She could go to a public library and look online at jobsites, then surf Craigslist for roommates—but she’d need a paycheck to be coming in first for a deposit on any apartment—and what, sleep out of her car for two months while she waited for all that? No. God. There had to be a way to make this work. There just had to be.
“Maybe you have all the stable hands you need, but you’re a rescue farm, right?” Isobel asked. Please God don’t let her hear the desperation in my voice. Panic made blood rush in Isobel’s ears. “I’m three years into my Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Cornell in New York—they’re the top veterinary school in the country—and my focus is actually on rehabbing injured horses. I could—”
Mel’s eyes brightened. “Veterinary degree?” she cut into Isobel’s rush of words. “Oh my gosh, that’s perfect.”
“It is?” Isobel’s heart was in her throat.
“We don’t have work here, but I know someone who is looking for help. He was just complaining about being too busy to handle things all on his own. And we’d be happy to provide room and board for the summer if it works out. We’ve done that in the past for his interns.”
Isobel’s heart leapt even as she told herself not to be stupid and get her hopes back up. “Who? What do you mean?”
The front door was still open and Mel grinned, her eyes looking beyond Isobel. She gestured out the door. “Look, there he is now. This is total kismet. Our local vet has been looking for an intern—the one he had lined up for the summer just fell through. I bet he’d be ecstatic to have someone from Cornell. Come on, let’s go work out everything right now.”
Isobel pivoted to see where Mel was pointing and her stomach, so recently pulled off the floor by the hope of everything working out after all, plunged right back to the ground.
Because the man stepping out of the dusty truck parked beside her little Toyota was none other than Hunter Dawkins.
Chapter 5
HUNTER
She was gone when Hunter woke up.
For the first time in a year, the first thing he felt when he opened his eyes wasn’t
the crushing weight of loss. He was actually smiling when he turned over in bed and reached for Isobel.
But she was gone.
Just like Janine.
That wasn’t fair, he tried to tell himself as he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, rubbing his hands brusquely over his face.
Isobel hadn’t made any commitment to him. They barely knew each other.
Except… last night, when he’d been so deep inside her, when she’d cried out his name like he was the only god in her world—
But all thought was put on hold when he’d looked at the clock and saw that it was already ten. He was due at the Kent’s ranch for a round of vaccinations and he was already late. He was never late.
He couldn’t believe he’d slept through Isobel waking up and leaving, actually. Usually he was a light sleeper. That woman had woven a spell around him, that was for damn sure. From the moment she’d stepped into that bar, swaying those luscious hips.
And the possibility that he might see her again at the Kent’s? Well yeah, he couldn’t say that wasn’t part of what lit a fire under his ass to shower and burn rubber to get out to the Kent’s ranch as fast as humanly possible.
Now here he was. And there she was. As soon as he’d pulled his truck in beside her petite little Toyota, his heart had started beating double time.
Like he was back in high school and it was the first time he’d had a crush on a girl. Fucking pathetic.
It got even worse when he saw her standing in the doorway behind Mel. Mel was waddling down the porch to greet him, broad smile on her face like always, but Isobel stood frozen, her wide eyes locked on him.
Shit. He’d just wanted to hurry to get here. But he hadn’t thought through what he’d actually say when he ran into her again.
Hi there. So, last night’s multi-orgasmic marathon…that was pretty great, yeah? Wanna go for pizza and a movie sometime? Or let me fuck your brains out some more in the back of my truck?
But Jesus, last night had been about more than just the sex. Sure, it had started out that way. At the bar, he hadn’t been thinking beyond the moment and the urge to have a woman again. That on its own had been a novel and refreshing impulse after a year of feeling pretty dead as a man, apart from the occasional mindless stress relief session with his hand in the shower.
But then she’d come so alive under his touch. She was so responsive. And then he couldn’t bear for it to be like it had been with Janine—impersonal sessions where they’d just used each other until it was only the pretense of a connection between them.
No, he’d wanted Isobel to see him. To really see him. To know who it was she was having sex with.