things like that.”

  “Do you cover him at night?”

  Grace stared directly at Dani’s mouth as she spoke, but Dani wasn’t sure she’d heard the question. “Are you all right?” Dani brushed back the loose strands of hair falling across her forehead, and a heated flush crawled up her neck and ears. Grace followed the movements with her eyes. Grace was attracted to her. Normally that would’ve set Dani on a conquer-and-release mission, but not this woman, this cop, and not in this town. “Grace?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I’d like to keep Harry overnight to conduct a more thorough examination and possibly run some blood tests.”