AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Three weeks later, Isobel was still smarting about the mistake she’d made with that first calving. How dumb could she get? She couldn’t believe she’d made the most basic of mistakes. Not tying up the freaking cow? Facepalm. And then she’d looked like a complete fucking idiot chasing that heifer all around.
She scrubbed shampoo into her hair as she thought about it.
Things hadn’t gotten much better in the ensuing weeks. She’d backed off asking to help in cases and Hunter seemed just fine with that. Probably because he assumed she was an imbecile who couldn’t even think to tie up a calving heifer.
During the daily in-clinic hours she felt a little more helpful. At least there she could direct the clients and their pets into the exam rooms. It had gotten so busy last Tuesday—one of Dr. Roberts’ off days—that there wasn’t any other choice except for her to help out. Several emergencies had come in on top of their regular appointments.
Isobel gave shots and dealt with minor complaints while Hunter took care of a collie with a major laceration and a choking llama that a man brought in with a trailer out back.
Then, without asking his permission—because screw him—she just started seeing and diagnosing clients on a regular basis. She was certified, damn it. So while he was dealing with patients in exam one, she took the next appointment in exam two. There’d only been one case so far that she’d wanted to check with Hunter on before giving treatment.
And he’d been civilized and professional about it. Maybe just because they were in front of the clients. She’d taken scrapings from a cat to check under the microscope, but wasn’t positive about what kind of parasite the animal was carrying. Isobel had felt about ninety percent sure what she was dealing with, but she’d wanted to double check.
Hunter had coolly agreed with her assessment and then gone back to his own patient without another word. So he was aware she was seeing patients on her own and apparently didn’t have anything to say about it. Yesterday, she’d seen him looking over the files of patients she’d seen that day. Since he hadn’t said anything, did that mean she was doing a good job?
She closed her eyes and let the shower spray rinse the shampoo out of her hair. She’d been disgustingly filthy again when she’d gotten home today and the shower felt divine.
She sank back against the shower wall, shoulders slumping.
If it was just the clinic work, she’d be flying high. She’d get too busy and focused to obsess about food or anything else. Her ham sandwich was downed on the run between cases without any fanfare. Breakfast was much the same—she was always in a rush to get to the clinic. That in and of itself felt like a miracle.
But then, after the clinic closed each day around 1:00, the farm calls began. And as satisfying as diagnosing a case of worms was or stitching up a laceration after a cat fight, she couldn’t help feeling the farm work was more important. Pets might be beloved members of a family household, but the farm animals were people’s livelihood. Some of the farms they visited were small enough operations that every animal counted.
And she had no confidence in herself with the large animals after the calving fiasco. Hunter wasn’t doing anything to help either. He seemed constantly annoyed by her presence. Which was a problem since, you know, they were spending a lot of time together.
Hours and hours in the car every afternoon. Sometimes the calls lasted into early evening. She knew Hunter went out in the morning before coming into the clinic. And he’d been called out for an emergency foaling in the middle of the night a couple days ago. But she didn’t complain anymore about him not calling her in for these. The endless afternoon trips with him were bad enough.
Earlier today she’d finally grown the lady-balls to insist he let her help again. After all, the only way he even acknowledged her presence was when she forced him to.
She didn’t even know why he was being such an ass. She’d thought maybe he had a God complex and he treated all his interns this way. At least until last Monday when one of his former interns dropped by the clinic. He and Hunter had laughed together and sounded like best friends. In fact, with the receptionist, with clients, with everybody else in the universe that Hunter interacted with, he was the friendly, nice guy she’d first met at the bar.
Until it came to her.
She didn’t get it. Yeah, so she’d slept with him and okay, she hadn’t been one hundred percent transparent about where she was from when she first met him. But so what? Get over it already. They had a professional relationship and it was time he started treating her with the respect she deserved as his assistant.
She wanted to say all that to his face.
She’d been about to.
She really had.
But then they’d arrived at the Newton’s farm and she saw the gelding that was in pain from colic.
Colic was scary and life-threatening. It was a build up of gas in a horse’s stomach that they had no natural way to get out on their own. Isobel hated seeing the horse suffering. But it was something she felt confident she knew how to treat.
“I’m going to help you with this case,” she announced to Hunter as he grabbed the tubing and plunger from the equipment box at the back of his truck.
She was ready for an argument but all he did was toss her a big plastic bucket and say, “Okay.”
Infuriating man.
He hadn’t thrown her into the deep end on her own again. They’d actually worked together. He’d gloved up and then felt inside the back end of the horse, then gestured for her to do the same. She winced when she felt how much gas had built up inside the poor gelding. It felt like a bunch of balloons pressing against her arm.
Hunter let her feed the tubing up the horse’s nose and down into its stomach. He filled the bucket up with water.
Then she started flushing a mixture of water and mineral oil into the horse’s system. She had to hold the plunger and tubing over her head in order to get the leverage she needed since the horse was so tall. She worked until her arms were exhausted from holding them up. Then, without a word, Hunter took over.
They worked and worked while the owner held the horse’s reins. The horse was sweaty and his eyes were wide with pain. He stomped where he stood, trying to get relief. No gas was passing, though. One time he looked like he was going to go down and Hunter took over the reins, pulling at the horse until he came back to his feet. They both knew that if a horse went down with colic, chances of recovery diminished dramatically.
