“Do you have the animal now?” He was trying to be subtle. He looked down at his clipboard and tried to sound blasé. “I’m gonna see the vet today about the construction. I could take the thing with me and have her check it out.”
And that’s how Lee found himself sitting in the exam room staring at a rat, waiting for Candy. The animal was kinda cute once he got past the tail. That long, hairless tail sort of freaked him out a bit. The funniest thing was, the animal seemed smart.
Tinkerbell. That was the name Ray’s wife had given it.
Tinkerbell was dark brown and tan with a long snoot and a pink nose. Serious whiskers fluttered around her face while she peered at him. Her fur looked soft, but he hadn’t been brave enough to stick his finger in there. He didn’t care what Ray said, rats had killed half of Europe. It just seemed stupid to court fate like that. Her little fingers held on to the wire cage and soft brown eyes took in the room, him, and then Candy when she entered.
“And now you have a rat?” Candy said by way of greeting, sliding the pocket door closed behind her.
“Yep.” He extended a hand with a large cup of coffee to her. “I’m betting you still like mochas?”
She took the coffee with a look of surprise and blinked at it for several seconds without saying a word. He handed her a straw.
“You still drink it with a straw, right?”
She nodded. “Thank you.” She tucked the straw into the sipping hole in the top and took a drink.
“Nah, you’re welcome. Thanks for fitting me in so quickly.”
Candy bent at the waist and looked at Tinkerbell. A long blonde lock of hair came loose from her braid. She tucked it behind her ear before he did it for her. “So you have a rat.” She raised her eyebrows and looked at him though the wire. It was a speculative look. One that suggested she didn’t believe it was possible. “How long have you had this little cutie?”
“Just got her. Want to make sure she’s healthy.”
Candy stuck her finger into the cage and Tinkerbell sniffed it then unbelievably nuzzled it with her head. “Did you buy her from a pet store or a breeder?”
Ray had said something about a breeder, which he’d thought insane at the time. There were rat breeders? That was a thing? “Breeder.”
Tinkerbell scampered right onto her hand when Candy stuck it inside the cage. She checked the animal over and pronounced her in good health. He watched her work, carefully handling Tinkerbell, gently probing her and listening with the stethoscope.
Scratching underneath Tinkerbell’s chin, she raised her gaze to where Lee leaned against the wall. “Do you really want me to give you the rundown on all the possible dangers of rat ownership like I did with the Yorkie?”
He knit his eyebrows together. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“’Cause Tinkerbell here isn’t your rat.”
He tried to seem taken aback. “Why would you say that?”
She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. “Maybe because you won’t touch her.”
“I touch her.” But he didn’t put out his hand.
Her eyebrow went higher. “Okay then. You’ll need to keep an eye out for respiratory infections. They’re quite common. Keep her cage very clean to minimize risk of injury, which can also cause an infection. Keep her feet clean and check them frequently so she doesn’t get bumblefoot.”
“You’re making that up.”
She shook her head. “Nope.” She approached with the rat who wiggled her whiskers at him. “Hold out your hand.”
“No. I’m all right.” He tucked his hands in his jeans pockets.
“Don’t scream.”
“Why would I scream?” He inched along the wall toward the door. Tinkerbell wasn’t menacing, but she was still a rat. He turned his head when Candy allowed the rat to crawl onto his shoulder. Tinkerbell’s whiskers tickled his neck and inside his ear. He wanted it noted for the record that he didn’t screech. Or flinch. Very much.
“I don’t know what you’re doing, Lee.” She took a step toward the inner door. “I’m not sure if you’re randomly adopting animals or what. I certainly hope you’re not abandoning them afterward.”
“What? No.” He didn’t want to protest too vehemently with the cute little plague carrier on his shoulder. “That’s awful. Why would I do that?”
“Honestly, I don’t have any idea what you’re doing. Are you borrowing them, then? Whatever.” She shook her head. “You need to stop bringing other people’s animals in here. You’re building an office for me. That’s all. I don’t know what you think you’re going to make happen, but it’s not going to work. We have a business relationship and that’s all it will ever be.”
He quirked his lips in a playful grin. “But I’ve had my eye on a water monitor.”
“No.”
“How about a hedgehog?”
“Lee.” Her expression held a warning.
“Then maybe just your professional advice on the perfect pet for me.” Tiny feet with tiny toenails held onto his shirt. Candy didn’t offer assistance, so he decided to be more direct. “Do you think we could have coffee and talk sometime?”
Candy shook her head.
He steeled himself, then gently removed Tinkerbell from his shoulder and cradled her in his hand. He wasn’t giving up on this. “I’ll be talking with you soon.”
By her expression, it seemed Candy thought she’d won. He hadn’t even put up a fight, and she had definitely not won. The clinic was long from finished. There were weeks left for him to finesse an apology into their conversation. He wasn’t even a little worried.
He prayed he wouldn’t end up having to adopt a scary-ass lizard.
