Macy McNamara damn near jumped out of her skin when the door burst open, and the man stumbled through it, a limp chocolate lab cradled in his arms.  There was blood all over both of them. 

It only took her a heartbeat to get her bearings, though.  She turned to hand the overweight tabby cat to its aging owner.  “Keep her on the diet, Alma.  Take her on out to Christine and she’ll set up your next appointment.”  She flicked her eyes to the man’s.  “You.  Put the dog on the table,” she said. 

He didn’t need telling, was already on his way to doing just that, even as Alma Clements, hugging her cat to her chest, scurried away.  Macy leaned over the dog, noting the blood coming from its front shoulder, grabbed a wad of gauze pads and applied pressure.  “What the hell happened to her?”

“Jesus, lady, you’re the vet.  Looks to me like a GSW.”

She lifted her brows.

“Gunshot wound.  Sorry.  You get used to the lingo.”

“So how did you manage to get your dog shot?”

“She’s not my dog.  She was left at a crime scene, and I got elected to rush her over here.”

He referred to the dog as she, not “it.”  Which told her he was an animal lover, which told her he was probably a decent human being.  At least she’d found that to hold true most of her life.  There was no time to analyze much more of what he’d said, much less the reaction of her healthy libido to the man’s intense green and brown streaked eyes and snug jeans.  She had to act if she was going to save the animal’s life.  It was ebbing at a rapid pace.  She nodded toward the door.  “Open that.”

He opened the door, and then jumped when she shouted “Christine!”

Her curvy blond veterinary assistant-slash-best friend came at a dead run.  “We need an operating room and an extra pair of hands.”

“The room’s ready, Macy, and my hands are at your disposal.”

“Great.”  She glanced at the man again.  “You.  The waiting room is—”

“I know where it is.  Can I clean up first?”

She nodded.  “Use the sink in here.  Better trash that shirt while you’re at it.  There’s a scrub shirt in the drawer there.  We’ll be awhile.”

“I’ll be here.”

She kept pressure on the wound, and Christine wheeled the table, while the guy got the door.  As it swung closed, Christine said, “Damn.”

“What?”

“What do you mean, what?  That’s one hot looking man.”

“Is he?  I hadn’t noticed.”

Christine sent her a look as they rushed the dog into surgery.  It wasn’t skeptical, it was mournful.  She thought it a shame her boss preferred the company of animals to people.  Especially men.  No, she wouldn’t have any trouble believing Macy hadn’t noticed that the man was gorgeous.  She’d probably have more trouble believing that she had.

Two hours later, Macy had washed up and changed out of her surgical scrubs.  She was leaning over the lab, stroking her gently as she waited for the anesthesia to wear off, when Christine brought the hot stranger in.

He stepped into the recovery room, and Christine backed out, closing the door behind her.  And then he just stood there, silent and waiting.

“She’s going to be all right,” she said, keeping her voice soft, soothing.  “Aren’t you, Cassie?  Yeah, you’re going to be just fine.”

“Cassie?”

She glanced over her shoulder.   “It’s uh . . . on her tags.”

“Oh.  I hadn’t checked them yet.”

Then she hoped to God the name was there when he did, she thought, rolling her eyes at her own slip.  “So you’re a cop,” she said.  She’d finally managed to give some thought to what he’d said when he’d first come in; that the dog had been found at a crime scene.

“Yeah.”

“Can you tell me what happened?”

He released a slow breath.  “Not really.  At least, not until it leaks to the press.  That way I don’t take the blame for releasing it.”

She kept stroking, kept petting.  “It’s not like I would tell.”

“Doctor-patient confidentiality?”

She shot him a look.  “I never repeat a word my patients say without their permission.  It’s a rule.”

That earned her a smile, but it died when she didn’t return it.  And then he frowned, studying her face and said, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“She’s coming around,” she said, and turned her full attention back to the dog.  She didn’t blame him for not trusting her.  She didn’t trust humans as far as she could throw them. 

Her hands moved gently over the dog’s uninjured places.  “It’s all right, Cassie.  Everything’s just fine.  You’re safe.  No one can hurt you here.”  The dog was waking, but slowly.  She was confused and nervous, but not in pain, and Macy’s voice and touch were soothing her.  “The bullet missed her heart,” she said, still keeping that gentling tone.  “I was able to extract it without much further blood loss.  Her vitals are still slightly weak, but getting better.”

“Glad to hear it.”  His tone matched hers, easy, and low.

“She’s wondering what happened to D—to her owner.  Probably.”

“She’s in the hospital, but she’s going to be okay.”

“There, you hear that baby?  She’s going to be just fine.  Promise.”

As Macy leaned close, still stroking, and Cassie’s mind cleared, the animal became agitated.  Macy kept petting, kept speaking, trying to calm her as the images replayed in the lab’s mind.  Her leg twitched, and she whined plaintively.

“It’s all right, girl.  You did great.  And she’s fine, I promise.  She’s fine.”

The dog sighed, closed her brown eyes, eyes only slightly darker than her coat.  Even her nose was reddish brown.  “God, you’re a beauty, you know that?”

“Thanks.  You’re not bad yourself.”

She turned to the man, forgetting for a moment that her face was still soft, her smile still in place.  “I was speaking to the dog.”

