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“Oh thank God, Hunter. Bright Beauty, one of the mares, is colicky. It’s bad. There’s an impaction in her small intestine. It’s bad, Hunter. I’ve been trying to flush it with mineral oil for an hour and it hasn’t moved an inch. I don’t know what to do. I tried to walk her too, but nothing—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down there. When did she start presenting symptoms?”
“I don’t know. I just found her down in her stall when I got back from a ride on another horse at, I don’t know,” she searched out the wall clock. It was 3:15 now. “Maybe 2:00? I glanced in on her a few hours early and didn’t notice anything off. But I wasn’t really looking. If I would have just—”
“You give her a painkiller?”
“Banamine. 10cc orally. Heart rate sixty-five. Hunter, I’m really worried.” She took a quick breath. “Can you come out?”
There was no hesitation. “I’ll be there in forty-five minutes.”
Isobel sank against the wall as she fought off tears. “Thank you, Hunter.” She swallowed hard, her fingers going white-knuckled around the phone.
“Yup.”
She thought he’d hung up but then his voice came back over the line. “We’ll take care of her. She’ll be okay.”
Isobel nodded fervently, then realized Hunter couldn’t see her. “Okay.” Her voice was little more than a whisper.
“Okay,” he said.
Still she didn’t hear the click that meant he’d hung up.
“You want me to stay on the line till I get there?”
Sometimes when he wasn’t being a world class asshole, Isobel thought Hunter Dawkins was kinda perfect.
She swiped at a tear that crested before it could fall down her cheek. “I should go be with Beauty and I’m not sure the phone will go that far.” It was a landline. They were so far out there was no cell service here. “Thank you, Hunter.” She hoped he could hear how much she meant it.
“Not a problem.” This time he did hang up.
For a long second, Isobel clutched the phone to her chest. Then she set it back down on its cradle and hurried back outside.
Chapter Fourteen
HUNTER
Hunter had been having a shitty day.
Isobel had run out on him after sex. Again.
Just like Janine.
He’d been cursing his luck with women while he delivered the Juarez’s foal and then spent the rest of the morning testing cattle for TB out at Ben Fenton’s place. He’d just made it back on the highway heading north when his phone rang.
He had his phone on Bluetooth and answered without looking at the number.
And then came the last voice he expected to hear. When he heard how frantic and panicked Isobel was, his gut clenched.
It turned out she was only upset about a horse and wasn’t in any trouble herself, but his immediate instinct to protect had already been activated. He was due out for pregnancy checks at the Pimentel farm but they could wait. It had started raining anyway and he might have postponed on that basis alone—or so he told himself
He pulled off the highway and turned around at the next overpass, pushing ten over the speed limit so he could get to her as soon as possible.
She’d sounded so upset. The horse was important to her, that was clear. To her, this wasn’t just another case.
But then, even on their regular cases, he’d seen how she connected with the animals. She had that way about her. Only the really great vets had it. They loved the animals. It could be a liability as much as a positive trait.
In school they talked about developing a detachment from your patients, probably just like doctors with human patients were supposed to. It always rubbed Hunter the wrong way. Animals in pain just felt wrong on a basic level. People might lie to you and betray you but animals didn’t cheat or steal or manipulate. They’d hurt you, sure as hell—you never took your eyes off a cow or you were liable to get kicked for your trouble. But animals were rarely malicious—and if they were, it was only because humans had twisted them up that way. Like a couple of dogs from an illegal dog fighting ring he’d taken pro bono a few years ago.
