Page 57 of Home Hearts Hooves

“No worries. Can I just pop behind to fix up Mr. Thomas?” I ask, and he steps back for me to pass in front of him, but with the small space I have to squeeze through sideways and his broad chest brushes against mine, sending a jolt of heat through me. I breathe in as if that will help, but all it does is fill my nose with his intoxicating scent. How does one man smell so goddamn good?

“Sorry, I’m in the way,” Dean says, but I’m through now and focusing all my attention on the computer.

“You’re good. I’m good. Umm, so, that will be twenty for today,” I tell Mr. Thomas, and Dean throws me a weird look as Mr. Thomas hands me a twenty-dollar bill. A lot of the older people in town still prefer cash to cards. I have an app on my phone to receive payment by card, too, now though, for when it’s needed.

Mr. Thomas leaves, and I turn to place Fluffy’s file back under F in the top drawer when Dean blocks my hand.

“I’ve reorganized them by their owner’s last name. You had three files for pets named Daisy and I found more than one document in each that belonged to another. I hope you don’t mind.”

“That’s actually really smart.”

“You had the ranch animals in one folder, same for the other farms, it was just the pets you were filing by the pet name. I figured you made a start on sorting it all out, just probably ran out of time.”

I shrug. “Actually that’s just how dad always did it. I guess there were fewer pets then and more stock animals.”

“Oh, well, if you want me to put it back I can.”

“No, no, I love it.”

“Thank God for that,” he sighs, rubbing the back of his neck the way he does. “Cause I already did the bottom drawer, and I really didn’t want to pull them all out and label them again.”

“Well, good thing you don’t have to, then. Umm, where does this go?” I ask and he takes the file, opens the already completed drawer and slides it behind the letter T.

“Did I hear that right? You only charged him twenty dollars for a check-up and nail trim?”

“Yeah, Mr. Thomas doesn’t have a lot of money, so I just charge him what Dad used to.”

“That’s nice of you.”

“I’d charge him nothing if he’d accept that, but he insists on paying. I have Mrs. Applebalm’s goat, Larry, tomorrow, so that file should now be…” I flick through the files behind the letter A. “That was pretty easy. You know, it’s really great having you here helping out,” I say, and he blushes.

“It’s nice to be useful to someone.”

“You’re always useful,” I reply, resting my hand on his forearm. His skin is scorching hot, and the warmth of him spreads through my touch and up my arm.

“Preston, see what I taught Cuddles,” Poppy asks, and I pull my hand away and slide back between the desk and Dean.

“Show me,” I tell her, moving to sit to watch as she takes cuddles through her course. Dean goes back to relabeling and reorganizing the files, but I catch him watching us more than once, and the way his eyes linger on me has me wishing more than ever that I didn’t ask to just be friends.

***

Cuddles is worn out and snoring softly in Dean’s sash when Isabel picks up Poppy.

“You’ve got one great kid there, Doc,” Dean says after they leave and he turns the sign on the door to show closed before pulling down the blinds.

“Thanks. I think so, too.”

He grabs a basket of pet toys we leave out.

“I’ll pop these in to wash while you load up episode thirteen. I want to know how it ends.”

“You know this is just one season? There’s like forty all up.”

“No way you’ve watched forty seasons of Doctor Who.”

“I have, but, for your introduction, we’ve started with the reboot series, partly because not everyone likes watching old shows that are in black and white, but mostly because the reboot has the best Doctor there ever was.”

“David Ten something, right?”

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