“I know.  I was just feeling left out of the conversation.”

She nodded.  “She’s been traumatized.  This crime, it was--something she witnessed?”  She made it a question, though she already knew the answer.

“Witnessed.  Yeah, I guess you could put it that way.”

“And she was shot by the criminal?  Maybe as she was trying to protect her owner?”

He frowned.  “That’s . . . what it looks like.  But I really shouldn’t be discussing—”

“How badly is she hurt?  The owner, I mean.”

“She’ll be in the hospital for a few days.  But they don’t expect any permanent damage.  It’s just a damn shame she didn’t get a look at the guy.”

Macy bit her lip.  “Yeah, that is a shame.  Listen, Cassie needs to stay overnight.  If you can come back tomorrow, around ten, she should be good to go.”

“Perfect.”  He moved closer to the bed, reached out, and stroked the dog’s head.  “She’s a great dog, isn’t she?”

“She really is.  See you tomorrow.”

He glanced at her, and she realized she was sounding a bit eager to get rid of him.   Probably because she was.

He didn’t leave, though.  Instead, he extended a hand.  “Thanks.  You’re good at your job.”

“Thanks.  I hope you’re as good at yours, so you can get that sonofabitch off the streets, Officer . . . . ”

“Detective, not officer.”

“Okay.”

She didn’t ask his name.  That was what he was waiting for, she thought, but she really cared more about the dog’s name than his.  And she wasn’t rude enough to make her ask.  Humans sucked. 

“Detective Harris.  You can call me Jay.”

Okay, so maybe he wasn’t rude enough to make her ask, either.  She nodded, did the polite thing.  “I’m Dr. McNamara.  Macy.”

“Yeah, I saw it on the sign out front.”  He didn’t move any closer to the door.

Wait a minute, was he stalling and trying not to leave?  Was he . . . flirting with her?  Oh, hell, this she did not need.  And why was she suddenly nervous and a little sick to her stomach?

“Look, Detective Harris—”

“Jay.”

“Whatever.  I have other patients stacked in the waiting room like cordwood.  So—”

“Yeah, I have a load of work waiting too.  I’ll get out of your hair.”

“Perfect.”

“So I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

She nodded and returned her attention to the dog. 

Cassie, the wounded chocolate lab, adored the man.  He’d been great to her on the way over here, kept pressure on her wound, and though it hurt, she knew he’d been trying to help her.  Macy figured he’d probably saved the animal’s life with his quick thinking and fast action.  And no one had saddled him with the job of getting her here.  He’d done that all on his own.  The way Cassie visualized the handsome detective, he was a hero; a two-legged Rin Tin Tin.

As he left the room, Cassie shot a longing brown gaze after him and sighed almost dreamily.  Macy leaned over the dog.  “You’re not much help, you know.”

The dog let her eyes fall closed.

#

“Dr. Macy McNamara, huh?”

Jay looked at his partner and nodded.  “That’s the one.”

“You uh, do realize she has earned a reputation as the most unfriendly vet in the county.”

“I’d heard that.  Which is why I take Fred to a clinic fifteen miles further away.”

“Don’t get me wrong.  People say she’s great with animals, just lousy with people.”

Jay smiled.  “I witnessed that firsthand, Matt.”

“What?   Are you saying she was even nasty to you?”

Nodding sheepishly, Jay said, “she addressed me as ‘you’ and accused me of getting my dog shot.”  He shrugged.  “Just about what I expected.”

“Except?”

He glanced at his partner, who knew him altogether too well.  They sat at their desks over the mound of paperwork the latest in a string of sexual assaults had created for them, wasting time gossiping about the local vet because it was much more fun than writing police reports.  “Except that she’s a freaking knockout.”

“Uh-oh.”

“No, I’m not kidding.  Long hair, sleek and dark.  Bod to die for.  And this skin that has a coppery sheen to it I think comes naturally, not from the sun.  But it was her eyes that really kicked my ass.  Kind of almond shaped.  Exotic.”

“Color?”

“Brown.  Like milk chocolate.”

“So aside from having the personality of a pitbull—”

“Aside from that she’s a walking fantasy.”

Matt shook his head slowly, emitting a long, low whistle.  “So you gonna go for it?”

Jay shot him a scowl. 

“Oh, come on, pal, you know I live vicariously through you.  If there’d been as many women willing to have casual, meaningless affairs in my day, I’d have been in my glory.”

“Sure.  They’d have been falling at your feet, for sure.”

“Maybe they would.  I wasn’t always pudgy and balding, you know.”

Jay grinned at his older partner.  “It’s a new day, Matthew Cooper.  Full of liberated, independent females who are just as into having a good time as men have always been.  No expectations.  No demands.  They don’t need us anymore, except in the sack.  Damn, it’s good to be a guy in the new millennium.”

“So you are gonna go for it.”

His grin died slowly.  “I don’t know.  There’s something . . . odd about her.”

“Odd, how?”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

“Well, you’re a detective.  Detect.”

“I plan to.”

Hell, what could it hurt?  He was going to have to see her again anyway.  He might as well make the most of it.  He wondered if he could get her to stroke him and speak to him in that soft tone she had used on the dog.  And then he had trouble focusing on the paperwork for the rest of the afternoon.

Top of Page