Chapter Six
Candace parked her borrowed car in the dirt parking lot that would eventually be paved over for the clinic. The lot was full of construction trucks and a giant, filthy roll-off Dumpster. It was hard to imagine the skeleton of a building she was looking at would be her clinic in just a few short weeks. The roof was on and the interior walls had been roughed in with studs, but it looked smaller than she’d thought it would be.
It was hers, though. So many sacrifices, so much work, and it was all finally coming to fruition. Since construction had begun she’d driven past the site almost every day, noting each subtle change. There were changes in Lee, too, also worth noting. While she might not be interested with the way he was trying to be friends again, or whatever the hell it was he was doing, she was very impressed by his leadership of the workmen. It was obvious that those who worked with him respected him. Now if he just didn’t have to look so hot every time she saw him.
It had been over six days since Lee’d been in with the rat, and she thought she must have gotten her point across because she hadn’t heard from him at all. It might have been a mistake, and it was always possible he’d think she was making an overture, but she’d called Lee and asked if he would walk her through the beginnings of the building.
Across the lot, Lee was standing at his work truck with papers laid out on the open tailgate. There were several men standing with him and there was some debate going on over blueprints being held down by a hammer and a wrench. She watched the argument from her car. Lee was clearly in charge. He had an air of authority she could detect from inside her closed car and across the expanse of packed dirt. He lifted his ball cap and swiped a forearm across his brow before replacing it. The men nodded and then departed for the job site, leaving him alone, bent over the plans.
She wasn’t interested in him, but she sure spent a lot of time checking him out.
And thinking about him.
And remembering him.
With an impatient huff, she got out of the car. She walked across the parking lot with purpose and determination. “Are you ready, Lee?”
He turned around and grinned at her. D
amn it. Her breath caught. The man oozed masculinity. One wouldn’t think ooze and sexy would go together, but with him, all kinds of strange thoughts and associations fit together nicely. Rough hands with thick fingers that feathered across her skin so delicately.
She was an idiot with no sense of self-preservation.
“Hello, gorgeous.” He tossed out the compliment. She could have responded with the same words. “Are you ready?”
“It still seems so far from finished. Are you on schedule?”
“You’ll be surprised at how quickly it all comes together.”
“Hmm.” She looked back at the frame work. “Can we walk through it so I can see where things will be?”
“Sure. Hang on.” He disappeared around the side of his truck, then came back with a hardhat. “We need to protect your noggin. Can’t have Clay and your father killing me should anything happen to your pretty head.”
She took the hat. “Clay?” Why he’d bring up her brother?
“They were both by earlier.” He snorted. “Clay is still trying to intimidate me.”
That would be a fight worthy of a cage match. Her older brother was just about as tall as Lee but probably not as hulking overall. He was two years older than her next brother and five years older than her. Clay had never liked Lee, but then, he never liked anyone she dated. Her father had never had to play the heavy when dates picked her up in high school. He had Clay.
Now Clay was a veterinarian, too. When his father retired in the next couple of years, Clay would take over the main clinic, which was why this second site was being built across town. If she’d had to practice alongside her brother...Well, that was just too many Claessons for comfort.
“I hope you ignored him,” she said, following him across the loosely packed soil to the geometric display that was the site. Even though it seemed haphazard, the studs were all perfectly aligned and at right angles to each other. It was elegant in an unfinished way.
“Nah, I hauled off and clocked him like I’d been dying to do back then.” He flexed the fingers on his right hand into a fist and shook it.
Candace laughed. She couldn’t help herself. “Oh, yeah? Then what happened?”
“I called the ambulance.” He gave her that killer grin again.
“I’m certain he deserved it for something or another.” They paused where the concrete pad started. She waved her arm at the jumble of wood and open space. “So what is this?”
His hand landed on the small of her back as he guided her through an opening. “Walk right through here and you’re in the front door.” His hand slid away and he made a slow circle. “This is the lobby. Through here is the hallway to the exam rooms. Up top there is number one, number two, then number three here.” He pointed out the rooms like a flight attendant showing the exits. “Your office here in the corner.” With a hand on her back again he walked her through exam room number two and then through another opening. “This section—” he indicated the top of the room and the bottom, “—is the lab area. Around this corner leads to the surgery and such. Do you see it?”
She closed her eyes and envisioned the rooms as he’d described them, ignoring the sounds of construction. “Yes.” It came together in her mind the way the plans had looked on paper. She could imagine the walls and doorways now that she’d walked through them.
When she opened her eyes, Lee was staring at her. He blinked hard, then turned away. “Right. So I wanted to show you something in the back here.” He led her to the quadrant of the slab that would house the surgical area and kennels. “I made a few alterations to the plans. I hope they’re all right.”
She stared at the area marked off with tape and tried to envision what would go there.
Gesturing with his hands, he said, “Right here at the counter I moved everything over because it will be easier to get to the supplies with your left hand.”
He’d remembered she was left-handed. She watched him while he talked and gestured, demonstrating how his change would make things easier for her. She stared at him for a long second then, before she could stop herself, she touched his shoulder. “That was really nice. Thank you.”
