“Don’t worry about her, she’ll trip over her gavel one of these days trying to set my grandchildren up with dates.”
“She does that?” I asked and Ms. Halle nodded with a frown.
“My grandchildren are like wildflowers growing her sculpted garden. I wished she’d learn she can’t control everything thing.” The comment felt loaded and I wanted to ask out of curiosity, but decided I better not. “And you? How do you see yourself, Winnie?” I felt like Ms. Halle was weaving some kind of grandmotherly voodoo but I couldn’t be sure.
“Well if there’s one thing I know about being a wildflower, or wildcard in the deck, we kind of do what we want, but I’m sure it will all work out in the end, right?”
“Yes, I believe it does.” She seemed to mull this over and we played a new game while waiting for Catherine to come back and pick up her cards. “So you said pet sitting? For your aunt?”
“Oh, yes. Her house is by the elementary school. Three dogs, total chaos.” I picked up my cards and knew I wasn’t winning this round while I answered her questions politely trading a card for a card.
“Oh, have you met the town vet yet?” She switched out my cards from the house desk.
I felt the blush creeping up over my cheeks. I couldn’t exactly say I fainted in his arms and the dog farted in the room, I’d just met the woman and was getting the hang of this game.
“Heh, funny you should say. The dogs have appointments all summer it seems. I wondered why my aunt decided to travel so much but he’s not bad to look at so I’m sure it won’t be a hardship to take them.”
Ms. Halle grinned from behind the hand holding her cards like she was also holding a secret. “Yes, I’m led to believe he’s quite a looker that young veterinarian.” Ms. Halle put down her own hand kicking my ass as Catherine came back letting us both know they had to leave. Something about a DUI case she had to review that was an emergency. “Welcome to town, Winnie Grey. I hope we’ll be able to play cards again.”
I smiled shaking her hand gently and had this weird feeling I would see Ms. Halle again and I looked forward to it.
6
Winnie
I stared at the red numbers glowing back like evil eyes summoning me from sleep. The alarm clock buzzed obscenely early at nine in the morning, and I smacked the small black box twice to turn it off. I’d been sleeping in the guest bedroom the past week, shacking up with someone different each night.
Last night was a real doozey. I stretched my arms over my head, letting the muscles pull, lengthening, and my neck popping, releasing pressure. Three at once was way more than I could handle even in my wildest days clubbing in the village. I wasn’t slutty. I had gone through my wild girl phase mostly unfazed and unscathed. So when I rolled over looking at the face covering the pillow next to me, shaking my head with a groan was the only acceptable response. I didn’t know how I got through the night with his horrible breath trailing to my side of the bed. I looked down and saw deep brown eyes with wild whiskers boring into me accusingly. He was definitely no Franggy Yanez.
“What? I don’t even know how you got up here, Pumpkin. The hound dog bellowed, causing Roswell to yap from his spot next to me. The snaggle-tooth pierced between his doggy jowls as he ran over my back leaving imprints.
“Wooo-Wooo.” Bailey let me know she was present, dancing at my feet and stepping over my legs.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re all hungry. Let’s go.” My life was a cruel representation of Animal Planet or a dog food commercial as I helped Pumpkin off the bed and let the other two follow me to the kitchen. I was pretty sure the doggy smell mixed with my Coco Channel was now my new perfume since I couldn’t escape them.
I poured dry food into dishes and headed into the bathroom to get a shower before Bailey’s vet appointment. I tried to shut the door, but Roswell eyeballed me, growling. “Seriously?” I looked the pug up and down, wondering what I did in a former life to deserve this kind of censure and left the door open, stripping down naked. If he wanted to see tits and ass, who was I to say no. I looked back to see him watching me intently before licking his chops. Shrugging, his reaction was nicer than my last boyfriend as he drooled a puddle onto the tile floor.
“You must have been a dirty old man in another life.” Pointing my finger at the dog, he barked at me and lunged for my ankle. “Okay, fine, but the show is over!” I turned the water on and was about to step into the shower when I heard yelping behind me.
To my horror, Roswell the little shit was humping my clean clothes. “No! Bad dog!” Roswell barked and growled, forcing me to back up naked as the day I was born while he became territorial about my no longer fresh undergarments. So much for saving them for Dr. Calloway. Huddled behind the shower curtain, I took water from the spray, trying to scare him off. Damn dog just shook the water off and went back to pleasuring himself on my pile of clothes.
“I give up. God, take me now.” Tossing my hands up, I got into the shower, hoping to scrub the visual of doggy peen from my mind, but failing miserably. He was definitely staying home with Pumpkin the fumigator when I took Bailey to the vet.
“You can come back in now,” Dr. Calloway-Doolittle as I thought of him fondly called to me from the open door of the exam room. His too gorgeous eyes scanned my body, causing me to overheat in a sticky bun delicious dessert sort of way. The thick head of messy sleep rumpled hair shouldn’t have looked that good as I fisted my trembling hands to keep from reaching out to touch him. I scanned the room, which was free of acupuncture torture devises, and let my eyes settle on his large muscular hands that held the door open for me.
“Thanks.” Sheepishly I entered the room and found Bailey eyeing me suspiciously. I couldn’t blame the poor dog either because I had left her to get a shot while I stayed safely out of the faint zone in the waiting room.
“No more dizziness?” He held on to my arm, guiding me into the exam room. My arms felt like fire where his bare calloused hands touched my skin. I wasn’t dizzy, but the sudden hormone overload had my stomach doing circus acrobatics while I stared down at his fingers brushing against my skin.
“Not right now, Doctor…” I gulped back, trying to control my unsteady voice. I was never like this with boys I liked, but I felt thick tongued and stupid around him. Maybe the difference was that Chase was obviously not a boy, but a man and everything south of my gray matter responsible for logical reasoning recognized this hot hard fact.
“Chase, Winnie, you can call me Chase.” He smiled kindly and my face flushed while other parts of me swelled, causing me to shift my stance. I should have worn yoga pants today and not a flirty little skirt.
“Right, okay.” I pulled back from his grasp, and he let me go gently, giving me space he must have thought I needed. “How is Bailey girl?”
“She did fine. I doubt anyone likes getting poked, animal or human.”
Yeah, I’d like for him to poke me, but I didn’t think it would be appropriate to ask. I could think these thoughts all I wanted as long as I kept them to myself.