Savannah hated the tone she had to take with patient owners sometimes, but when they stood in the way of treatment or stood half-naked, distracting her technicians, there wasn’t much else she could do.
“I’m staying.”
“You’re not allowed,” she argued.
“Dr. Monroe,” Trisha said, trying to bring her attention away from Beau.
“You need to leave. We’ll contact you with the bill in the morning.”
“Look, ma’am, I don’t know what you think happened, but this dog found me in the middle of my best friend’s engagement party. I’m not leaving until I know that the dog is okay.”
“Suit yourself, but I can’t have you in the operating room.”
With her final gauntlet laid down, Savannah moved into the operating room with Trisha on her heels, letting the door close behind her.
Throughout the surgery, Savannah didn’t let a single thought cross her mind about the man that dropped off the poor animal; her focus was completely on the canine that miraculously missed any major arteries or bones with his injuries. She could tell he was a sweet guy who seemed to get caught up in the fence by accident. It was nothing like the case in Baltimore that caused her to get fired and leave the state. She also knew that she owed the stranger an apology.
Animals were her life and it killed her to see one harmed, especially at their owner's hands. Unfortunately, she had seen it more times than she could count.
Three hours later, Savannah and Trisha eased the dog into a large crate with an IV attached to get some fluid and not move too much as he woke. Dr. Monroe hadn’t expected the monster of a man to wait for the surgery to finish, especially if the dog had been a stray, but she and Trisha practically tripped over him as he sat on the floor across from the operating door. The man had been so stoic he hadn’t even budged when they had opened the entrance. His dark eyes trained on the animal and softened when he saw the canine breathing steadily.
Savannah almost wanted to comfort the man, something about how he was so concerned over the animal left her heart a puddle of goo in her chest, but she thought better of it. She had learned one too many times that a client’s story could be filled with lies. And she didn’t know this man any better than any other stranger in Carson.
She wasn’t here to draw attention to herself. Savannah needed to stay quiet and hidden; no waves needed to be made.
Too bad her lady parts wanted to make a lot of waves with the shirtless man who pinned his gaze on her.
***
Beau wasn’t the kind of man to be dumbfounded by a woman. He knew he was what some females considered good-looking, at least the women outside of Carson. He was just a local to the women in town, but he had never felt as self-conscious as when the ethereal-like woman opened the door to Dr. Sullivan’s home.
As a misunderstood dark-haired Thor, as the Lady Busy Bees (the local geriatric gossipers) called him, many were surprised that he had a passion for Greek and Roman Mythology. The vixen at Dr. Sullivan’s reminded him of what the common folk felt like in Aphrodite’s presence. She was a classic beauty in Beau’s mind. And he had been rendered speechless when the wind whipped around her translucent nightgown as she sashayed down the front steps to his truck.
He talked slowly, but it was rare he was without words. And this woman left him speechless.
Her name, he learned, was Savannah Monroe, the granddaughter of Dr. Sullivan and a veterinarian. He found it interesting that the love of animals ran in their family. He didn’t know Dr. Sullivan too well, other than the man had a classic Corvette that he kept in pristine condition.
She’d hurt his feelings when her initial reaction to finding him at Dr. Sullivan’s door had been one of fright. She looked terrified for her life and what he thought may have been misplaced interest. It wasn’t until he blurted out the word “Dog” that her reaction morphed into something different. Her eyes hardened and her flat lips tipped downward as she looked past him to the truck he left idling across the street. Beau had checked on the mutt in his passenger seat before ringing the doorbell for Dr. Sullivan’s house.
He watched her in awe as she worked before he was kicked out of the operating room and left shirtless in the hall. Trisha, the kind woman that worked in the office, had offered him some scrubs, but the shirt hadn’t fit. The pants barely tugged on. He wasn’t upset that his suit was caked in dried blood; he just knew that the old woman at the dry cleaners was going to have some questions. Normally he showed up with grease; blood was a different story.
Hours seemed to pass as he waited outside the operating room, just waiting for the tiniest of information regarding the animal. He’d never seen himself as a pet person, but with his mother moving, maybe the dog chose the perfect time to find him.
Finally, the door to the sterile room opened and his eyes were drawn to the limp animal cradled in the arms of Dr. Monroe and Trisha. They carefully maneuvered themselves down the hall to a small room with a crate set up for surgery patients. Beau took in the IV bag and towels rolled to comfort the animal. He smiled, knowing that the dog would be in the best care.
The doctor gently ran her hand over the dog’s body. The caring nature of her touch caused Beau’s heart to jump to attention. He’d been around beautiful women before, but nothing had caused a reaction like the one he had around this one. It was stupid. He couldn’t get mixed up with anyone from town; Beau had plans.
He wanted out of the place that had trapped him for so long. First, it was his flighty mother that had decided after her sixth disaster of a marriage (there was only one that had lasted longer than a year) that Carson was the town they would settle in. She had randomly chosen it from a map during one of her tirades. So, at the age of thirteen, Beau had moved to a new town. Luckily, he met Tate on the first day of school and had an instant best friend. She was one of those girls his mom called a “tom-boy,” so Tate didn’t have many friends, as it were.
She was his best friend and the second reason he stuck around for so long. He didn’t want to leave her and the shop that her father had left her. It took everything they had to keep it afloat. But now that she was engaged to a celebrity in the racing world, Beau wasn’t needed around as much. The town did their best to keep the old auto shop in work for Tate, and with the town growing, Beau didn’t think their past troubles were going to be a problem any longer. In the last year, the shop was actually in the black.
“I, um. . .didn’t expect you to stick around,” Dr. Monroe said, turning toward him after flipping the latch closed for the crate.
Her question brought him back from his internal musings and Beau felt his chest deflate. This stranger already didn’t have a good opinion of him and he didn’t know why he cared so much.
“Well, I had hoped to make sure that the animal survived the surgery.”