“Bennett!” A shout bellowed through the wall-less building, pulling his attention away. “Excuse me.” Lee turned away. “Let me see what the hell’s going on.”
She closed her eyes again and envisioned the finished building. She wouldn’t be able to set foot in the door without being reminded of Lee and his thoughtful gestures. That didn’t make her as angry as she would have expected.
She wasn’t thinking of him in friendly terms yet, but she was still thinking of him. Unless they were in the same room, it didn’t happen much when she was awake, but sleeping—jeez. His sexuality was insidious, creeping into her dreams and leaving her panting and achy when she awoke.
By the time she met him at the truck, he was talking to another guy with a hammer. “I’ll have the rest of it here tomorrow if I have to drive down there myself. Go ahead and start the back with what you’ve got.”
The other guy strode away and Lee rolled his eyes. “Just give me one second, okay?” When Candace nodded, he got on his phone.
While he conducted business over some missing drywall, she wandered back to her car. There was a granola bar in there calling her name. She leaned against the front quarter panel and munched while trying to envision the completed building.
“Hey, pretty lady. How you doin’?”
She paused with a mouth full of dry oats and turned her attention to the man on her left. She swallowed hard. “Fine.”
He nodded in appreciation. “Yes, you are.” A Robo Electric shirt with cut off sleeves stretched across his shoulders and revealed well-cut arms.
“Thank you.” She took a sip of vitamin water and gave him a non-encouraging smile.
“You must be with the big guy, huh?” He lifted one booted foot and dropped it on her bumper, then leaned forward on a bent elbow.
She took a small step backwards. “The big guy?”
He crooked his head in the direction of Lee. “Yeah, Bennett. But if you’re not hooked up yet, you wanna get a drink with me?”
“Ah. What kind of drink?”
He settled his weight on the bumper and relaxed a bit. “Any kind of drink that makes some headway with you. What do you say, pretty lady?”
A deep voice came from behind causing the man to jump upright. “I’d say you’ve got a panel to finish up, Freddy.”
“Sorry, man.” Freddy nodded and made a face that indicated none of this mattered much. “She didn’t say she was yours.”
Candace turned a hard glare toward Lee. “What?”
Lee actually seemed to grow taller. “She’s a client, bonehead.”
Freddy turned back to her. “So if you’re not with him, wanna get a drink or not?”
A smile made the let down easier. “I’m sure I’ll come to regret it, but I’m going to have to pass.”
“Let me know if you change your mind. I’ll be here the rest of the week. Bennett will know where to find me after that.” Freddy touched his finger to the bill of his hat in an offhand salute as he headed back to work.
Lee rolled his eyes. “Sorry. He’s an asshole.”
She shrugged. “You lose a lot of girls to Freddy?”
“I lose a lot of patience to Freddy. Come on. I want to get your final agreement on that cabinetry.”
She couldn’t help herself. She made her voice as conversational as possible. “Are you with anyone these days?” She’d convinced herself that if he was taken her dirty dreams would stop.
He stared at her for a moment, then shrugged without answering.
She silenced a groan and shook her head. “Me neither. Between studying for the boards and time at the clinic...My hours are brutal. When it’s a call between clu
bbing and sleep, I gotta go with sleep.”
“Have you been skipping meals again? You do that when you’re stressed and it always makes things worse. I told Mom I’d seen you. She’d love you to come by the house for dinner some Sunday.” He ran his fingers through his hair.
Candace had adored his mother.
He continued, “You can see Mark and his new wife. Sarah and Sidney will be there, too.”
A pit settled in her stomach at the mention of his sister and nephew. She didn’t think seeing them was any better of an idea than asking Lee to come chat it up with her own brothers.
The reasons she’d left when she did were valid and important ones, but she’d still left the entire Bennett family at the worst time imaginable. She’d been right to go, had needed to, but it had still been awful. As much as she had liked his family, seeing them now would only confuse the matter. She was having a hard enough time keeping her mind straight, especially when he remembered she was left-handed and that she often forgot to eat.
She made a noncommittal noise and he took the hint. The end of their love affair had hurt so many people. With a hand on her car door, she said, “Well, it looks like you have everything under control here. I’ll let you get back to it.”
They needed to quit talking about his family. It didn’t matter that he was sexy as sin and considerate. It didn’t matter that he was obviously trying to win her over. All that mattered was that she was never going down that path again.
Chapter Seven
Four years and eight months ago
“You know what you need?” Lee said, and nuzzled the sensitive place where Candace’s neck met her shoulder. He thought he had snuck up behind her while she was studying, but she could smell him as soon as he entered her room. Shampoo, aftershave and clean T-shirts were her favorite smells, and he could rock the hell out of a fresh T-shirt.
“I need to finish this paper.” But she still tilted her head so he could nuzzle properly.
Her earlobe disappeared into his mouth where he worried it with his teeth. He whispered, “Are you hungry?”
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